“Die Jakobsleiter, twelve-tone music, and Schonberg’s Gods”(Vienna June 26-30 2002, Schonberg und sein Gott.)

Tito M. ToniettiUniversity of Pisa – Italy

Abstract.In his (unfinished) oratorio, Die Jakobsleiter, Schonberg expressed a

religious conception of his, including it (for the first time) as a structuralelement of the composition. He chose Der Auserwahlte (the Chosen One)to sing a twelve-tone row. It is strange that he never again referred to thisrow among the “first steps” of his method. We may wonder why. This facthas also passed unobserved among musicologists, even among those whohave tried to offer a complete list of all the rows.

In the history of Schonberg’s twelve-tone composition method, DieJakobsleiter should, for this and other reasons, assume a greater importancethan is normally attributed to it. At this point, the method also acquireda religious significance, as a means for the expression of the divinity. Butwhich divinity was this to be?

Was it at that time the God of the Christian/Lutheran church whichSchonberg had officially joined? No, rather a mystical personal variant.Was he to present the same God in Die biblische Weg or Moses und Aron?Or was this gradually to become, during the 20’s, the God of the HebrewBible? No, but again rather a mystical variant of his own.

Instead of forcing him into one or the other religious group, we preferto insist on the most important of the characteristics that were commonto these different Gods: God had no image, He could not be representeddirectly, He was too abstract to become personally manifest, He needed aprophet. Who could venture to assume this dangerous role?

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The performance is to be held on12 December 1912 (there is something to interpret here, 12.XII.12).22 June 1912, Alban Berg to Arnold Schonberg

1. The twelve-tone row of Die Jakobsleiter.In bars 361-363, Die Jakobsleiter (Schonberg 1915-1923) contains the

following row:

Csharp,Dsharp,B,F,E,D,C,Bflat ,Gsharp,A,Fsharp,G(2,4,12,6,5,3,1,11,9,10,7,8)

Example 1.Schonberg wrote this to have it sung by Der Auserwahlte [The Chosen

One]. Thus we are at the centre of the Oratorio, with the most significantcharacter. In the stages of mystical elevation towards God, the level of theChosen One is the intermediate one between earth and heaven, betweenguilty humanity and the divine judge.

The fourth level could serve as a guide, since it still possessed “Abbild... Glanz [image and splendour]”, but already started to be similar to thosethat were much higher, “wie dem Grundton der ferne Oberton [like theharmonics to the fundamental tone]”. This was thus the prophet who in-terpreted the signs of heaven, who gave them substance so that they couldfall under the eyes and ears of common mortals. Many tried to struggleagainst their doubts, asking for answers, but few, very few, seemed to beable to give them: this was the reason why the angel Gabriel, an affection-ate father, asked the “Chosen One” to draw closer to them. This is thebeginning of one of the few pages on which Schonberg wrote a date: “2September 1917” (on sheet 78, which contained bars 352-367, in the greatbook of rough drafts, Sk 15-22). May he have gone on with his compositionon that date after an interruption? Or did he not rather want, perhaps, toleave a temporal indication of the key moment of the work? Our prophet-musician left us as many as five drafts of the bars from 337 to 356, as if hewas trying to find something difficult and important.

Even the circumstances of its composition, therefore, indicate the im-portance of this passage. Schonberg wrote this down both on pages 44 and78 of the large book of rough drafts and on the final pages of a smaller

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book (Sk 17). It is interesting that in the first version, the eighth note ofthe row was a B natural, and not flat. But this must have been a pureoversight, because the missing flat required to create the complete row wasre-inserted in the other cases. This error and its correction clearly revealedSchonberg’s intention during the composition of the episode. What is some-what surprising is that subsequently, this first row, placed at the centralpoint of Die Jakobsleiter, was never to be explicitly mentioned again bythe composer, or even noted by any of the large number of commentators.(Maegaard 1972 and 1976)

In the episode of “The Chosen One”, our composer included the centralelements of his poetics, which he was to develop further in Moses und Aron.He did not want to draw close to the human race, but he was forced tobecome a part of it all the same, even if he knew that his “Wort dannunverstanden bleibt [word would not be understood]”. Being at the sametime their lord and servant, was his task to represent them and encouragethem, to celebrate them and to castigate them? The character was largelyfree from the agitation of the others, and calmly expressed himself in longlegato phrases -“cantabile” was what the composer indicated - ending upby becoming similar, not only in the baritone voice, to Gabriel.

He tried “dem Stoff zu entfliehen [to flee from matter]” aided by hisfeeling of nausea, but his hunger dragged him down. Thus he found himselfoverwhelmed by all the same vices and virtues as humanity. He despised theinheritances acquired; he stole and pilfered in order to “Ein Neues gewiß,ein Hoh’res vielleicht vorzubilden [create something undoubtedly new, per-haps higher]”. Now the baritone slowly arrived even higher, as far as G3,while the violins and the clarinets soared up fleetingly towards the sky. OurSchonberg was thus tormented here, like “The Chosen One”, by a natural-istic reflection, which by now was forced and insufficient in its imitativesymbologies, and which decomposed/split up into the pure relationships ofnew harmonic forms.

Humanity appeared to be the theme, and he was the variation; butsomething else pushed him “Hinuber [beyond this]”. Accompanied by ashrill trill of woodwind: “Mein Wort laß ich hier, muht euch damit! MeinForm nehm ich mit, sie steh euch indes voran ... [I leave my word here, workon it! I take my form away, with me, and yet it is before you]”. Now the songpushed up beyond the tessitura as high as Aflat in the fp of the brass whichwere starting a crescendo. The form, which Schonberg, the Chosen One,

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was creating, was to remain there, outside space and time,“bis sie wiedermit neuen Worten wieder den alten zu neuem Mißverstandnis in eurer Mitteerscheint [until it appeared again with new words, still not understood, aswith the old ones]”, amid humanity. The ff chromatic chords played by thewhole orchestra on the word “incomprehension” (bar 416) fell to a p andcontinued their diminuendo, arriving at a ppp. With the usual rallentandoto half the tempo (one crochet = 50), Gabriel sang: “Hier hast du Auge undOhr [Here you have an eye and an ear]”. The prophet’s difficult, unhappytask had been sketched out. Without any interruption, the angel addressesthe other sinners, pointing out how far behind they were with respect to him,the solitary forerunner. They were therefore to be satisfied with meditatingon the word, remaining at a distance from the form, because both of thesethings would confuse them. Yet this was not to seem a little thing to them,seeing that the prophet, who was similar to the Most High, revealed himselfeven in the smallest things. Later on, they would deservedly discover theform, mingling themselves in it, when they felt repulsion for the form closestto them. The chosen artist was to continue creating until he felt impure,creating from inside himself.

The following level, “Der Monk [The Monk]”, shows the recognitionof the original sin that still stained the Chosen One, that of pride. Afterexpounding his artistics poetics by means of the “Chosen One”, our mu-sician now echoed the moral doubts of his historical existence, leaving thescore deliberately without any constant, certain course. Immediately after-wards, Gabriel “leicht erstaunt, aber freundlich [slightly amazed, yet in afriendly manner]” commented: “Wie du doch schwankst und unsicher bist[How shaky and uncertain you are!]” All this did not happen to the monkso that he would again be excited by pleasure and pain, which were by nowonly concepts for him. He put himself to the test by himself. He himself[his guilt complex], and not the Lord, wanted a sacrifice. He had alreadymade the greatest one: “du warst reicher, eh’ du vollkommener wurdest.[you were richer before you became more perfect]”.

But the monk was forced all the same to continue to undergo experi-ences; he was to sin again, and by repenting he would purify himself. Asthe tempo gradually became slower and slower, ppp, he solemnly confirmedthat the ability to recognise seemingly innocent actions as sins had madehim more mature. As the muted trumpets echoed pp, Gabriel ordered:“Geh; verkunde und leide; sei Prophet und Martyrer. [Go, proclaim, suffer,

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be a prophet and a martyr]”.Schonberg ’s investiture seemed to be complete, but as for Seraphyte

(Balzac’s character who was the initial model for the Oratorio), the ambi-guity between earth and heaven could be solved only by reaching the dis-turbing next level. Strange details reinforce the impression that Schonbergwas inclined to identify himself with the levels of Jacob’s Ladder. It wasfor this reason that he was so interested in Balzac’s Seraphyte that he re-translated into German certain passages from a French edition that he pos-sessed (Balzac 1910). However, when he dealt with the physical appearanceof Wilfred, he seemed to go beyond mere translation. He reorganised it twoor three times, and underlined the point where Balzac described Wilfred’slimited height. The French text read “ses cheveux etaient noirs, epais etfins [his hair was black, thick and fine]”. But our composer was upset bythe German rendering of the description of the hair: “schwarz, weich unduppig [black, soft and luxuriant]” and without any hesitation crossed outthe “uppig [luxuriant]” substituting it with a pleonastic “fein [fine]”. Weare forced to suspect that his motivation was not exactly faithfulness toBalzac’s text.

