The Song of Songs, The Poet in Exile Works by Walter Arlen

Arlen was a US based jewish composer, originally from Austria who escaped Hitler’s invasion into Vienna. His family was persecuted, and lots of his family were murdered or committed suicide as a result of the holocaust, which inspired a lot of his compositional writing. When he escaped to the US where he lived with family friends, Arlen entered songs in a competition, winning first prize. This allowed him to live, study and work as amanuensis with Roy Harris. Through Harris he was introduced to famous composers of the day (such as Shoenberg, Mahler etc) and wrote for the Los Angeles Times as music reviewer for many years.