Lévy, Ernst
Lévy, Ernst
Lévy, Ernst, distinguished Swiss pianist, pedagogue, and composer; b. Basel, Nov. 18,1895; d. Morges, April 19, 1981. He studied in Basel with Huber and Petri, and in Paris with Pugno. He was head of the piano master class at the Basel Cons. (1917–21), then founder-conductor of the Choeur Philharmonique in Paris (1928). In 1941 he went to the U.S., where he taught at the New England Cons. of Music in Boston (1941–45), Bennington (Vt.) Coll. (1946–51), the Univ. of Chicago (1951–54), the Mass. Inst. of Technology (1954–59), and Brooklyn Coll. of the City Univ. of N.Y. (1959–66). In 1966 he returned to Switzerland. He composed 15 syms. (1920–67), many choral works, chamber music, various pieces for solo instruments, etc. Among his publications are Tone: A Study in Musical Acoustics (with S. Levarie; Kent, Ohio, 1968; second ed., rev., 1980), Des rapports entre la musique et l société suivi de réflexions (Neuchâtel, 1979), Musical Morphology: A Discourse and a Dictionary (with S. Levarie; Kent, Ohio, 1983), and A Theory of Harmony (Albany, N.Y., 1985).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire