Arnold Schoenberg

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Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1948
Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1948
Background information
Birth name Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg
Born September 13, 1874
Origin Leopoldstadt, Austria Austria
Died July 13, 1951
United States
Occupation(s) Composer

Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg (the anglicized form of Schönberg — Schoenberg changed the spelling officially when he left Germany and re-converted to Judaism in 1933), (September 13, 1874 – July 13, 1951) was an Austrian and later American composer. Many of Schoenberg's works are associated with the expressionist movements in early 20th-century German poetry and art, and he was among the first composers to embrace atonal motivic development.

Schoenberg is best known as the innovator of the twelve-tone technique, a compositional technique involving tone rows. He was also a painter, an important music theorist, and an influential teacher of composition.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Arnold Schönberg was born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in the Leopoldstadt district (in earlier times a Jewish ghetto) in Vienna [1]. Although his mother Pauline, a native of Prague, was a piano teacher (his father Samuel, a native of Bratislava, was a shopkeeper), Arnold was largely self-taught, taking only counterpoint lessons with the composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, who was to become his first brother-in-law. In his twenties, he lived by orchestrating operettas while composing works such as the string sextet Verklärte Nacht ("Transfigured Night") in 1899. He later made an orchestral version of this, which has come to be one of his most popular pieces. Both Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler recognized Schoenberg's significance as a composer, Strauss when he encountered Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder, and Mahler after hearing several of Schoenberg's early works. Strauss regressed to a more conservative idiom in his own work after 1909 and at that point dismissed Schoenberg, but Mahler adopted Schoenberg as a protégé and continued to support him even after Schoenberg's style reached a point which Mahler could no longer understand, and Mahler worried about who would look after him after his death. Schoenberg, who criticized Mahler's first several symphonies, was nevertheless influenced by Mahler's art, championed his work and considered Mahler a "saint." Despite his Jewish background in 1898 he converted to Lutheranism. He would remain Lutheran until 1933.

Schoenberg began teaching harmony, counterpoint and composition in 1904. His first students were Paul Pisk, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg; Webern and Berg would become the most famous of his many pupils.

The summer of 1908, during which his wife Mathilde left him for several months for a young Austrian painter, Richard Gerstl (who committed suicide after her return to her husband and children), marked a distinct change in Schoenberg's work. It was during the absence of his wife that he composed "You lean against a silver-willow" (German: Du lehnest wider eine Silberweide); the first piece without any reference at all to a key. Also in this year he completed one of his most revolutionary compositions, the String Quartet No. 2, whose first two movements, though chromatic in color, use traditional key signatures, yet whose final two movements, set to poems by German mystical poet Stefan George, weaken the links with traditional tonality daringly (though both movements end on tonic chords, and the work is not yet fully non-tonal) and, breaking with several decades of string-quartet practice, incorporate a soprano vocal line.

During the summer of 1910, Schoenberg wrote his Harmonielehre ("Textbook on Harmony"), which to this day remains one of the most influential music-theory books.

Another of his most important works from this atonal or pantonal period is the highly influential Pierrot Lunaire, op. 21, of 1912, a highly novel cycle of expressionist songs set to a German text by the Belgian poet Albert Giraud. Utilizing the technique of Sprechstimme, or speak-singing recitation, the work pairs a female singer, in a Pierrot costume, with a small ensemble of 5 musicians. The ensemble, which is now commonly referred to as the Pierrot Ensemble, consists of Flute, (doubling on Piccolo), Clarinet (doubling on Bass Clarinet), Violin, (doubling on Viola), Violoncello, Speaker/Singer, and Piano. In recent years, other composers have modified the ensemble to include percussion, which often replaces the singer; Steven Mackey's Microconcerto is an example of such a piece.

Later, Schoenberg was to develop the most influential version of the dodecaphonic (also known as twelve-tone) method of composition, which later grew into serialism. This technique was taken up by many of his students, who constituted the so-called Second Viennese School. They included Anton Webern, Alban Berg and Hanns Eisler, all of whom were profoundly influenced by Schoenberg. He excelled as a teacher of music (teaching students such as John Cage), partly through his method of engaging with, analyzing, and transmitting the methods of the great classical composers, especially Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, partly through his focus on bringing out the musical and compositional individuality of his students. He published a number of books, ranging from his famous Harmonielehre (Theory of Harmony) to Fundamentals of Musical Composition, many of which are still in print and still used by musicians and developing composers.

