Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity

 

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Liner Notes

Toch’s cantata, Vanity of Vanities, is based on the biblical Book of Kohelet. This book is also known to the English-speaking world by its title in the Septuagint, Ecclesiastes, which is generally thought by Bible scholars to have been employed as the Greek equivalent of “member of the assembly”—referring to an anonymous individual (or individuals) who functioned in an assembly as a teacher to the people. Kohelet, which is one of the five m’gillot (scrolls), is found in k’tuvim (sacred writings, or the Hagiographa)—the third of the three sections of the Hebrew Bible. (See notes to Jean Berger’s Two Songs from Ecclesiastes in Volume 11, and to Frederick Jacobi’s Hagiographa in Volume 10.) The title of the cantata is taken from the opening words of the message of Kohelet(1:2), havel havalim, conventionally rendered in English as “vanity of vanities,” and from the related recurrent theme of emptiness, meaninglessness, senselessness, nothingness, and existential absurdity.  

This cantata owes its genesis to a commission in 1953 from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles (since renamed the American Jewish University), which at that time was a West Coast affiliate of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Encouraged by the success of its inaugural annual concert of Jewish music that year, which featured the world premiere of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Queen of Sheba, the school’s fine arts committee turned to Toch for a new work to be presented at its second such event. Toch was already known favorably among local Jewish cultural circles for his earlier Judaically related work, Cantata of the Bitter Herbs (previous in Volume 17), which had received its premiere in Los Angeles. It was Cantor Julius Blackman—a member of the UJ’s fine arts committee along with such important personalities in the music world as Max Helfman, Leon Kirschner, Eric Zeisl, David Tamkin, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, together with lay communal leaders—who first proposed approaching Toch; and it was he who suggested the theme and made the initial approach to the composer.

Vanity of Vanities calls for two soloists—a tenor and a soprano—together with a small instrumental ensemble: flute, clarinet, violin, viola, and cello. The tenor passages conform largely to an accompanied recitative style, while the more lyrical vocal writing is reserved for the soprano. The characteristic subtle dissonances appear to reflect some of the angst in the text, though they are never jarring or intimidating.

The cantata received its premiere on May 16, 1954, at Temple Israel of Hollywood, as part of the University of Judaism’s second annual concert, under the direction of Hugo Strelitzler—a professor of music at Los Angeles City College. Also on the program according to press reports were Eric Zeisl’s “Brandeis” Sonata, Joseph Achron’s Suite in Ancient Style, Hebrew Palestinian songs in arrangements by Ruth White, and a medley of folk and liturgical music performed by an ensemble of local cantors.

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Lyrics

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Credits

Composer: Ernst Toch

Performers: Bonita Boyd, Flute;  Steven Doane, Cello;  Kenneth Grant, Clarinet;  Ilya Kaler, Violin;  Carol Meyer, Soprano;  George Taylor, Viola;  Thomas Young, Tenor