Happy Birthday, Arnold Schoenberg!

Arnold Schoenberg (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951)

I've been spending a lot of time with Schoenberg the past few weeks, listening to many of his major works and reading his Letters, Style and Idea, and The Schoenberg Reader. I've even been toying around with Op.19 on the piano. Next, I plan to dive into his mammoth harmony textbook cum polemic, Harmonielehre (in English, of course). Most people find his music to be horribly ugly, but I love it. And his writings are fascinating glimpses into the mind of a true genius. Let's all sprechstimme a chorus of "Happy Birthday" to Mr. Schoenberg, the father of Modern-with-a-capital-M music.

Playlist Week of 8-28-10

* Buxtehude: Sonatas, Op.1 (Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden) (Naxos CD†
* Buxtehude: Sonatas, Op.2 (Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden) (Naxos CD)†
* Buxtehude: Seven Sonatas (Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden) (Naxos CD)†
* J.S. Bach: Magnificat, etc. (Collegium Vocale, et al./Herreweghe) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* J.S. Bach: Violin Sonatas (Manze/Egarr/ter Linden) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)†
* J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations and Canons (Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)†
* Rebel: Violin Sonatas (Manze/Egarr/ter Linden) (Harmonia Mundi CD)†
* Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21, etc. (Ens. InterContemporain/Shäfer/Boulez) (DG CD)
* Schoenberg: Suite, Op.29, etc. (Ens. InterContemporain/Boulez) (Sony Classical CD)
* Schoenberg: The Piano Music (Pollini) (DG CD)
* Oliver Nelson: The Blues and The Abstract Truth (Impulse! CD)
* Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings (d.1-5) (Columbia 6CD)
* John Coltrane: Live at Birdland (Impulse! CD)
* Roy Haynes Quartet: Out of the Afternoon (Impulse! CD)
* Elvin Jones/Jimmy Garrison Sextet: Illumination! (Impulse! CD)
* Sun Ra: The Mystery Board (11-2 or 3-1972) (SBD/boot 2CDR)
* Anthony Braxton: 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (d.8) (Firehouse 12 9CD+DVD)
* Mary Halvorson Trio: Dragon’s Head (Firehouse 12 CD)
* Mary Halvorson, et al.: Calling All Portraits (Skycap CD)
* Matthew Shipp: Harmony and Abyss (Thirsty Ear CD)
* The Blue Series Continuum: GoodandEvil Sessions (Thirsty Ear CD)
* The Blue Series Continuum: The Sorcerer Sessions (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Antipop Consortium: Antipop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp (Thirsty Ear CD)
* El-P Featuring the Blue Series Continuum: High Water (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Pat Metheny Group: Quartet (Geffen CD)†
* Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (mono) (Columbia/Sundazed LP)
* Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde (mono) (Columbia/Sundazed 2LP)
* The Beatles: Beatles for Sale (stereo) (2009 remaster) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Rubber Soul (stereo) (2009 remaster) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Revolver (stereo) (2009 remaster) (Apple/EMI CD)
* Rolling Stones: “Handsome Girls” (live July 1978) (d.1-3) (SBD/boot 4CDR)‡
* Van Morrison: Astral Weeks (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)
* Grateful Dead: Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA 3-31-68 (SBD CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips, Vol.3, No.3 (Fillmore East 5-05-70) (d.1) (GD/Rhino 3+1CD)
* Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks, Vol.14 (Boston 11-30 and 12-02-73) (GD 4 CD)‡
* Soft Machine: The Soft Machine (ABC/Sundazed LP)
* Soft Machine: Volume Two (ABC/Sundazed LP)
* Soft Machine: Third (Columbia 2LP)
* Genesis: Foxtrot (Charisma – UK LP)
* Genesis: Selling England By the Pound (Charisma LP)
* The Flaming Lips, et al.: Play The Dark Side of the Moon (Warner Bros. CD)
* Robert Pollard: Moses On a Snail (GBV, Inc. CD)
* Circus Devils: Mother Skinny (Happy Jack Rock Records LP)

†=iPod
‡=car

Commentary:

Your letter gave me great pleasure indeed, above all because you are one of the extremely rare kind of people who are of such importance to our musical culture. I mean: it is not the professional musician, the musician who lives by his art, who is needed to keep musical culture going; it is the amateur, and it always has been the amateur who has really promoted and encouraged art. This is all the more gratifying since your profession is one that claims much of your time; and what is astonishing is the way you have come to know my music—I am thinking of piano pieces and scores that are really very difficult to grasp, difficult to read, difficult to decipher, and which demand great knowledge of various aspects of music. I am extremely delighted at having discovered such as musician as you.

It makes me extremely proud to have received such a letter particularly from you, and for me it will remain one of a few letters that have given me the greatest pleasure in my musical career.

-- Arnold Schoenberg: Letter to Jacques Martet, 6 January 1950 (Letters (ed. by Erwin Stein), University of California Press, 1987, p.279).

+++

I planned to tell you what painting meant—means—to me. In fact, it was the same to me as making music. To me it was a way of expressing myself, of presenting emotions, ideas, and then other feelings, and this is perhaps the way to understand these paintings—or not to understand them. … I expressed myself in the same manner as I did in music…[A]s a painter I was absolutely an amateur. I had no theoretical training and only a little esthetic training—this only from general education but not from an education which pertained to painting. In music, it was different [NB: Schoenberg was an autodidact]…They would probably have suffered the same fate as I have suffered. They would have been attacked and scolded, and I don’t know what else I should say: I mean the same would happen to them what happened to my music. They would have been understood or not understood.

-- Arnold Schoenberg: Interview with Halsey Stevens (1949) (quoted in The Visions of Arnold Schönberg: The Painting Years, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2002, pp.91, 185).

+++

We see that in every painting of Schönberg, the inner wish of the artist speaks in the form which best befits it. Just as with his music (inasmuch as I a layman may affirm), Schönberg also in his painting renounces the superfluous (therefore the harmful) and proceeds along a direct path to the essential (therefore to the necessary). He leaves alone, unnoticed, all embellishments and artistic detail…I should most like to call Schönberg’s art the painting of essence.

-- Wassily Kandinsky: “Die Bilder” (1912) (Id., p.182).

+++

Once, in the army, I was asked if I was really the composer Arnold Schoenberg. “Somebody has to be,” I said, “and nobody else wanted to, so I took it on, myself.”

-- Arnold Schoenberg: Letter of Thanks to Those Who Sent Their Good Wishes on the Occasion of Schoenberg’s 75th Birthday, 16 September 1949 (Letters, p.290).

+++

Image: Arnold Schoenberg: Green Self-Portrait, 1910. Oil on wood 33 x 24 cm. (from The Visions of Arnold Schoenberg, p.100).

Playlist: Week of 2-13-10

* Vivaldi: Late Concertos, RV 177, etc. (VBO/Marcon/Camignola) (Sony CD)
* Vivaldi: Cello Sonatas (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics 2CD)
* Venice Baroque Orchestra (Marcon/Carmignola): Concerto Italiano (Archiv Prod. CD)
* Handel: Trio Sonatas, Op.2&5 (AAM/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)
* Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No.1, Op.9 (Ens.Intercontemp./Boulez) (Sony CD)
* Schoenberg: 5 Pieces for Orchestra, Op.16 (BBC Symphony/Boulez) (Sony CD)
* Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No.2, Op.38 (Ens. Intercontemp./Boulez) (Sony CD)
* Sun Ra: ESP Radio Tribute Highlights (d.1&5) (FM 5CDR)
* Sun Ra: Rehearsal, Oakland, CA circa. October, 1971 (CDR)
* Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (d.1-4) (Columbia 6CD)
* Keith Jarrett: Concerts (d.1) (ECM 3LP)
* Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: Drawn Inward (ECM CD)
* Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love (Experience Hendrix/MCA CD)
* Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland (Experience Hendrix/MCA CD)
* Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline (Columbia SACD)
* Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash: The Dylan/Cash Sessions 1969 (fan/boot CDR)
* Bob Dylan & George Harrison: The Dylan/Harrison Sessions 1969-1970 (fan/boot CDR)
* Bob Dylan: New Morning (Columbia CD)
* Grateful Dead: Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ 3-30-80 (SBD 2CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Auditorium Arena, Oakland, CA 12-30-82 (SBD 3CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Auditorium Arena, Oakland, CA 12-31-82 (SBD 3CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Coliseum, Hampton, VA 4-14-84 (SBD 2CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Coliseum, New Haven, CT 4-23-84 (SBD 3CDR)
* Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (Sire/Warner Bros. DVD-A)
* Talking Heads: Little Creatures (Sire/Warner Bros. DVD-A)
* Yo La Tengo: The Sounds of the Sounds of Science (Egon CD)
* Uncle Tupelo: No Depression (Columbia/Legacy CD)
* Guided By Voices: Vampire On Titus (Scat LP)
* Guided By Voices: Bee Thousand (Scat LP)
* Beck: Sea Change (Geffen/MFSL 2LP)

Commentary:

Who’s afraid of Arnold Schoenberg? I really don’t understand why Schoenberg’s (1874-1951) orchestral music is so rarely performed. I’ll admit that the Five Pieces, Op.16 (1909) are pretty daunting with their convulsively expressionistic free-atonality but the whole thing only lasts fifteen minutes. Surely audiences should be able to appreciate a little bit of “spice” amidst the blandly familiar Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms? To my ears, he fits right in! Schoenberg’s command of orchestral coloring is breathtaking and his concept of klangfarbenmelodie (tone-color-melody) is readily audible as the melodic lines are passed from instrument to instrument, changing colors along the way. The Chamber Symphonies are actually quite accessible. Op.9 (1906) is still deeply concerned with tonality and exploring the outer limits of functional harmony, but unlike Verklärte Nacht, Op.4 (1899) or Pelleas und Melisande, Op.5 (1902/03), the mood is lighter, with Schoenberg relishing in the transparent textures of the small orchestra. It is really quite lovely. Schoenberg began working on the Second Chamber Symphony immediately afterwards, but dropped it in favor of more ambitious projects (such as the Second String Quartet, Op.10 (1907/08)). At the insistence of conductor Fritz Stiedry (1883-1968), Schoenberg finished in the piece in 1939 and, as usual, his meticulous workmanship hides any seams. Furthermore, he saw the still quasi-tonal work as a landscape of “psychological problems” that had to be worked out musically, making for a more ponderous -- if not despairing -- harmonic language than Op.9. Still, Schoenberg’s scoring is perfect and the music reaches for an intimate yet ultra-transcendent moment that perhaps never comes but is still worth striving towards. And such music is worth performing, in my opinion. Such music is not so much about liking it as just experiencing it. Listening to Schoenberg’s music is like being inside his brain, his most profound thoughts articulated through carefully calculated notes on a stave. That is not necessarily a very comfortable place to be, but it is hyper-stimulating!

+++

The Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) estate is moving from Universal to Sony Legacy with the release of Valleys of Neptune, a collection of unreleased studio recordings, on March 9. The rest of the catalog will be remastered and reissued thereafter. Now, Valleys of Neptune looks interesting and I will definitely pick that up. But do I need to re-purchase all those other records yet again? I’ve been listening to the MCA CDs from 1997 and they sound pretty good to me: a little bright maybe, but dynamic -- they are not particularly fatiguing when played loud. Could they sound better? Perhaps. Will Sony do a better job? I’m taking a wait and see approach. It would the fourth or fifth time I will have bought these albums and I’m not exactly feeling the need to replace what I have. The fact that Sony is releasing a limited edition CD-single with an unreleased B-Side (“Peace in Mississippi”) exclusively through Wal-Mart is not very encouraging. I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart so I guess I will be missing out. I’d rather give my money to Grimey’s New & Pre-Loved Music right here in Nashville.

A Good Book About Music

I have been neglecting the blog lately - too much going on, not enough time or, more importantly, energy to write.

Lots to think about, though. . .

See, for instance, Sam's recent comment below in "Why Music?"

In response to Sam, I'd like to recommend a book I've been recently (re)reading:

Allen Shawn: Arnold Schoenberg's Journey (Harvard, 2002)

This is one of the best books about music I've ever read. There's enough musicological depth and score samples to be useful to the musician, but also written with such enthusiastic and erudite prose that any reader, regardless of their musical knowledge, would surely gain insight into Schoenberg's admittedly difficult and (sometimes) forbidding music. As Sam points out in his comment below, reading what others have to say about music can help us sharpen our own thoughts and beliefs about music. Shawn's book is an excellent place for a novice to begin to understand Schoenberg; it is also an inspirational read for those of us who already know and love the music.

I hope to get back on track with the blog, but in the meantime, let's celebrate good writing about music.

--rgc

Sunday Morning Schoenberg (& Adorno)

This morning, with my coffee:

Arnold Schoenberg: Ewartung, Op.17 (Sony SMK 48 466 CD)
Janis Martin, soprano; BBC Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, cond.
Arnold Schoenberg: Die Gluckliche Hand, Op.18 (Sony SMK 48 464 CD)
Siegmund Nimsgern, bass; BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, cond.
Arnold Schoenberg: Das Buch Der Hangenden Garten, Op.15 (Black Box BBM1072 CD)
Sarah Connolly, soprano; Iain Burnside, piano
Arnold Schoenberg: Concerto for Piano, Op.42; Drei Klavierstucke, Op.11; Sechs Kleine Klavierstucke, Op.19 (Philips 289 468 033-2 CD)
Mitsuko Uchida, piano; The Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, cond.

While reading:

Theodore W. Adorno: The Philosophy of New Music (1949) (University of Minnesota). A new translation (2006) and forward by Robert Hullot-Kentor.

See, I really do like this stuff...

--rgc

Why music?

One of the things that makes writing about music so difficult for me is that I genuinely do not understand why people listen to music. Or rather, I do not understand what people (who are not musicians) hear when they listen to music.

In a way, being a trained musician forever wrecked my perception of music as music. It’s like knowing how the magician’s tricks are done. I can appreciate the artistry and virtuosity of the act, but I cannot ever again be fooled by the illusion. I can never again experience music as simply a listener.

That is one of the reasons why I have always been drawn to extreme forms of music – atonality, free-jazz, punk-rock, noise – music where the boundaries of “common practice” are radically extended (or overthrown), where the "tricks" are not so easy to detect and that vertiginous rush of unfamiliarity can still be felt.

My appreciation of music is inextricably tied up with my knowledge of how it’s put together, while at the same time, I know all too well that a description of music’s constituent parts is not a description of the whole. Such a description is not the thing itself - just as the score is not the thing itself - and it seems to me that the closer you focus on music’s construction, the further you get from its essence. For example, to say that the chord sequence I7-IV7-V7 explains how the “blues trick” is done is not even remotely useful in explaining how the blues touches your soul. It tells the aspiring musician a little bit about how to go about playing the music, but it doesn’t even begin to explain why he or she might want to do so. To say that Schoenberg used all twelve notes of the octave explains the modernist “trick” also obscures the music's beauty and expression.

For the non-musician, all of this verbiage is just useless jargon and for the musician whose understanding is limited to the notes on a page, the music will be badly played and poorly understood. And what does the non-musician get out of any of this? And what can be said about any of this that doesn’t sound reductionist and stupid?

What is it that people want out of music? Why is it so important – so necessary - yet so hard to talk about? Its ineffable quality is no doubt a big part of its attraction to the human spirit since music is pure abstraction - nothing but the movement of air in the passage of time. There is something about music that is pre-verbal, innate.

Then another thing that makes writing about music difficult for me is that the act of writing is not pleasurable for me. I struggle with every word, every phrase, every sentence. Everything I write seems utterly banal once it’s there on the page (or screen): Nothing but a labored exposition on the obvious and unremarkable. And, if you hadn’t noticed by now, I have a tendency to kind of, um, overstate things, which probably undermines whatever point it is I think I'm trying to make.

Why am I doing this? Why do I care so much about music that I actually want to write about it? And why would anyone care about music enough to read what I have to write about it? It’s a mystery to me.

--rgc