Arnold Schoenberg: The Composer as Jew

Arnold Schoenberg was preoccupied with Judaism and biblical themes throughout his life, despite his conversion to Protestantism in 1898. Religious motives inspired an abortive symphonic project as early as 1912, long before the profoundly disturbing "A Survivor from Warsaw" for speaker, male chorus, and orchestra, composed in 1947. The essays collected in this volume represent a comprehensive attempt to shed light on the work and personality of the composer in this pertinent yet unaccountably neglected context. This book should be of interest to musicologists and students of 20th-century music and Jewish studies.

"The broad approach and wide range of information that Ringer has brought to this collective work provide some fresh and interesting perspectives concerning the composer's era as well as his personal circumstances....Ringer helps us to understand an important composer as an individual whose creativity was generated both within human conflict and yet beyond it."-Notes "An excellent case study of a major creative individual whose understanding of his own world and his own creativity was strongly affected by specific ideas of what being Jewish meant. Ringer's book is valuable in that Schoenberg's music--not just the subjects but the form of the music itself--comes to be understood as Jewish. The importance of Ringer's study for the reception and the structuring of this music cannot be underestimated."--Current Musicology "This stimulating volume is significant not only for what it says about Schoenberg, but for its broader picture of the political and intellectual milieu of Jewish artists during the first half of the 20th century....Ringer's chilling and insightful commentary, which goes beyond musical boundaries, is highly recommended for large public libraries and for graduate and undergraduate music libraries."--Choice "No other writer has come nearly as close to identifying the essential roots and connections of Schoenberg's remarkable intellect as a Jewish composer. This fine book is not only an excellent historical and cultural examination of a great composer and his times but also a probing analysis of how, for Schoenberg, the Jewish God and the unity of the musical idea were essentially intertwined."--Shofar "[A] groundbreaking collection of essays....Professor Alexander L. Ringer for the first time explores the depth and subtlety of the interconnections between Schoenberg's faith and art in a beautifully shaped prose style rich in musical examples, laced with cross disciplinary allusions within a wide cultural context."--Musical Times "The broad approach and wide range of information that Ringer has brought to this collective work provide some fresh and interesting perspectives concerning the composer's era as well as his personal circumstances....Ringer helps us to understand an important composer as an individual whose creativity was generated both within human conflict and yet beyond it."-Notes "An excellent case study of a major creative individual whose understanding of his own world and his own creativity was strongly affected by specific ideas of what being Jewish meant. Ringer's book is valuable in that Schoenberg's music--not just the subjects but the form of the music itself--comes to be understood as Jewish. The importance of Ringer's study for the reception and the structuring of this music cannot be underestimated."--Current Musicology "This stimulating volume is significant not only for what it says about Schoenberg, but for its broader picture of the political and intellectual milieu of Jewish artists during the first half of the 20th century....Ringer's chilling and insightful commentary, which goes beyond musical boundaries, is highly recommended for large public libraries and for graduate and undergraduate music libraries."--Choice "No other writer has come nearly as close to identifying the essential roots and connections of Schoenberg's remarkable intellect as a Jewish composer. This fine book is not only an excellent historical and cultural examination of a great composer and his times but also a probing analysis of how, for Schoenberg, the Jewish God and the unity of the musical idea were essentially intertwined."--Shofar "[A] groundbreaking collection of essays....ProfessorAlexander L. Ringer for the first time explores the depth and subtlety of the interconnections between Schoenberg's faith and art in a beautifully shaped prose style rich in musical examples, laced with cross disciplinary allusions within a wide cultural context."--Musical Times "The broad approach and wide range of information that Ringer has brought to this collective work provide some fresh and interesting perspectives concerning the composer's era as well as his personal circumstances....Ringer helps us to understand an important composer as an individual whose creativity was generated both within human conflict and yet beyond it."-Notes "An excellent case study of a major creative individual whose understanding of his own world and his own creativity was strongly affected by specific ideas of what being Jewish meant. Ringer's book is valuable in that Schoenberg's music--not just the subjects but the form of the music itself--comes to be understood as Jewish. The importance of Ringer's study for the reception and the structuring of this music cannot be underestimated."--Current Musicology "This stimulating volume is significant not only for what it says about Schoenberg, but for its broader picture of the political and intellectual milieu of Jewish artists during the first half of the 20th century....Ringer's chilling and insightful commentary, which goes beyond musical boundaries, is highly recommended for large public libraries and for graduate and undergraduate music libraries."--Choice "No other writer has come nearly as close to identifying the essential roots and connections of Schoenberg's remarkable intellect as a Jewish composer. This fine book is not only an excellent historical and cultural examination of a great composer and his times but also a probing analysis of how, for Schoenberg, the Jewish God and the unity of the musical idea were essentiallyintertwined."--Shofar "[A] groundbreaking collection of essays....Professor Alexander L. Ringer for the first time explores the depth and subtlety of the interconnections between Schoenberg's faith and art in a beautifully shaped prose style rich in musical examples, laced with cross disciplinary allusions within a wide cultural context."--Musical Times "The broad approach and wide range of information that Ringer has brought to this collective work provide some fresh and interesting perspectives concerning the composer's era as well as his personal circumstances....Ringer helps us to understand an important composer as an individual whose creativity was generated both within human conflict and yet beyond it."-Notes "An excellent case study of a major creative individual whose understanding of his own world and his own creativity was strongly affected by specific ideas of what being Jewish meant. Ringer's book is valuable in that Schoenberg's music--not just the subjects but the form of the music itself--comes to be understood as Jewish. The importance of Ringer's study for the reception and the structuring of this music cannot be underestimated."--Current Musicology "This stimulating volume is significant not only for what it says about Schoenberg, but for its broader picture of the political and intellectual milieu of Jewish artists during the first half of the 20th century....Ringer's chilling and insightful commentary, which goes beyond musical boundaries, is highly recommended for large public libraries and for graduate and undergraduate music libraries."--Choice "No other writer has come nearly as close to identifying the essential roots and connections of Schoenberg's remarkable intellect as a Jewish composer. This fine book is not only an excellent historical and cultural examination of a great composer and his times but also a probing analysis of how, for Schoenberg, the Jewish God and the unity of the musical idea were essentially intertwined."--Shofar "[A] groundbreaking collection ofessays....Professor Alexander L. Ringer for the first time explores the depth and subtlety of the interconnections between Schoenberg's faith and art in a beautifully shaped prose style rich in musical examples, laced with cross disciplinary allusions within a wide cultural context."--Musical Times