In 1918, visiting Villa Mandl in Dobling, he wrote on the Visitors’Book: “I should not approach for I ...” and three bars from Jacob’s Ladder.(Stuckenschmidt 1977, 257) These words and notes exactly are those sungby The Chosen One in the bars 360-363 of the Oratorio, quoted at thebeginning with the twelve-tone row. Therefore, Schonberg considered themas they were his own signature and his motto.

The sixth level introduced on to the scene “der Sterbende [the dyingone]”, interpreted by “an acute female voice in the low register”. “Thedying one” sang/spoke, like the preceding levels, above all of his own dis-appointment. He had anxiously waited for the “Augenblick [moment]” ofabandoning life in order to receive “Aufklarung [illumination]” at last. Buthe had only had the impression of having already faced it before. He hadalready been pushed down through the centuries, passing through a thou-sand lives and suffering a thousand deaths. Slowing down pppppp [thusin the rough draft] to 4/4, the sufferings were now rendered sublime, theywere freed and at last they lifted him up. “Und er fliegt. Ich fliege...[And he flies. I fly...]”. The first violin began to hover higher and higheramid trills of piccolos, accompanied by the harp and the celesta: “Weiter!Weiter! Zum Ziel. [Onward! Onward! Towards the goal]” where he arrived

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“halb schmerzlich, halb freudig erstaunt [astounded, half sorrowful and halfhappy]”.

Beside the re-elaborations in his large book of rough drafts (Sk 15-22),our composer also added the dates “2 January 1918” and “8 January 1918”.He had composed one of the most analogical-onomatopoeic, and at the sametime symbolic deaths in all the history of European music. The episodewas concluded by two “markedly whispering” orchestral bars, picturesquelyblackened by arpeggios, glissandos and scales on the xylophone, celesta,piano, harps and strings, beneath the first trumpet playing, in a judgingtone, Csharp, D, E, F, G, Aflat (2,3,5,6,8,9). These were the six notes thatSchonberg had used to start his composition of the music in the rough draftbook, and later to open Die Leiter in the obstinate initial passage. In viewof their symbolic significance and their continual recurrence in the first partof the Oratorio, we have called them, the scale of the earth.

On February 5 1926, Schonberg was to cut out an article from theevening edition of the Berliner Tageblatt, with the following comment: “Ichhabe das aufgehoben, weil es ja ganz genau der Tod aus der Jakobsleiterist [I have kept it because it is exactly the same as the death in Jacob’sLadder]”. The article was as follows: “The last vision of Adolphe Willette,as our correspondent from Paris informs us, is narrated differently todayby certain newspapers compared with yesterday. Willette, who had sleptfor a few hours, woke up early at four o’clock and looked around the room.His face assumed an expression of perfect peace. He said, lightly: ‘I amon my way. I am flying in the clouds. Higher and higher! Now I am overthe Alps!’ With a rapid movement, the patient sat up and got out of bed,pushing aside the arms that wanted to offer him support, and went over tothe window, which was still dark. ‘I am rising higher and higher’, he saidwith an expression of great happiness. ‘Now I am going straight up, higherand higher, without stopping, as quick as an arrow - to heaven’. Then hefell down on the floor in silence. He was dead”. (Schonberg 1992, 196) Thusthe scene of Die Leiter had an (unexpected?) realistic interpretation.

On the seventh level of the scale, “Die Seele [The Soul]”, freed fromits heavy fleshliness, flew away towards heaven. Having lost the inertia ofmatter and its resistance due to the friction of the atmosphere, the tempoaccelerated considerably (a minim = about 70). Now outside the historicalreality, and starting to be a part of the pure harmony, the soul at lastsang a song without words, in a shrill soprano voice. The harmonic totality

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was obtained thanks to “shrill female voices”. These voices, which wereregularly doubled up by three clarinets, were to be sufficiently numerousfor the rhythm of the breathing not to be heard; seeing that they describedthe metamorphosis taking place from the heavenly point of view, whichignored the sensible elements, to focus attention on the necessary moralqualities, such as courage and strength. From below, on the contrary, thechorus (sopranos and basses) underlined the signs of change in the greatfinal transformation, such as the appearance of the rainbow on their clothes:this is a classic Biblical sign of the re-establishment of a connection betweenearth and heaven after the storm.

From above “Tilge die Sinne... Tilge den Verstand. [cancel the senses,cancel the intellect]”, from below “Erdenjammer [an earthly groan]”. Onthe choral panchromatism, the soul laid notes that grew longer and longer,more and more acute, arriving as high as the F above the line. “Lose dichauf [Dissolve yourself!]” Then down to the long C, B, Csharp. Finally,the archangel Gabriel sealed the great transformation: “Wenn du nichtmehr klagst, bist du nah. Dann ist dein Ich geloscht [When you no longercomplain, you are close. Then your Ego is dissolved]”.

Less sublime, but more peremptory than in the mystical ecstasy of asimilar departure, Schonberg was reduced to silence by a recall to militaryservice. “Enrolled in the army!! 19.9.1917”, he wrote on page 96 of hislarge book of rough drafts, next to bars 597-601. Later he wrote “30/XI.1917”, perhaps the date when he intended to go on with the composition,but he hardly made any progress. Finally, on the following page, he wrote“discharged from service again 7/12.1917”. He had been reduced, albeitonly for three months, to the level of a number among the many whosedesperate task was to shore up the collapse of the Austro-German empires.If his ego was not to be wholly overwhelmed by this, it had to start todetach himself from it, and thus he gradually modifed the nuances of hisposition, arriving at the mutation which has remained impressed for ourears in its transformation into musical language.

Nuvole in silenzio (Tonietti 200?) presents other reasons which lead usto think that Die Leiter was much closer to serial music than writers havecommonly believed so far. As it was interrupted at the “Großes symphonis-ches Zwischenspiel [Great Symphonic Interlude]”, little can be said aboutthe music that Schonberg would have composed for the part dedicated tothe souls after their ascent to heaven.

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In his letter to Kandinsky dated July 20, 1922, Schonberg still man-ifested his intention of finishing the music of Die Leiter. “When one’s ...in those 8 years found oneself constantly faced with new obstacles againstwhich all thinking, all power of invention, all energy, all ideas, proved help-less, so bedeutet das fur einen, der alles nur fur Idee gehalten hat, denZusammenbruch, so fern er nicht auf einen anderen hoheren Glauben im-mer mehr sich gestutzt hat. Was ich meine, wurde Ihnen am besten meineDichtung Jakobsleiter (ein Oratorium) sagen: ich meine - wenn auchohne alle organisatorischen Fesseln - die Religion. [for a man for whomideas have been everything it means nothing less than the total collapse ofthings, unless he has come to find support in ever increasing measure, inbelief in something higher, beyond. You would, I think, see what I meanbest from my libretto Jacob’s Ladder (an oratorio): what I mean is - eventhough without any organizational fetters - religion.] This was my one andonly support during those years -here let this be said for the first time.” ...

“It may interest you to know I am at present working on Jacob’s Ladder.I began it several years ago, but had to break off work (at one of themost rapt passages) in order to join the army. Seither konnte ich nichtwieder die Stimmung zur Fortsetzung finden [Since then I’ve never got backinto the mood to go on with it]. It seems, however, that it is meant togo ahead this year. It will be a big work: choir, solo voices, orchestra.Apart from that I plan to write a smaller theoretical book, Lehre vommusikalischen Zusammenhang [Theory of Musical Unity], which has alsobeen in my mind for several years and which is always being postponed- probably because it hasn’t yet matured. For the rest: chamber music,etc. Further, I am thinking about a Theory of Composition, for which I’vebeen making preliminary studies for years now.”(Schonberg 1992, 196-197;Schonberg Kandinsky 1984, 74-75)

Our composer sincerely revealed to his ex-companion of artistic achieve-ments how deeply the war had influenced his convictions. Jacob’s Ladderreflected the religious faith which was the only thing that had sustainedhim during those difficult years. He openly cursed, in no uncertain terms,the atonalists who troubled him and damaged him, taking him as an ex-ample, because they confused him with the politicised artistic movements.On September 19, 1917, he had interrupted the composition of Die Leiterbecause he had been called up, at the moment of maximum mystical ec-stasy when the soul rose to heaven. For years he had lacked the Stimmung

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(N.B. the inclination!), not the time, or the means to go on, and now, inJuly 1922, he spoke and wrote, for the first time, about having resumedhis composition. In contacting him again, Kandinsky seemed to force himto reconsider the war and his projects of that period. The letter, a longerletter, more open and more significant than many others, spoke about thepast - the Harmonielehre, the Lehre vom musikalischen Zusammenhang,Die Jakobsleiter, a theory of composition - that past which had largelyremained blocked, and unfinished. Was Schonberg’s future to be contin-uously filled with those remote projects that the painter helped to recall?The discovery that he had confessed the previous summer, and had usedin the “Praludium” of Suite fur Klavier (op. 25) remained hidden (like therow in Die Leiter) and minimised in an insignificant “chamber music, etc.”.Why did our artist-prophet not express himself with the same passion andconviction about the Funf Klavierstucke (op. 23) or Serenade (op. 24)?Maybe at that time he did not yet consider them to be compositions ofequal importance to the others that he mentioned to Kandinsky. The fu-ture of those musical works was still misty in 1922, even for a prophet ofthe calibre of Schonberg. Perhaps his will, his ideas, and his faith were notsufficient for him to succeed in creating them.

