One can't transfigure a night
without either a fright or fight.
AS (?)
Arnold SCHOENBERG
Arnold SCHOENBERG
I don't especially like Schoenberg
HZL
and tend to find his later pieces unpleasant
which I suppose may make you observe
that, musically, I'm something of a peasant.
For my ear asks: why use 12 tones so democratically
with each being of equal weight
when for centuries much more idiosyncratically,
we'd usually both tonic and dominant celebrate
because they can give us a feeling of wandering
when they cleverly leave and and then return
and without too much superfluous pandering
enable music to feel and yearn.
Still I suppose Schoenberg must have known what he was doing
when he founded the New Viennese school,
and, even if his aims, people like me may be misconstruing
the man certainly wasn't anything of a fool.
For when the world around him collapsed in hate,
he was able to escape to California and collegial tennis
avoiding an otherwise very much grimmer fate
from the murderous Hitlerian menace.
Still,if despite everything;
some innovators and geniuses are somehow bred,
they often are not fully appreciated until they're dead---
And perhaps, that should be made even later by a century or two,
if that person should happen to be have been born a Jew.
HZL
9/10/15
rnold Schoenberg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (German: [ˈaːʁnɔlt ˈʃøːnbɛʁk] ( listen); 13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was an Austrian composer and painter, ...
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Arnold Schoenberg | American composer | Britannica.com
www.britannica.com/.../Arnold-Schoenberg
Jul 14, 2015 - Arnold Schoenberg, in full Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg,Schoenberg also spelled Schönberg (born September 13, 1874, Vienna, ...
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www.allmusic.com/artist/arnold-schoenberg-mn0000691043
Launch Arnold Schoenberg Radio. Schoenberg was an Austrian composer who became one of the most dominant and controversial figures of modern music.
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Arnold Schoenberg | Biography | AllMusic
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Find Arnold Schoenberg biography and history on AllMusic - Arnold Schoenbergremains one of the most…
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Daniel Barenboim conducted a programme of Schoenberg’s European career with grace and ease
D
aniel Barenboim is good at this. Standing in front of the string sections of his Staatskapelle, an orchestra he has directed for more than two decades, he holds his hands almost motionless and lets the music flow. Then he leans his body in, like a sailor in high wind, and the crescendo swells around him.
This man, this orchestra, this hall: if it were not for Vienna, it would be tempting to proclaim the combination Schoenberg’s spiritual home. Later, in the fourthVariation for Orchestra, Barenboim literally dances on the podium, and the orchestra turns with him, a waltz dripping with Viennese irony. Schoenberg wrote these pieces, after all, in Berlin, and it was the German capital which drove him to exile in the US. (He also tried to work in Australia; in the Sydney Conservatorium archives you can find a rejected job application from Schoenberg, marked with the observation, “Dangerous ideas, and Jewish.”)
ON THIS TOPIC
- West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London
- Daniel Barenboim, Royal Festival Hall, London
- Tosca, Staatsoper Berlin
- Wagner at the Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London – review
IN MUSIC
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From the dark expressionism of Verklärte Nacht via the wild exploratory colours of Fünf Orchesterstücke to the lush assurance of Variationen für Orchester, Barenboim’s programme marches us through Schoenberg’s European career, from inspired youth in Vienna to the dangerous foment of Berlin between the wars. Barenboim is undoubtedly aware of all the levels of upheaval and unease behind his choices. But he shows us something different. His Schoenberg basks in the light of hindsight, a brooding master consummately rooted in the German romantic tradition.
Barenboim conducts entirely from memory, with grace and ease, as if this music were as self-explanatory as Puccini’s. In fact, Barenboim’s Schoenberg is significantly better than his Puccini — in its intellectual and emotional complexity, he can stretch his wings. He visibly savours the trust and earthy virtuosity his orchestra gives him, taking time to tease out textures or illuminate a moment of sensuality.
This evening of cerebral charisma was the opening concert for the 2015 Musikfest in Berlin, a 19-day all-you-can-hear buffet of international orchestras and ensembles, with a strong focus on the music of Schoenberg. It is a timely reminder of refugee legacy, and a feast of dark music for a dark time.
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