FROM THE LADDER TO THE MOUNTAIN: ARNOLD SCHOENBERG'S RELIGIOUS ODYSSEY Submitted in partial fulfihnent of the req~ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music University of Natal. Durban, 1998 by ROSELINE SHAPIRO DECLARATION I declare that unless otherwise stated this is my own, original work ---------------il--------------slgnedfL4Luu lltP· .. R. Shapiro December 1998 CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................... .iv ACKN"OWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................ v ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................ vi INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ vii PROLOGUE .......................................................................................... 1 JEWISH IDENTITY IN VIENNA Notes ......................................................................................... 27 I. SCHOENBERG APPROACHING THE LADDER. ..................... .30 SOURCES OF DIE JAKOBSLEITER Notes ......................................................................................... 60 11. DIE JAKOBSLEITER .................................................................... 63 Notes ....................................................................................... 91 Ill. THE PATH OF THE BIBLE. ...................................................... 94 DER BIBLISCHE WEG Notes ....................................................................................... 122 IV. AT THE MOUNTAIN ................................................................ 124 MOSES UND ARON Notes ....................................................................................... 158 BIBLIOGRAPHy .............................................................................. 161 IV ABSTRACT The study traces Arnold Schoenberg's spiritual journey as he moves from his oratorio Die Jakobs/eiter, through his nonmusical drama Der biblische Weg to the opera Moses und Aron. These works span the years from approximately 1915 to 1933, the period which coincides not only with Schoenberg's religious shift from Lutheranism to Judaism but also with the appearance ofhis early dodecaphonic works. It is argued that the works of this period, the religious shift and his conception of twelve-tone serialism are all deeply and inextricably connected. This study, with support from Schoenberg's writings, postulates that twelve tone serialism, the technique with which the name of Schoenberg is associated, was not an inevitable solution to the chromatic saturation of musical composition at the end of the nineteenth century, but that it was shaped by the composer's spiritual needs and by the fact that he lived in Europe during one of the most turbulent periods of her history. The dissertation approaches the topic from the perspective of Schoenberg, the assimilated Jewish artist in late-Romantic Vienna, who moves through various stages of eclectic religious beliefs, arriving finally at an acceptance of the monotheistic concept of the Jewish God. Various correspondences emerge between Schoenberg's religion and his music: the artist/genius as prophet whose mission it is to elevate the people; the idea of progress and the artist's obligation to create new art; the God Idea and prayer as it relates to the musical Idea (the Gedanke) and ultimately the idea of One God, the Mosaic Law and the Twelve-tone Row. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is with great pleasure that I extend my thanks to a number of people who have most generously assisted me with my research. Firstly to Professor Christopher Ballantine and to Dr. David Smith ofthe Music Department. Professor Ballantine' s academic acumen and his refined discernment assisted me greatly in formulating my own thoughts during the early stages of this thesis. Dr. Smith has been of much assistance throughout my work especially as regards theoretical aspects ofSchoenberg's oeuvre. I thank him too for leading me to Professor James May ofthe College of Music, University of Cape Town. Professor May's remarkable ability in unearthing a hidden "row" in a Schoenberg work and his pleasure in doing so, have been an enriching experience for me. I thank him for this and for his help to me in locating material on Schoenberg. Professor Alexander Goehr granted me a lengthy interview in Trinity Hall, Cambridge during the course of which he made suggestions which have had a direct influence on this work. I owe him my sincere gratitude. To Rabbi Nathan Cardoza who graciously conversed with me in Jerusalem I extend my thanks for providing information about Jewish sources. I thank too, our own Rabbi Zekry of Durban for his willingness to answer questions at all times. In a brief conversation which I had with Professor Robert Wistrich in Cape Town in 1995, he commented on the surprising lacuna in the Jewish literature as regards Schoenberg. His remarks encouraged me to pursue my project and I thank him. I have received much helpful and courteous assistance from the Arnold Schoenberg Institute both in Los Angeles and in Vienna. My research would not have been possible without the information provided by the Institute. I discovered to my great surprise that a Swedenborg Information Centre exists in Westville close to Durban. The Reverend Lawson Smith of the centre has been exceedingly helpful in providing me with material on Swedenborg and Strindberg and I thank him. I owe special thanks to Professor Lydia Goehr of Columbia University and Professor B. Kytzler of the University of Natal for their careful reading of my thesis and for their constructive suggestions and valuable criticism. VI To Michael Nupen I extend my gratitude for his interest in my work. His remarkably broad perspective oftwentieth century music and his willingness to share his knowledge have been an inspiration to me. I thank him too for introducing me to Professor Daniel Herwitz who supervised my thesis. It is my most important privilege to extend my deep thanks to Professor Herwitz who arrived in Durban as if from heaven (actually from Los Angeles) with not only a wealth of academic expertise in areas which match my multi disciplinary topic, but also with a rare generosity of spirit, and boundless energy balanced with endless patience. I cannot thank him enough for his help and his encouragement. The title ofEthan Haimo's Schoenberg' s Serial Odyssey has provided an appealing suggestion for my own title. I acknowledge this with pleasure and thanks. To my uncomplaining and ever supportive family I give my loving appreciation. The financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed in this thesis and conclusions arrived at are my own and not to be attributed to the Centre for Science Development. ABBREVIATIONS JASI Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute. Letters Arnold Schoenberg Letters ed. Erwin Stein, trans. E. Wilkins & E. Kaiser The Musical Idea Schoenberg, A.1995 The Musical Idea and the Logic, Technique, and Art of its Presentation ed & trans. P. Carpenter and S. Neff. S&I Style and Idea, Selected Writings ofArnold Schoenberg ed. Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black Vl1 INTRODUCTION It was the destiny of Amold Schoenberg to be born in 1874 in Vienna, the epicentre of one of the greatest catastrophes ever to befall Europe. His generation was witness to two shattering world wars, to political revolution in Russia, to severe economic recessions on a world scale, to the rise of Nazism and the ensuing threat of genocide and to the relocation and frequently dislocation of some of the best intellectual minds of Europe. As a Jew, Schoenberg was doubly vulnerable to these forces. Moreover, by the early 1900's Judaism itself had reached a point of crisis. The ideals of the 1848 revolution, were in a sense the extension of the 1789 revolution and both threatened Jewish orthodoxy which by the turn of the century was subject to pressures from within and from without. The period from the founding of Zionism in about 1897 leading up to the birth of the Jewish state in 1948 was filled with extreme tension for European Jewry and was a period which coincided closely with Schoenberg's own adult life. "When the First World War began" wrote Schoenberg "I was proud to be called to arms and as a soldier I did my whole duty enthusiastically as a true believer in the house ofHabsburg, in its wisdom of 800 years in the art of government and in the consistency of a monarch's lifetime, as compared with the short lifetime of every republic."! In 1923, that is less than ten years after the commencement of World War I, Schoenberg wrote to Wassily Kandisky "I have at last learnt the lesson that has been forced on me during this year, and I shall never forget it. It is that I am not a German, not a European, indeed scarcely even a human being (at least, the Europeans prefer the worst oftheir race to me), but I am a Jew." I believe that the radical shift in Schoenberg's ideology was to impact deeply on his creative life and indeed that his fonnulation of twelve tone serialism was closely linked to this change. More than seventy-five years have passed since Schoenberg's first twelve tone works were published and about ninety years since the composer's early experiments in atonality and still Schoenberg occupies a problematic position in the history of music of the twentieth century. Vlll Schoenberg is recognised as one of the most