What he had written to Berg July 20, and the emphasis given to DieLeiter with Kandinsky, made it practically certain that Schonberg wouldcompose the “Großes symphonische Zwischenspiel” in that July of 1922 atTraunkirchen. He wrote about a hundred bars, arriving at bar 700: thelast ones that remained for Die Leiter. Their harmonic structure was thescale of the earth (2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9). In his book of rough drafts, entitled“Mit Gott [With God]”, which he started in 1922 (Sk22-23), he preparedthe bars to insert into the piece. From page 3 to page 14, he constructedseveral counterpoints based on the scale of the earth, in which it was alsopresented backwards and transposed to other levels. (Christensen 1979, II177-180)

While he studied the melodic course to be assigned to the first violon-cello for bars 615 ff., he always started from the theme of the earth Aflat ,G, D, Csharp (9, 8, 3, 2), and then he marked next to it Eflat , Fsharp , A,Bflat , B, C (4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 1), which were exactly the six complementarynotes that were missing to arrive at a row of twelve. (Es. 2)

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Example 2.Thus he enlarged the scale of the earth, gradually adding the missing

notes, until he succeeded in including all of them, but with some repetitions.He appeared to be searching for the passage towards the row, but he didnot seem to succeed wholly, just as the ascent to heaven which was themeaning of the intermezzo must have been difficult and dangerous.

He insistently continued his study of the mirror forms of the theme:backwards, inverted, the inverted form backwards, and various transposi-tions. He scribbled down the bars from 672 to 676, and from 680 to 684.He dedicated page 12 to the table containing six transpositions of a rowextracted from the melody for the violin in bars 32-36. He attempted tocreate a melody with all twelve notes, calculating its inverted and backwardforms, but he did not use it in Die Leiter. Was the musical idea at the basisof Die Leiter about to give birth, in the Interlude, to a serial page, in thestrict sense of the term? He must undoubtedly have thought about it, buton the score there were still only suggestions for games of combinationsand specular imitations, but no real row. Could it be that in spite of the“Praludium” for piano of the previous summer, and the discovery made, hehad not yet reflected seriously on the composition with twelve notes as thegeneral structure to be given to musical pieces? Could it be that even ifhe already had in his mind some of his serial laws, he did not feel that itwas suitable for the Interlude? As Kandinsky had reminded him, did DieLeiter seem to be only the work of another past age, marked by convictionswhich had collapsed with the defeat? Would it become difficult to insertinto the oratorio the future style that he was creating? But he had assigneda row in the oratorio to the Chosen One. The kind of serial project thatSchonberg was cultivating for Jacob’s Ladder was to emerge from his letterto his rival, Joseph Hauer.

However, in the Interlude, old and new ideas were side by side, enteringinto contact and conflict. In the space contained in the book of rough draftshe had just started (Sk22-23), old and new ideas were materially next toeach other: on page 3 Schonberg was working on Die Leiter, while on page 2he copied the first line of Petrarch’s “Sonett”, to use it for his Serenade, “O,konnt ich je der Rache” [Oh could I of revenge], and immediately afterwardshe resumed the scale of the earth. On page 14 he wrote bars 681-689 withthe vocalisations of ‘The Soul’, again on the scale of the earth; from pages15 to 18, instead, he outlined bars for the Serenade. It would seem to

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be legitimate to imagine that what could be heard, still confusedly, in theInterlude became more visible to his eye in the written page and mightalready have existed in a clear form in our composer’s head. In a word,while in the Interlude, Schonberg had, with difficulty, reached the watershedbetween the valley of atonality and that of seriality, in the “Sonett” forthe Serenade, like a second Moses, he cleft the rock from which the waterflowed down towards the new destination. In the desert that had becomeinhospitable and silent behind him, the old source seemed to have dried up,while the one he had just discovered began to babble, crystal clear, andgrow in its passage over the stones.

In 1922, Hauer published an article entitled “Spharenmusik”. (Hauer1922) Schonberg made copious comments on it, point by point, in the copyof Melos in his library. After constructing a kind of Pythagorean or Kep-lerian analogy between the musical notes and the planets, which is recalledin the title, our composer from Austria expounded his conception of tropenand the twelve-tone system.

Next to Hauer’s affirmation that “Innerhalb 12 Tonen darf sichkeiner wiederholen, auch keiner ausgelassen werden - das ist ja selbstver-standlich. Gleiche Tone mussen so weit wie moglich von einander entfernt

werden. Das macht man so, indem man sie in zwei Gruppen zu je sechsTonen trennt. [underlined by Schonberg. Within a statement of the twelvetones, no note may be repeated and none omitted - this is self-evident.Like tones must be separated from one another as far as possible: thisis done by dividing them into two groups, each of six tones]” Schonbergleft a long comment. Points 6 and 7 are of interest for us here. “6)‘indem man sie in 2 Gruppen trennt’: (auch das habe ich schon vor Hauerin der Jakobsleiter getan und zw. angeregt durch Skrjabin Verfahren das imBlauen Reiter geschildert war). [By dividing them into two groups. (I havedone this too, before Hauer, in Jacob’s Ladder. Granted, I was inspired byScriabin’s procedure as described in Der blaue Reiter)]7) Die Idee der Tropen ist nicht ubel, wenn auch durchaus willkurlich. Esist gewiss nicht unpraktisch so vorzugehen und derartige Hexachorde hatman ja zu ahnlichen Zwecken schon angewendet. Der Hauptvorteil ist, dassder geringste Abstand gleicher Tone in einer Stimme 6 ist. Das ist nichtviel und nicht sehr kosmisch, sondern bloss menschlich, aber in diesem Sinnkann man es gelten lassen. Mein Versuch aber ist besser und musikalischer.[The idea of tropes is not bad, even if entirely arbitrary. It is certainly not

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impractical to proceed in this way, and such hexachords have already beenused for similar purposes. The main advantage is that the smallest distancewithin a line between the same note is six. This is not much and not verycosmic, instead purely human. In this sense it can’t be faulted. But myexperiments are better and more musical.]” (Schonberg 1922a; Simms 1987,124, 132; Tonietti 200?, ch. 38)

The conflict with Hauer was bringing to the light aspects of Schonberg’scharacter that had so far remained hidden, or ambiguous. The article couldnot be ignored because it touched the most important and delicate pointsof his ideal construction. Those twelve notes of the Nomos op. 19, which atthe time did not seem to form the piece as an organic whole, now became areal method of composition. Furthermore, they were offered to the publicin one of the leading publications for modern music: in this way, a truedodecaphonic law was developed by means of the tropen.

On July 25, 1922, at Traunkirchen, Schonberg decided to transform allhis comments into a long letter directly to Hauer.

“From your article ‘Music of the Spheres’ in Melos, as well as froma few of your other publications that are known to me, I gather that youhave developed a theory whose putative laws I sought to clarify first in1910 in my Harmony book, and whose further development over the 12years since that time I have substantially pursued. .... Unfortunately, I amnot so far advanced that I can make the fruits of my inquiries public. Onthe contrary, it will still be some time before I can write my ‘Lehre vommusikalischen Zusammenhang’ in which the fundamentals of ‘Compositionwith Twelve Tones’ will be expounded. Where my inquiry has led me andwhere it stands at the present habe ich vor mehreren Monaten in einigenVortragen meinen Schulern mitgeteilt. [I communicated to my students ina few lectures given several months ago.] Even if the results of more than10 years of thinking and investigating in theoretischer Hinsicht vielleichtkarglich genannt werden durfen, so sind sie es doch nicht in praktischer, daes mir gelingt, die Logik, die bisher die musikalischen Kunstwerke geregelthat darzustellen und auf die Komposition mit 12 Tonen anzuwenden. [mayhave led to a perhaps paltry outcome in theoretical terms, it has not been soin practice, since I have succeeded in applying to twelve-tone compositionthe logic which formerly ruled in music]. I am highly interested that you,in different ways from me, mehr darum bemuhen die kosmischen Zusam-menhange einer neuen Kunst zu finden; es ist dies eine Gedankenrichtung,

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der ich (wie die Astrologen befurchten, was mir bis jetzt unbewusst gebliebenist) mit meinen Sympathien zuneige. [are concerned more with the cosmicrelations of a new art. This is a direction in thought towards which I (as theastrologers fear, which was unknown to me until now) am sympatheticallyinclined.]”

But then he added: “Not sent, because the result would no doubt besome offensive reply from Mr. Hauer. Or, at best, nothing would comeof it, certainly nothing reasonable.” (Schonberg 1922a; Simms 1987, 122,131; Tonietti 200?, ch. 38) Schonberg had interpreted the criticism of the‘genius’ composer and his folly, contained in Hauer’s article, as directed athimself. However, he did not consider Hauer to be a real rival, who wantedto remove him from his destined role (of a prophet?), but on the contrary,as the expression of another religion, based on common men in the place ofchosen ones. On this level, then, no kind of dialogue even exist.

