Editing Marc Blitzstein (section)

==Life and career==
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2015}}
[[File:Cradle-Will-Rock-Blitzstein-Stanton-1938.jpg|thumb|Blitzstein performing the oratorio version of ''[[The Cradle Will Rock]]'' in a [[Mercury Theatre]] presentation (January 1938)]]
Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905, to affluent parents. Blitzstein's musical gifts were apparent at an early age; he had performed a [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] piano concerto by the time he was seven. He went on to study piano with [[Alexander Siloti]] (a pupil of [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]] and [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]]), and made his professional concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Liszt's [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Liszt)|E-flat Piano Concerto]] when he was 21.

After studying composition at the [[Curtis Institute of Music]], he went to Europe to continue his studies in [[Berlin]] with [[Arnold Schoenberg]] (with whom he did not get on), and in Paris with [[Nadia Boulanger]] (with whom he did). Despite his later political beliefs, he was, in the early years of his career, a self-proclaimed and unrepentant artistic snob, who firmly believed that true art was only for the intellectual elite. He was vociferous in denouncing composers—in particular [[Ottorino Respighi|Respighi]],  [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]], and [[Kurt Weill]]—who, he felt, debased their standards to reach a wider public.

His works of this period, mostly pianistic vehicles such as the ''Piano Sonata'' (1927) and the [[Piano Concerto (Blitzstein)|''Piano Concerto'']] (1931) are typical of the Boulanger-influenced products of American modernism&nbsp;— strongly rhythmic (though not influenced by [[jazz]]) and described by himself as "wild, dissonant and percussive."  These early works were far removed from the Schoenberg style.

The dramatic premiere of the pro-[[labor union|union]] ''The Cradle Will Rock'' took place at the Venice Theater on June 16, 1937. The cast had been locked out of the [[Maxine Elliott Theatre]] by the [[Works Progress Administration]], the government agency which had originally funded the production, so the cast and musicians walked with the audience to the nearby Venice. There, without costumes or sets, they performed the work concert-style, actors and musicians alike, sitting among the audience (to evade union restrictions on their performance) with Blitzstein narrating from the piano. In 1939,  [[Leonard Bernstein]] led a revival of the play at [[Harvard University|Harvard]], narrating from the piano just as Blitzstein had done. Blitzstein attended the performance, after which he and Bernstein became close friends; Bernstein would later say that Blitzstein's contribution to the American musical theatre was "incalculable".<ref name=lww>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uQop2edOXrkC&pg=RA1-PA1975|last=Pollack|first=Howard|title=Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His World|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199977086}}</ref> The 1999 film ''[[Cradle Will Rock]]'' was based on this event, though heavily embellished. In the film, Blitzstein (played by [[Hank Azaria]]) is portrayed as gaining inspiration through ghostly appearances by his idol Brecht and his late anorexic wife.<ref name=lww />

[[File:Marc Blitzstein 1943.jpg|thumb|alt= Blitzstein playing the piano beneath a BBC microphone|Blitzstein in U.S. Army Air Corps uniform (London 1943)]]
Additional major compositions include the autobiographical radio song play ''[[I've Got the Tune]]'', ''[[The Airborne Symphony]]'' (1946), ''[[Regina (Blitzstein)|Regina]]'' (1949), ''[[Reuben, Reuben (opera)|Reuben, Reuben]]'' (1955), and ''[[Juno (musical)|Juno]]'' (1959). At the time of his death Blitzstein was at work on ''[[Idiots First]]'', a one-act opera based on the eponymous story by [[Bernard Malamud]]&nbsp;– intended to be part of a set of one-acters called ''[[Tales of Malamud]]''&nbsp;– which [[Ned Rorem]] has called "his best work". This was followed by the work Blitzstein intended to be his ''magnum opus'', a three-act opera commissioned by the [[Ford Foundation]] and optioned by the [[Metropolitan Opera]] entitled ''[[Sacco and Vanzetti (Blitzstein opera)|Sacco and Vanzetti]]''. Both ''Tales of Malamud'' and ''Sacco and Vanzetti'' were completed posthumously, with the approval of Blitzstein's estate, by composer [[Leonard Lehrman]]. Lehrman's long-awaited ''Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-Bibliography'', published in 2005 by [[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]], is the longest published biographical bibliography of any American composer at 645 pages.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR0027.aspx |title=Marc Blitzstein&nbsp;— www.greenwood.com |isbn=0313300275 |publisher=Greenwood.com |date=September 30, 2005 |access-date=March 29, 2010}}</ref>

In 1958, Blitzstein was subpoenaed to appear before the U.S. [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] (HUAC). Appearing first in a closed session, Blitzstein admitted his membership in the Communist Party (ending in 1949) and, challenging the right of HUAC to question him at all, refused to name names or cooperate any further. He was recalled for a further public session, but after a day sitting anxiously in a waiting room he was not called to testify.<ref>Jansson, John (2001). [http://www.marcblitzstein.com/pages/life/chapters/life05.htm "Marc Blitzstein: a brief biography 1958-1964"], marcblitzstein.com; accessed June 8, 2017.</ref>

During a visit to [[Martinique]] in 1964, at the age of 58, Blitzstein was murdered by three sailors he had picked up in a bar,<ref name="Moonlight"/> one of whom he was said to have propositioned. He is buried at Chelten Hills Cemetery in [[Philadelphia]].<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 4244-4245). McFarland & Company, Inc. Kindle Edition.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed, if any--></ref>