Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles Author(s): Dorothy Lamb Crawford Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 86, No. 1 (Spring, 2002), pp. 6-48 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3601001 . Accessed: 21/06/2013 09:59 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 193.50.140.116 on Fri, 21 Jun 2013 09:59:33 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions American Musics Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles DorothyLamb Crawford I only teach the whole of the art ... As a composerI must believe in inspirationrather than in mechanics. -Arnold Schoenberg ArnoldSchoenberg had just turned sixty when he madethe suddende- cisionin mid-September1934 to leavethe EastCoast for California. He hadheld the mostprestigious post in his fieldin Germany,but he wrote his friendsthat in LosAngeles he faced"a completely blank page, so far as my musicis concerned."1The previousOctober he hadbeen abruptly notifiedby the Germangovernment that his lifetimecontract and salary in Berlinwere terminated. With no otheralternative, he had accepteda low salaryto teachat the brand-newMalkin Conservatory in Boston, with adjunctteaching in Manhattan.Strenuous commuting in the harsh winterclimate had severely damaged his health,and he hadgone to the summerhome of the JuilliardSchool of Musicin Chautauqua,New York, to recover.Owing to the depression,all his effortsto obtainan adequate teachingsalary at an establishedinstitution on the EastCoast had come to nothing.Carl Engel, president of G. Schirmer(his Americanmusic publisher),had sent lettersrecommending Schoenberg as a lecturerto forty-seveninstitutions, but the resultswere meager.2 Prospects for the financialsecurity he wantedlooked so bleakthat Schoenberghad even contactedHanns Eisler and the conductorFritz Stiedry about making connectionsfor him in the SovietUnion. On 12 September,the daybe- forehis birthday,he wroteto Stiedry(still workingin the USSR), "We aregoing to Californiafor the climateand because it is cheaper."3After he wastemporarily settled in a rentedHollywood house with his wife, Gertrud,and toddler,Nuria, he expressed(in a letter to Anton Webern) his initial enthusiasmfor the beauty of his surroundings:"It is Switzer- land, the Riviera, the Vienna woods, the desert, the Salzkammergut, Spain, Italy-everything in one place. And along with that scarcelya day,apparently even in winter, without sun."4He recoveredhis health and energy and could indulge his intense desire to play tennis. By 1935, LeonardStein (who would be his teaching assistantfrom 1939 to 1942) The MusicalQuarterly 86(1), Spring 2002, pp. 6-48; DOI: 10.1093/musqtl/gdg003 ? 2002 OxfordUniversity Press 6 This content downloaded from 193.50.140.116 on Fri, 21 Jun 2013 09:59:33 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Schoenbergin Los Angeles 7 recalled,Schoenberg was "fit and roly-poly," springy, full of vitality,and tanneda darkbronze.5 However,the resistanceto modemmusic in LosAngeles that had drivenHenry Cowell's New MusicSociety to San Franciscogave Schoenbergmajor problems. Upon his arrivalin New Yorka yearearlier, his firstAmerican employer, Joseph Malkin, had arranged extensive pub- licity,which led to severalreceptions and performances. In LosAngeles therewas no suchgreeting. His primacyas a culturalleader in Europe hadbeen enhancedby a devotedcircle of disciples-both studentsand performers-who,following the traditionof master-apprenticetraining, in manyways insulated him frommundane chores. This hadenabled him to carryout his oftenutopian organizational plans in an authoritar- ian manner.From the firstyears in California,memories of pastrepudia- tionsand his senseof his own importanceas a composermade him hy- persensitiveto anyslight, even if imagined.While he wasacutely aware of his music'sneed for"propaganda," as he calledit, he had little ease in the new Americanart of publicrelations.6 Starting over at his age in the haphazardenvironment of LosAngeles-at firstwith no institutional backing-his assumptionsand expectations were often frustrated, and his relationshipswere frequently difficult as he struggledto makea living forhis muchyounger wife and their growing family. Otto Klemperer'sposition with the LosAngeles Philharmonic un- doubtedlycounted as an advantageto Schoenberg.Yet the monthafter his arrivalhe refusedan invitationto a banquethonoring Klemperer, forhe felt that the organizersof the event owedhim greaterrecognition than a "walk-on"part.7 At firsthe took somepains to entertainthe soci- ety matriarchsdominating Los Angeles's music, but in November1935 his approachto the managerof the Philharmonic,Bessie Bartlett Fraenkl, wasperemptory in tone. He invitedher to attenda classof his at the Universityof SouthernCalifornia (USC), because,he wrote,"I know whatI amdoing there is of the greatestimportance for everybody who is interestedin music.... Therewill certainlybe in perhapstwenty years a chapterin the musicalhistory of LosAngeles: 'What Schoenberg has achievedin LosAngeles'; and perhaps there will be anotherchapter, asking:'What have the peopleand the societyof LosAngeles taken of the advantageoffered by Schoenberg?'"8 Schoenbergassumed that he wouldconduct his own worksin Los Angeles.(His Europeanroyalties had diminished to nothing,and he neededthe fees.) Klempereroffered him a guestprogram with the Phil- harmonicin March1935, after himself achieving the previousDecember an extraordinarilyenthusiastic response to Schoenberg's1917 orchestra- tion of VerklarteNacht. In his own programSchoenberg repeated that This content downloaded from 193.50.140.116 on Fri, 21 Jun 2013 09:59:33 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 8 TheMusical Quarterly work,offered his Bachtranscriptions in celebrationof the 250than- niversaryof Bach'sbirth, and conducted Brahms's Third Symphony. His performanceof the Brahmswas severely criticized for its leisurelytempo (which"irritated and baffled the players"),and although the audience applaudedthe composerwarmly, one critichoped that "weshould have muchmore Schoenberg to hear-with Klempererconducting."9 The followingDecember Schoenberg again met with disasterconducting the Philharmonic,this time in an all-Schoenbergprogram that included the full orchestralarrangement (made in April 1935)of his Chamber Symphonyno. 1, op. 9 (1906). PeterYates remembered the musicians in rehearsaldeliberately sabotaging the music(which they dubbed the Jammersymphonie)by playing wrong notes and "horsing around."10 LeonardStein suspectedthe playerswere tipsy from Christmas holiday revelsand found Schoenberg's patient efforts to educatethe orchestra heartbreaking. 1 Schoenbergtook on no furtherconducting with the Philharmonic. In his helpfuland strongly worded plea for a 1936Philharmonic fund- raisingdrive, he expressedwhat bothered him aboutAmerican culture: "Asthe materialismof ourtime seemsto endangerthe wholesphere of spiritualculture, I believeit is the dutyof everyman to fightfor the existenceof one of the mostvital symbolsof man'shigher life.""12 He conductedthe FederalSymphony Orchestra, the goverment'seffort to employout-of-work musicians during the depression.This mustnot havehelped him financially,for the concertswere free, but manyof the programsoffered new music.Studio musicians, eager for challenging musicalexperiences, invited him to conducta readingorchestra orga- nizedin Hollywood.Critical response to his conductingremained poor,13while critical acceptance of Klemperer'sperformances of his music with the Philharmonicemphasized "the Schoenberg luminosity and romanticism."14 It soon became clear to Schoenberg that his twelve-tone music would not fare well in musicallyunsophisticated Los Angeles. In No- vember 1934 he confided (in his new and strugglingEnglish) to Carl Engel in New York:"Have I now to appearas only the composerof the VerkldrteNacht... or as the devil in person, the atonalist, the construc- tor, the musical mathematicianetc.? I hate this kind to consider a com- poser only from the view-point of history instead to enjoy (or not) what he says. I would like to learn your opinion about this matters."15The Third String Quartet (1927), played in March 1935 by the local Abas Quartet, received a newspapernotice only. LeonardStein, who was at that time beginning his lifelong devotion to new music, found it "the strangestmusic I'd ever heard."16In January1938, Schoenberg's1933 Concerto (after Handel) for String Quartet and Orchestra(in Klem- This content downloaded from 193.50.140.116 on Fri, 21 Jun 2013 09:59:33 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Schoenbergin Los Angeles 9 perer'sperformance with the Philharmonicand the KolischQuartet) struckthe criticIsabel Morse Jones as a "derangement"of Handel. She wrote,"It was interesting chiefly as evidenceof the progressof Schoen- berg'sremarkable theories and it had momentsof fleetingbeauty. As a musico-intellectualdemonstration of Schoenberg'spowers it wasa work to