ARNOLD SCHOENBERG's RELIGIOUS ODYSSEY Submitted

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG's RELIGIOUS ODYSSEY Submitted 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
Recommended publications
  • Bryan R. Simms. the Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg 1908–1923
    Document generated on 10/01/2021 1:27 p.m. Canadian University Music Review Revue de musique des universités canadiennes Bryan R. Simms. The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg 1908–1923. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ix, 265 pp. ISBN 0-19-512826-5 (hardcover) Robert Falck Volume 21, Number 2, 2001 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1014493ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1014493ar See table of contents Publisher(s) Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique des universités canadiennes ISSN 0710-0353 (print) 2291-2436 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Falck, R. (2001). Review of [Bryan R. Simms. The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg 1908–1923. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ix, 265 pp. ISBN 0-19-512826-5 (hardcover)]. Canadian University Music Review / Revue de musique des universités canadiennes, 21(2), 143–146. https://doi.org/10.7202/1014493ar All Rights Reserved © Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit des universités canadiennes, 2002 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 21/2(2001) 143 very value system that they outwardly support or (the reverse) reinforce a system that they overtly critique.
    [Show full text]
  • Gustav Mahler : Conducting Multiculturalism
    GUSTAV MAHLER : CONDUCTING MULTICULTURALISM Victoria Hallinan 1 Musicologists and historians have generally paid much more attention to Gustav Mahler’s famous career as a composer than to his work as a conductor. His choices in concert repertoire and style, however, reveal much about his personal experiences in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his interactions with cont- emporary cultural and political upheavals. This project examines Mahler’s conducting career in the multicultural climate of late nineteenth-century Vienna and New York. It investigates the degree to which these contexts influenced the conductor’s repertoire and questions whether Mahler can be viewed as an early proponent of multiculturalism. There is a wealth of scholarship on Gustav Mahler’s diverse compositional activity, but his conducting repertoire and the multicultural contexts that influenced it, has not received the same critical attention. 2 In this paper, I examine Mahler’s connection to the crumbling, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century depiction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as united and question whether he can be regarded as an exemplar of early multiculturalism. I trace Mahler’s career through Budapest, Vienna and New York, explore the degree to which his repertoire choices reflected the established opera canon of his time, or reflected contemporary cultural and political trends, and address uncertainties about Mahler’s relationship to the various multicultural contexts in which he lived and worked. Ultimately, I argue that Mahler’s varied experiences cannot be separated from his decisions regarding what kinds of music he believed his audiences would want to hear, as well as what kinds of music he felt were relevant or important to share.
    [Show full text]
  • Psych-Psychoanalyst 4-05.Indd
    Psychologist– Official Publication of Division 39 of the American Psychoanalyst Psychological Association Volume XXV, No.2 Spring 2005 FROM THE PRESIDENT: SAY EVERYTHING David Ramirez, PhD o Es war, soll Ich warden. Where id was, there ego the bedrock beginning for the apprentice psychotherapist, Wshall be. Does psychoanalysis have a motto? If it as important as competence with formal assessment and did, would this be it? These have been words to ponder and knowledge of the DSM. to reference in theoretical papers since written by Freud Despite the cliché “easier said than done,” many of us in 1933, comprising a lexigraphic distillation of what was were taught to listen in ways that recognized listening to be generally considered the aim of the psychoanalytic pro- a special skill requisite to facilitating talk, to saying every- cess. Throughout the twentieth century, these words were thing. We came to understand just how hard this “saying” considered both literally and figuratively as a kind of core is, and that in fact, when it comes to the experience of emo- coda to many psychoanalytic concepts. Where id was, there tion, it is actually much easier to do, to act, than to say. Lis- ego shall be. More koan than motto, psychoanalysis, with tening well as patients struggle to express the difficulties of its combination of mysterious concepts and idealistic out- living and understanding was valued as the psychoanalytic comes, had a little something for everyone. clinician’s strong suit. Key to this transformation of id to ego are the words Today, graduate clinical training is marked by an that constitute the dictate to the subject of analytic therapy: emphasis on activity by the therapist, demonstrated by the “Say everything.” Now there’s a motto! Short and to the phenomenon tagged as “manualized treatments.” These point.
