Book Description

With his setting of Stefan George's portentous poetic text Ich fühle Luft von anderem Planeten (I feel the air of another planet) in the Second String Quartet, Op. 10 (1908), Arnold Schoenberg proclaimed the arrival of a new kind of music for the twentieth century. Pendragon Press marks the centenary of this epochal masterpiece with the publication of a wide-ranging collection of essays on Schoenberg's chamber works, and the man behind the music. With a list of distinguished contributors from three continents including Alexander Carpenter, James Deaville, Murray Dineen, Sabine Feisst, Allen Forte, Áine Heneghan, Yoko Hirota, Elaine Keillor, Don McLean, Christian Meyer, Severine Neff, Bryan Proksch, and James Wright the book presents new historical, theoretical, biographical, and semiotic perspectives on Schoenberg's chamber music, aesthetics, teaching, and persona. The links between his chamber music and earlier traditions, as well as its impact on subsequent generations of composers internationally, are among the areas of focus. The book features an Introduction written by Lawrence Schoenberg, the composer's son.