"Every-Day Music": The Tonal Sketch to Arnold Schoenberg's De Profundis
by Mark Shapiro
N June 20, 1950, Arnold nberg began where the monarch had left transcribed in the Gesamtausgabe, are a Schoenberg began to com off, numbering his first psalm 151. At last treasure trove of insights. pose what would be his last the composer would give .full expression complete work, the Psalm 130, which he to his religious ambivalence and spiritual called his opus 50b. The setting was com pain. And in achieving his own redemp Background. pleted twelve days later, on July 2.1 Schoe tion, he would blaze a fresh trail for the The setting of Psalm 130 was commis nberg died the following summer, without rest of humanity. Accordingly, the Runes sioned by the Los Angeles~based conduc finishing his Modern Psalm, opus 50c, setting became opus 50a, the De Profondis tor Chemjo Vinaver, who sought a new the third element of what was to be a opus 50b, and the unfinished Modern piece by Schoenberg for a forthcoming choral trilogy. The first piece, a setting of Psalm opus 50c. anthology of Jewish liturgical music. Al Dagobert Runes's poem Dreimal Tausend Like other Schoenberg miniatures, though it is not clear how Schoenberg Jahre, was composed in 1949. Schoen Psalm 130 (in Latin De Profondis, in He came to set this pa'rticulat p~alm, it is not berg had originally planned to group it brew Mi-maakim) is a focused and pow hard to imagine that, in failing health with opus 49, a trio of tonal folk-song erful work, epitomizing the composer's and pining for recognition, he might have settings for unaccompanied choir. highest art. Close study of Psalm 130 been especially drawn to it. 3 Schoenberg, But then the composer had the idea to shows the elderly, ailing Schoenberg con who was elated by the founding of the gather his three final works into a vale tending vigorously with the musical and State ofIsrael in 1948, wanted to dedi dictory magnum opus, in which, for once moral issues that energized him through cate the Psalm to that country, because he and for all, he would corp.e to terms with out his creative life. 2 The concept sketches, hoped the fledgling state might benefit his spiritual problems. The Modern Psalms, in particular, would carry the weight of biblical texts. Believing he was writing a significant, needed sequel to King David's obsolete collection, Schoe-
Mark Shapiro is artistic director of Cantori New York and the Monmouth Civic Chorus in Red Bank, New Jersey. He teaches choral conducting at the Mannes College of Music, and is on the faculty of the European American Musical Allaince in Paris, France. www.music-contact.com/Prague
CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 4 25 from the royalties. Psalm 130 was pub- are reports of disagreements between Austria .... "9 lished in Vinaver's Anthology of Jewish Samuel Schoenberg and his wife, little is It is striking that the knowledgeable Music, which came into print in 1953, known about the religious climate of the Slonimsky, an enthusiastic Schoenbergian, two years after Schoenberg's death. composer's youth. Schoenberg scholar would make this mistal{e. Pamela White Vinaver had suggested to Schoenberg Alexander Ringer surmises that "the relates that "[m]any Jewish Viennese con that the composer incorporate authentic Schoenberg household for the most part verted to Lutheranism, perhaps feeling Hassidic melodies in his setting, along was traditionally religious" while suppos- that in some way it was a lesser degree of the lines ofwhat Schoenberg had achieved ing that the Schoenberg family, like many betrayal than converting to Catholicism." with his treatment of the Kol Nidre, the others, "succumbed quite readily to the Citing Ringer, White further notes that celebrated melody associated with the Jew- lures of assimilation."6 Many relevant the worker movement, to which Schoen ish Day of Atonement. Vinaver had pro- questions could be asked. Did the family berg was connected through his direction vided some examples of Hassidic songs observe dietary laws, cover their heads, of a workers' chorus, held the Catholic -----for:-Schoenberg--toconsider.-While-ex--andkeeptheSabbath?-Ringer-notes-that--.Church-inabhorrence.!£l------~---~----- pressing his gratitude for Vinaver's sug- whether Schoenberg had a Bar Mitvah "is In 1933, after the Nazis came to power, gestion, Schoenberg decided not to quote still an open question."