    [Show full text]
  • Today's Operas
    Today’s Operas BERG: WOZZECK Alban Berg: Wozzeck (1926). Opera in Three Acts. Text by the composer, based on Woyzeck by Georg Büchner (1813–37). Büchner was a brilliant but short-lived writer from the start of the 19th Century. His play, a searing attack on militarism and social injustice, was left unfinished at his death, existing only as a large number of short scenes. It was first performed only in 1913 in Munich and in Vienna the following year, a performance that Berg attended. Working on the opera during his own service in the World War, Berg must have seen uncanny relevance across the centuries. The opera premiered in Berlin in 1925 under Erich Kleiber, and was an immediate success until banned by the Nazis in 1933. [The following synopsis is adapted from Wikipedia. Sections to be played in class are underlined.] Despite its atonality, the three acts and the five scenes in each act are distinguished by reference to conventional musical structures. These are listed after each section below. Act One, Scene 1 (Suite). Wozzeck is shaving the Captain who lectures him on the qualities of a "decent man" and taunts him for living an immoral life. Wozzeck slavishly replies, "Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann" — 1 — repeatedly to the Captain's abuse. However, when the Captain scorns Wozzeck for having a child out of wedlock, Wozzeck protests that it is difficult to be virtuous when he is poor. The flustered Captain, unable to comprehend Wozzeck, finally concedes that he is a decent man, and dismisses him. Act One, Scene 2 (Rhapsody and Hunting Song).
    [Show full text]
  • Arnold Schoenberg and Music Criticism
    JOURNAL OF OF RESEARCH ONLINE MusicA JOURNALA JOURNAL OF OF THE THE MUSIC UNIVERSITY COUNCIL OF OF ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA t ‘WHERE POWERS ARE BOLDLY STIRRING, I COUNSEL OPEN War’: ARNOLD SCHOEN- BERG AND MUSIC CRITICISM t is commonplace to contemplate Arnold Schoenberg, the putative father of ALEXANDER CARPENTER modern music, as the subject of music criticism, much of it staunchly negative. It is well-known that Schoenberg’s entire biography is coloured by his oppositional ■ Iorientation towards music critics and criticism: indeed, the title of this article comes Fine Arts and Humanities from Schoenberg’s (1909b/1975) bellicose essay, ‘About Music Criticism’, in which University of Alberta he damns those Viennese critics who prejudge music and who even disrupt or seek Augustana Campus to have performances stopped before a work can have a fair hearing. Over the 4901-46 Avenue course of his professional life, Schoenberg responded to critics and criticism in a number of different ways. First, he fired back, writing letters and essays defending his Camrose, Alberta music but also challenging not only the credentials of critics but the very institution Canada T4V 2R3 of music criticism itself. Second, he painted, literally painted, music critics in rather unflattering terms, representing on canvas what he considered their worst qualities in a series of amateur expressionistic paintings from the early part of the twentieth [email protected] century. And third, he withdrew himself and the modern music he championed into the Society for Private Musical Performance. Most importantly, Schoenberg also penned what I would consider his own music criticism: offering prescriptions for performance and interpretation, proposing a process for journalistic music criticism, musing on musical aesthetics generally and writing critical essays on the significance of specific composers.
    [Show full text]
  • Oscar Straus Beiträge Zur Annäherung an Einen Zu Unrecht Vergessenen
    Fedora Wesseler, Stefan Schmidl (Hg.), Oscar Straus Beiträge zur Annäherung an einen zu Unrecht Vergessenen Amsterdam 2017 © 2017 die Autorinnen und Autoren Diese Publikation ist unter der DOI-Nummer 10.13140/RG.2.2.29695.00168 verzeichnet Inhalt Vorwort Fedora Wesseler (Paris), Stefan Schmidl (Wien) ......................................................................5 Avant-propos Fedora Wesseler (Paris), Stefan Schmidl (Wien) ......................................................................7 Wien-Berlin-Paris-Hollywood-Bad Ischl Urbane Kontexte 1900-1950 Susana Zapke (Wien) ................................................................................................................ 9 Von den Nibelungen bis zu Cleopatra Oscar Straus – ein deutscher Offenbach? Peter P. Pachl (Berlin) ............................................................................................................. 13 Oscar Straus, das „Überbrettl“ und Arnold Schönberg Margareta Saary (Wien) .......................................................................................................... 27 Burlesk, ideologiekritisch, destruktiv Die lustigen Nibelungen von Oscar Straus und Fritz Oliven (Rideamus) Erich Wolfgang Partsch† (Wien) ............................................................................................ 48 Oscar Straus – Walzerträume Fritz Schweiger (Salzburg) ..................................................................................................... 54 „Vm. bei Oscar Straus. Er spielte mir den tapferen Cassian vor;
    [Show full text]
  • A Librettist's Reflections on Opera in Our Times
    Israel Eliraz A LIBRETTIST'S REFLECTIONS ON OPERA IN OUR TIMES [1] Pierre Boulez may have mourned the death of the opera and suggested setting fire to opera houses (he has repented since and has even written in this rnusical form himsel~, but the Old Lady is still going strong. She is no Ionger as regal and as much admired as in the 18th century, nor is she as popular and vital as she was in mid-I9th century for bold young rivals have entered the arena: film, radio, musicals and television. But reviewing the new operas written in this century, from MOSES UND ARON by Schoenberg and WOZZECK by Berg, to works by Luigi Dallapiccola, lldebrando Pizzetti, Werner Egk, Marcel Delannoy and others, one is taken by surprise by the abundance, versatility and ingenuity in musical, theatrical and ideological terms, of modern opera. What the rnusical avant -garde considered a defunct creature, a 'dinosaur' of sorts (this strange animal is over 370 years old), became, to their dismay, a phoenix redux. At tirnes it metarnorphosed into political drarna (Weiii-Brecht); at others it returned to the oratory form (Stravinsky, Honegger, Debussy), and on still other occasions it turns upon itself with laudable irony, as in Mauricio Kagel's STAATSTHEATER. Anylhing can happen in an opera, all is allowed and, if one rnay venture to express some optirnisrn - which is not easy in our province - it still has some surprises in store for us. [2] Music Iovers have been accustorned to think that it is in the nature of opera to address the 'larger issues'- biblical, rnylhological, historical, national.
