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Letters
English, German (translation)
309 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
3 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Arnold Schoenberg
455 books57 followersNoted Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg abandoned tradition and developed the twelve-tone system for music.
Associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, he led the second Viennese school. He used the spelling Schönberg until his move to the United States in 1934, whereupon he altered it to Schoenberg "in deference to American practice."
His approach in terms of harmony developed among the major landmarks of 20th-century thought; at least three generations in the Europeans and Americans consciously extended his thinking or in some cases passionately reacted in opposition. During the rise of the Nazi party, people labeled jazz as degenerate art.
People widely knew Schoenberg early in his career for his success in simultaneously extending the opposed German romantic styles of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. Later, his name came to personify pioneering innovations, the most polemical feature of 20th-century art. In the 1920s, the technique, a widely influential method of Schoenberg, manipulated an ordered series of all in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term variation, and this first modern embraced ways of motifs without resorting to the dominance of a centralized melodic idea.
Schoenberg, an important theorist, also painted and influentially taught his students, who included Alban Berg, Anton Friedrich Wilheim von Webern, Hanns Eisler, Egon Wellesz, and later John Milton Cage, Lou Harrison, Earl Kim, and many other prominent. Avant-garde thought throughout the 20th century echoes many of practices, including the formalization of method and his habit of openly inviting audiences to think analytically. His crucial, often polemical views of history and aesthetics influenced many significant critics, including Theodor Adorno, Charles Rosen, and Carl Dahlhaus,of the 20th century. His thought also considerably influenced the pianists Rudolf Serkin, Artur Schnabel, Eduard Steuermann, and later Glenn Gould.
The Arnold Schönberg center in Vienna collects his archival legacy.
Associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, he led the second Viennese school. He used the spelling Schönberg until his move to the United States in 1934, whereupon he altered it to Schoenberg "in deference to American practice."
His approach in terms of harmony developed among the major landmarks of 20th-century thought; at least three generations in the Europeans and Americans consciously extended his thinking or in some cases passionately reacted in opposition. During the rise of the Nazi party, people labeled jazz as degenerate art.
People widely knew Schoenberg early in his career for his success in simultaneously extending the opposed German romantic styles of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. Later, his name came to personify pioneering innovations, the most polemical feature of 20th-century art. In the 1920s, the technique, a widely influential method of Schoenberg, manipulated an ordered series of all in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term variation, and this first modern embraced ways of motifs without resorting to the dominance of a centralized melodic idea.
Schoenberg, an important theorist, also painted and influentially taught his students, who included Alban Berg, Anton Friedrich Wilheim von Webern, Hanns Eisler, Egon Wellesz, and later John Milton Cage, Lou Harrison, Earl Kim, and many other prominent. Avant-garde thought throughout the 20th century echoes many of practices, including the formalization of method and his habit of openly inviting audiences to think analytically. His crucial, often polemical views of history and aesthetics influenced many significant critics, including Theodor Adorno, Charles Rosen, and Carl Dahlhaus,of the 20th century. His thought also considerably influenced the pianists Rudolf Serkin, Artur Schnabel, Eduard Steuermann, and later Glenn Gould.
The Arnold Schönberg center in Vienna collects his archival legacy.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 7, 2019
It seems to me letters collections like this are most useful for readers who are very well-versed (and deeply interested) in the correspondent's life - for me Richard Wagner is probably the only figure that fits that description.
Based on the letters quoted in Schoenberg Chamber Music I was hoping for more than the merely occasional musical insight these letters provided; the letters from Schoenberg's American period were better in this regard.
The letter to Prince Egon Fürstenberg (#81) was nauseating in its obsequiousness. I'd like to think AS was engaging in a level of irony here, but perhaps that's the influence of my contemporaneous reading of Euripides.
Based on the letters quoted in Schoenberg Chamber Music I was hoping for more than the merely occasional musical insight these letters provided; the letters from Schoenberg's American period were better in this regard.
The letter to Prince Egon Fürstenberg (#81) was nauseating in its obsequiousness. I'd like to think AS was engaging in a level of irony here, but perhaps that's the influence of my contemporaneous reading of Euripides.
October 10, 2015
Fascinating to get into the mind and life of the great Schoenberg. He also makes some great point and ideas throughout. Some letters are fairly bland, but for the most part this is excellent. The 4 letters to Gustav Mahler at the end are pretty amazing, he even has to ask him for rent money!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews