Schoenberg's New World: The American Years

by Sabine Feisst

Overview

Arnold Schoenberg was a polarizing figure in twentieth century music, and his works and ideas have had considerable and lasting impact on Western musical life. A refugee from Nazi Europe, he spent an important part of his creative life in the United States (1933-1951), where he produced a rich variety of works and distinguished himself as an influential teacher. However, while his European career has received much scholarly attention, surprisingly little has been written about the genesis and context of his works composed in America, his interactions with Americans and other émigrés, and the substantial, complex, and fascinating performance and reception history of his music in this country. Author Sabine Feisst illuminates Schoenberg's legacy and sheds a corrective light on a variety of myths about his sojourn. Looking at the first American performances of his works and the dissemination of his ideas among American composers in the 1910s, 1920s and early 1930s, she convincingly debunks the myths surrounding Schoenberg's alleged isolation in the US. Whereas most previous accounts of his time in the US have portrayed him as unwilling to adapt to American culture, this book presents a more nuanced picture, revealing a Schoenberg who came to terms with his various national identities in his life and work. Feisst dispels lingering negative impressions about Schoenberg's teaching style by focusing on his methods themselves as well as on his powerful influence on such well-known students as John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Dika Newlin. Schoenberg's influence is not limited to those who followed immediately in his footsteps-a wide range of composers, from Stravinsky adherents to experimentalists to jazz and film composers, were equally indebted to Schoenberg, as were key figures in music theory like Milton Babbitt and David Lewin. In sum, Schoenberg's New World contributes to a new understanding of one of the most important pioneers of musical modernism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199792634
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Sabine Feisst is Associate Professor of Music History and Literature at Arizona State University. Focusing on twentieth-century and contemporary music studies, she has published a book on concepts of improvisation in new music as well as numerous articles on Arnold Schoenberg and American music in essay collections, professional journals, and encyclopedias.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Preface Chapter I: Rethinking Myths of Schoenberg's American Years Chapter II: Schoenberg and America: Early Rapprochements Chapter III: Negotiating Three Identities: Schoenberg's Socialization and Creative Work in America Chapter IV: Schoenberg Performance in America Chapter V: Schoenberg's American Publishers Chapter VI: Schoenberg's American Teaching Career Chapter VII: The American Reception of Schoenberg's Music After 1945 Abbreviations Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"A pioneering work of revisionist scholarship. With a fresh eye, Feisst investigates not only Schoenberg's American years—constituting almost a third of his career—but also the reception and impact of his music in the U.S. across much of the twentieth century." —Walter Frisch, author of The Early Works of Arnold Schoenberg

"This is an almost overwhelming study of the life, work, and even world of one of the most important and influential of composers." —Milton Babbitt, Princeton University/The Juilliard School

"An exceedingly thorough study of Schoenberg's American years, has been long in the making and is worth the wait. Feisst's book shows how much there is left to be learned about this astonishing figure in modern cultural history, whose true, full biography has yet to be written." —Alex Ross, TheRestIsNoise.com

"Feisst's description of Schoenberg's proudly held triple identity—Jewish, German, and American—is richly detailed and provides insights not only into his personality but into the several masterworks he produced in his final years." —Opera News

"As a musician I think [Feisst] won her argument with earlier historians while also accomplishing something more valuable. She has provided a rich portrait of the life and times of a significant musician as he came to terms with his new home, and I am grateful that she illuminates not only his work and his thought, but also his complicated humanity." —John Steinmetz, Chamber Music

"A satisfyingly thorough and probing study of Arnold Schoenberg's life in America...You'll find it absorbing to read about how this most European of composers came to grips with the strange new world of southern California, which he liked far more than is generally realized." —Terry Teachout

"Meticulously researched, richly revealing...Feisst...has brought together a wealth of information that challenges old myths, offering a more balanced and multivalent account of Schoenberg's late years." —Boston Globe

"An important book, extensive in its research, lively in its presentation, smartly revisionist in its attitude—all in all, an inspiring homage to and celebration of Schoenberg's later years. I imagine that no one who reads it will think about the New World or for that matter the Old World Schoenberg in quite the same way again." —Notes

"Highly recommended." —Choice

"A very readable but also thoroughly and meticulously documented work. Feisst supplies a compendium of recent research and further readings in footnotes and in a bibliography for interested scholars and students...Schoenberg's New World is a pivotal work that sets an example for future musicological research on migr composers." —American Jewish Archives Journal

"The thoroughness and insight that she brings to this [work] makes Schoenberg's New World an invaluable and engaging source of information for Schoenberg specialists, Americanists, film music scholars, and anyone with an interest in the history and development of Southern California's rich musical community during the second quarter of the twentieth century." —American Music

"Schoenberg's New World is a gold mine of historical and biographical information,
the fruit of diligent and resourceful research." —Journal of the American Musicological Society

...[A]n important book, extensive in its research, lively in its presentation, smartly revisionist in its attitude—all in all, an inspiring homage to and celebration of Schoenberg's later years. I imagine that no one who reads it will think about the New World or for that matter the Old World Schoenberg in quite the same way again." - Howard Pollack

"Feisst's groundbreaking work presented documentary proof consisting of correspondence and interviews that Schoenberg's American years have wilfully been misinterpreted as years of "selling out" or of frustration with a nation incapable of understanding his musical values. It... places both arrivals within a new context." —The Times Literary Supplement

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