Schonberg was afraid of being overtaken along the road leading beyondfree atonality, at least as a musician. Here, Hauer offered some rules toprevent centres of attraction among the notes from re-forming, as a resultof a lack of rigour or by chance. Consequently, Schonberg had to makehaste to propose his own rules. He expected, at least, quite reasonably,that the results he had already achieved would be recognised. A rivalryhad by now sprung up between them, which could no longer be minimisedor avoided, but which was to influence the evolution of their attitudes andtheir works. For the moment, it compelled our composer to leave asidehis enigmas. Consequently, he revealed himself more clearly to us commonmortals; or at least, to those mortals interested more in understanding hisoriginality within that great epoch, than in fanning the flames of a strugglebetween unequal beings, like the eagle and the whale.

Schonberg contemplated a polyphonic structure (and not monodic, likeHauer) in which the row would not be monotonously always the same. Thespecular forms allowed him to multiply the original row, obtaining new,different forms which, however, remained closely connected to it by a law.The sixth point of his comment seemed to betray the most jealously keptsecret. The six notes chosen for the ‘scale of the earth’, used in Jacob’sLadder, were only the first group, which he planned to complete with asecond group, as if it were a question of forming a scale of twelve notes bymeans of two tropen. In passing from the first part, with the ‘scale of theearth’, to the second part beyond the clouds, would our prophetic musician

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have used the six missing notes? Undoubtedly, ‘the Chosen One’, with histwelve notes of the row, reflected heaven as well, but did Schonberg reallyintend to write the music for him choosing a characteristic scale, as he haddone with the earth? Perhaps a permutation of 1, (2, 3), 4, (5, 6), 7, (8, 9),10, 11, 12: C, Dsharp, Fsharp, A, Asharp, B ? In his comment on Hauer’s“Spharenmusik”, the suspicion that the dualism between earth and heavenwas symbolised in the musical dualism of the scales chosen for the two parts,while the unity of the cosmos appeared in the totality of the twelve notes,now found indirect confirmation. For Schonberg, Hauer’s attempt, definedas “nicht ubel”, was “bloss menschlich” and “nicht sehr kosmisch” comparedwith his own, which was “besser und musikalischer”. The hypothesis, albeithighly probable, would seem to be impossible to prove, as there is no musicalscore on which it can be verified. However, we have seen that also theextant drafts of the second part sometimes contain twelve notes, and onceeven the very six notes that are missing in the scale of the earth. Theywere thus heading in that direction. In this way, just as it is possible to getan idea of a whole vase by following a hypothetical symmetry based on afragment, also Die Leiter revealed glimpses, albeit with interruptions, of thegeneral musical project. If it had been completed, Die Jakobsleiter wouldhave been the first twelve-note composition. (Of course the interpretationcrucially depends on the definition one gives of a serial composition; videalso Sichardt 1990, 47 and Haimo 1990, 90-91.)

Schonberg confirmed this with his comment on the low margin of“Atonale Musik” by Hauer (November 1923, Die Musik). “Dieses ‘Gesetz’welches aber kein Naturgesetz ist, habe ich lange vor Hauer gefunden undzum erstenmal in meiner ‘Symphonie’ (Jakobsleiter) verwendet. [This ‘law’,which however is not a law of nature, have I found long before Hauer andthe first time I used it in my ‘Symphony’ (Jakobsleiter).]” (Tonietti 200?,ch. 50; also confront Simms 1987, 126.)

By identifying the scale of the earth as one of Hauer’s tropes, Schonbergwas claiming priority in the use of the hexachord. But it must have seemedinsufficient for him to go back to 1917, and consequently, in order to gain afew more years, he arrived at Der blaue Reiter, dated 1912, that is to say,ten years earlier. The rivalry also led him to admit -an extremely rare case-the influence of Skrjabin, whose Prometheus had been presented there byL. Sabaneev.

Thus Schonberg must have taken his idea of choosing six notes, as the

14

scale for the earthly part of Die Leiter, from the article about Prometheus.However, we should remember that the hexachord used by our composer,Csharp, D, E, F, G, Aflat sounded very different in its notes and in the inter-vals; anyway, permuting them, he changed the succession of the notes andtherefore their intervals. What else interesting could he find in Skrjabin’sProme- theus? Treating art as a mystical process would undoubtedly havearoused Schonberg’s enthusiasm, the Russian’s religious ecstasies had notbeen obtained by exalting to the maximum the seductions of the senses,in a work of total (post-Wagnerian) art. As Sabaneev wrote, “His highlyoriginal harmony contains in itself the most multiform nuances, startingfrom mystical terror, and ending up with a radiant ecstasy and a caress-ing erotism”. Thus Skrjabin still remained on the earth, and our prophetat most would have left him a place on the first level of Die Leiter. TheRussian, whose religiosity is different from that of Schonberg, had above alladded to hearing another sense, the sight of colours, in his representationof the mystical idea.

In the letter which he did not send to his rival, Schonberg seemed toreveal his faith in the music of the spheres. And he did this at the end, inlate July 1922, when he still had in his mind the Interlude of Jacob’s Ladder,and he was already thinking of Petrarca’s “Sonett” for the Serenade. In hisLehre vom musikalischen Zusammenhang he was to have expressed the ideaswhich he had been working on for twelve years, that is to say, ever since theperiod of Harmonielehre. This was to have rendered public the principles for‘twelve-tone composition’, but it was still a thing of the future. He admittedthat their efforts shared a common goal, and in order to convince Hauer thathe, too, had made considerable progress in this direction, he called somewitnesses. “I communicated to my students in a few lectures given severalmonths ago.” Unfortunately, it is not exactly clear when, to whom, and inwhat form our maestro did so. Was he perhaps referring to the year before,when he had communicated to Rufer or to Stein the discovery destined toguarantee the primacy of German music? Here, however, he seemed to betalking about meetings that were much less secret. (Tonietti 200?, ch. 34)And yet in May 1951, our composer was to recall, referring to his pupil,Webern: “I, ..., immediately and exhaustively explained to him each of mynew ideas (with the exception of the method of composition with twelvetones - that I long kept secret, because as I said to Erwin Stein, Webernimmediately uses everything I do, plan or say, ...).” (Maegaard 1972, 96;

15

Schonberg 1950 (1984), 484)In any case, poor Schonberg, who might have kept his discovery a

secret so long in order to avoid the rivalry with Webern, who, after all,was an ex-pupil of his, must now have thought that it had been a wasteof time to do so. And furthermore, for this same reason he risked beingpreceded by a stranger like Hauer. Whatever idea he had had of a row sofar, his resentment was now leading him to produce and to demonstratesomething else, something clearer and more precise, not only theoretical,but also practical. He saw the row as the result of “logic” applied to themusical work of art. And this was the reason why he was more appreciativeof Hauer’s efforts to find “the cosmic relations of a new art”, that is tosay, to arrive at the music of the spheres. He inclined towards it with allhis feelings, even if, as the astrologers explained, it remained unconsciousfor him. We find here, in a written, direct form, which could not be moreexplicit, the twelve-tone composition indicated as an expression both of‘logic’ and of ‘cosmic relations’. It thus appeared to be surprising hownaturally our prophetic musician united, without too many explanations (atleast for Hauer) elements of a scientific character with others of a mysticaland astrological nature.

There are two important texts to examine in this sense. The first isBerg’s letter to Schonberg dated December 27, 1920 (Berg-Schonberg 1987),which quoted Johannes Kepler’s Die Zusammenklange der Welten (editionof 1918; Tonietti 200?, ch. 30). The second is Schonberg ’s letter to Al-bert Einstein, dated January 1, 1925, in which our composer presented, asLeibniz had done, (his own) music as “auf wissenschaftlichen und okkultenErkenntnissen beruhenden Hirn-Kunst [cerebral art, based on scientific andoccult knowledge]”. (E. R. Schonberg 1987, 153; Tonietti 1997, 2) This as-pect of Schonberg’s poetics is particularly underlined in Nuvole in silenzio(Tonietti 200?, ch. 30, 32, 38, 58). However, we will resist the tempta-tion here to take a direction (professionally congenial to us) which wouldbe more appropriate for a conference on the subject “Schonberg und seinWissenschaft”.

Darkness is the blackness of the Torahand light is the whiteness of the Torah.Zohar

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2. Schonberg’s Gods.We have placed the most significant impulse in Schonberg’s progress

towards twelve-tone composition in Die Jakobsleiter. This impulse, then,was influenced in various ways by that historical context. The degree towhich our composer was influenced by the Great War has been discussedin detail in Nuvole in silenzio (Tonietti 200?, Part I) and we will leave itaside here.

Let us start to examine here, instead, which divinity Schonberg’s musicintended to represent, because there is no doubt that this was the basicintention of our composer, as we have already seen in his letter to Kandinsky.

Both during his lifetime, however, and in his writings and his compo-sitions, Schonberg has confronted us with a multiplicity of different Gods.We know very well that the two main religious communities to which heofficially belonged were Lutheran Christianity and Judaism. We will beable to take into consideration a hypothetical period of Catholicism onlyin the presence of a register of a Catholic church in Vienna containing hisname. (Letter from Schonberg to Gradenwitz dated July 20, 1934; Tonietti200?, ch. 64) However, we will conclude that the qualities of Schonberg’sGods cannot be reconciled with the image of God that is dear to the RomanCatholic church.

