VOTD 2/08/2023

 Arnold Schoenberg: Complete Piano Music (Columbia)

Purchased from Jerry's Records from the Duquesne University collection

I was never much of a Schoenberg guy. I went to the highly promoted "Gurrelieder" presented by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra years ago, and found it something of a bore. It's a relatively early work, finding Schoenberg emerging from his late-Romanticism shell. I also couldn't wrap my head around some of his later, 12-tone driven works. 

Curiously, I've found myself picking up three Schoenberg albums recently: an album of early cabaret songs, a double LP of some of his vocal music, and this album. The latter two were in the Jerry's $3 Duquesne boxes, making them hard to pass on.

The piano music is significant for me because of its influence on Anthony Braxton. Anthony has spoken about hearing Schoenberg's piano music as a young man, and becoming very enthusiastic about it. Schoenberg, and even more so Stockhausen, would be primary inspirations for Anthony.

There's a social criticism on the part of Anthony which I consider to be valid. Why can't African American persons become excited by this music? There's a strong note of racism to the idea that they can't. He also notes that there's some degree of underlying racism to composers such as Stockhausen and Cage. I can't speak with authority on that topic, but he's probably not wrong. Nonetheless, it doesn't dampen his excitement for music such as this.

If I consider the Schoenberg piano music as one of Anthony's influences, do I hear a connection? Maybe, but it's very indirect. Both men are methodical, but in significantly different ways. Schoenberg comes from a place where harmony is king, even if his goal (if you can use that word) was to explode harmony. Of course the 12 tone method is highly organized, even if it doesn't necessarily sound that way to most ears. Braxton's methods have more to do with exploring a variety of soundstates, of trying to explore an ever-widening series of ideas for improvisational settings. 

Schoenberg doesn't write long, languid melodies. His ideas sound more fleeting, more fragmentary. I'm sure he'd probably disagree with me, and tell me exactly how every note relates to every other note in a work. Which reminds me of another story, as told by Dave Brubeck. Dave studied at the (lamentably now shuttered) Mills College music department, and had a composition lesson with Schoenberg there. Schoenberg, ever one for method, told Dave that he should be able to account for the purpose of every single note he writes down. Dave didn't return for a second lesson.

Notably, at an earlier time, John Cage also studied with Schoenberg. Cage told Schoenberg that he had no feel for harmony, to which Schoenberg said that without a strong sense of harmony, he'd always be hitting a wall. According to Cage, he responded, "Then I will devote my life to hitting my head against that wall." Cage subsequently found methods of organizing time, rather than of pitch and harmony.

I wonder as I listen to this album, as I've listened to several others in this series of postings: do people still play this music? Do pianists shun, or are enthusiastic about it? I think I'd enjoy seeing these pieces performed, though in listening to them, I sometimes don't feel a sense of each work adding up to any sort of statement. But, maybe they're not intended to do that.

I've seen that the original release date for this album was 1957. That means it's highly likely that this was the very same recording that thrilled Braxton when he was young. I enjoy knowing that. I certainly don't hate the music, I find it perfectly fine for listening, but I also don't get particularly excited by it too. But then, I'm considerably older and more jaded than the young Mr. Braxton when he first experienced this music.