Synopses & Reviews
This collection of essays examines the works of composer Arnold Schoenberg, one of the most influential and controversial composers of the twentieth century, in the context of the "New Music" that was the historical and cultural movement of his time. In these essays, Schoenberg's work is subjected to historical, technical and theoretical analysis. Studies of other "New Music" composers such as Webern, Schreker and Scriabin are also provided. The collection includes essays of broader cultural-historical and sociological import that should interest those involved with twentieth-century music and theory.
Review
'The volume is among [Dahlhaus's] most thought-provoking ... The translators deserve much gratitude for making this most rewarding book available in such clear and readable English.' Oliver Neighbour, Music & Letters
Synopsis
This book is a collection of essays, by the leading German musicologist of our day, on one of the most controversial and influential composers of our century: Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg is considered here as a historical figure, as a thinker and theoretician and as a composer whose works may be subjected to technical analysis and/or examined in relation to the history of ideas.
Synopsis
The works of composer Arnold Schoenberg, one of the most influential yet controversial 20th century composers, are analyzed in the context of the "New Music" that reflected the historical and cultural beliefs of his time.
Table of Contents
Translators' introduction; 1. 'New Music' as historical category; 2. Progress and the avant garde; 3. Avant garde and popularity; 4. New Music and the problem of musical genre; 5. Problems of rhythm in the New Music; 6. Tonality: structure or process?; 7. Schoenberg's poetics of music; 8. Schoenberg's aesthetic theology; 9. Schoenberg and programme music; 10. Musical prose; 11. Emancipation of the dissonance; 12. What is 'developing variation'?; 13. Schoenberg and Schenker; 14. Schoenberg's Orchestral Piece Op. 16, No. 3 and the concept of Klangfarbenmelodie; 15. 'The Obbligato Recitative'; 16. Expressive principle and orchestral polyphony in Schoenberg's Erwartung; 17. Schoenberg's late works; 18. The fugue as prelude: Schoenberg's Genesis composition, Op. 44; 19. Rhythmic structures in Webern's Orchestral Pieces, Op. 6; 20. Analytical instrumentation: Bach's six-part ricercar as orchestrated by Anton Webern; 21. Schreker and modernism: on the dramaturgy of Der ferne Klang; 22. Structure and expression in the music of Scriabin; 23. Plea for a Romantic category: the concept of the work of art in the newest music; 24. On the decline of the concept of the musical work; 25. The musical work of art as a subject of sociology; 26. Form Translated by Stephen Hinton; 27. Composition and improvisation; 28. A rejection of material thinking?; Notes; List of sources; Index.