? Although Schoenberg, though a vehemently Ger- the melodies literally, but to keep only Schoenberg relied on Vinaver to provide man composer, was dismissed from his their flavor, perhaps drawing particular a scansion of Psalm 130, it seems unlikely post at the Prussian Academy of Arts in inspiration from their prosody.4 the composer knew no Hebrew at all. Berlin, because the authorities, notwith- In Psalm 130, which encapsulates the On March 25, 1898, according to bi- standing his youthful conversion, consid- religious tension the composer felt ographer Allan Shawn, the twenty-three- ered him still a Jew. He fled to Paris and, throughout his life, the battle between year-old Schoenberg was baptised a on July 24, 1933, was reconverted to Ju radical and conservative strains is joined Lutheran. The circumstances of the con- daism in an intimate ceremony that was afresh. An examination of the surviving version are not well understood. Schoen- witnessed, according to some sources, by sketch material yields many clues to the berg, who talked freely about many other the artist Marc Chagall. 11 composer's state of mind in approaching things, apparently did not choose to dis- Such a trajectory, beginning in a child this subject matter. cuss this conversion. Shawn supposes that hood marked by religious disagreement Schoenberg came under the influence of between his parents, encompassing two the opera singer Walter Pieau, who was religious conversions, all in a climate of Two Conversions his close friend, and a Protestant.8 Nicho- fierce anti-Semitism, inevitably left tor Schoenberg's conflicted feelings about las Slonimsky wrongly asserts that "as a ment in its wal{e. Schoenberg was never religion can be traced to his childhood. matter of record, Schoenberg had aban- able to approach religious subjects with His mother was a pious Orthodox Jew doned his Jewish faith in Vienna on equanimity. He yearned for spiritual truth whose family included a large number of March 21, 1898, and in a spirit of politi- and fulfillment, but was profoundly at cantors, while his father was a freethinker cal accommodation converted to Catholi- odds with religious tradition. Alexander who rejected orthodoxy.5 Although there cism, which was the principal faith in Ringer speculates that Schoenberg's spiri- tuality was calibrated in such a way that his religious compositions needed to re main unfinished in order for it to be ex pressed. 12 It is at least as likely that religious subjects, while deeply attractive, and necessary, to Schoenberg, were at the same time fraught with conflicts so in tractable that even he, deploying all the resources of his extraordinary intellect, could not resolve them. At best he might find the precise music to communicate MUSIC AT AUGUSTANA the painful ambivalence.
A distinguished history of vocaL and choraL music in the liberaL arts tradition The First (Tonal!) Sketch A study of the sketches for Psalm 130 SchoLarships for taLented musicians of any major brings into focus these aspects of New Music Education SchoLarship Program Schoenberg's music on religious subjects. The first sketch, AI, shows an abortive Director of ChoraL Activities Jon Hurty attempt at a tonal setting. Editor Chris ChoraL FacuLty Drew Collins. Sonya Hurty tian Schmidt notes that the sketch has two elements that will return in the fin Department of Music· Augustana CoLLege • Rock IsLand, ILlinois 61201-2296 ished piece: a six-voice texture, and the I. 800. 798. 8100, ext. 7233 • www.augustana.edu juxtaposition of sung and spoken parts. Otherwise Schmidt appears to discern no 26 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 4 deeper relationship between this initial call out the climactic unison outburst in and the still germinating Modern Psalm. sketch and the work in its final form. 13 mm. 52-3? Should we be harsh, or exu Since Dreimal Tausend Jahre was a twelve Schmidt is right to point to the re berant? In the absence of explicit instruc tone work, a twelve-tone setting of Psalm markable commingling of song and speech tions in the score, the performer must 130 would foster a greater unity. For in the finished composition. One might decide. And what a difference it makes!) Mackelmann's hypothesis to be tenable, expect that their interaction to follow a we might have to assume that Schoen rule-the spoken word would systemati-' berg made this decision about the trilogy cally echo the sung, or vice-versa-but Why? just after setting aside the sketch AI. It is Schoenberg mixes it up. Typically for him, Why did Schoenberg begin with the not clear that the sequence of events sup there is fantasy within constraint. At times, tonal sketch? It is possible that, aware of ports Mackelmann's hypothesis. He does the speakers echo the singers, as in m. 2; the needs and abilities of those who would not mention the tonal sketch. 16 elsewhere they get ahead, as at the end of be most likely to use the work, Schoen Sketch Al affords an opportunity to m.3 ("keraticha"). This is the soundscape berg hoped to enhance "accessibility and test the claims of those musicians, like of an active synagogue. At the same time, comprehensibility and to find a common Schoenberg, who argue that twelve-t.one the muttering seems to impart a furtive, ground between his own compositional technique must be understood as (no anxious, disturbed quality: Schoenberg concerns and the practical demands of more than) the most suitable means to a may be hinting that it is dangerous to be a performance and· the audience. "15 Cer particular expressive end. As Schoenberg Jew. tainly this issue preoccupied the composer commented to Kolisch,17 "[m]yworks are It is .a question whether the spoken throughout his American years, during twelve-tone compositions, not twelve-tone words are meant, like audible supertitles, which his tonal output was small but sig compositions." The six measures of the to' enhance communication, along the nificant. tonal sketch, by showing what was first lines discussed by Joseph Auner,14 or Schoenberg scholar Michael Mackel contemplated, shed valuable light on the whether they are meant to be appreciated mann conjectures that Schoenberg de completed setting. (Figure 1.) as a color in their own right, perhaps as a cided to write a dodecaphonic setting The tonal setting is a kind of double kind of percussion. Maybe both. (They because he had committed himself to the canon. The tenor voice initiates a quasi might even serve as barometers of mood, idea of a progressively rpore complex tril cantorial motive, evocative of synagogue if only Schoenberg had given us more ogy that would set Psalm 130 between chant becoming ditonic.18 In the course guidance. How, for example, should we the already existing Dreimal Tausend Jahre of six measures, this motive is heard once,
Al [1': 1-2, 3-4a-5]
J =80 Shir a r r: '1 Shir ------Ha rnaa lot Shir Ha rnaa lot, Mi rna kim
Shir Ha rna lot
mi maa rna kim ~J .J .IIJ -
I - " ~~aa ka kim I r--
T ~ Ten I I 'I Bar, \ : 'ir \ I I Tetrachord (box added)
Figure 1. Superseded 6 - measure tonal sketch for "De Profundis," Opus 50b. Schoenberg, Arnold. Gesarntausgabe. Abteilung V: Chorwerke. Reihe B, Band 19. Herausl!el!eben von Christian Martin Schmidt. Mainz. B Schott's Sohne. 1977. All Examples used by pennission ofBelmont Music Publishers
CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 4 27 then two octaves higher. The first pitch is scends immediately back to it. The voices alto voice enter In measure 4. In major sounded for a long time. There's a feeling move in parallel, mostly minor, thirds. thirds, they take up the music the basses of stasis, and quiet despair. The repeti- The dark sound of two bass voices sing- have been singing. This leads, in m. 5, to tions at the octave and double octave yield ing in duet becomes a significant struc- a prominent cross-relation: G - Bq, fol what is in effect a harmonic pedal, iter- tural element in the finished work. It lowed by B~ - D. Vertically stacked, these ated through two octaves. It is not incon- occurs twice, once in m. 7, and again in pitches yield the tetrachord [0,3,4,7] ceivable that the rising octaves constitute m. 46. The first occurrence sets off the (Forte 4-17), whose "major-minor" so a madrigalism, expressing in sound the developmental phase of the Psalm, after nority-a favorite of Schoenberg's notion of prayer mounting from the an introductory statement that begins qui- neatly evokes the bitter ambivalence so depths ("de profundis") to God. etly and ends in fanfare on the name characteristic of Schoenberg's spiritual life. This image of the ladder of prayer reso- "Adonai" ("Lord"). The second occur- In measure 6 of the superseded sketch, nated very deeply with Schoenberg. rence heralds the concluding statement of the bass voices, the second soprano, and _. __.. Ringer"reports_that:oSchoenberg_preser:v:ed __ =theJ?salm.