Schoenberg's grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.
Enlarge
Schoenberg's grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.

Following the 1924 death of composer Ferruccio Busoni, who had served as Director of a Master Class in Composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, Schoenberg was appointed to this post the next year, but because of health reasons was unable to take up his post until 1926. Anti-Semitic attacks in the Zeitschrift für Musik swiftly ensued. Among his notable students during this period were the composers Roberto Gerhard, Nikolas Skalkottas, and Josef Rufer. Schoenberg continued in his post until the election of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1933, when he was dismissed and forced into exile. He emigrated to Paris, where he reaffirmed his Jewish faith ([2]), and then to the United States. His first teaching position in the United States was at the Malkin Conservatory in Boston. He was then wooed to Los Angeles, where he taught at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, both of which later named a music building on their respective campuses Schoenberg Hall [3] [4]. He settled in Brentwood Park, where he befriended fellow composer (and tennis partner) George Gershwin and resided for the rest of his life.

During this final period he composed several notable works, including the difficult Violin Concerto, op. 36 (1934/36), the Kol Nidre, op. 39, for chorus and orchestra (1938), the Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, op. 41 (1942), the haunting Piano Concerto, op. 42 (1942), and his memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, A Survivor from Warsaw, op. 46 (1947). He was unable to complete his opera Moses und Aron (1932/33), which was one of the first works of its genre to be written completely using dodecaphonic composition. In 1941, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Arnold Schoenberg was grandfather of the lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg. His daughter, Nuria Dorothea, married fellow composer Luigi Nono in 1955.

Schoenberg had a lifelong fascination with numerology, And a deeply rooted fear of the number 13 (for example, he changed the name of one of his works from "Moses und Aron" instead of "Moses und Aaron" because it originally had 13 letters). Born on September 13, he believed that 13 would also play a role in his death. Since the numerals seven and six add up to 13, Schoenberg believed that his 76th year would be the year of his death. While checking the calendar for 1951, he saw to his horror that July 13 fell on a Friday. When that day came, he kept to his bed in an effort to reduce the chance of an accident. Shortly before midnight, his wife entered the bedroom to say goodnight and to reassure him that his fears had been foolish, whereupon Schönberg muttered the word harmony and died. The time of his death was 11:47 p.m., 13 minutes before midnight on Friday, July 13, in his 76th year. His death was due to a heart attack that he had not fully recovered from five years earlier. It is believed that hs 12-tone-system was also based on his theories of numerology.

[edit] Music

[edit] Works and ideas

To understand why Schoenberg composed the music that he did, it is useful to begin with his own statement: "Had times been 'normal' (before and after 1914) then the music of our time would have been very different."

Schoenberg, as a Jewish intellectual, was passionately committed to the concept of unshaken adherence to an "Idea" (such as the concept of an inexpressible God) and the pursuance of Truth. He saw the development of music accelerating through the works of Wagner, Strauss and Mahler to a state of saturation. If music was to regain a genuine and valid simplicity of expression, as in the music of his beloved Mozart and Schubert, the language must be renewed.

These were the same years when the Western world developed abstract painting and psychoanalysis in the same city. Many intellectuals at the time felt that thought had developed to a point of no return, and that it was no longer possible honestly to go on repeating what had been done before. Between 1901 (Gurre-Lieder) and 1910 (Five Pieces for Orchestra) his music changed more rapidly than at any other time. When he had written his String Quartet opus 7 and his Chamber Symphony opus 9, he imagined he had arrived at a mature personal style which would serve him for the future. But already in the second String Quartet opus 10 and the Three Piano Pieces opus 11, he had to admit that the saturation of added notes in harmony had reached a stage when there was no meaningful difference between consonance and dissonance. For a time Schoenberg's music became very concentrated and elliptical, as he could see no reason to repeat and develop.

