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Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices.

Article Excerpt
Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices. By Michael Broyles and Denise Von Glahn. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. [xvi, 392 p. ISBN-13: 9780253348944. $34.95.] Illustrations, music examples, works list, biographical references, index.

In the early part of the twentieth century, Russian-born Leo Ornstein burst onto the American musical scene. He played piano recitals to standing-room only audiences across the country, was discussed in newspaper and magazine articles, parodied in cartoons, and had his portrait painted by Leon Kroll and William Zorach among others. For a time, Ornstein was the "poster child" for the cause of musical modernism. His name once was mentioned beside Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky as a harbinger of modernism in America; however, shortly after World War I he disappeared from the public eye and was almost entirely forgotten by music historians. In the early 1970s Ornstein's family contacted historian Vivian Perlis, with the hope that she could help bring the composer out of obscurity. Perils brought Ornstein's manuscripts and related material to the Yale University Music Library, where she was able to preserve and promote his music. One of the fruits of her labors was an article published in this journal ("The Futurist Music of Leo Ornstein," Notes 31, no, 4 [June 1975]: 735-50), which helped to acquaint the late twentieth century to Ornstein's music. Despite Perlis's work, Ornstein unfortunately still resides on the periphery of American music. For this reason, the authors of Leo Ornstein: Modernist...

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