=The_two..1llomentscbracket-_the __ octhe_altoo.pause_onoa_yecticality=thacoffers_. _' among his papers a clipping from the the "guts" of the piece, setting apart its open- the same sonority: an acrid simultaneity Berliner Tageblatt headlined 'The Last vi- ing and closing gestures. of major and minor. It is revelatory to sion ofAdolphe Willette.' Willette was an The sketch Al is striking for its poise. contemplate that this sonority, which per artist who had published anti-Semitic cari~ Lines rise and fall in evident equilibrium. vades the twelve-tone rendering, origi catures during the Dreyfus affair. The Schoenberg may have felt the conception nated in Schoenberg's imagination in a . newspaper's description ofWillette's death was too placid, although, in the second tonal context. The boundary separating caught Schoenberg's fancy: "'I am rising bar, an undercurrent of ambivalence re- tonal and twelve-tone musics may prove higher and higher,' he said with an ex- veals itself in a subtle way that is retained to be more a theoretical construct than a pression of profound happiness. 'Now I in the finished setting. As the editor notes, musical imperative. am ascending straight up, always up, con- there is an evident musical tension be- tinuously without stopping, quick as an tween the sounds of singing and spealc arrow-straight into Paradise.' Then he ing. This is, certainly, a signal feature of Twelve Tones sank to the ground and was silent. He opus 50b. At least as telling is the rhyth Here the tonal sketch Al breaks off. was dead." Ringer quotes a note Schoen- mic tension between the binary rhythm We do not know, though it is interesting berg wrote in the margin: "I kept this of the singing and the triplet rhythm of to speculate, how much time elapsed be because it is so exactly death,. as it occurs the speaking. There is a formal, institu fore Schoenberg moved on to A3 and A2. in the Jakobsleiter. "19 The acoustical phe- tional quality to the duple rhythm that is A3 shows the row Schoenberg used as the nomenon of rising pitch, to which Schoe- somehow subverted by the spoken trip basis for the finished setting of Psalm 130, nberg was, of course, sensitive, plays an lets. In the final version, this relationship along with its combinatorial inversion, important role in the finished setting of is switched, although Schoenberg does transposed down a major sixth. (Figure Psalm 130. not develop it in a systematic way. 2.) In the tonal sketch AI, Schoenberg is The canonic material is, at first, modal Schmidt offers an opinion that the row writing double counterpoint in thirds. rather than tonal. Then, in measure 5, forms shown in A3 are the only ones used The two bass voices introduce a classi- there occurs a harmonic event that may in the finished work. 20 Michael Mackel- cally rounded motive, two bars long, that be seen as the Big Bang that generates the mann, who may not have seen the rises from its point of departure, and de- finished work. The mezzo-soprano and sketches, has a somewhat more intricate
A3 [11', 6-7]
I
Figure 2. Row Fonns from sketches for "De Profundis, "Opus SOb. Schoenberg, Arnold. Gesamtausgabe. Abteilung V: Chorwerke. Reihe B, Band 19. Herausgegeben von Christian Martin Schmidt. Mainz, B Schott's Sohne, 1977. All Examples used by permission ofBelmont Music Publishers
28 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 4S ISSUE 4 theory of the piece that draws on transpo tially the same sonorities, and no greater the very same pitches-that we encoun sitions of the prime form at the major analytic insight in terms of the music's tered in the "tonal" sketch AI. The musi sixth and the tritone, as well as the inver sound, since this piece does not empha cal idea that first appeared in a "tonal" sion at the major sixth above. It may be size linear expressions of the row. context returns in a twelve-tone-Im preferable to embrace the economy of If we partition the combinatorially sher?-environment. (Figure 3.) Schmidt's analysis. 21 As it happens, the paired rows into tetrachords, the third combinatorial possibilities provided for tetrachord turns out to be [G - B~ - Bq by Mackelmann's extra layer yield essen- D], the "major/minor" sonority-indeed,
A3 []I: 6-7]
,.."" ~ I!J V"
II
1 --- '1" 9
Figure 3. Row fonns for "De Profundis" with partitioning oftetrachords. Schoenberg, Arnold. Gesamtausgabe. Abteilung V: Chorwerke. Reihe B, Band 19. Herausgegeben von Christian Martin Schmidt. MainZ, B Schott's Sohne, 1977. All Examples used by permission ofBelmont Music Publishers
CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 4 29 Orthodoxy? period of very limited compositional ac One is tempted to conclude that tivity, took place roughly at the same time Schoenberg's orthodox strain prevailed. as [his] open reaffirmation of Jewish Instead of venturing into radical tonal faith."23 It goes without saying that no waters, he kept to the-by now-famil such connection can be established with iar, and safe, harbor of dodecaphony. This absolute certainty, but it resonates with may be read as a powerful instance of the Alexander Ringer: working method that Schoenberg de scribed to the psychologist Julius Bahle in [H]is uncanny 'emancipation' of 1933: the insidious 'historical dissonance,' affecting all but the most insensitive Cl10ra.1 festiva.ls Stage I: Unnameable sense of a of 'modern' Jews, brought to full ~ ~--~-sounding-and""moving-space,-oLa~ ___ JruitiOlLwhatthe-eilluc~heralded~~~~ form with characteristic rela- emancipation of musical dissonance tionships... had merely promised: a seemingly Stage II: ["T]ranslating the poem inescapable element of perpetual into everyday music ... " unresolved tensions, uncon- Stage III: [L]arge or small number ditionally accepted as such, now of themes soon also appear, often furnished the liberating ethical proving unusable.... wherewithal for aesthetic exploits of Stage N: [I] begin a more detailed an entirely new order. 24 working-out either by means of short sketches with varying degrees Ringer notes that "one way or another of finality and unequal value; often, Schoenberg confronted his Jewish origins though, I in fact write the piece every day" and that this "inevitably rein straight down ... certainly guided by forced the Jewish sense of existential dis the initial conception. (italics sonance." There beckoned equally what added)22 composer Adolf Bernhard Marx identi fied as "the genuine message ofJudaism," Perhaps it is not surprising-though it a message "so firmly imprinted on is certainly touching-that, in frail old [Schoenberg's] mind that nothing could age, Schoenberg should be relying on his erase it," as Ringer states.25 most characteristic-his most auto Certainly Schoenberg's anti-Semitic matic-mental processes. Consistent with detractors made a connection between his Schoenberg's explanation to Bahle, it may Judaism and the sound of his music. Jo also be possible, though it seems less plau seph Auner refers to Richard Eichenauer's sible, that even before he began to work polemical Musik und Rasse, in which on it Schoenberg planned for De Profundis Eichenauer points to Schoenberg as "the to be twelve-tone music. In that case, Al incarnation of the Jewish obsession to 'de could represent a premeditatedly transi stroy harmonic polyphony, which is to tional "everyday music" of the kind tally foreign to them."'26 Auner observes Schoenberg identifies as Stage II, which that "Schoenberg was, of course, inti the composer set aside as soon as it had mately associated with what he described served its intended purpose of stimulat as the 'battle' of tonality and dissonance ing his imagination. If, on the other hand, that he had been fighting vigorously, and Schoenberg had an authentic change of further points out that "the broader social heart after attempting the tonal version political significance of this battle also ofAI, many hypotheses could be adduced did not escape him."27 In the essay "Opin Festival Entry by Audition by way of explanation. Mackelmfum's, ion or Insight?", Schoenberg repudiates given above, is one. If Mackelmann is his contemporaries who were attempting J> Exchange Concerts J> Since 1984 correct, the three consecutive works of a rapprochement with tonal harmony, 1il{ J> Offices Worldwide J> Custom Touring Op. 50 could themselves be seen to con ening them to "believers who buy an in J> Excellent References J> Major Festivals stitute a "ladder of prayer" of the kind dulgence." Such composers were using described by Ringer. key signatures "as if putting on a Chris Pamela White comments that "it is tian-German mantle for loving their 800-922-3976 probably no coincidence that the most neighbour (something they rarely used to [email protected] often remarked-upon change in [Schoen wear), to cloak their secret, sinful con "Commitment to Music Education berg's] musical style, the emergence of verse with dissonances."28 and the Performing Arts" twelve-tone serialism ca. 1922 out of a Clearly Schoenberg himself felt a di-