Schonberg became a Lutheran by choice, even if he came from a familyof Jewish traditions. At that time, he preferred to feel that he was a memberof another culture. Like many others, including Gustav Mahler or KarlKraus, just to quote a couple of his friends, he would have preferred thepathway of assimilation. But it is already typical that he had avoidedfollowing in the footsteps of the other two, and integrating into the Catholicculture of Vienna, and instead he had chosen the Lutheran Christianity ofBerlin. On the contrary, he entered the synagogue in Paris, in the year1933, as a reaction against the anti-Semitic movements and as a protestagainst the new Nazi party that had come to power to Germany.

When the manifestos inviting him to leave the country came out in1921, during the summer holidays on the Mattsee, his reaction was quitedifferent: silence. At least, this was what transpired from Berg’s letter tohis wife, Helene, dated June 28, 1921: “..... ....... [Nobody must knowabout the ‘anti-Jewish’ demonstrations]”. (Berg 1965, ???) Schonberg didnot say anything about this in his letter to Willem Mengelberg, dated July6. (Schonberg Mengelberg 1982) But the news leaked out all the same

17

in Vienna. The notorious newspaper, Neue Freie Presse, which was theconstant target of Karl Kraus’s criticism, published the news, thus makingevery attempt to keep the secret useless: an article was published in theissue of June 30, 1921, under the title, “Der Taufschein des Komponisten”.Berg related the whole story to his Helene that same day. It appearedfrom this that it was the Town Council that directly required Schonberg toprove “daß er kein Jude sei [that he was not a Jew]”, exhibiting documents.Otherwise, he would have to leave the place immediately. (Schonberg 1992,192; Tonietti 200?, ch. 31)

In the letter of July 8, 1921 to Emil Hertzka, Schonberg wrote. “Ichdurfte Mattsee in der nachsten Zeit verlassen. Die Grunde dafur werdenSie ja schon durch die ekelhafte Pressenotiz erfahren haben. ...: meinePrivatangelegenheiten gehen die Offentlichkeit nichts an, erraten haben,ohne dass ich es ihnen sagen muss. ... Wahrscheinlich hat irgend ein Som-merfrischling das auf dem Gewissen, dass ich jetzt unschuldig durch alleZeitungen des In- und Auslandes geschleift werde, wo ich es so gut ver-stehe derlei hinzunehmen ohne einen Ton laut werden zu lassen. [I couldleave Mattsee in the next time. You should already have known its reasonsthrough the filthy news ...: my private affairs do not concern the public,they guessed it without having, I, to tell them anything. ... Likely, duringSummerholidays, somebody bears on his conscience that now I, innocent,am thrown into every domestic or foreign newspaper; while I understand itso well that I accept such a thing without letting a single tone escape.]”

In the end, in his famous letters to Kandinsky of 1923, Schonberg dis-covered that he could not be what he wanted: “It is dass ich ... keinDeutscher ... bin [that I am not a German], not a European, indeed per-haps scarcely even a human being (at least, the Europeans prefer the worstof their race to me) sondern dass ich Jude bin [but I am a Jew]”. (April19, 1923; Schonberg 1992, 204; Schonberg Kandinsky 1984, 76) Is this notthe tone of a person who would have preferred to be considered an au-thentic German composer? And he expected the worst: “Wozu aber sollder Antisemitismus fuhren wenn nicht zu Gewalttaten? [But what is anti-Semitism to lead to if not to acts of violence?]”. (4 May 1923; Schonberg1992, 205; Schonberg Kandinsky 1984, 81) When, in 1914-1915, in Kriegs-Wolken Tagebuch 1914, he had examined the clouds in the sky to prophesythe victory of Germany in the Great War, he had been mistaken. Now, un-fortunately, he was to prove only too right. In traditions, including that of

18

the Bible, prophets are more successful in announcing disasters. (Schonberg1914; Tonietti 200?, ch. 1, 43)

During his Lutheran period, however, Schonberg had not been anorthodox. The most important text that prepared Die Jakobsleiter wasBalzac’s Seraphyte. Here the French novelist had created a story to ex-plain the religion of Emanuel Swedenborg. (Balzac 1910; Tonietti 200?,ch. 8) In his library, Schonberg had a copy of Swedenborg’s TheologischeSchriften. (Swedenborg 1904; Tonietti 200?, ch. 10) Even more interest-ing were Morgenrote im Aufgang and the other books left by the Germanmystic of the early 17th century, Jakob Boehme. He read the LutheranBible, breaking down the words into letters in order to discover their se-cret meaning (Boehme 1912; Tonietti 200?, ch. 16) It might have beenhere that Schonberg got the idea of making the chorus of the Sanftergebe-nen [Submissive ones] of Jacob’s Ladder to sing only the letter “m”. Thesame procedure was to reappear in Moses und Aron with the chorus of the“Dornbusch [Burning Bush]”. Thus Schonberg was mainly interested indiscovering some of the hidden meanings in the Bible. In this way, he triedto go beyond the literal interpretations linked with the historical events,in order to understand the abstract allegories. In the same way, he hadarrived also at the text of Die Leiter.

His readings of August Strindberg went in the same direction. He wasnot only interested in the Strindberg of Inferno and Legenden, that is tosay, in the Strindberg who contemplated the struggle between Jacob andthe angel, painted by Eugene Delacroix in the church of Saint-Sulpice inParis. Above all, it was in Ein Blaubuch, Ein Blaubuch mit ... and Eindrittes Blaubuch that he read:

“Phonetic laws, in particular those of the Kabala, often recall the lawsof harmony. The note surely has a numerical value = gematry. The accordsof the seventh are anagrams. The so-called retrogade canon, the inversionof the letters, is certainly equal in all to the schema of counterpoint.(

a b c d e f g hh g f e d c b a

)retrograde(

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 88 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

)19

counterpointIn the 18th century a machine existed, called the melograph, which elabo-rated a musical theme, turning it into a fugue. This must have been likethose machines by which one invents and solves ciphers, or like the machineswhich calculate logarithms.” (Strindberg 1908, 596-597; Tonietti 200?, ch.14; Tonietti 1997, 9)

The Swedish writer, who narrates that he had met the angel in Paris,brings us back to the Swedish mystic who had written of having spoken tothe angel in London.

Because interested in such characters, we cannot consider our com-poser to be just a lukewarm follower (or even worse, an opportunist) ofthe Lutheran Christian faith. The Gospel had, however, penetrated intohis culture to such an extent that as a consequence of a loan, Webern wasonce compared to the “Klein Zaches [little Zaccheus]”, the tax-collector whowas forced to climb up a sycamore tree in order to see Christ. (Luke 19;Schonberg 1923a; Schonberg 1992, 203) Even more significant was the pagewhere he had felt obliged, by those who considered him to be a precursoronly, to compare himself to John the Baptist.

“Ich bin offenbar Johannes der Taufer (wahrscheinlich weil ich einenauf einer Silberschussel denkbaren Kopf habe) und sie kochen mit demWasser, mit dem ich taufe; einstweilen taufen auch sie, obwohl Tauflingefehlen. [I am clearly John the Baptist (probably because I have a head thatcan easily be imagined on a silver charger) and they cook using the waterwith which I baptise; for the moment they baptise as well, although thebaptismal candidates are lacking.]” (Schonberg 1923b; Tonietti 200?, ch.44) Again in the last of the Moderne Psalmen op. 50c, the ninth, we findthe figure of Christ taken into consideration. “Jesus was undoubtedly themost pure, innocent, selfless and idealistic person that has ever appearedon this earth.” (Schonberg 1956; Tonietti 200?, ch. 64)

Lastly, these religious attitudes were not separated from the musicaluniverse of our composer, but were an intense part of it, as we have seen.Consequently, the rules for composition, as in the above-mentioned pageof Strindberg, became “Vexier Regeln”. (Schonberg 1923c) In June 1923,Schonberg must have read the article by Heinrich Schenker dedicated toBach, which appeared in the relative issue of Die Musik. (Schenker 1923)The analysis of the musicologist from Vienna, who was a pupil of Bruckner,aroused his criticism, which he wrote here and there on the text. He also

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felt the need to write a couple of pages on the subject. The one dated June7 reads as follows:

“Gerade den Fehler den er anderen vorwerfen konnte, macht er nun hierselbst: er sieht den Stil der Klassiker an als eine “Errungenschaft” uber dieman nicht mehr hinaus kann. Als Errungenschaft, als einen technischenHohepunkt, als das letzte! Darum meint er, dass die alten Niederlandernicht mehr unter Komponieren verstanden haben, als sich durch die Fuxis-chen Regeln sagen lasst; namlich nicht mehr, als dabei offen zutage tritt.

