Arnold Schoenberg: His Life, World and Work

by Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt

Book by Stuckenschmidt, Hans Heinz

Textbook Binding

First published March 1, 1978

Reviews

[Dylan]

Random #209085

Sometimes when you check out a random book from the library, you will get a cozy murder mystery or a silly children's book; but sometimes you will get an impenetrable, exhaustive info-dump of a book on a 20th century composer whose work you are more or less completely unfamiliar with, and who seems like a bit of an acquired taste, especially for you, whose classical music taste is mostly the greatest hits - Bach "Mass in B Minor", Beethoven "Eroica", Ravel "Bolero" - things that are nice and tonal, which is not to say that you need to like the music to enjoy the biography, but it helps to have some sort of hook.

This is probably the definitive Schoenberg bio, in that it contains every single known detail about his life, but it is painfully dense, and some of the worst writing I have ever attempted to read.

DNF around page 100.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned of Franz Schreker, Alexander Von Zemlinsky, and Egon Wellesz from this book. Three wonderful composers, go and check them out!