Schoenberg and His Circle: A Viennese Portrait

by Joan Allen Smith

319 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Anders · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book from the 80's seeking to track the progression from early atonal music to twelve-tone in A.S's music through interviews with his students and others during the Vienna and Berlin days. Nicely done. A portrait of a man who was revered, strong, authoritarian, competitive, intense, and a tireless leader figure develops, even through the distinctly varying accounts included. The author seeks to once again paint a picture of the spirit of Vienna in the early 1900's drawing parallels to: architecture (Loos), literature (Kraus), and visual art (Kokoshka) as a modernist movement consisting of young artists seeking to turn things around by making things as they saw it. There is no musical analysis in this book, only insightful statements about the man and his teaching and productivity. The tone is serious and a few descriptions really hit the mark of this "expressionist" music as far as I'm concerned. A handful of lines provide comic relief, but they are rare. The decision to form a private concert organization in 1918 (Verein fur Musikalische Privatauffuhrungen), devoted not only to their own works but also to those of what they considered important composers of the present day and recent past in other countries, seems very important. It was the best reactionary way to get things done, unite, and get your own, and the music of others, performed well after massive studies and rehearsals. They barred media people and applause at these concerts to avoid any corruption, it was not entertainment. My impressions - yearning for knowledge, hard work, analysis of their own classical music history, and expression are the pervasive components in this picture, possibly also overly serious and brainy atmosphere. But in the present time - today's version of music that doesn't fit the bill, seeking to express what is felt, heard, seen, that never or rarely gets played at a decent venue, nor given any exposure to speak of, or respectable media attention, perhaps this needs to happen again in other places. Eh, New York?