Book Description
The original essays in this collection chronicle the transformation of Arnold Schoenberg's works from music as pure art to music as a vehicle of religious and political ideas, during the first half of the twentieth century. This interdisciplinary volume includes contributions from musicologists, music theorists, and scholars of German literature and of Jewish studies. ... Read more

Book Description
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. Selected unpublished correspondence written between 1903 and 1950 includes the responses of the addressees. Gives a vivid picture of the historical controversies between the composer and other major figures in the field. ... Read more

Book Description
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) is a pivotal figure of musical modernism. The "father of serialism" has influenced nearly every major composer of this century, and the idea of Schoenberg, now wild-eyed radical, now embattled moralist, now lonely prophet, is woven into the mythos of modern art. What is more, the sites of his professional activity--fin de siècle Vienna, the Berlin of the Weimar Republic, and his "exile to paradise" in Los Angeles--bring home the representative quality of his life and works, which bear witness to some of the defining experiences of our time.
This collection by leading Schoenberg scholars is an interdisciplinary examination of the historical, aesthetic, and intellectual issues that formed Schoenberg's creative persona and continue to influence our response to the modernist legacy of the first half of this century. The book's first section, "Contexts," investigates Schoenberg's sense of ethnic, religious, and cultural identity. The second section, "Creations," focuses on specific works and the interplay between creative impulse and aesthetic articulation. The final section, "Connections," addresses the relationship of Schoenberg's legacy to present-day thought and practice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

doesn't fulfill the promise of the title...
This is a collection of academic papers from a conference held at the University of Southern California in 1991.Unfortunately they are mainly of no interest beyond specialists, and the book certainly does not live up to its ambitious and intriguing subtitle.It might more accurately have been called "Schoenberg and the Transformations of Musicological Hermeneutics."

The papers are divided into three sections -- Contexts, which looks at how Schoenberg was affected by his social context, Creations, which examines specific aspects of Schoenberg's music, and Connections, which looks at what effect Schoenberg had on the world.The third section is where "Transformations of 20th Century Culture" might be identified -- how Schoenberg's atonality and serialism, revolutionary or purist or neoclassicist ideas affected modern culture -- but this is totally absent.Instead we have insular examinations of Schoenberg from a postmodern standpoint.Disappointing and dull.

The one excellent essay, by Leon Botstein, founding director of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, is a fascinating look at Schoenberg's position in avant-garde intellectual circles in Vienna.Botstein describes two rival factions, one centered on Gustav Klimt, and one centered on Karl Kraus.Schoenberg was active in the Kraus circle, which "believed in art as a profound instrument of ethical and moral transformation," saw that "modernism needed to be a critique of culture," and advocated "truth-telling" as opposed to what it saw as the other faction's "facile bohemianism."

Given Adorno's advocacy of Schoenberg, and given the retreat of much postmodernism into moral relativism and facile bohemianism, a book that truly addressed the effect of Schoenberg and the Second Vienna School on 20th century culture would be well worth reading! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description
Arnold Schoenberg's close involvement with many of the principal developments of twentieth-century music, most importantly the break with tonality and the creation of twelve-tone composition, generated controversy from the time of his earliest works to the present day. This authoritative new collection of Schoenberg's essays, letters, literary writings, musical sketches, paintings, and drawings offers fresh insights into the composer's life, work, and thought.The documents, many previously unpublished or untranslated, reveal the relationships between various aspects of Schoenberg's activities in composition, music theory, criticism, painting, performance, and teaching. They also show the significance of events in his personal and family life, his evolving Jewish identity, his political concerns, and his close interactions with such figures as Gustav and Alma Mahler, Alban Berg, Wassily Kandinsky, and Thomas Mann. Extensive commentary by Joseph Auner places the documents and materials in context and traces important themes throughout Schoenberg's career from turn-of-century Vienna to Weimar Berlin to nineteen-fifties Los Angeles. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Gurre-Lieder for singers...
This clearly-prepared edition, containing a piano reduction of what is, admittedly, a complex orchestral score, is the ideal vehicle for the singer wanting to work through a selection of the sung items.
The type font is large, making it perfect for use in recital performance.
As a singer myself, I am delighted to have made this purchase.

Schoenberg Gurrelieder
An excellent clearly printed vocal score. The piano transcription is by Berg that would need simplification for most pianists to play. There is a translation of the German text given on separate pages with rehearsal numbers relating to the score. There is a good Introduction by Robert Rimm - a Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania - and a Glossary of German terms used in the score that is very useful.

A must
It is a great piano reduction of one of my favorite pieces. I bought it in the official edition (much more expansive...). As one reviwer mentionned, this is not theorchestral score. But for most of us, it will do as well.

An outstanding piano reduction
This a facsimile of the standard piano reduction ofan early Schoenberg work. The Gurre Lieder epitomize the post-Wagnerian genre but also introduce a lot of Schoenberg future techniques (e.g., "Sprachgesang").

The piano reduction makes it easy to follow this rather complex score (the Conductor or the study version of the scores is very rewarding but challenging). The piano reduction itrseld has been done by Alban Berg a marvelous musicien himself and a friend and student of Schoenberg. So the reduction isoutstandingly well done and in particular all the important harmonic information is very clear. More than a piano reduction, this vocal score is an abtraction of this suberp score.

If you love the piece, you may also want to have the complete score. Even if you have the conductor score and love it, this version will add to your understanding of the piece.

This is a vocal/piano reduction.
I received this score this morning and was completly in shock at what a disgrace Dover had published.Please note, I am a very pleased fan of what this company has produced, but I feel that this score is one of the worst that I have seen.Schoenberg's Gurrelieder is know for its use of one of the largest late-romantic orchestras ever required.Unfortunatly Dover has provided the public with a score that lacks any of Schoenberg's orchestration and has printed a piano reduction done some years later by Schoenberg's pupil, Alban Berg.To publish a piece like this in a piano for before a publication of Schoenberg's original.This would be a great addition to the Dover Miniature Score series ALONG with the orchestral version. ... Read more

Book Description
A new feature of this paperback is the addition of a chronicle of contemporary events - such as the birth of Hitler - which put Schoenberg's life into its historical context and help significantly in understanding his music. The essays collected in this volume, now including corrections, represent a comprehensive attempt to shed light on the work and personality of Schoenberg in the pertinent yet unaccountably neglected context of his preoccupation with Judaism and biblical themes. ... Read more