The Florentine Jew Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), garnered international acclaim as a composer and performer in the 1920s and 1930s. He studied composition with Ildebrando Pizzetti and became associated with the International Society for Contemporary Music. Castelnuovo-Tedesco received particular attention for his operas, winning the Concorso Lirico Nazionale in 1925 for La Mandragola, and his concertos, with prominent performances by Jascha Heifetz and Andrés Segovia.
During the 1930s, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and his family were negatively affected by the Fascist government’s racial laws restricting the rights of Italian Jews. In 1938, after public performances of his music were canceled and his children were forbidden from attending public school, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and his wife Clara decided to immigrate to the United States. They sailed for the U.S. in 1939, settled in Beverly Hills, and gained citizenship in 1946. In 1949, at the end of that turbulent decade, Castelnuovo-Tedesco completed his first oratorio, The Book of Ruth.
This study features a new edition of The Book of Ruth, the first complete publication of the work in full score. The edition is accompanied by a musical analysis that examines melody, harmony, rhythm, text setting, vocal texture, orchestration, and formal design in The Book of Ruth, comparing it with his other works. Furthermore, selected passages from Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s autobiography, newly translated into English, provide insight into the eventful decade preceding the work’s composition and uncover several personal connections that exist between Castelnuovo-Tedesco and the story of The Book of Ruth.