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Arnold Schönberg In Selbstzeugnissen Und Bilddokumenten
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 7, 2022
With just under 200 pages this biography of Arnold Schönberg may be called relatively short, all that’s relevant comes by. There is so much en such varied information included, well, that suits me, not yet being well informed about this composer so far. Eberhard Freitag is utterly familiar with Schönberg. He gives attention not only to his musical work, he informs us about the painter Schönberg as well. The Viennese people were already familiar with some of his musical production, when the first exhibition of Schönbergs paintings took place, and what better place than a bookshop. On October 19, 1910, an exhibit of forty-seven oil paintings, drawings, and water colors by Arnold Schönberg was opened in a small room of the Viennese book and art dealer Hugo Heller. And Eberhard Freitag had published a study, a doctoral dissertation, right before this biography, in 1973, called ‘Schönberg als Maler’ (Schönberg as a painter) at the University of Münster. Kathryn Simpson, in her doctoral dissertation ‘Making Monsters. Ugliness, hatred and self-representation in Viennese modernity’ at Concordia University Montreal Canada april 2016, mentions the reception of Schönbergs paintings in the exhibition als follows: “The first invitations had hardly been sent out when members of the Court Opera began to circulate the cynical line: Schönbergs music and Schönbergs paintings – that will knock your ears and your eyes out at the same time!”
Back to Freitag’s booklet. As history has shown, Schönberg didn’t have an easy life. On the one hand because of his artistic principles about the twelve-tonesystem, which were completely revolutionary in his time. On the other hand he eventually found the opportunity to emigrate to the US, away from the Nazi-regime. He was not the only one. During World War II Los Angeles had become a centre of Exil-German cultural life, with Bertold Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel, Thomas Mann, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Bruno Walter, Hans Eissler, Paul Dessau and Ernst Krenek (p. 159). Freitag further points out that this group of people was not a sort of peaceful colony; too different were their characters, their political ideas. Intrigues and quarrels sometimes became edgy, sharpened by the pressure of their forced isolation.
Schönberg himself often ill-tempered and easily hurt, had a conflict with Thomas Mann, regarding Mann’s novel ‘Doctor Faustus’. Mann had his main character, the composer Adrian Leverkuhn, derived from – amongst others – Arnold Schönberg. Mann’s advisor about twelve-tone serialism was the influential musicologist and philosopher Adorno. Immediately after publication Mann sent Schönberg a copy of the novel, with the remark ‘For Arnold Schönberg – the real one’. Because of his diminishing sight Schönberg couldn’t read the novel. He felt robbed from the musical system he had conceived, and he feared that the fate of Mann’s main character (infected with syfilis) could easily and wrongly be understood as a portraying of himself, Schönberg. It became a debate that was fought in public, in letters, in newspapers and so on. Mann was forced to publish a sort of rectification, in which he gave Schönberg the credits for his musical theory and specific atonal system and emphasized his novel being a work of fiction.
As you can see, the information I derived from this Schönberg biography, helped me understand the musical context which is an important part – especially in chapter 22 – of Thomas Mann’s novel ‘Doctor Faustus’.
Schönberg’s own ‘Style and Idea. selected writings’ is waiting somewhere on my wooden shelves. JM
Back to Freitag’s booklet. As history has shown, Schönberg didn’t have an easy life. On the one hand because of his artistic principles about the twelve-tonesystem, which were completely revolutionary in his time. On the other hand he eventually found the opportunity to emigrate to the US, away from the Nazi-regime. He was not the only one. During World War II Los Angeles had become a centre of Exil-German cultural life, with Bertold Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel, Thomas Mann, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Bruno Walter, Hans Eissler, Paul Dessau and Ernst Krenek (p. 159). Freitag further points out that this group of people was not a sort of peaceful colony; too different were their characters, their political ideas. Intrigues and quarrels sometimes became edgy, sharpened by the pressure of their forced isolation.
Schönberg himself often ill-tempered and easily hurt, had a conflict with Thomas Mann, regarding Mann’s novel ‘Doctor Faustus’. Mann had his main character, the composer Adrian Leverkuhn, derived from – amongst others – Arnold Schönberg. Mann’s advisor about twelve-tone serialism was the influential musicologist and philosopher Adorno. Immediately after publication Mann sent Schönberg a copy of the novel, with the remark ‘For Arnold Schönberg – the real one’. Because of his diminishing sight Schönberg couldn’t read the novel. He felt robbed from the musical system he had conceived, and he feared that the fate of Mann’s main character (infected with syfilis) could easily and wrongly be understood as a portraying of himself, Schönberg. It became a debate that was fought in public, in letters, in newspapers and so on. Mann was forced to publish a sort of rectification, in which he gave Schönberg the credits for his musical theory and specific atonal system and emphasized his novel being a work of fiction.
As you can see, the information I derived from this Schönberg biography, helped me understand the musical context which is an important part – especially in chapter 22 – of Thomas Mann’s novel ‘Doctor Faustus’.
Schönberg’s own ‘Style and Idea. selected writings’ is waiting somewhere on my wooden shelves. JM
November 19, 2024
Ein ziemlicher Kampf das Buch zu lesen, weil es einfach langweilig war. Ich kannte Schönberg vorher nicht und kenne ihn auch jetzt nicht, sehr schade.
June 6, 2016
Never ending my music on bar 86 like he did. make it an even hundred. A good book about the great composer, the world is still missing him.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews