George Rochberg, American Composer: Personal Trauma and Artistic Creativity (Eastman Studies in Music, 154)

Based on private diaries, correspondence, and unpublished writings, George Rochberg, American Composer, reveals the impact of personal trauma on the creative and intellectual work of a leading postmodern composer. George Rochberg, American Composer, is the first comprehensive study devoted to tracing and putting into a rich cultural context the career of George Rochberg, widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent musical postmodernists. Drawing from unpublished materials including diaries, letters, sketches, and personal papers, the book traces the impact of two specific personal traumas--Rochberg's service as an infantryman in World War II and the premature death of his son--on his work as a leading composer, college educator, and public intellectual. The book significantly expands our understanding of Rochberg's creative work by reconstructing and examining the earliest seeds of his aesthetic thinking--which took root while he served in Patton's Third Army--and following their development through his mature compositional period into the final stages of his long career. It argues that Rochberg's military service was a transformative life experience for the young humanist, one that crucially shaped his worldview and influenced his artistic creativity for the next sixty years. As such it reveals personal trauma and aesthetic recovery to be the basis of Rochberg's postwar ideas about humanism, musical quotation, and neotonality. Amy Lynn Wlodarski is associate professor of music at Dickinson College. Support for this publication was provided by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. Based on private diaries, correspondence, and unpublished writings, George Rochberg, American Composer, reveals the impact of personal trauma on the creative and intellectual work of a leading postmodern composer. George Rochberg, American Composer, is the first comprehensive study devoted to tracing and putting into a rich cultural context the career of George Rochberg, widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent musical postmodernists. Drawing from unpublished materials including diaries, letters, sketches, and personal papers, the book traces the impact of two specific personal traumas--Rochberg's service as an infantryman in World War II and the premature death of his son--on his work as a leading composer, college educator, and public intellectual. The book significantly expands our understanding of Rochberg's creative work by reconstructing and examining the earliest seeds of his aesthetic thinking--which took root while he served in Patton's Third Army--and following their development through his mature compositional period into the final stages of his long career. It argues that Rochberg's military service was a transformative life experience for the young humanist, one that crucially shaped his worldview and influenced his artistic creativity for the next sixty years. As such it reveals personal trauma and aesthetic recovery to be the basis of Rochberg's postwar ideas about humanism, musical quotation, and neotonality. This book is available as an Open Access eBook under the Creative Commons license: CC-BY-NC. Support for this publication was provided by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. George Rochberg, American Composer, is the first comprehensive study devoted to tracing and putting into a rich cultural context the career of George Rochberg, widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent musical postmodernists. Drawing from unpublished materials including diaries, letters, sketches, and personal papers, the book traces the impact of two specific personal traumas--Rochberg's service as an infantryman in World War II and the premature death of his son--on his work as a leading composer, college educator, and public intellectual.

The book significantly expands our understanding of Rochberg's creative work by reconstructing and examining the earliest seeds of his aesthetic thinking--which took root while he served in Patton's Third Army--and following their development through his mature compositional period into the final stages of his long career. It argues that Rochberg's military service was a transformative life experience for the young humanist, one that crucially shaped his worldview and influenced his artistic creativity for the next sixty years. As such it reveals personal trauma and aesthetic recovery to be the basis of Rochberg's postwar ideas about humanism, musical quotation, and neotonality.

Amy Lynn Wlodarski is associate professor of music at Dickinson College.

Support for this publication was provided by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. George Rochberg, American Composer', is the first comprehensive study devoted to tracing and putting into a rich cultural context the career of George Rochberg, widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent musical postmodernists. Drawing from unpublished materials including diaries, letters, sketches, and personal papers, the book traces the impact of two specific personal traumas--Rochberg's service as an infantryman in World War II and the premature death of his son--on his work as a leading composer, college educator, and public intellectual. 0The book significantly expands our understanding of Rochberg's creative work by reconstructing and examining the earliest seeds of his aesthetic thinking--which took root while he served in Patton's Third Army--and following their development through his mature compositional period into the final stages of his long career. It argues that Rochberg's military service was a transformative life experience for the young humanist, one that crucially shaped his worldview and influenced his artistic creativity for the next sixty years. As such it reveals personal trauma and aesthetic recovery to be the basis of Rochberg's postwar ideas about humanism, musical quotation, and neotonality j.ctvb4bwrm.1 03.0_pp_vii_viii_Contents 04.0_pp_ix_x_List_of_Illustrations 05.0_pp_xi_xii_Acknowledgments 06.0_pp_xiii_xiv_List_of_Abbreviations 07.0_pp_1_7_Introduction 08.0_pp_8_42_Second_Lieutenant_Aaron_G_Rochberg_193848 09.0_pp_43_67_The_Long_Road_to_Ars_Combinatoria_194363 10.0_pp_68_99_Entropic_Suffering_and_Ars_Combinatoria_196270 11.0_pp_100_119_Jewish_Secularism_as_Ars_Combinatoria_195487 12.0_pp_120_147_A_Moral_Education_for_the_Future_19482005 13.0_pp_148_162_Afterword_On_Trauma_Moral_Injuries_and_Aesthetic_Recoveries 14.0_pp_163_212_Notes 15.0_pp_213_224_Bibliography 16.0_pp_225_226_Index_of_George_Rochbergs_Musical_Compositions 17.0_pp_227_239_Subject_Index j.ctvb4bwrm.17 Second Lieutenant Aaron G. Rochberg: 1938-48 -- The Long Road To Ars Combinatoria: 1943-63 -- Entropic Suffering And Ars Combinatoria: 1962-70 -- Jewish Secularism As Ars Combinatoria: 1954-87 -- A Moral Education For The Future: 1948-2005 -- Afterword: On Trauma, Moral Injuries, And Aesthetic Recoveries. Amy Lynn Wlodarski. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.