Newsletter
Edition 19, September 2007 – January 2008

Editorial
From the Archive
Arnold Schönberg Research Center
Friends of the Arnold Schönberg Center
Avenir Foundation Research Grants
Schönberg sounds beautiful!

Editorial

Dear Friends of the Arnold Schönberg Center!
Most esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen!

In the Winter semester, our foundation will focus on the theme: “The Young Schönberg.” The title emanates from a recommendation by Reinhard Kapp, member of the Advisory Board of our Foundation, who suggested that we might discover new aspects about this early creative period of Arnold Schönberg, which is sparsely documented in our archive. Before the 25 year-old had even written his well-known String Sextet, “Transfigured Night,” in 1899, perhaps the most famous of all his works, he had already written a number of remarkable pieces, among them a great many songs and chamber music. What milieu, what personalities formed the ma turing composer, who did not have any musical training at any academy, though he himself was to become one of the great teachers? Such will be the focus of attention as will the genesis of his early works, which at first were influenced by Wagner and Brahms, and thereafter Richard Strauss, before Schönberg was to break the shackles of tonality and become the important innovator of Modernism. This theme will be initiated by a special exhibition at the Arnold Schönberg Center. The exhibition will open on Schönberg’s birthday (13 September), when we will also have the traditional birthday concert with the Ensemble Kontrapunkte, conducted by Peter Keuschnig. Those who cannot attend the concert can follow it live on the radio (ORF-Ö1). At this as well as subsequent concerts, Schönberg’s early works, especially his songs, will be at the center of the program. On 6 October the “Long Night of the Museums” will provide an excellent opportunity for a visit to the exhibition followed by a concert, when the Schönberg Center will also have its doors open till late into the night and will offer several short concerts.

From 4 to 6 October an International Symposium dedicated to this year’s theme will take place at the Center. It is free and open to scholars and the interested public. For details, please see the Calendar of Events included in this Newsletter. Last Spring, the children’s program, “Schönberg sounds beautiful!” was received with great enthusiasm. This program was designed for school children (7 – 11 years), and lasted over 90 minutes. Two musicians and music pedagogues, Hanne Muthspiel-Payer and Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth, presented stories, games and live music, and many future artists whistled Schönberg’s melodies on their way home. Thanks to the support of the City of Vienna and the funds of the Avenir Foundation, we will be able to continue the “moderated children’s joining-in concerts” which we intend to offer regularly. The unprejudiced enthusiasm of our young visitors is the most wonderful confirmation of the necessity for such a program offering. Teachers can enroll their classes immediately.

In the Spring of 2008, the Arnold Schönberg Center will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary. A large, special exhibition and exciting concerts are in the planning stage. We are not going to say any more about it just yet. A separate brochure, “10 years at the Arnold Schönberg Center,” will be released in the Fall.

Up to mid-year, the year 2007 has brought numerous Schönberg activities to the Center as well as events with international partners. In February, the pianist Mitsuko Uchida gave a much-celebrated piano evening with works by Schönberg, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, to guests of our founder, BAWAG /PSK, and thus she also became a sponsor of our Foundation. In addition, Ms. Uchida spoke of her relationship to the aforementioned composers, on the importance for her, of her time at the Vienna Academy, and about the Bösendorfer Piano, the instrument she played on for the performance that evening. By the way, a very lively, much recommended introduction by Mitsuko Uchida to Schönberg’s Piano Concerto, op. 42, can be seen – along with more than 40 other short videos on Schönberg themes – on the Internet at youtube.com/ascvideo.

Schönberg exhibit items could be seen at various venues this year as well. In Barcelona, the Fundació Caixa Catalunya hosted an exhibition entitled “Death Fugue: The Third Reich and Music.” Through 18 November, at the Jewish Museum in Vienna, one can see “Best of All Women: The Female Dimension in Judaism.” Furthermore, the exhibition “Eye Music. Kandinsky, Klee and all that Jazz” will be traveling to England in the Summer/Fall, first to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, then to Sainsbury in Norwich.

