Schelomo

"Schelomo" is a composition for cello and orchestra written by Ernest Bloch. This "Rhapsodie hébraïque pour violoncelle et grand orchestre" was completed during Bloch's "Jewish Cycle," which lasted from 1912–1926. Bloch claimed that he wrote music as an expression of emotion that he felt resulted from his Jewish heritage, not specifically Jewish melodies. Controversy remains over Bloch’s label as a "Jewish composer". Bloch wrote, "It was this entire Jewish heritage that moved me deeply, and was reborn in my music. To what extent it is Jewish, to what extent it is just Ernest Bloch, of that I know nothing. The future alone will decide." Schelomo was written around 1916.

Troubled by the agony and suffering that followed the outbreak of World War I, Bloch was especially moved by the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes and had begun drafting a work for voice and orchestra. A meeting with the cellist Alexandre Barjansky inspired him to give the solo voice to the cello, which Bloch wrote was "vaster and deeper than any spoken language." In program notes that Bloch wrote for a performance of "Schelomo" in 1933, he established that the solo cello is the voice of King Solomon while the orchestra represents the world surrounding him.

The first section of "Schelomo" opens with a rhapsodic lament in the solo cello leading into a cadenza in the low range of the instrument. The first section is thickly orchestrated and utilizes many extravagant tonal colors and effects including unresolved dissonances, exotic chord progressions, col legno in the strings, and bold brass statements. The first section ends with a powerful orchestral climax leading into the central section of the work.

The second theme is a rhythmic figure stated first by the bassoon and soon after by the oboe. The cello repeats the cadenza of the first theme while the second theme continues as a counter melody in the woodwinds and brass. The solo cello continues to reiterate the first theme but is overwhelmed by the swelling and increasingly frenzied orchestra.

The third section begins with material first presented in the first and second sections. A forceful orchestral climax gives way to a hushed, tense mood where the cello makes its final statement, ending on a resigned low D. The Italian critic Guido Gatti wrote of "Schelomo", "The violoncello, with its ample breadth of phrasing, now melodic and with moments of superb lyricism, now declamatory and with robustly dramatic lights and shades, lends itself to a reincarnation of Solomon in all his glory. The violoncello part is of so remarkably convincing and emotional power that it may be set down as a veritable masterpiece; not one passage, not a single beat, is inexpressive; the entire discourse of the soloist, vocal rather than instrumental, seems like musical expression intimately conjoined with the Talmudic prose."