A short piece featured in the Lancashire
Daily Post, Saturday, 10 January 1931 is well worth recalling. It is interesting
that the Austrian master did not include Holst or Delius in his list of modern English
composers.
Herr Arnold Schoenberg, the
well-known modern composer, who came to England specially to conduct a
programme of his works, and which was broadcast by the BBC last night, [1]
explained some of his ultra-modern views today:
‘Some people,’ he said, with a
twinkle in his eyes, ‘condemn us modernists and say that our works are not
music, but we cannot stand still. The music of the old masters – Bach,
Beethoven, Brahms – is glorious, and will live forever. No one could be a
greater admirer of the masters than I, but we cannot stay at their point of
view for ever.
‘Life has changed considerably
and we must keep pace with it. We have now at our disposal far more material
than they had, and we must use it. That is why I have arranged some of Bach’s
preludes and fugues for modern orchestra, [2] because I feel that if he had a
modern orchestra at his disposal he would certainly have written for it, and I
hope and believe that my arrangement of his work played last night was as he
himself would have conceived it in modern times.
‘It is said that modern music is
too complicated - it cannot always remain simple. We have exhausted the 2 and 2
make 4, and the 3 and 3 make six styles, and have now reached 7 and 7. It is
only natural evolution. It is not a doing away of the old but merely a building
up on it. We could not possibly do without the old forms. They are the solid
basis upon which it is possible to build a new form.’
At the mention of jazz, Herr
Schoenberg smiled, ‘Jazz is amusing’, he declared. ‘I like it in some moods,
and I think it has its place. But it is dying, and though I think it may
influence music of the future to some extent I do not think it will do so
seriously. I know that it has not done in my own case except perhaps, in a very
minor degree.’ [3]
As regards his own work he said,
‘I have an opera in my mind, [4] though so far it is only there. But I am
tremendously busy conducting and composing and arranging. Arranging works like
Bach’s preludes and fugues is perhaps the hardest work of all and takes me far
longer than writing an entirely original composition.
‘I do admire the works of the
modern English composers very much indeed, particularly [Edward] Elgar, [Arnold]
Bax, [Eugene] Goossens, [Arthur] Bliss, and I admire the English audiences. I
wish I spoke the language better. As it is’ smiling across at his…wife, ‘I have
to leave most of my talking and interpretation to my wife.’
The Lancashire Daily Post, Saturday, 10 January 1931.
Notes:
[1] The Concert of Contemporary Music was broadcast at 9.35 pm on 9 January
1931. It was the Fifth Season of these event. There were two works: The Prelude
and Fugue in E flat for organ (St Ann) transcribed for full orchestra by Arnold
Schoenberg (1928). The second work was Erwartung (Expectation): a monologue,
op.17 (1909). The text was by Marie Pappenheim. The soprano soloist was Margot
Hinneberg-Lefebre and the BBC Orchestra was conducted by Schoenberg.
[2] Details of Arnold Schoenberg’s Bach Transcriptions: Chorale prelude
on ‘Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele’, BWV 654 (arr. 1922: orchestra); Chorale
prelude on ‘Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist’, BWV 631 (arr. 1922:
orchestra) Prelude and fugue in E flat major ‘St Anne’, BWV 552 (arr. 1928:
orchestra)
[3] Clearly, Arnold Schoenberg’s prediction about the imminent demise of
jazz was wide of the mark. To be fair, Jazz/Classical fusion was never quite as
popular as it could have been. Some of Schoenberg’s theoretical procedures such
as the 12-tone (serialism) did have an impact on some ‘contemporary jazz.’
[4] This would probably have been the unfinished opera Moses and Aaron
(1930-32).
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