Following five separate exhibitions in the United States, the multi-media documentary exhibit traveled to Ottawa /Canada, in July, where it was shown under the direction of James Wright, Carleton University, as part of a Schönberg Symposium with concerts. It continues in Montreal this Winter. In June, international Schönberg scholars came together at the invitation of Mannes College of Music in New York for a Schönberg Congress of several days’ duration. Director Wayne Alpern organized this profoundly interesting workshops, and the Archivist of the Schönberg Center discussed the many services that the Center provides, including the new catalogue of works and sources published on our website at www.schoenberg.at.

The birthday celebration for Nuria Schoenberg Nono and Ronald Schoenberg was a special joy for us as both celebrated “big” birthdays within a few weeks of each other. An ensemble of the Vienna Philharmonic greeted all with a melody by Schönberg written for his daughter, Nuria, which René Staar had arranged from a Schönberg fragment. Friends and prominent guests fêted both celebrants in the overly crowded Auditorium of the Schönberg Center, and everyone together serenaded them with a birthday song by Arnold Schönberg.

We are entering the new season with many celebrations – from Schönberg’s birthday in September to the 10th anniversary of the Arnold Schönberg Center in 2008. Come and
celebrate with us and make use of the manifold offerings at the Arnold Schönberg Center!

With best wishes,
Christian Meyer

From the Archive

The current archival project at the Center is a new online catalogue of Arnold Schönberg’s works, similar in its set-up and look to “Schubert Online,” a project by the Online Content Management System for Vienna Music Institutions. A catalogue of Schönberg’s works cannot be complete without his writings and his visual artworks. The latter have been presented and documented by the Schönberg Center in a separate “Catalogue raisonné” in 2005. In applying the defined concept of approach to Schönberg’s catalogue, we proceed on the premise that a compositional, literary, or visual order of things need not be intrinsic in the presentation of its inherent totality. That is, sketches and drafts unrelated to later works and fragments in all stages of composition are also relevant. As we were evolving the concept for the online database of Schönberg’s works, the question of the necessity of a purely practical catalogue of works never occurred to us; we were much more focused on developing a catalogue which was to be a synthesis created systematically, thematically and chronologically. In its technical realization, it allows the user to choose any one of those three ways of access.

The “Schönberg-Werkverzeichnis” (SWV) for his musical works is based on the structure of the Schönberg Complete Edition, whereby the focus was not merely to list the compositions as such, but to include the interrelated parameters as well. The uppermost level of the database contains the compositions, including a number of fragments, sketches and drafts. All related sources are linked to this entry – that is, all the information available from the critical reports in the Schönberg Complete Edition. The lowest level provides the database user with access to the scans of the manuscripts as they are available at the Arnold Schönberg Center – about 8.000 digital facsimiles; but the entries are not yet complete, since work on the catalogue only began a few months ago.

The database is structured according to these main headings:
Title (can be sorted according to alphabet, opus number and date)
Work categories (displays the quantity of the works available in each of the sub-categories)
Kinds of paper stock (currently about 220 kinds of paper; displays a small preview image and a list of the works Schönberg wrote on that particular kind of stock. This is a valuable aid in dating the works, since one can create contextual interrelations)
Full text search
Category search (category – sub-category – instrumental/vocal setting – persons – opus number – dating – first performance – first printing – location – call number)

The works are named according to those in the Schönberg Complete Edition as well as the German and English titles of the first editions. A short text provides information on the circumstances surrounding the work’s creation, on its dedication and reproduces remarks by Schönberg himself on the works, including pointers toward other versions and arrangements. Later on, this section may also include program notes, making the database appealing to a broad spectrum of the public, while still providing core information for scholars. Key figures are also provided for the compositions, from the initial sketches to the completed full score. Undated works, many of which are fragments, are delimited with regard to speculative time-frames. Individual dating of works which mark specific compositional stages are indicated in the source-descriptions of the sketches and drafts. The process of dating the works makes use of both the Complete Edition and the results of current research today, not least due to the fact that some of the data have undergone change since the first volumes of the Complete Edition appeared in the 1960s as a result of subsequent research and the discovery of new manuscripts. All texts in their original languages are given for Schönberg’s vocal compositions – from the song fragments to the opera libretti.