    [Show full text]
  • View Becomes New." Anton Webern to Arnold Schoenberg, November, 25, 1927
    J & J LUBRANO MUSIC ANTIQUARIANS Catalogue 74 The Collection of Jacob Lateiner Part VI ARNOLD SCHOENBERG 1874-1951 ALBAN BERG 1885-1935 ANTON WEBERN 1883-1945 6 Waterford Way, Syosset NY 11791 USA Telephone 561-922-2192 [email protected] www.lubranomusic.com CONDITIONS OF SALE Please order by catalogue name (or number) and either item number and title or inventory number (found in parentheses preceding each item’s price). To avoid disappointment, we suggest either an e-mail or telephone call to reserve items of special interest. Orders may also be placed through our secure website by entering the inventory numbers of desired items in the SEARCH box at the upper left of our homepage. Libraries may receive deferred billing upon request. Prices in this catalogue are net. Postage and insurance are additional. An 8.625% sales tax will be added to the invoices of New York State residents. International customers are asked to kindly remit in U.S. funds (drawn on a U.S. bank), by international money order, by electronic funds transfer (EFT) or automated clearing house (ACH) payment, inclusive of all bank charges. If remitting by EFT, please send payment to: TD Bank, N.A., Wilmington, DE ABA 0311-0126-6, SWIFT NRTHUS33, Account 4282381923 If remitting by ACH, please send payment to: TD Bank, 6340 Northern Boulevard, East Norwich, NY 11732 USA ABA 026013673, Account 4282381923 All items remain the property of J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians LLC until paid for in full. Fine Items & Collections Purchased Please visit our website at www.lubranomusic.com where you will find full descriptions and illustrations of all items Members Antiquarians Booksellers’ Association of America International League of Antiquarian Booksellers Professional Autograph Dealers’ Association Music Library Association American Musicological Society Society of Dance History Scholars &c.
    [Show full text]
  • Schoenberg 20/8/07 8:24 Pm Page 8
    557525 bk Schoenberg 20/8/07 8:24 pm Page 8 Robert Craft Robert Craft, the noted conductor and widely respected writer and critic on music, literature, and culture, holds a unique place in world music of today. He is in the process of recording the complete works of Stravinsky, SCHOENBERG Schoenberg, and Webern for Naxos. He has twice won the Grand Prix du Disque as well as the Edison Prize for his landmark recordings of Schoenberg, Webern, and Varèse. He has also received a special award from the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters in recognition of his “creative work” in literature. In 2002 he Six Songs for Soprano and Orchestra was awarded the International Prix du Disque Lifetime Achievement Award, Cannes Music Festival. Robert Craft has conducted and recorded with most of the world’s major orchestras in the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. He is the first American to The Golden Calf and the Altar • Kol Nidre • Friede auf Erden have conducted Berg’s Wozzeck and Lulu, and his original Webern album enabled music lovers to become acquainted with this composer’s then little-known music. He led the world premières of Stravinsky’s later Jennifer Welch-Babidge, Soprano masterpieces: In Memoriam: Dylan Thomas, Vom Himmel hoch, Agon, The Flood, Abraham and Isaac, Variations, Introitus, and Requiem Canticles. Craft’s historic association with Igor Stravinsky, as his constant companion, co- conductor, and musical confidant, over a period of more than twenty years, contributed to his understanding of the David Wilson-Johnson, Rabbi-Narrator composer’s intentions in the performance of his music.
