Schoenberg's Early Correspondence

Subtitle
Schoenberg in Words, Volume 8

Edited by Sabine Feisst and Ethan Haimo

Translated by Sabine Feisst and Ethan Haimo

Early in his career, the composer Arnold Schoenberg maintained correspondence with many notable figures: Gustav Mahler, Heinrich Schenker, Guido Adler, Arnold Rosé, Richard Strauss, Alexander Zemlinsky and Anton von Webern, to name a few. In this volume of Oxford's Schoenberg in Words series, Ethan Haimo and Sabine Feisst present English translations of the entirety of Arnold Schoenberg's early correspondence, from the earliest extant letters in 1891 to those written in the aftermath of the controversial premieres of his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 7, and the Kammersymphonie, Op. 9.

The letters provide a wealth of information on many of the crucial stages in Schoenberg's early career, offering invaluable insights into his daily life and working habits. New details emerge about his activities at Wolzogen's Buntes Theater in Berlin, his frequently confrontational interactions with his first publisher (Dreililien Verlag), the reactions of friends and critics to the premieres of his works, his role in the founding of the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkünstler, his activities as a teacher, and his (all too often unsuccessful) attempts to convince musicians to perform his music. Presented alongside the editors' extensive running commentary, the more than 300 letters in this volume create a vivid picture of the young Schoenberg and his times.

Bio

Sabine Feisst is a professor of musicology at Arizona State University. Focusing on 20th- and 21st-century music studies, she published the monographs "Der Begriff 'Improvisation' in der neuen Musik" (1997) and "Schoenberg's New World: The American Years" (2011), which won the Irving Lowens Award.


Praise for this book

Remarkably, this is the first comprehensive collection of Arnold Schoenberg's correspondence to appear in English, in fact, the first major edition to appear in any language since the selection published in German by Erwin Stein in 1958 ... This collection will interest Schoenberg specialists, and, given Schoenberg's influence, will be a necessity for scholars of 20th-century concert music.

M. Dineen University of Ottawa, School of Music, Choice Connect, June 2017
Schoenberg's Early Correspondence book cover
Date published
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISBN
978-0-19-538372-0

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