Toch, Ernst, << tawk, ehrnst >> (1887-1964), an Austrian-born composer, won the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for music for his Symphony No. 3 (1955). Toch generally composed in a neoclassical style, though he sometimes wrote in a modern dissonant form. Dissonant music features harsh or unusual harmonies. Toch wrote seven symphonies and other orchestral works. However, he is better known for his chamber music, such as his String Quartet No. 9 (1920). Toch also composed music for voice, works for piano, and more than 30 scores for motion pictures, radio, and the theater.
Toch was born in Vienna, Austria. He studied piano in Germany but was self-taught as a composer. Toch taught composition in Germany from 1913 to 1932 and then went to London. He moved to the United States in 1934 and settled in California in 1936, becoming a United States citizen in 1940. Toch began writing film scores in 1934. He taught at a number of American universities, especially the University of Southern California from 1940 to 1948. A series of lectures he delivered at Harvard University in 1943 formed the basis of his book The Shaping Forces of Music (1948).
