{"id":1960,"date":"2002-09-02T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2002-09-02T19:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=1960"},"modified":"2021-07-24T18:28:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T01:28:11","slug":"the-most-famous-thing-he-never-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=1960","title":{"rendered":"The Most Famous Thing He Never Said"},"content":{"rendered":"
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[Published: Newsletter No. 4, November 2002, Jewish Music Institute:\u00a0 International Centre for Suppressed Music.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

It seems that when one wants to deflate the image of Arnold Schoenberg and the twelve-tone method of composition he developed, the most common approach is to recite Schoenberg\u2019s most famous statement to his pupil Josef Rufer during the summer of 1921:<\/p>\n

I have made a discovery which will ensure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years.\u00a0 [Ich habe eine Entdeckung gemacht, durch welche die Vorherrschaft der deutschen Musik f\u00fcr den n\u00e4chsten hundert Jahre gesichert ist.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The not-so-subtle implication is always that Schoenberg was a fanatical German supremacist, like Hitler, and therefore that his twelve-tone method should be associated with fascism and Nazism and discarded.\u00a0 Uncritical acceptance of this statement can be found in even the most pro-Schoenberg books and articles.\u00a0 But closer scrutiny casts serious doubt on the accuracy of Rufer\u2019s recollection.\u00a0 Schoenberg\u2019s most (in)famous statement may be the most famous thing he never said.<\/p>\n

Schoenberg is possibly the world\u2019s most well-documented composer.\u00a0 His thousands and thousands of pages of writings — books, letters, essays and aphorisms — have been meticulously preserved, catalogued and made accessible by publication and in the Schoenberg archives open without restriction to scholars since 1977.\u00a0 However, Schoenberg\u2019s most famous statement does not appear in any of these writings.\u00a0 Its source is the 1959 publication by Schoenberg pupil Josef Rufer, \u201cDas Werk Arnold Sch\u00f6nbergs\u201d (Kassel 1959).\u00a0 In that book, published eight years after Schoenberg\u2019s death, Rufer stated, apparently for the first time, that during the summer of 1921, in the Austrian town of Traunkirchen, Schoenberg had disclosed to him the discovery of the twelve-tone method.\u00a0 The quotation recounted by Rufer some thirty-eight years after the fact has become the line most commonly used to discredit Schoenberg and his music.<\/p>\n

There is good reason to be skeptical of Rufer\u2019s belated recollection of this event. Rufer conveniently makes himself the first pupil to whom Schoenberg disclosed his new method of composition.\u00a0 The first work using the twelve-tone method, the prelude of the Piano Suite, op. 25, was begun in Traunkirchen in July 1921.\u00a0 But as Schoenberg\u2019s biographer H.H. Stuckenschmidt recounts \u201can enormous number of friends and pupils visited\u201d Schoenberg at Traunkirchen that summer.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t Schoenberg have made this disclosure also to other pupils and colleagues?\u00a0 Why did Rufer not reveal this event until 1959, after Schoenberg and many of the other pupils (and witnesses) had died?<\/p>\n

For the sake of argument, let us assume that Schoenberg did disclose his method of composing with twelve tones only to his young pupil Josef Rufer during the summer of 1921.\u00a0 Would Schoenberg have used the German nationalist language that Rufer ascribes to him?\u00a0 It should be noted that when Rufer recounted the story it was 1959.\u00a0 The German-born Rufer had lived through the entire Nazi period in Germany.\u00a0 The phrase \u201csupremacy of German . . .\u201d was one that Rufer had heard many, many times.\u00a0 Can we be certain that his belated recollection of Schoenberg\u2019s words was accurate?<\/p>\n

The timing of the disclosure to Rufer also makes Schoenberg\u2019s\u00a0 use and appropriation of nationalist German rhetoric unlikely.\u00a0 Schoenberg moved to Traunkirchen in July 1921 after an incident in the town of Mattsee, where it was made known to him that the town did not appreciate having Jewish guests.\u00a0 (Rufer is credited with locating the Villa Josef in Traunkirchen to which the Schoenbergs moved.)\u00a0 The Mattsee event proved a watershed in Schoenberg\u2019s perception of himself as a Jew.\u00a0 Less than two years later he would write to Kandinsky that the event led to his rediscovery of his Jewish identity and he warned already then of the dangers of Hitler and anti-Semitism.\u00a0 If Schoenberg did use the term \u201cGerman supremacy\u201d when discussing his musical discovery during the summer of 1921, it could only have been with great irony — an irony perhaps lost on his young German pupil Rufer.<\/p>\n

A letter from Schoenberg to Alma Mahler dated July 26, 1921 casts much needed light on the subject.\u00a0 In this short letter, which has not previously been published, Schoenberg makes a statement quite similar to the one Rufer later recalled.\u00a0 But the context of Schoenberg\u2019s statement makes it clear that Schoenberg harbored no sympathy for the Austrian German nationalists who had recently interrupted his summer in Mattsee.<\/p>\n

My dear, most esteemed friend,<\/em><\/p>\n

I just wanted to give you quickly a sign of life and to thank you for your dear letter.\u00a0 Quickly: for after I paid my Mattsee compatriots — forever deranged by the madness of the times — a tribute in money (very much money) and what is more: work time (3 weeks!) — I have begun again to work.\u00a0 Something completely new!\u00a0 The German aryans who persecuted me in Mattsee will have this new thing (especially this one) to thank for the fact that even they will still be respected abroad for 100 years, because they belong to the very state that has just secured for itself hegemony in the field of music! — How are you?\u00a0 All is well with us — only we cannot find anyone to do housework.\u00a0 Long live Democracy : no one wants to work, so we have to do it.\u00a0 Many heartfelt greetings from my wife, Trudi, G\u00f6rgi and from me.\u00a0 Your most devoted Arnold Schoenberg<\/em><\/p>\n

Liebe hochverehrte Freundin, nur um rasch ein Lebenszeichen zu geben und, dir f\u00fcr deinen so lieben Brief zu danken. Rasch: denn, nach dem ich meinen Mattseer Mitmenschen — Ewig-Zeitgeisteskranken — einen Tribut von Geld (von sehr viel Geld) und was noch mehr ist: in Arbeitszeit (3 Wochen!) gezahlt habe, — habe ich wieder zu arbeiten begonnen. Was ganz Neues! Die Deutscharier, die mich in Mattsee verfolgt haben, werden es diesem Neuen (speciell diesem) [XXX] zu verdanken haben, dass man sogar sie noch 100 Jahre lang im Ausland achtet, weil sie dem Staat angeh\u00f6ren, der sich neuerdings die Hegemonie auf dem Gebiet der Musik gesichert hat! — Wie gehts dir.\u00a0 Bei uns alles wohl — nur k\u00f6nnen wir niemanden zur h\u00e4uslichen Arbeit finden. Es lebe die Demokratie:\u00a0 niemand will arbeiten; also m\u00fcssen wir es tun.\u00a0 Viele herzliche Gr\u00fcsse von meiner Frau, Trudi, G\u00f6rgi, und von mir.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dein herzlich ergebener Arnold Sch\u00f6nberg<\/em><\/p>\n

If Schoenberg did say something to Rufer during the summer of 1921, it was probably similar to what Schoenberg wrote to his friend Alma Mahler.\u00a0 But the irony in the letter to Alma Mahler is completely lost in the famous line later recounted by Rufer over thirty years later.\u00a0 And the implication that is often made from the Rufer quote — that Schoenberg was a fanatical German nationalist — is exactly the opposite of what Schoenberg expressed.<\/p>\n

Schoenberg recognized that his discovery of the twelve-tone method would have far-reaching implications, and correctly predicted that his innovation would establish his pre-eminence among composers not just in Austria and Germany, but throughout the world.\u00a0 (The widespread use of the twelve tone method by other composers since 1921 does seem to bear out Schoenberg\u2019s prophecy.)\u00a0 Schoenberg recognized the supreme irony that the honor that would inure to Austria as a result of his discovery would even benefit those Austrian German nationalists who sought to expel him because of his Jewish background.\u00a0 The discovery of the twelve-tone method was not proclaimed as a triumph of German nationalism, but rather in spite of such nationalism.<\/p>\n

We have from Schoenberg another similar but much more ecumenical statement about the importance of his 12-tone method of composition.\u00a0 In 1930, Schoenberg wrote to a number of leading figures seeking support for a proclamation in honor of the architect Adolf Loos\u2019 60th<\/sup> birthday.\u00a0 After receiving an uncharacteristic rejection from Albert Einstein, Schoenberg wrote to Loos\u2019 wife, Claire on November 17, 1930 as follows:<\/p>\n

Dear esteemed madam,<\/em><\/p>\n

Enclosed is the answer from Einstein and one from Heinrich Mann.\u00a0 To Einstein I wanted to send the following answer:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c. . . I understand something about the subject; hardly less than the expert from the newspaper, whom everyone would believe.\u00a0 And I say: Loos has in his field at least the same importance as I do in mine.\u00a0 And you know perhaps that I pride myself on having shown mankind the way of musical creation for at least the next hundred years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

[Verehrte gn\u00e4dige Frau,<\/em><\/p>\n

anbei die Antwort von Einstein und eine von Heinrich Mann. An Einstein wollte ich folgende Antwort richten:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c…ich verstehe wirklich etwas von der Sache; kaum weniger als der Fachmann von der Zeitung, dem jeder glauben w\u00fcrde. Und ich sage: Loos hat auf seinem Gebiet mindestens dieselbe Bedeutung wie ich auf dem meinigen. Und Sie wissen vielleicht, dass ich mir einbilde der Menschheit f\u00fcr wenigstens hundert Jahre die Wege musikalischen Schaffens gewiesen zu haben.\u201d]<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no doubt that Schoenberg believed that he was an heir to the great Austro-German musical tradition — to Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner.\u00a0 But this does not make him a believer in Nazi-like German supremacy.\u00a0 In several essays written in 1931, he discusses the concept of \u201cnational music\u201d and of improper attempts to ascribe national, political dimensions to artistic phenomena.\u00a0 In music, as in many fields, certain nations sometimes obtain hegemony over others.\u00a0 But in Schoenberg\u2019s view, artisitic dominance was not at all related to political dominance. \u00a0Schoenberg certainly believed that his discovery of the twelve-tone method would again lead to Austrian and German hegemony in the field of music.\u00a0 But that did not make him a German nationalist.\u00a0 As an Austrian, and a Jew, he could hardly have ever had any sympathy for those who longed for a 1,000-year German Reich.\u00a0 One may quibble with Schoenberg\u2019s naturally partisan view of the historical importance of his own discovery, and of the influence it would have in the future.\u00a0 But it is not fair to ascribe to Schoenberg the German nationalist tendencies that he so obviously abhorred.\u00a0 It is a mistake to rely on the line recounted by Rufer in 1959, when we have in Schoenberg\u2019s letters evidence of a more nuanced, ironic and ecumenical point of view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Published: Newsletter No. 4, November 2002, Jewish Music Institute:\u00a0 International Centre for Suppressed Music.] It seems that when one wants to deflate the image of Arnold Schoenberg and the twelve-tone method of composition he developed, the most common approach is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions\/2216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}