World War I brought a crisis in his development. Military service disrupted his life. He was never able to work uninterrupted or over a period of time, and as a result he left many unfinished works and undeveloped "beginnings". After the war he worked at evolving a means of order which would enable his musical texture to become simpler and clearer, and this resulted in the "method of composition with twelve tones" in which the twelve pitches of the octave are regarded as equal, and no one note or tonality is given the emphasis it occupied in classical harmony. He regarded it as the equivalent in music of Albert Einstein's discoveries in Physics, and Schoenberg announced it characteristically, during a walk with his friend Josef Rufer, when he said "I have today made a discovery which will ensure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years".

This remark, much misquoted and misunderstood, was probably made with Schoenberg's customary wry and ironic humour, referring to the collapse of the dominant political position of the German-speaking world in previous years, and also emphasising his desire to stand with Bach and Beethoven.

In the following years he produced a series of instrumental and orchestral works showing how his method could produce new classical music which did not copy the past. The climax was to be an opera Moses und Aron, of which he wrote over two-thirds but which he was unable to complete, perhaps for psychological reasons. The music ends at the point where Moses cries out his frustration at being unable to express himself. There is little doubt that by this time Schoenberg had come to see himself as a kind of prophet too.

When he settled in California, he wrote several works in which he returned to keyed harmony, but in a very distinctive way, not simply re-using classical harmony. This was in accordance with his belief that his music evolved naturally out of the past. One of his sayings was "my music is not really modern, just badly played."

It is worth noting that Schoenberg was not the only composer (or even the first) to experiment with the systematic use of all twelve tones. Both the Russian composer Nikolai Roslavets and Schoenberg's fellow Austrian Josef Matthias Hauer developed their own twelve-tone systems quite independently at around the same time as Schoenberg, and Charles Ives experimented with twelve tone techniques substantially earlier. However, Schoenberg's system was by far the most important and influential.

[edit] Controversies and Polemics

Much of his work, however, was not well received. In 1907 his Chamber Symphony No. 1 was premiered. The audience was small, and the reaction to the work lukewarm. When it was played again, however, in a 1913 concert which also included works by Alban Berg, Anton Webern and Alexander von Zemlinsky, some of the audience began to shout out abuse. Later in the concert, during a performance of some songs by Berg, fighting broke out, and the police had to be called in. Schoenberg's music had made a break from tonality, which greatly polarised responses to it: his followers and students saw him as one of the most important figures in music, while critics hated his work, on the whole.

The insistent negative public reaction to his and his students' works led him to found the Society for Private Musical Performances (Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen in German) in Vienna in 1918. His aim was not merely egocentric, however; he sought to provide a forum in which modern musical compositions could be carefully prepared and rehearsed, and properly performed. From its inception through 1921, when it ended because of economic reasons, the Society presented 353 performances to paid members, sometimes at the rate of one per week, and during the first two years, Schoenberg did not allow any of his own works to be performed. Instead, audiences in Vienna heard compositions by Stravinsky, Debussy, Bartók, Ravel, Webern, Berg, Hindemith, Franz Schmidt, and other leading figures in early 20th century music.

Schoenberg was said to be a very prickly and difficult man to know and befriend. In one of his letters he said "I hope you weren't stupid enough to be offended by what I said," and he rewarded conductors such as Otto Klemperer who programmed his music by complaining repeatedly that they didn't do more. On the other hand, among those who are considered his disciples he inspired absolute devotion. Even strongly individualistic composers such as Alban Berg and Anton Webern displayed an almost slavish selflessness and willingness to serve him.

Schoenberg's serial technique of composition with 12 notes was among the most central and polemical conversations among American and European musicians of the mid-20th century. Beginning in the 1940s and continuing to the present day, composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Milton Babbitt have extended the legacy of serialism in increasingly radical directions, while even composers normally considered opposed to Schoenberg's point of view, including Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein (in "Mass") and Aaron Copland, began, in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, to explore and incorporate some basic tenets of serialism within otherwise basically tonal frameworks. During the 1960s and 1970s, academic conversation was at times almost completely defined in terms of agreement or detraction from the larger serialism method of organizing musical information.

