Critical Lives – Arnold Schoenberg
Mark Berry
Reaktion Books 978-1-789-14087-3 240pp (pb) £11.99
Appearing nearly 50 years after Malcolm Macdonald’s fine composer portrait, Mark Berry’s similarly concise volume complements rather than supplants it. Either is a ‘go to’ recommendation, with Berry’s perhaps having the edge in conveying the full range of the polyglot Mitteleuropa cultural, racial and political scene around Schoenberg, of which his work was such an extraordinary product.
Berry’s perspective on the controversy (still) surrounding the composer is clear-eyed, empathetic, and pleasingly free of polemics of its own. The book spotlights how Schoenberg’s combative streak (understandably fuelled by sulphurous anti-semitism around him) related to how the music turned out. As Berry says: ‘The difficulties listeners … continue to have with Schoenberg’s music are not entirely or even principally concerned with his break with tonality, or his adoption of the 12-note method; they are at least as much a matter of density of musical argument, a superfluity of musical expression and expressiveness.’ Exactly. The significance of the magnificent unfinished oratorio
Die Jakobsleiter (so much more than a mere torso) is unfortunately downplayed; that apart, Berry’s survey of the individual works is comprehensive and exemplary. Malcolm Hayes ★★★★★