ABER DIESEN REGELN SIND V E X I E R R E G E L N !!!Sie geben in der Form von Stimmfuhrungsvorschriften scheinbar eine

Aesthetik. In Wirklichkeit aber sind das diejenigen Verbote, durch welcheausgeschlossen wird, wessen man sich enthalten will, wenn man eine gedan-klich richtig durchdachte Komposition zustandebringen will. Wie die gedan-kliche Durcharbeitung auszusehen hat, wird nicht verraten: entweder wares den E i n g e w e i h t e n selbstverstandlich, oder

A l l e n G e h e i m n i s solange sie nicht (wie ich) durch Entratselungder Regeln dieses Geheimnis fur ihre Person geluftet hatten.

So hat man es vielleicht mit allen Geheimlehren gehalten.[Now he [Schenker] himself makes the same mistake here that he could

accuse the others of making: he conceives of the style of the classics asa ‘conquest’ from which it is impossible to depart. As a conquest, as theclimax of technique, as the last one! Thus he means that the ancient Flemishmasters knew no more about composing than transpired from the rules of[Johann] Fux; in other words, no more than what is openly apparent.

BUT THESE RULES ARE VEXIER REGELN!!![encoded, magical, rules, based on an enigma]

They clearly give an aesthetic principle, in the form of prescriptions for thebehaviour of the parties. But in reality they create the prohibition by whichit is possible to exclude whatever one wishes to avoid, when one desires tocompose an intellectual [abstract] work, rightly elaborated in every detail.How the intellectual elaboration should appear is not unveiled: either it wasevident for the iniziated or it was a secret for everybody, until they (like me)deciphered the rules and discovered this secret for themselves. In this way,perhaps, it has been maintained, together with all the occult doctrines]”.

Thus the ancient mirror forms of the Flemish polyphonists, which ourprophetic composer was using in his serial works of these years, appeared tohim as Vexier-Regeln, secret rules for the initiated to decipher. His faith in

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an occult doctrine closely connected with music came to the light in thesepages. What was only confusedly visible in Die Jakobsleiter and in therelative mystical texts, now acquired a sharper outline and a precise form.In his letter to Albert Einstein, Schonberg was to be even more explicit.(Schonberg 1987; Tonietti 1997; Tonietti 200?, ch. 45, 58) The task assignedto the composer (by whom?) thus became that of expressing a similardivinity hidden among the letters of words, decomposed and permuted, bymeans of a similar procedure of abstract combinations extended to musicalnotes. The six notes that recur in Die Jakobsleiter, the ones that we calledthe scale of the earth, make up a scale, and not a theme, because they arepermuted, and do not maintain the same intervals. They do not have to befixed in our memories as a possible melody.

When he changed his official religion to Hebraism, during the dramaticyears of exile in the United States, Schonberg’s correspondents became therabbis and exiles like himself. And yet he still succeeded in maintainingsome of the aspects of his preceding mysticism that were most dear to him.His integration into the new community was not to prove easy. There weretwo main points of contrast with its official representatives. Schonbergbelieved that the solutions they proposed for the dramatic problems ofthat historic moment were wrong or inadequate, both in the negative senseas regards Germany, and in the positive sense as regards the future stateof Israel. He was to go so far as to propose himself as the founder of anew movement, sacrificing his own life like Der Monk in Jacob’s Ladder.(Tonietti 200?, ch. 58)

The second reason for contrast regarded Jewish music, which somepeople would have expected of him. But Schonberg wrote to Albert Einsteinin the above-mentioned letter: “Zur Sache selbst habe ich zu sagen, dass esmeines Wissens eine judische Musik -Kunstmusik- derzeit nicht giebt, wennauch, wie ich glaube, alle abendlandische Musik auf Juden weist und ihreEntwicklung, ja vielleicht ihre Grundprinzipien dem judischen Wesen undGeist verdankt. [To the matter itself, I must say that to my knowledgethere is no Jewish music - art music - at this time, though, as I believe, allwestern music points to Jews and even perhaps owes the development of itsbasic principles to the Jewish essence and spirit.]” (E. R. Schonberg 1987;Tonietti 1997, 1; Tonietti 200?, ch. 58)

Unlike Gustav Mahler, Bela Bartok or Igor Strawinsky, our composerdid not seek his inspiration in ethnic or popular music of any kind, which he

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considered to be confined to the earth. Some of his writings, such as the DreiSatiren op. 28, or “Volksmusik und Kunstmusik” or others suggest this idea.(Schonberg 1922b; Schonberg 1923d; Schonberg 1926a; Schonberg 1926b;Schonberg 1934) For him, Kunstmusik had become that of Bach, Beethoven,or Wagner. His music transcended, like his God (whether Lutheran orJewish), the world of feelings, and the world of matter.

The half page dated April 16, 1923, entitled “Verwandtschaft [Affinity]”is significant in this respect. (Schonberg 1923e)

“Wahrend ich mir von einem Grammophon eine Carusoplatte vorsin-gen lasse, klingt plotzlich ein unerklarlicher Schall mitten hinein in dieschonen Tone. Wir finden bald die Ursache: ein Kutscher, der sich mitseinen Pferden auf solche Art zu verstandigen weiß, ist der Urheber dieserLaute.

Was hatte Caruso in den Volkszahlungsbogen unter Rasse unter Be-rucksichtigung dieses akustischen Umstandes angegeben, wenn man ihmgesagt hatte, der Urheber dieser Laute gehore nicht nur derselben Gat-tung Lebewesen an, wie er, sondern sei auch weiß, etc. Was aber hatteer geschrieben, wenn man ihm gesagt hatte, die germanisch arische Rasseschreie ebenso und nur die semitische verstehe es, solche Außerungen zuunterlassen. Wagner, Schopenhauer, Bismarck und andere hatten naturlichsofort ihre Gemeinschaft mit dem furchterlichen Schreier anerkannt undkonstatiert, daß sie mit dem Semiten weniger gemein haben.

Ich will’s ihnen gerne glauben.[As I play a record of Caruso on my gramophone, I suddenly hear

an incomprehensible noise amid the beautiful notes. The cause is soondiscovered: a coachman, who communicates with his horse in the way, isthe author of this cry. Bearing in mind these acoustic circumstances, whatwould Caruso have declared in the column ‘race’ in the census form, if some-one had told him that the author of this cry not only belongs to the samespecies of human beings as him, but is also white, etc. But what would hehave written if he had been told that the Germanic Aryan race shouts in thesame way, and that only the Semitic race abstains from such expressions?Wagner, Schopenhauer, Bismarck and others, of course, would immediatelyhave recognised their common interests with that terrible screamer, andwould have confirmed that they have little in common with Semites. I amquite prepared to grant this to them]”.

Schonberg found Caruso similar to the coachman, who spoke to his

23

horse in the same way as the Italian sang. Now he was also comparingthe “Germanic Aryans” to them, with their similar shouting. Thus, eventhe most famous “Aryans”, who thought they were totally separated fromthe “Semites”, would find themselves in the same company. In 1923, theSemites had become those who, while not expressing themselves in this way,seemed to him to be furthest from the horses, those who most transcendednature.

He wanted to compose transcendent music to express his transcendentGod. Consequently he had tried to find a method to purify the musicaldiscourse from every naturalistic residue. Schonberg did not believe thathe could achieve his aim simply by means of Jewish music (whether ethnicor Biblical cantillation), just as in the pages of the Bible (whether Hebrewor Lutheran) the surface level reveals only the historical events of a people.On the contrary, God is hidden. How can He be unveiled?

During his period that we will define as Lutheran, Schonberg had foundseveral hints in the pages of Boehme, Swedenborg, Balzac, Strindberg; nowwhere could he seek them? But it is not so easy to find the answer. Prob-ably, the aspect of Jewish tradition that may appear most mystical andesoteric to us is the Cabala. Unfortunately, this time Schonberg has hiddenit from us really well, as he hid the row in the case of Der Auserwahlte. Theterm is used very few times explicitly. We have found an allusion to theCabala in Harmonielehre. There had already been a reference to “cabalisticmathematics” in his letter to Ferruccio Busoni dated 24 August 1909. Itwas again mentioned, perhaps for the last time, at the beginning of KolNidre op. 39. This was composed in 1938, at the request of the rabbi ofLos Angeles, Jacob Sanderling, and the text opened with the words: “TheCabala tells a legend”. (Schonberg 1939)

The most singular allusion to the Cabala, however, is not that of KolNidre, but it takes us back to the classification into levels followed by ourartist in Die Jakobsleiter. Among his papers, he left enigmatic drawings ofcubes, on the faces of which he wrote: “Atheisten, Sozialisten, Indifferenten,Zionisten ... [atheists, socialists, indifferent, Zionists] ...” or he drew rowsordered in ascending scales, above the heading “Gliederung des Judentums[Structure of Jewry]” He thought he could classify the Jews by means ofthese cubes, ordering them in accordance with their origin - West, East,Far East - , in accordance with their political positions - nationalists, inter-nationalists (indifferent), orthodox, socialists (communists), conservatives

24

(fascists). (Schonberg 1992, 352; Tonietti 200?, ch. 58) But why did heuse the cube? It contains the six directions: “Ob rechts, ob links, vorwartsoder ruckwarts, bergauf oder bergab [Right or left, forward or backward,uphill or downhill]” which he used at the beginning of Jacob’s Ladder. Heused six notes for the scale of the earth ... The circle of our story is thusclosing, like the soul of the cosmos for Kepler.