In recent decades, composers have managed to transcend the serial polemic, but new controversies around Schoenberg have emerged: most notably, since Schoenberg's later music did not strictly or consistently follow 12-tone serial principles, the centrality of serialism to Schoenberg's thought has been questioned. According to the composer and writer Chaya Czernowin, Schoenberg's most significant (albeit insufficiently credited) revolution was not atonality or serialism, but the decentralization of the recognizeable motive as the main source of identity in music composition--arguably a more lasting and widespread feature of avant-garde music of the last century. By contrast, recognizing the diminished importance of serialism in contemporary music history, critics from Pierre Boulez to James Tenney have argued that the overall historical importance of Schoenberg himself may have been overstated.

[edit] Extramusical interests

Schoenberg was also a painter of considerable ability, whose pictures were considered good enough to exhibit alongside those of Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, and he wrote extensively: plays and poems, as well as essays not only about music but about politics and the social/historical situation of the Jewish people. He was also interested in Hopalong Cassidy films, which Paul Buhle and David Wagner attrubute to the films' left-wing screenwriters.[1]

[edit] Works

See also: :Category:Compositions by Arnold Schoenberg

[edit] Selected compositions

[edit] Complete list of compositions with opus numbers

  • 2 Gesänge [2 Songs] for baritone, op. 1 (1898)
  • 4 Lieder [4 Songs], op. 2 (1899)
  • 6 Lieder [6 Songs], op. 3 (1899/1903)
  • Verklärte Nacht [Transfigured night], op. 4 (1899)
  • Pelleas und Melisande, op. 5 (1902/03)
  • 8 Lieder [8 Songs] for soprano, op. 6 (1903/05)
  • String Quartet no. 1, D minor, op. 7 (1904/05)
  • 6 Lieder [6 Songs] with orchestra, op. 8 (1903/05)
  • Kammersymphonie [Chamber symphony] no. 1, op. 9 (1906)
  • String Quartet no. 2, F-sharp minor (with Soprano), op. 10 (1907/08)
  • 3 Stücke [3 Pieces] for Piano, op. 11 (1909)
  • 2 Balladen [2 Ballads], op. 12 (1906)
  • Friede auf Erden [Peace on earth], op. 13 (1907)
  • 2 Lieder [2 Songs], op. 14 (1907/08)
  • 15 Gedichte aus Das Buch der hängenden Gärten [15 Poems from The book of the hanging gardens] by Stefan George, op. 15 (1908/09)
  • Fünf Orchesterstücke [5 Pieces for Orchestra], op. 16 (1909)
  • Erwartung [Expectation] for Soprano and Orchestra, op. 17 (1909)
  • Die Glückliche Hand [The lucky hand] for Chorus and Orchestra, op. 18 (1910/13)
  • Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke [6 Little piano pieces], op. 19 (1911)
  • Herzgewächse [Foliage of the heart] for Soprano, op. 20 (1911)
  • Pierrot lunaire, op. 21 (1912)
  • 4 Lieder [4 Songs] for Voice and Orchestra, op. 22 (1913/16)
  • 5 Stücke [5 Pieces] for Piano, op. 23 (1920/23)
  • Serenade, op. 24 (1920/23)
  • Suite for Piano, op. 25 (1921/23)
  • Wind Quintet, op. 26 (1924)
  • 4 Stücke [4 Pieces], op. 27 (1925)
  • 3 Satiren [3 Satires], op. 28 (1925/26)
  • Suite, op. 29 (1925)
  • String Quartet no. 3, op. 30 (1927)
  • Variations for Orchestra, op. 31 (1926/28)
  • Von heute auf morgen [From today to tomorrow] for Five Voices and Orchestra, op. 32 (1929)
  • 2 Stücke [2 Pieces] for Piano, op. 33a (1928) & 33b (1931)
  • Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene [Accompanying music to a film scene], op. 34 (1930)
  • 6 Stücke [6 Pieces] for Male Chorus, op. 35 (1930)
  • Violin Concerto, op. 36 (1934/36)
  • String Quartet No. 4, op. 37 (1936)
  • Kammersymphonie [Chamber symphony] no. 2, op. 38 (1906/39)
  • Kol nidre for Chorus and Orchestra, op. 39 (1938)
  • Variations on a recitative for Organ, op. 40 (1941)
  • Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte for Voice, Piano and String Quartet, op. 41 (1942)
  • Piano Concerto, op. 42 (1942)
  • Theme and variations for Band, op. 43a (1943)
  • Theme and variations for Orchestra, op. 43b (1943)
  • Prelude to “Genesis” for Chorus and Orchestra, op. 44 (1945)
  • String Trio, op. 45 (1946)
  • A Survivor from Warsaw, op. 46 (1947)
  • Phantasy for Violin and Piano, op. 47 (1949)
  • 3 Songs, op. 48 (1933)
  • 3 Folksongs, op. 49 (1948)
  • Dreimal tausend Jahre [Three times a thousand years], op. 50a (1949)
  • Psalm 130 “De profundis”, op. 50b (1950)
  • Modern psalm, op. 50c (1950, unfinished)