30 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 4 chotomy opposing "Christian-German turn around and control the harmonic CBS ban on his music for being (so he tonal" and "Jewish-atonal." The di language of the setting as a whole. had heard) too controversial." chotomy mayor may not be real. Either Ultimately, because of the non-literal 4willi Reich (page 230) and many others have way, embracing it is a problematic step. nature of the musical enterprise, it can reviewed the genesis of De Profundis. Can it be taken affirmatively, or are we not be claimed with certainty that 5 H. H. Stuckenschmidt, Arnold Schoenberg: only (re)creating a ghetto? Schoen-berg's Schoenberg's twelve-tone music is the au His Life, World and Work, translated by grisly encounters with anti-Semitism had thentic embodiment in sound of the H. Searle (New York, NY: G. Schirmer, schooled him in two painfully incompat composer's Jewish identity. It is possible 1977), p. 18. ible truths: separatism endangered the that Schoenberg's Jewish soul and twelve G Alexander Ringer, "Assimilation and the body; assimilation eroded the soul. So we tone music are unrelated entities. None Emancipation of Historical Dissonance" cannot be surprised to see, with Joseph theless, it may be that after Schoenberg in Constructive Dissonance, ed. Juliane Auner, "how problematic and contested had embarked on the tonal version of De Brand and Christopher Hailey (Berkeley Schoenberg's own identity had become."29 Profondis, he came to reflect on the and Los Angeles, CA: University of Ultimately, for political reasons and mu setting's eventual destination-Chemjo California Press, 1977), p. 26. sical ones, Schoenberg came to under Vinaver's anthology of Jewish music~ 7 Ibid. stand that "the tradition that had and to feel in some intuitive way the 8 Allen Shawn discusses Schoenberg's religious sustained him and his work had itself greater suitability of the twelve-tone lan background and conversions on pp. 3-8. become a torso."30 Accordingly, "[w]ith guage for this context. 9 Nicholas Slonimsky, The Concise Baker's the destabilization of his sense of tradi Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, tion it became increasingly difficult for NOTES Eighth Edition (New York, NY: Schirmer Schoenberg to define a single path for Books, 1994), p. 894. ward."31 Considerations like these would 1 These dates are given in the Critical Report 10 Pamela White, Schoenberg and the God-Idea: inevitably complicate the com-poser's of the Gesamtausgabe, V-B-19, p. X. The Opera Moses und Aron (Ann Arbor, choice of musical idiom for a late work 2 Allen Shawn, Arnold Schoenberg's Journey MI: UMI Research Press, 1985), p. 53. like De Profondis, especially given the pub (New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss & 11 On page 81, Pamela White quotes a letter lic contexts in which this work was to Giroux, 2002). On page 274, Shawn Schoenberg wrote to Berg on October function. describes a visit Robert Craft paid to 16, 1933. Schoenberg reports that the In any event, what Schoenberg cre Schoenberg on July 5, 1950. Craftfound only witnesses were his wife, the rabbi, ated, in the leap from the "tonal" to the the composer "stooped and wizened," and "a certain Dr. Marianoff." He malces twelve-tone setting of opus SOb, was a looking older than his years. no mention of Chagall. However, Allen harmonic environment more, not less, rig 3 Willi Reich, Schoenberg: A Critical Biography, Shawn places Chagall at the scene. orously controlled than it otherwise might translated by Leo Black (New York, NY: 12 Alexander Ringer, Arnold Schoenberg: The have been. He invoked a constraint-a Da Capo, 1971). On page 230, Reich Composer as Jew (New York, NY: Oxford, row-that enabled him to saturate his quotes Schoenberg's memorandum 1990). See chapter 10 "Faith and composition with a characteristic sonor describing his physical deterioration. Symbol." ity, in a closely organized way. The re Lessem refers to "the cloud of mistrust 13 See Schmidt's commentary in the jected sketchA1, containing as it does the and suspicion that shrouded [Schoen Gesamtausgabe, p. 104. 