The works can also be heard in their entirety via links to mp3-files. This part of the database is not yet complete, but we expect that full linking of the works to their audio musical examples will be available at the end of this year. When selecting the sources listed under a title entry, a description of the source appears which is orientated to the critical report in the Schönberg Complete Edition, including an indication of the kind of paper stock used. Scans which are already linked also display the selection option “go to musical manuscript,” where you can find and enlarge the facsimiles.

Therese Muxeneder

Activities of the Arnold Schönberg Research Center at the Institut für Musikalische Stilforschung of the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna

As a follow up to the (completed) work of our first FWF Project (Preparation of the Critical Complete Edition of the Writings of Arnold Schönberg) and as part of the entire project, the ongoing research since May 2006 (also financed by the FWF) on the index of Schönberg’s works, there have been meetings with Universal Edition between the Schoenberg family and the publisher’s representatives. The aim of these meetings was to achieve fundamental agreement in matters of form, so that technical details such as format, paper, layout and font could be worked out in advance. Currently we are trying to find the best possible solution for making the text available as well as trying to take into consideration all scholarly demands.

The Symposium “The Reception of the Viennese School in Eastern and Southeastern Europe,” sponsored by the Arnold Schönberg Research Center, was held at the Arnold Schönberg Center from 21 – 23 June 2007. Scholars from various countries gathered together in Vienna and came up with interesting and at times amazing results. The Symposium was continued from 6 – 7 July 2007, at the Institute for Musicology of the University of Leipzig, where the focus was on the “Reception of the Vienna School in Northeastern Europe,” and equally new and interesting aspects were uncovered. The papers from both Symposia will be published in what promises to be a comprehensive volume in the series put out by the Research Center.

Our traditional Fall Symposium will take place on 4 – 6 October 2007 and will explore the theme, “The Young Schönberg in Vienna.” (For a detailed program please see our Calendar of Events). In view of the clearly detailed outlines and papers grouped together with great precision, we are expecting an abundance of new discoveries concerning Arnold Schönberg’s youth as well as the special, cultural ambiance which influenced him.

During the Winter Semester 2007/2008, Elmar Budde, with the support of Therese Muxeneder, will return as our “Schönberg Professor.” Both seminars (the dates of which can be found in our Calendar of Events) will be dedicated to the themes “Music as Language, Music as Material” and “Introduction to the Analysis of Dodecaphonic Music.” As in previous times, participants will be comprised of students from the Music University and, with free admission, those of the general public who are interested.

Hartmut Krones


Friends of the Arnold Schönberg Center

The Friends of the Arnold Schönberg Center support the scholarly projects of our foundation. Research projects include the conservation and restoration of autograph manuscripts from the Schönberg legacy, the digitalization of tens of thousands of pages of music and text manuscripts, as well as the Critical Complete Edition of the Writings of Arnold Schönberg. Also supported are the purchasing of letters, first editions and historical documents, and the distribution of information concerning Schönberg’s work and influence to interested parties of all ages and educational levels.

Your membership provides you with many advantages: Friends receive the scholarly publications of the Arnold Schönberg Center ( JASC), reduced rates for individual concerts, free admission to exhibitions, discounts on special shop articles, and updated information (Calendar of Events, Newsletter and brochures to exhibitions). In addition, we feature exclusive, organized art tours. The minimum annual fee of 75 C as well as other donations in support of the scholarly projects of the Arnold Schönberg Center can be paid by means of the money order included in this Newsletter. We ask that Friends outside Austria pay by credit card. Both Austria and the United States offer tax exemptions for charitable gifts.

Avenir Foundation Research Grants

The Avenir Foundation in Wheat Ridge/Colorado is sponsoring our private foundation on the condition that the annual interest from the donation be used to give international students and scholars grants for travel and accommodations for their research at the Arnold Schönberg Center.

