Schoenberg

Why He Matters

22 April 2025

Territory Rights — Worldwide.

Description

An astonishingly lyrical biography that rescues Schoenberg from notoriety, restoring him to his rightful place in the pantheon of twentieth-century composers

In his time, the Austrian American composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) was an international icon. His twelve-tone system was considered the future of music itself. Today, however, leading orchestras rarely play his works and his name is met with apathy, if not antipathy. With this interpretative account, the acclaimed biographer of Toscanini finally restores Schoenberg to his rightful place in the canon, revealing him as one of the twentieth century’s most influential composers and teachers. Sachs shows how Schoenberg, a thorny character who composed thorny works, raged against the “Procrustean bed” of tradition. Defying his critics—among them the Nazis, who described his music as “degenerate”—he constantly battled the anti-Semitism that eventually precipitated his flight from Europe to Los Angeles. Yet Schoenberg, synthesising Wagnerian excess with Brahmsian restraint, created a shock wave that never quite subsided and, as Sachs powerfully argues, his compositions must be confronted by anyone interested in the past, present or future of Western music.

Reviews

"Lucid... Sachs's book is a succinct guide to Schoenberg's life and work, one designed in part to make the composer's music accessible to a wider audience. Much of the book's appeal lies in that implicit promise to help find the beauty hidden in what can seem, to the uninitiated, a writhing mass of noise." — Christopher Carroll, Harper's

"[An] elegant and judicious book" — Rupert Christiansen

"[A]n immensely valuable source for anyone desiring an accessible overview of this endlessly controversial and chronically misunderstood giant of 20th-century music." — John Adams, The New York Times Book Review

"[A] concentrated meditation... It may be recommended for anybody with an interest in the work of the Viennese-American composer Arnold Schoenberg—and perhaps especially to those who have never quite been able to “crack” his music... Despite his postwar de" — Tim Page, The Wall Street Journal

"Few authors have written more memorably on music than Harvey Sachs." — Simon Williams, author of Wagner and the Romantic Hero

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