[edit] Works without opus numbers

[edit] Operas

[edit] Choral works

  • Ei, du Lütte [Oh, you little one] (late 1890s)
  • Gurre-Lieder [Songs of Gurre] (1901/11)
  • 3 Volksliedsätze [3 Folksong movements] (1929)
  • Die Jakobsleiter [Jacob’s ladder] (1917/22, unfinished)

[edit] Orchestral works

  • Cello Concerto “after Monn’s Concerto in D major for harpsichord” (1932/33)
  • Concerto “freely adapted from Handel’s Concerto grosso in B-flat major, op.6, no.7” (1933)
  • Suite, G major, for string orchestra (1934)

[edit] Chamber works

  • Stück, in D minor for Violin and Piano (1893/94)
  • Presto, in C major for String Quartet (1896/97)
  • String Quartet, in D major (1897)
  • Scherzo, in F major for String Quartet (1897)
  • Die eiserne Brigade [The iron brigade] for Piano Quintet (1916)
  • Weihnachtsmusik [Christmas music] for Piano Quartet (1921)
  • Fanfare on motifs of Die Gurre-Lieder for Brass and Percussion(1945)
  • Ein Stelldichein [A rendezvous] for Mixed Quintet (1905)
  • 3 kleine Orchesterstücke [3 Little orchestra pieces] (1910)
  • Sonata for Violin and Piano (1927) (a 43-bar fragment)

[edit] Songs

  • Am Strande [At the seashore] (1909)
  • Die Beiden (Sie trug den Becher in der Hand) [The two (She carried the goblet in her hand)] (1899)
  • 8 Brettllieder [8 Cabaret songs] (1901)
  • Deinem Blick mich zu bequemen [To submit to your sweet glance] (1903)
  • 4 Deutsche Volkslieder [4 German folksongs] (1929)
  • Ecloge (Duftreich ist die Erde) [Eclogue (Fragrant is the earth)] (1896/97)
  • Gedenken (Es steht sein Bild noch immer da) [Remembrance (His picture is still there)] (1893/1903?)
  • Gruss in die Ferne (Dunkelnd über den See) [Hail from afar (Darkened over the sea)] (Aug 1900)
  • In hellen Träumen hab’ ich dich oft geschaut [In vivid dreams so oft you appeared to me] (1893)
  • 12 erste Lieder [12 First songs] (1893/96)
  • Mädchenfrühling (Aprilwind, alle Knospen) [Maiden’s spring (April wind, all abud)] (1897)
  • Mädchenlied (Sang ein Bettlerpärlein am Schenkentor) [Maiden’s song (A pair of beggars sang at the giving gate)] (1897/1900)
  • Mailied (Zwischen Weizen und Korn) [May song (Between wheat and grain)]
  • Mannesbangen (Du musst nicht meinen) [Men’s worries (You should not...)] (1899)
  • Nicht doch! (Mädel, lass das Stricken [But no! (Girl, stop knitting)] (1897)
  • Ein Schilflied (Drüben geht die Sonne scheiden) [A bulrush song (Yonder is the sun departing)] (1893)
  • Waldesnacht, du wunderkühle [Forest night, so wondrous cool] (1894/96)
  • Warum bist du aufgewacht [Why have you awakened] (1893/94)

