Description
The first full-length study dedicated to Schoenberg's life and music in the United States, Schoenberg's New World dispels many myths and fills significant gaps in the existing literature on Schoenberg. Drawing on much new information, the book traces early Schoenberg pioneers in America, who set the stage for Schoenberg's arrival in 1933. The volume addresses in detail how Schoenberg while coming to terms with his German and Jewish identities, thoroughly adapted to American society both privately and professionally. New light is cast on Schoenberg's relations with Americans, his interest in American culture, and changes in his religious and political thinking and lifestyle. As Schoenberg was committed to the advancement of American music and composed music inspired by and composed for American musicians, his American works are examined anew with regard to their contexts and the history of their performance and publication. Schoenberg's many interactions with performers and publishers in the United States are explored as well. Illustrating how Schoenberg adjusted to the American educational system, the book delves into Schoenberg's American teaching career, teaching methods and materials and features some of the many remarkable students he taught in Boston and Los Angeles. Finally the impact of Schoenberg's music and ideas on American performers, composers and scholars after World War II is gauged in the light of major political and cultural changes during the Cold War era. Schoenberg's New World contributes to a new understanding of one of the most important pioneers of musical modernism and most polarizing figures in twentieth-century music.
About the Author
Sabine Feisst is Associate Professor of Music History and Literature at Arizona State University. She 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.
Reviews
Winner of the Irving Lowens Book Award, Society for American Music
A pioneering work of revisionist scholarship. With a fresh eye, Feisst investigates not only Schoenberg's American years * constituting almost a third of his careerbut 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 Americanis 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 emigre 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 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190632175
Author Sabine Feisst
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 564g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 155mm * 25mm
About the Author
Sabine Feisst is Associate Professor of Music History and Literature at Arizona State University. She 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.
Reviews
Winner of the Irving Lowens Book Award, Society for American Music
A pioneering work of revisionist scholarship. With a fresh eye, Feisst investigates not only Schoenberg's American years * constituting almost a third of his careerbut 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 Americanis 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 emigre 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 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190632175
Author Sabine Feisst
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 564g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 155mm * 25mm
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