The Arnold Schönberg Center Private Foundation has established Research Grants to encourage scholarly and archival research. Grant recipients will work at the Arnold Schönberg Center on projects which relate directly to the life and works of Arnold Schönberg.

Support for the Research Grants will include:
• Housing at the Schönberg-House in Mödling for a two-week period (scholars may apply for an additional period based on more extensive projects)
• Public transportation passes within Vienna and Mödling
• Per diem allowance
• Transportation allowance to assist in travel to and from Vienna
• Full use of the Arnold Schönberg Center’s archive and library facilities

Please check our website at www.schoenberg.at to familiarize yourself with the available archival materials and the Center’s facilities.

Responses to all grant applications will be sent no later than three months after receipt of the application. Applicants should include the following:
• A detailed project description
• Curriculum vitae
• Letter of recommendation from University

Recipients of the Avenir Foundation Research Grant since March 2007:
Deborah How, Santa Monica/CA
Stefanie Rauch, Marburg

Further projects at the Arnold Schönberg Center sponsored by the Avenir Foundation:
• Multi-Media Exhibition on the Life and Work of Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951) “An Exhibition To Be Heard”
• Critical Complete Edition of the Writings of Arnold Schönberg
• Schönberg Correspondence Digitizing Project
• Arnold Schönberg. Catalogue raisonné
• Arnold Schönberg. Annotated catalogue of works (compositions, writings, and works of visual art)
• Arnold Schönberg – Educational Visions
• Schönberg sounds beautiful!

Schönberg sounds beautiful!
A moderated, joining-in concert
An education program for 7 – 11-year-old school children

Since March 2007 the Arnold Schönberg Center Vienna has been offering a music appreciation class so that school children from seven to eleven years of age might have a musical encounter with the life and work of Arnold Schönberg. The concert pedagogue and music mediator Hanne Muthspiel- Payer as well as the pianist and piano teacher Elisabeth Aigner- Monarth de -veloped a concept for a colorful, 90 minute expedition through Schönberg’s life and creative work, with live music, active participation, singing, workshop and experimentation.

In the center is, of course, the composer, who is searched for at the beginning of the concert by the tennis-playing moderator because she wants to have a tennis match with him. Life-size figures of Schönberg at approximately the same age as these young concert-goers and as an adult intensify the experience. The pianist endows Schönberg with her voice and slips into the role of “Mr. Schönberg” for the duration of the concert. Pupils leaf through Schönberg’s family album and test out his very own invention of a notation device, in order to be able to note down the very same twelve-tone row that they had just sung in chorus. A lot of discussion arises concerning the Schönberg portrait they have been shown: Why is his face so blue?

Excerpts from different piano works (Piano Piece of 1894, op. 11 / 1, op. 25 / Musette) are played live by the pianist (“Mr. Schönberg”) in a concert-like atmosphere, while on a screen Wassily Kandinsky’s “Impression III,” inspired by Schönbergs music, can be seen.
The workshop has an important function. Here the twelvetone technique is explained by way of grouping the pupils into the notes of a piano. On the floor there is a model of a set of giant-sized piano keys and each child stands on one key which can be made to sound by means of a sound pipe: chromatically up and down, then in a more pre-determined manner – and soon a row has been created. At first everything is done slowly, and so that the other pupils don’t get bored, they walk through a large “mirrored gate” where, on another set of giant keys, they copy the musical image of their classmates on the other side. Thus the children by themselves have played the four basic forms of the twelve-tone row and completed them.

Thereafter the pupils improvise some outer space music with these tonal materials: stars twinkle by means of twelve chro matic sound bells to the space music of the piano, and the other children, who have formed pairs, pantomime the stars, which react to and mirror the various changing patterns of sound. In order that they also gain an impression of Arnold Schönberg as a father who tells his children fairy tales, Schönberg’s fairy tale “The Princess,” in words and pictures, is also on the program. This event is drawing to a close, but you still can hear the children in the halls of the Arnold Schönberg Center humming “Funiculì-Funiculà,” the Italian song arranged by Schönberg.

Hanne Muthspiel-Payer und Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth