Schoenberg's Last Work

New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 649, 7 December 1951, Page 22

Schoenberg's Last Work

T was said of Arnold Schoenberg, who died at Los Angéles last July, that -probably, no other composer! had such a’ farreaching, influence om modern music. Thére is’ mo doubt that such @ -pervasiye, influ ce must have. reached even to New, Zealand) but: this, country has had a: somewhat closer link’ with the composer and his work during the last years of his life, in the person of a young Aucklarid student of music, Richard Hoffmahn. Richard Hoffmann, who’ was born in Vienna, came to New Zealand with his parénts as a small boy and subsequently studied music at Auckland University College, where he was regarded as a most gifted ‘student, both as a violinist: and. asa potential composér, While ‘still: in his ’teens he won the University Centennial Music Scholarship and at 20 gained his Mus. Bac. His principal interest was composition, and in 1947 he sent some of his manuscripts to Schoenberg, then holding the chair of composition at the University of California, Schoenberg offered to make the young -man one of his private pupils, and from that time until Schoenberg’s death, Mr, Hoffmann worked with the composer not only a8 4 pupil, but as a collaborator fey the preparation of wotk for publication. Schoenberg’s death ended the master--and-pupil relationship, but Mr. Hoff‘mann is still involved with the manuscfipts, the music and the correspondence which Schoenberg left. The Listener recently wrote to him and asked if he could tell us something about the ‘work Schoenberg™ had been engaged on at the time of his death, and last week a letter atrived from him. Unfinished Works Schoenberg, he wrote, left only two major works unfinished. «The first of these is an oratorio, Die Jakobsleiter, which is based on Schoenberg's own text and was set to music in 1917. ns reer orchestra, chotus and soloists,, says Mr. Hoffmann, "much in the manner of the Gurrelieder. However, the harmonic concept of the work is entirely different. It must be temembered that at this time Schoenberg had already sketched a scherzo movemerit (planned as the middle movement of a gigantic Trilogy-the last movement being the jakobslieter), which consisted ‘of a theme from the 12 different tones* of the chromatic scale, betas ‘before his death I came across a large piece of manuscript paper which contained the theme (and several Variants) of this: scherzo, and I remember how enthused Schoenberg was when he ‘saw these sketches-he had thought them lost. "To return to the texture of this work: bearing in mind the fact that Schoenberg had already conceived a theme which may be termed ‘aténal’ at the time he was composing the Oratorio,

it follows that his harmonic idiom also underwent considerable change. Chords are no longer triadic, often they are rather based on superimposed fourth chords and cadences are no_ longer achieved by mere conventionalised chord progressions. On the whole the score is exceedingly ‘thick’ and very tightly packed. "Speaking once of the similar density of the Gurrelieder score, Schoenberg humorously stated that he could express everything, given a piano-accordion and a handful of other instruments. . . Humour aside, it was just this attitude of Schoenberg (his belief that the score was over extravagantly conceived) which prevented him from completing the work. How he tried during the last year of his life to complete it! His eyes, no longer capable of deciphering the beautifully small handwriting, were strained to the limit. He would have to stop frequently, complaining that such close scrutiny caused him to become dizzy. There remained one’ solution, to enlarge the manuscript photographically. This was done. Giant enlargements, measuring about two and a half feet square, were ordered, and good progress was made. I would erase several notes with a photographic eradicator and he would write in the corrections. Now and again he would stop and complain to himself that the score was too thick. He wanted to reduce the orchestra, but this in itself would have been a considerable task. Slowly are lost heart in his work." The other incomplete work, according to Mr. Hoffmann, is the opera Moses und Aron. This work stems from the early thirties and is the only opera of Schoenberg to employ (throughout its 2000 measures). a 12-tone tow. Merely eight or so minutes of music are required to complete the work, but fortunately the first and second acts are ‘complete and a first performance is to be given in Europe either in 1952 or 1953. After careful consideration, the widow of the composer decided to leave these works. fragmentary. However, a former pupil, Karl Rankl (the conductor and former music director of Covent Gar-

den) will make a full score of the Jakobsleiter and complete, where necessary, the orchestration of the work. Voluminous Correspondence Besides these two works, there exist a number of unfinished textbooks. The first volume of a counterpoint textbook is almost ready for publication. Originally Schoenberg had planned three volumes, Counterpoint, Contrapuntal Forms and Counterpoint Since Bach. Another textbook, Composition, is being revised at the moment and is almost complete, and finally Structural Functions of Harmony, written several years ago, is to be published in England next year. Schoenberg also left many essays which will be collected to form a companion volume to Style and Idea. It will bear the title Program Notes. For the past three months, Mr. Hoffmann has been concerned more with Schoenberg’s letters than his compositions, his task being the arrangement ‘of the composer’s entire correspondence for the U.S, Library of Congress. It is a huge collection, consisting of letters from 1900 to 1951, and among the correspondents are almost all the great musical figures of the 20th CenturyStrauss, Busoni, Berg, Bartok, Furtwangler, Sir Henry Wood, Klemperer, Koussevitzky-as well as many names eminent in other fields. The correspond- ence, Mr. Hoffmann believes, constitutes a better biography of the musician than any single person could now compile. Mr. Hoffmann plans to visit New Zealand next winter and hopes while he is here to have an opportunity to lecture on Schoenberg to students and others interested in the composer.