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1999 University Lecture | |
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| And then, there
is Arnold Schoenberg: the revolutionary Viennese composer
who, with Stravinsky, stands as one of the indisputable
pillars upon which XX century art music rests.
Significantly, his exile from Germany in 1933 marked also
his return to the Jewish faith, which he had renounced in
favor of Protestantism as a youth. After a brief period
in Boston, he and his family finally settled in Los
Angeles, where he spent most of his time teaching, both
institutionally and privately, even to the point of
hampering his compositional efforts. A touching, even
desperate testimonial of his American struggles is his
letter of application to the Guggenheim Foundation for a
grant, quoted in the collection of Schoenberg letters
edited by Erwin Stein. The letter, dated in Los Angeles,
22 January 1945, reads: "I have served the Guggenheim Foundation quite a number of times in writing opinions about potential candidates for Guggenheim awards - with more or less success, because, seemingly, not everybody considered me an authority of the same magnitude as did the applicants who longed for a good opinion from me. Today I am writing on my own behalf, and I hope the powers to whose decision I submit my application will grant better credit to my creative accomplishments than they did to my judgment. You have perhaps read that on December 13, 1944, I have become 70 years of age. At this date - according to regulations - I had to retire from my position as professor of music a t the University of California at Los Angeles. As I was in this position only eight years, I will receive a pension of $38.00 a month, on which I am supposed to support wife and three children (13, 8 and 4 years old). At present I still have private pupils and there is a chance that their number might increase. But considering the fact that I have taught now for almost fifty years; that...here I teach generally beginners; and though many are very talented and promising, the chances are not very bright that I could teach them for the five to six years which I deem necessary for a real knowledge of an artist. Can you understand that under these circumstances I am tired of teaching - at least temporarily? I have done so much for my pupils, exhausted my powers, irrespective of my own interest, that I have neglected my own creative work. I feel, as long as I am living I must try to complete at least some of the works which for a number of years wait for that. I feel: my life task would be fulfilled only fragmentarily if I failed to complete at least those two largest of my musical, and two, or perhaps three of my theoretical works. The two musical works are: |
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| Copyright © 2000 | Ricardo Iznaola, University of Denver | All rights reserved | |||