In the drawing, however, the term Cabala is not present. If this is anallusion, it must necessarily fit in with our interpretation. On the contrary,in the above-mentioned letter to Einstein, the reference to it is direct andin the form that by now we must expect: “Die Kunst der Niederlander ein-erseits erinnert in vielem an das was man von Talmud und Kabbala weissund anderseits haben wir in der zum Teil von Juden durchtsetzten Zige-unermusik das Gegenstuck ... [The art of the Netherlands on the one hand,is reminiscent in many ways of that which one knows from the Talmud andCabala, and, on the other hand, in Gypsy music, which has been partiallyinfluenced by Jews, one has the opposite ...]”. (E. R. Schonberg 1987, 153,155; Tonietti 1997, 1-2; Tonietti 200?, ch. 58) But the opposite of what?The opposite of Kunstmusik, the “scientific and occult” kind already quotedto Einstein. On account of this ambiguity, Schonberg did not want to bemixed with Jewish musicians. And the same letter shows that he refusedthe classification of the critic Leichtentritt “die meinen Rang innerhalb derjudischen Musiker geringer ansetzt, als unter allen Musikern [which placesmy level among Jewish musicians lower than all other musicians].”

He did not feel now that he was understood by the Jewish community,as at the beginning he had not been understood by the Viennese, while hisbeloved Germans of Berlin could no longer express their appreciation forhim. It was the tragedy of his life: Nemo propheta in patria.

In the different periods and places of his life and his works, Schonberghad different divinities. The God represented by the angel Gabriel in Jakob-sleiter seems to be the same one who gave strength to the angel Michael inDer deutsche Michel, who sided with Germany during the Great War, thesame one who is above the clouds in Kriegs-Wolken Tagebuch 1914: themystical variant of a Lutheran Christian God. (Tonietti 200?, ch. 1, 2, 3,5, 7, 9). The attitudes assumed by Schonberg during this conflict cannotleave any doubts that our composer was dedicated heart and soul to thecause of the central empires, and that he used every means in order to win,including religion and music. (Tonietti 200? part I). The God who guides

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the characters in Die biblische Weg, on the contrary, is similar to the onesubsequently represented by the Dornbusch in Moses und Aron, the sup-port in the desert of his exile in the United States: the mystical variant ofa Jewish God. (Tonietti 200?, ch. 58)

Considering the wars fought and the blood shed in their name, thesegods would appear to be difficult to reconcile. Pastors, rabbis and rela-tive statesmen would have a lot to say about this. But Schonberg was anartist, the most significant, if not the greatest composer of the twentiethcentury, and we may more modestly wonder if these two gods maintainedcommon qualities in his writings and in his works. This task seems to beeasier, and the solution is: an “unsichtbarer unvorstellbarer” God (Mosesund Aron, bars 9-10), who is abstract, and cannot be represented in images,or expressed wholly in words, a hidden, enigmatic god, difficult to symbol-ise even in music. How could historical, carnal people understand a godoutside time and space, except by trying to escape from time and space?Schonberg’s music struggled with this angel.

3. Without any adjectives.We have felt the need to tell this story in our own words because we

were not satisfied with what has commonly been written about ArnoldSchonberg.

Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno completely ignored his evident religiousbelief. The few critics, such as Karl Worner or Roman Vlad, who did notwant to cancel all his works with a religious inspiration, underestimatedtheir constructive function, however, in the evolution of his musical thought.Almost all historians of music placed Die Jakobsleiter, as far as they con-sidered it, in his atonal period. Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt’s Schonberg,though extremely useful and admirable in his faithfulness to the histori-cal Schonberg, remains a biography. In my opinion, the patient work ofJean Marie Christensen is still too timid, and unfortunately has not beenpublished. Ethan Haimo and Martina Sichardt overlooked the historicalcontext. Anyway, everybody missed the row of Der Auserwahlte at thecenter of Jacob’s Ladder. Und so weiter .... Peter Gradenwitz and Alexan-der Ringer saw almost exclusively the Jewish aspects, to which they tendto reduce his basic musical choices.

But listening to his music, studying scores like Die Jakobsleiter, andreading almost all his writings and letters between 1912 and 1925, I have

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come face to face with a living historical Schonberg different from the onefound in modern-day books. The many aspects of his complex life andartistic personality have too often been drastically simplified and isolatedfrom their context. There has been a tendency to prefer only one, themost in line with the thesis that the writer wished to demonstrate. Moreoften than not, Schonberg has unfortunately not been understood for whathe was, but he has been used as an instrument for one controversy oranother, for one purpose or another. We have thus been presented, inturn, with a progressive, revolutionary composer, or a conservative one,or even both together, a communist composer or a capitalist, a Germancomposer or a Jew, a composer of music, or a theoretician of music andof teaching, an amateur without any ability or a professional, a genial butmad composer or a cunning opportunist, stupidly inspired or cerebrallyintelligent, a sentimental romantic or a cold rationalist, und so weiter ...(Tonietti 200?, part III)

For me Schonberg is Schonberg; he is unique, unitarian and changeableaccording to the circumstances: a musician, without any adjectives.

I would like to thank Nuria SchonbergNono for giving me free accessto the documents, and allowing me to make copies of them. I also thankall the staff of the archives, both those in Los Angeles and those in Vienna,for helping me in my research. I thank Dr. Ronald Packham for his helpin the English styling of the manuscript.

References.

- LA: the text was at the Arnold Schonberg Institute in Los Angeles.Since 1998 it has been at the Arnold Schonberg Center in Vienna.

- W: text at the Library of Congress in Washington.- M: transcription at the Arnold Schonberg Gesellschaft in Modling.- S a X: letter of Schonberg to X.- X a S: letter of X to Schonberg.- Schonberg, “...”, [place]; x: unpublished text by Schonberg, unless other-wise indicated, the number x refers to the catalogue compiled by Schonbergin 1932.

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(Primary literature.)1904

- Emanuel Swedenborg, Theologische Schriften, Jena, Diederichs. LA.“Swedenborgs Weltanschauung; Biographisches; Die Lehre der neuen Kir-che, des neuen Jerusalem der Offenbarung; Der Verkehr auf naturlichemoder geistigem Wege oder auch durch vorherbestimmte Harmonie, welcherzwischen Leib und Seele angenommen wird; Vom weissen Pferd in der Of-fenbarung; Uber das Wort und seinen geistigen oder inneren Sinn; Uber dasletzte Gericht und die Zerstorung Babylons”.

1908-1930- August Strindberg, Strindberg Werke (Deutsche Gesamtausgabe), Mun-chen, Muller & Sohn. LA. [in particular]:

Entwicklung einer Seele; [La storia di un’anima, tr. Astrid Ahnfelt,1988 Firenze, Sansoni].

Inferno, Legenden. Entzweit. Einsam; [Inferno. Leggende. Giacobbelotta, ed. Luciano Codignola, 1972 Milano, Adelphi].

Nach Damaskus. Totentanz. Ein Traumspiel. Gespenster Sonate;[Teatro, ed. Giacomo Oreglia, 1951 Torino, Societa Editrice Torinese].

Die große Landstraße; [La grande strada maestra, tr. Enrico Groppali,1990 S. Miniato, Istituto del Dramma Popolare].

Der bewußte Wille in der Weltgeschichte, 1916. [The volumes possessedby Schonberg are indicated here].

Ein Blaubuch, vol. I, 1908; Ein Blaubuch, vol. II mit dem Buch derLiebe, 1908; Ein drittes Blaubuch, 1921.

1910- Honore de Balzac, Philosophische Erzahlungen, Leipzig, Inselverlag. LA.Seraphita. [This includes a sheet of paper on p. 89 containing the trans-lation that Schonberg made of the passage about the physical appearanceof Wilfried. La Comedie Humaine. Etudes Philosophiques II, vol. X, 1950Paris, Gallimard. Schonberg also possessed a French edition]: Seraphita, [?]Paris, Flammarion. LA.

1911- Arnold Schonberg, Harmonielehre, Wien, Universal Edition. LA. [Withthe autograph modifications for the edition of 1921.] [Manuale di armonia,ed. Luigi Rognoni, 1963 Milano, Il Saggiatore.]

1912

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- Jakob Boehme, Morgenrote im Aufgang; Von den drei Prinzipien; Vomdreifachen Leben, Munchen und Leipzig. LA. [Jacob Boehme SamtlicheSchriften, ed. W. Penckert, vol. I Aurora, oder Morgenrote im Aufgang,1986 Stuttgart, Frommann-holzboog; L’Aurore Naissante, tr. Louis Claudede Saint-Martin, 1927 Milano, Libreria Lombarda].

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1914-1915- Arnold Schonberg, Der deutsche Michel. LA. [1980 Pacific Palisades,Belmont].- Arnold Schonberg, Kriegs-Wolken Tagebuch 1914, [Berlin Sudende]; K1-17. LA. [1986, 52-77].