[edit] Keyboard works

  • 3 Stücke [3 Pieces] (1894)
  • 6 Stücke [6 Pieces] for 4 hands (1896)
  • Scherzo (Gesamtausgabe fragment 1) (ca. 1894)
  • Leicht, mit einiger Unruhe [Lightly with some restlessness], C-sharp minor (Gesamtausgabe fragment 2) (ca. 1900)
  • Langsam [Slowly], A-flat major (Gesamtausgabe fragment 3) (1900/01)
  • Wenig bewegt, sehr zart [Calmly, very gentle], B-flat major (Gesamtausgabe fragment 4) (1905/06)
  • 2 Stücke [2 Pieces] (Gesamtausgabe fragments 5a & 5b) (1909)
  • Stück [Piece] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 6) (1909)
  • Stück [Piece] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 7) (1909)
  • Stück [Piece] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 8) (ca. 1910)
  • Mäßig, aber sehr ausdrucksvoll [Measured, but very expressive] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 9) (March 1918)
  • Langsam [Slowly] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 10) (Summer 1920)
  • Stück [Piece] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 11) (Summer 1920)
  • Langsame Halbe [Slow half-notes], B (Gesamtausgabe fragment 12) (1925)
  • Quarter note = mm. 80 (Gesamtausgabe fragment 13) (February 1931)
  • Sehr rasch; Adagio [Very fast; Slowly] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 14) (July 1931)
  • Andante (Gesamtausgabe fragment 15) (10 October 1931)
  • Piece (Gesamtausgabe fragment 16) (after October 1933)
  • Moderato (Gesamtausgabe fragment 17) (April 1934?)
  • Organ Sonata (1941)

[edit] Canons

  • O daß der Sinnen doch so viele sind! [Oh, the senses are too numerous!] (Bärenreiter I) (April? 1905) (4 voices)
  • Wenn der schwer Gedrückte klagt [When the sore oppressed complains] (Bärenreiter II) (April? 1905) (4 voices)
  • Wer mit der Welt laufen will [He who wants to run with the world] (for David Bach) (Bärenreiter XXI) (March 1926; July 1934) (3 voices)
  • Canon (Bärenreiter IV) (April 1926) (4 voices)
  • Von meinen Steinen [From my stones] (for Erwin Stein) (Bärenreiter V) (December 1926) (4 voices)
  • Arnold Schönberg beglückwünschst herzlichst Concert Gebouw [Arnold Schoenberg congratulates the Concert Gebouw affectionately] (Bärenreiter VI) (March 1928) (5 voices)
  • Mirror canon with two free middle voices, A major (Bärenreiter VIII) (April 1931) (4 voices)
  • Jedem geht es so [No man can escape] (for Carl Engel) (Bärenreiter XIII) (April 1933; text 1943) (3 voices)
  • Mir auch ist es so ergangen [I, too, was not better off] (for Carl Engel) (Bärenreiter XIV) (April 1933; text 1943) (3 voices)
  • Perpetual canon, A minor (Bärenreiter XV) (1933) (4 voices)
  • Mirror canon, A minor (Bärenreiter XVI) (1933) (4 voices)
  • Es ist zu dumm [It is too dumb] (for Rudolph Ganz) (Bärenreiter XXII) (September 1934) (4 voices)
  • Man mag über Schönberg denken, wie man will [One might think about Schoenberg any way one wants to] (for Charlotte Dieterle) (Bärenreiter XXIII) (1935) (4 voices)
  • Double canon (Bärenreiter XXV) (1938) (4 voices)
  • Mr. Saunders I owe you thanks (for Richard Drake Saunders) (Bärenreiter XXVI) (December 1939) (4 voices)
  • I am almost sure, when your nurse will change your diapers (for Artur Rodzinsky on the birth of his son Richard) (Bärenreiter XXVIII) (March 1945) (4 voices)
  • Canon for Thomas Mann on his 70th birthday (Bärenreiter XXIX) (June 1945) (2 violins, viola, violoncello)
  • Gravitationszentrum eigenen Sonnensystems [You are the center of gravity of your own solar system] (Bärenreiter XXX) (August 1949) (4 voices)

