Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices.(Book review)

* Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices, by Michael Broyles and Denise Von Glahn. Indiana University Press, (http://iupress.indiana.edu; (800) 8426796), 2007. 392pp. $34.95.

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This is the first complete biography of Leo Ornstein (1894-2002), an important figure in 20th-century music, whose life was as avant-garde as his music. He stormed onto the music scene as early as 1913 as a charismatic young man with an outrageous new sound and dazzling pianistic skills to promote it. The mystery lies in his decision to leave it all in the 1920s and '30s via teaching, eventually shrinking his world to live the life of an utter recluse. Ornstein was discovered in 1978 living in a trailer park in Texas with his partner-in-seclusion (wife Pauline, former New York debutante) as efforts were being made to catalog, record and preserve his music and resurrect his interest in composing that had lain dormant for 35 years. In his heyday, Ornstein was ranked among other young rebels such as Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Debussy with his wild, short pieces. Critics expressed disappointment; however, accusing him of becoming a neo-romantic when he attempted more mature composition in the larger forms, costing him his "bad boy" image and rock star concert appeal.

This beautifully written book has nine, not necessarily chronological, parts. The first is the compelling story of his family's survival of the Russian pogroms, immigration to the United ...