    [Show full text]
  • Hans Rosbaud and the Music of Arnold Schoenberg Joan Evans
    Document généré le 27 sept. 2021 01:22 Canadian University Music Review Revue de musique des universités canadiennes Hans Rosbaud and the Music of Arnold Schoenberg Joan Evans Volume 21, numéro 2, 2001 Résumé de l'article Cette étude documente les efforts de Hans Rosbaud (1895–1962) pour URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1014484ar promouvoir la musique d’Arnold Schoenberg. L’essai est en grande partie basé DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1014484ar sur vingt années de correspondance entre le chef d’orchestre et le compositeur, échange demeuré inédit. Les tentatives de Rosbaud portaient déjà fruit Aller au sommaire du numéro pendant qu’il était en fonction à la radio de Francfort au début des années 1930. À la suite de l’interruption forcée due aux années nazies (au cours desquelles il a travaillé en Allemagne et dans la France occupée), Rosbaud a Éditeur(s) acquis une réputation internationale en tant que chef d’orchestre par excellence dédié aux œuvres de Schoenberg. Ses activités en faveur de Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique des universités Schoenberg dissimulaient le projet, que la littérature sur celui-ci n’avait pas canadiennes encore relevé, de ramener le compositeur vieillissant en Allemagne. ISSN 0710-0353 (imprimé) 2291-2436 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Evans, J. (2001). Hans Rosbaud and the Music of Arnold Schoenberg. Canadian University Music Review / Revue de musique des universités canadiennes, 21(2), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.7202/1014484ar All Rights Reserved © Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Program Notes
    Notes on the Program By James M. Keller, Program Annotator, The Leni and Peter May Chair Erwartung (Expectation), from Vier Lieder (Four Songs), Op. 2, No. 1 Erwartung, Monodrama in One Act, Op. 17 Arnold Schoenberg rnold Schoenberg spent the summer In any case, her libretto did serve as the ba- A of 1909 in the Lower Austrian town of sis for Schoenberg’s Erwartung, a monodrama Steinakirchen, ostensibly on vacation. In in which a single character, a woman, wanders fact, he kept busy composing, and during through a forest searching for her lover, who that summer he not only wrote his mono- has deceived her, finally stumbling across his drama Erwartung (Expectation) but also murdered, still-bleeding corpse. Schoenberg, completed his Five Orchestra Pieces (Op. however, removed from Pappenheim’s libret- 16) and the third of his Three Piano Pieces to language that suggested that the woman (Op. 11) — landmark works all. Devotees sur- rounded him, including the composer Alex- In Short ander von Zemlinsky, who had become his brother-in-law when Schoenberg married Born: September 13, 1874, in Vienna, Austria Zemlinsky’s sister Mathilde in 1901. Also Died: July 13, 1951, in Los Angeles, California passing through was Marie Pappenheim, Works composed and premiered: the song a published poet who had just graduated Erwartung, to a text by Richard Dehmel, was from medical school. Although her special- premiered August 9, 1899; premiered December 1, ty was dermatology, she was well versed in 1901, in Vienna, by tenor Walter Pieau with the recent advances in psychology proposed pianist Alexander von Zemlinsky.
    [Show full text]
  • The Study of the Relationship Between Arnold Schoenberg and Wassily
    THE STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARNOLD SCHOENBERG AND WASSILY KANDINSKY DURING SCHOENBERG’S EXPRESSIONIST PERIOD D.M.A. DOCUMENT Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Musical Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Sohee Kim, B.M., M.M. Graduate Program in Music The Ohio State University 2010 D.M.A. Document Committee: Professor Donald Harris, Advisor Professor Jan Radzynski Professor Arved Mark Ashby Copyright by Sohee Kim 2010 ABSTRACT Expressionism was a radical form of art at the start of twentieth century, totally different from previous norms of artistic expression. It is related to extremely emotional states of mind such as distress, agony, and anxiety. One of the most characteristic aspects of expressionism is the destruction of artistic boundaries in the arts. The expressionists approach the unified artistic entity with a point of view to influence the human subconscious. At that time, the expressionists were active in many arts. In this context, Wassily Kandinsky had a strong influence on Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg‟s attention to expressionism in music is related to personal tragedies such as his marital crisis. Schoenberg solved the issues of extremely emotional content with atonality, and devoted himself to painting works such as „Visions‟ that show his anger and uneasiness. He focused on the expression of psychological depth related to Unconscious. Both Schoenberg and Kandinsky gained their most significant artistic development almost at the same time while struggling to find their own voices, that is, their inner necessity, within an indifferent social environment. Both men were also profound theorists who liked to explore all kinds of possibilities and approached human consciousness to find their visions from the inner world.
    [Show full text]