[edit] Transcriptions and arrangements

  • Bach: Chorale prelude: Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele [Deck thyself, oh dear soul], BWV 654 (arr. 1922: orchestra)
  • Bach: Chorale prelude: Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, heiliger Geist [Come, God, Creator, Holy ghost], BWV 631 (arr. 1922: orchestra)
  • Bach: Prelude and fugue, E-flat major “St Anne”, BWV 552 (arr. 1928: orchestra)
  • Brahms: Piano quartet, G minor, op. 25 (arr. 1937: orchestra)
  • Denza: Funiculi, funicula (arr. 1921: voice, clarinet, mandolin, guitar, violin, viola, violoncello)
  • Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde [The song of the earth] (arr. Arnold Schoenberg & Anton Webern, 1921; completed by Rainer Riehn, 1983: soprano, flute & piccolo, oboe & English horn, clarinet, bassoon & contra-bassoon, horn, harmonium, piano, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, double bass)
  • Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen [Songs of a wayfarer] (arr. Arnold Schoenberg, 1920: voice, flute, clarinet, harmonium, piano, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, double bass, percussion)
  • Reger: Eine romantische Suite [A romantic suite], op. 125 (arr. Arnold Schoenberg & Rudolf Kolisch, 1919/1920: flute, clarinet, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, harmonium 4 hands, piano 4 hands)
  • Schubert: Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern: incidental music, D. 797 (arr. Arnold Schoenberg, 1903?: piano 4 hands)
  • Schubert: Ständchen [Serenade], D. 889 (arr. Arnold Schoenberg (1921) (voice, clarinet, bassoon, mandolin, guitar, 2 violins, viola, violoncello))
  • Sioly: Weil i a alter Drahrer bin [For I’m a real old gadabout] (arr. 1921: clarinet, mandolin, guitar, violin, viola, violoncello)
  • Strauss: Kaiserwalzer [Emperor waltz], op. 437 (arr. 1925: flute, clarinet, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, piano)
  • Strauss: Rosen aus dem Süden [Roses from the south], op. 388 (arr. 1921: harmonium, piano, 2 violins, viola, violoncello)

[edit] References and further reading

  • Auner, Joseph. A Schoenberg Reader. Yale University Press. 1993. ISBN 0-300-09540-6.
  • Brand, Julianne; Hailey, Christopher; and Harris, Donald, editors. The Berg-Schoenberg Correspondence: Selected Letters. New York, London: W. W. Norton and Company. 1987. ISBN 0-393-01919-5.
  • Schoenberg, Arnold. Structural Functions of Harmony. (Translated by Leonard Stein.) New York, London: W. W. Norton and Company. 1954, 1969 (revised). ISBN 0-393-00478-3.
  • Schoenberg, Arnold (translated by Roy E. Carter). Harmonielehre (translated title Theory of Harmony). Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press. Originally published 1911. Translation based on Third Ed. of 1922, published 1978. ISBN 0-520-04945-4.
  • Schoenberg, Arnold (edited by Leonard Stein). Style and Idea. London : London, Faber & Faber [1975]. ISBN 0-520-05294-3. Some translations by Leo Black; this is an expanded edition of the 1950 Philosophical Library (New York) publication edited by Dika Newlin. The volume carries the note Several of the essays...were originally written in German [and translated by Dika Newlin] in both editions.
  • Schoenberg, Arnold (edited by Gerald Strang and Leonard Stein). Fundamentals of Musical Composition. Belmont Music Publishers
  • Schoenberg, Arnold. Die Grundlagen der musikalischen Komposition. Universal Edition
  • Schoenberg, Arnold. Preliminary Exercises in Counterpoint. Los Angeles: Belmont Music Publishers 2003
  • Shawn, Allen. Arnold Schoenberg's Journey. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux. 2002. ISBN 0-374-10590-1.
  • Weiss, Adolph (March-April 1932). "The Lyceum of Schonberg", Modern Music 9/3, 99-107

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