4-17 sonority, goes far toward exonerat berg's] relationship to his American 14 Joseph Auner, "Schoenberg and His Public ing Schoenberg of charges, like those lev environment and sat heavily upon him in 1930: The Six Pieces for Male Chorus, eled by Walter Piston, that the vertical until the end." Lessem mentions a letter Op. 35" in Schoenberg and his World, ed. aspect of twelve-tone music was no more Schoenberg wrote on April 28, 1950, to Walter Frisch (Princeton, NJ: Princeton than accidentalY protest "what he considered official University Press, 1999), p. 90. In De Profondis, an essential harmonic propaganda against him, in particular a 15 Ibid. element, originally a by-product of a con trapuntal collision in a tonal environment, could ultimately be most coherently man aged in a twelve-tone context. Here is an instance of what theorist Martha Hyde has shown to be Schoenberg's "technique for deriving twelve-tone harmonic struc ture from a single basic set."33 Discussing Schoenberg's op. 6, Verklarte Naeht, ana lyst Boris Pillin emphasizes that "the chords are the resultant of the lines rather than their determinant." Sketches to Op. SOb show Schoenberg taking this alchemy further. A verticality ensuing from linear interactions in a tonal environment be comes the basis for a tone row that will
CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 4S ISSUE 4 31 16 Michael Mackelmann, Arnold Schoenberg und das judentum (Hamburg: Karl Dieter Wagner, 1984), p. 336ff. 17 Quoted in Jan Swafford, The Vintage Guide to Classical Music (New York, NY: Random House, 1992), p. 398. invites leading Adult and Children's Choruses to perform in 18 William Thomson, Schoenberg's Error Major Halls and Prestigious Festivals with important orchestras (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, 1991). Thomson discusses 2005 FESTIVAL EVENTS· J ditonic melodies on pp. 103-4. El SOAVE FESTIVAL: June 23-27, Italy, Own Concerts and Conductor, no Orchestra 19 Alexander Ringer, Arnold Schoenberg: The [] RHAPSODY! PRAGUE CHilDREN'S MUSIC FESTIVAL: July 7-18, Vienna, Salzburg Composer as jew, p. 178. & conducted Doreen Rao &Joan
conducted by Maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky 21 Mich~el Mackelmann, Arnold Schoenberg und [J RIVA DEL GARDA FESTIVAL: July 28- August 5, Italy, Verdi Requiem conducted das judentum, pp. 338-339. by Maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky Mackelmann's analysis is echoed by Clytus Gottwald in his liner notes to the 2006 FESTIVAL EV~NTS J recording by the BBC Singers under RHAPSODY! PRAGUE CHilDREN'S MUSIC FESTIVAL: June 22-July 3, Vienna, Pierre Boulez. Salzburg & Prague 22 Quoted Willi Reich, Schoenberg: A Critical E1 SOAVE FESTIVAL: June 25-29, Italy, Own Concerts and Conductor, no Orchestra Biography p. 238. E1 RIVA DEL GARDA FESTIVAL: July 17-19, Italy, Britten's War Requiem conducted 23 Pamela White, Schoenberg and the God-Idea, by Maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky [1 RIVA DEL GARDA FESTIVAL: July 24-27, Italy, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis p.83. conducted by Maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky 24 Al d Ri "A . '1' d h exan er nger, sSlml anon an t e L] SOUTH AMERICAN CHORAL FESTIVAL: July 6-17, Rio de Janeiro & Buenos Aires Emancipation of Historical Dissonance," p.24. Conducted by Maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky, 25 Alexander Ringer, "Assimilation and the Brazil's legendary conductor Emancipation of Historical Dissonance," [';1 Mahler's Symphony No.3: May 18-24, 2005 France pp. 25 ff. [;1 Stravinsky Pulcinella/Mozart Requiem: August 17-29,2005 Brazil 26 Joseph Auner, "Schoenberg's Handel o Mahler's Symphony NO.3: September 17-29, 2005 Brazil Concerto and the Ruins of Tradition," C! Bach's Mass in B Minor or Christmas Oratorio, Handel's Messiah: December 1-16, 2005 Brazil in journal of the American Musicological [j Mahler's Symphony NO.8 "Symphony of a Thousand": July 2006, Brazil Society xlix/2 (1996), p. 279. [J Mahler's Symphony No.8 "Symphony of a Thousand": October 2006, France 27 Ibid. p. 283. 28 Arnold Schoenberg, Style and Idea, translated Plus other Concerts with own Conductor for all Tours by Leo Black (Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1984), p. 259. Neeta Helms 29 Joseph Auner, "Schoenberg's Handel Classical Movements, Inc. Concerto," p. 296. 319 Cameron St, Alexandria, VA 22314 Tel: (703) 683-6040 or (800) 882 0025 30 Ibid., p. 310. Fax: (703) 683-6045 31 Ibid., p. 31l. [email protected] 32 Walter Piston, Counterpoint (New York, NY: Norron, 1947), p. 230. Travel Specialists for Music and Performing Groups Organizing Tours to 33 Martha Hyde, "The Format and Function Europe • North & South America • Asia • Australia / New Zealand of Schoenberg's Twelve-tone Sketches" in journal of the American Musicological Society xxxvi/3 (1983), p. 457. Hyde illuminates this point through a .detailed sketch study.
32 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 4S ISSUE 4