1915-1923- Arnold Schonberg, Die Jakobsleiter. LA. [Three outlines for the poetictext, a manuscript and a typescript of the poetic text, five notebooks ofmusical rough drafts (D14Sk17, Sk15-22, Sk17, Sk17-18, Sk 22-23), a Parti-cell; transcriptions, translations and comparisons in 1979 Jean Christensen,vol. II, appendices]. Die Jakobsleiter Oratorium (Fragment) fur Soli, Choreund Orchester, Winfried Zillig & Rudolf Stephan Her., 1980 Wien, Univer-sal Edition. [La scala di Giacobbe, ed. Luigi Rognoni, in 1967 ArnoldSchonberg, 46-67].

1922- Josef Matthias Hauer, “Spharenmusik”, Melos, III/3, 132-133. LA.-a 25.7, Traunkirchen, S to Josef Hauer, [Wien]. [Not sent, together withextensive comments about “Spharenmusik”]. LA. [1987 Simms, 131].-b 21.11, Schonberg, “Vorschlaege, Negerrythmen, Zigeune-und Naturvol-ker-Rythmen und der Vogelgesang”. [Retyped 30.12.1922]. LA. [Engl. tr.,1950 Style ..., L. Stein (ed.), 298].

1923-d 10.4, Schonberg, “Nachtigall”; 9. LA. [in Tonietti 1998.]-e 16.4, Schonberg, “Verwandtschaft”; LA.-b 29.5, Schonberg, “Vorlaufer”, Modling; 33. LA.-a 29.5, Schonberg, “Klein Zaches”, Modling; 13. LA. [1992, 203].- Juni, Heinrich Schenker, “Joh. Seb. Bach: Wohltemperiertes Klavier,Band I Praludium c-moll”, Die Musik, XV/9, 641-651.- 6.6, Schonberg, “Schenker”, Modling; 36. LA.-c 7.6, Schonberg, “Schenker”, Modling; 37. LA.

1926-a Arnold Schonberg, Drei Satiren op. 28, Wien, Universal Edition.-b Schonberg, “Volksmusik und Kunstmusik”; 315. LA. [Engl. tr., 1950Style ..., L. Stein (ed.), 167-169].- 5.2, “Die letzte Vision Adolphe Willettes”, Berliner Tageblatt. [1992, 196].

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1926-1927- Arnold Schonberg, Der biblische Weg. LA. Journal of the Arnold Schon-berg Institute, 1994 XVII/1-2. [Ital. tr., 1967, 77-150].

1930-1932- Arnold Schonberg, Moses und Aron, Mainz 1958, Schott’s Sohne.

1934- 20.7, Chautauqua N.Y., S to Peter Gradenwitz, Berlin-Pankow. W.- Schonberg, “Why No Great American Music”, LA. [1950 Style ..., L. Stein(ed.), 176-181].

1939- Arnold Schonberg, Kol Nidre op. 39, New York, Bomart Music Publica-tion. [Ital. tr., 1975 Manzoni, 261-263].

1950- Arnold Schonberg, Style and Idea, New York, Philosophical Library.[Repr. 1984 Leonard Stein ed. with unpublished material, Berkeley, Uni-versity of California Press]. [Ital. tr., Stile e idea, ed. Luigi Pestalozza,1960 Milano, Rusconi and Paolazzi].

1956- Arnold Schonberg, Moderne Psalmen [in Schonberg 1967.]

1965- Alban Berg, Briefe an seine Frau, Bernard Grun ed., ......... [Ital. tr.,Lettere alla moglie, 1976 Milano, Feltrinelli.]

1967- Arnold Schonberg, Testi poetici e drammatici, ed. Luigi Rognoni, Milano,Feltrinelli. [Repr. 1995].

1969- Arnold Schonberg, Briefe, ed. Erwin Stein, [Ital. tr. Mario Rubino,Firenze, La Nuova Italia.]

1975- Giacomo Manzoni, Arnold Schonberg. L’uomo. L’opera. I testi musicati,Milano Feltrinelli.

1982- “The Schoenberg-Mengelber Correspondence”, in Schoenberg in the Ne-therlands, Journal of the Arnold Schonberg Institute, VI/2, 181-237.

1984- Arnold Schonberg, Wassily Kandinsky, Jelena Hall-Koch ed., London,Faber & Faber. [Ital. tr., 1988].

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1986- “Schonberg Tagebucher 1912, 1914, 1923”, Journal of the Arnold Schon-berg Institute, IX/1.

1987- The Berg - Schonberg Correspondence, Juliane Brand, Christopher Hailey& Donald Harris eds., New York, W.W. Norton.

1992- Arnold Schonberg 1974-1951. Lebensgeschichte in Begegnungen, NuriaNono-Schonberg Her., Klagenfurt, Ritter Verlag.

1997- Tito M. Tonietti, “Albert Einstein and Arnold Schonberg Correspon-dence”, Naturwissenschaften Technik und Medizin, 5, 1-22.

1999- Arnold Schonberg, Leggere il cielo - Diari 1912, 1914, 1923, Anna MariaMorazzoni ed., Milano, il Saggiatore.

(Secondary Literature.)1955

- Roman Vlad, Modernita e tradizione nella musica contemporanea, Torino,Einaudi.

1957- Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, “Schonbergs religiose Werke”, SchweizerischeMusikzeitung, 97, 256-258.

1958- Roman Vlad, Storia della dodecafonia, Milano, Suvini Zerboni.

1960- Peter Gradenwitz, “The religious Works of Arnold Schonberg”, The MusicReview, 21, n. 1, 19-29.

1960-1961- Winfred Zillig, “Bericht uber Arnold Schonbergs Jakobsleiter”, Neue Mu-sik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 29-40.

1963- Karl H. Worner, Schonberg’s Moses and Aaron, London, Faber & Faber.

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1965- Karl H. Worner, “Schonbergs Oratorium Die Jakobsleiter”, SchweizerischeMusikzeitung, 105, 250-257 and 333-340.

1972- Jan Maegaard, Studien zur Entwicklung des Dodekaphonen Satzes beiArnold Schonberg, Copenhagen, Wilhelm Hansen Musik - Forlag.

1976- Jan Maegaard, “Schonbergs Zwolftonreihen”, Die Musikforschung,XXIX/4, 385-425.- Rudolf Stephan, “Zur Entstehung der Zwolftonmusik”, in Musik und Zahl.Interdisziplinare Beitrage zum Grenzbereich zwischen Musik und Mathe-matik, hg. von Gunter Schnitzler, Bonn, p. 159-170.

1977- Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Schonberg - His Life, World and Work, tr.H. Searle, London, J. Calder.

1978- Peter Gradenwitz, “Religiose Motive in Schonbergs Musik”, Bericht uberden 1-Kongreß der Internationalen Schonberg Gesellschaft (1974 Wien),Her. Rudolf Stephan, Wien, Verlag E. Lafite, 75-81.

1979- Jean Marie Christensen, Arnold Schonberg’s Oratorio Die Jakobsleiter,Los Angeles, Ph. D. Thesis, University of California.

1980- Arnold Schonberg, Her. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, Sonder-band Musik - Konzept, Munchen, edition text + kritik.

1984- Tito Tonietti, “scienza del ’900: dall’immagine alla rappresentazione dig-itale”, rocca, no 3/4, 75-79.- Tito Tonietti, “Sette catastrofi per sette note”, Lectures, no 15, Bari,Edizioni dal Sud, 63-77.

1986- Rudolf Stephan, “Ein fruhes Dokument zur Entstehung der Zwolftonkom-position”, in Festschrift Arno Forchert zum 60 Geburtstag, Kassel, p. 296-302.

1987- E. Randol Schonberg, “Arnold Schonberg and Albert Einstein: Their Rela-tionship and Views on Zionism”, Journal of the Arnold Schonberg Institute,

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10, 134-187.- Bryan R. Simms, “Who First Composed Twelve-Tone Music, Schonbergor Hauer?”, Journal of the Arnold Schonberg Institute, 10, 109-133.

1990- Ethan Haimo, Schoenberg’s Serial Odyssey, Oxford, Clarendon Press.- Alexander R. Ringer, Arnold Schonberg. The Composer as Jew, Oxford,Clarendon Press.- Martina Sichardt, Die Entstehung der Zwolftonmethode Arnold Schon-bergs, Mainz, Schott.

1991- Tito M. Tonietti, “Sopra Berlino”, Sonus, 3, no 1, 54-64.

1992- Tito M. Tonietti, “Nuvole, valzer. (Arnold Schonberg svelato)”, Tra sim-bolismo e avanguardie, ed. Caterina Graziadei et al., Roma, Editori Riuniti,371-391.

1998- Tito M. Tonietti, “L’usignolo di Montebello ed il signor Notanuova”, inMatematica e cultura, ed. Michele Emmer, Milano, Springer Verlag, 45-66.

1999- Schonberg, cur. Gianmario Borio, Bologna, Il mulino.

200?- Tito M. Tonietti, Nuvole in silenzio. Arnold Schonberg svelato, unpub-lished. [Parts and fragments of this were included in Tonietti 1984, 1991,1992, 1997, 1998.]

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