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The ‘Skeleton in Schoenberg's Musical Closet’: The Chequered Compositional History of Schoenberg's Second Chamber Symphony
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
Extract
Reflecting on the composition of his First Chamber Symphony, op. 9, in the essay ‘How One Becomes Lonely’ (1937), Schoenberg wrote:
I had enjoyed so much pleasure during the composing, everything had gone so easily and seemed to be so convincing, that I was sure the audience would react spontaneously to the melodies and to the moods and would find this music to be as beautiful as I felt it to be.
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- Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1998
References
1 Arnold Schoenberg, Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein (London, 1975), 30–53 (p. 49).Google Scholar
2 Ibid., 108-10 (p. 109).Google Scholar
3 Sketchbook III was begun in April 1906 and originally belonged to the legacy which was in the possession of Schoenberg's widow, Gertrud, together with all musical and literary manuscripts in Schoenberg's own handwriting (including first drafts and fair copies), sketches, sketchbooks and all paintings and drawings unless another owner is specified (see Rufer, Josef, The Works of Arnold Schoenberg: A Catalogue of his Compositions, Writings and Paintings, trans. Dika Newlin, London, 1962). It is currently housed at the Arnold Schönberg Center, Vienna, to which grateful thanks are due for the loan of all sketch material. The sketchbook is bound in a black cover with the inscription ‘Skizzen’ and consists of 175 numbered pages in oblong format, 19 × 36.5 cm, which have been written on up to p. 132; between pp. 139 and 156 eight leaves have been cut out. Where dates of sketches are available they are given in Table 1.Google Scholar
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11 Schoenberg, Arnold, letter to Alexander von Zemlinsky dated 12 December 1916. The original German, cited below, is given in Zemlinsky's Driefwechsel mit Schönberg, Webern, Berg und Schreker, ed. Horst Weber (Darmstadt, 1995), 158–9, and is translated here by the present author: ‘Ich habe mich entschlossen, meine II. Kammersymphonie, die ich 1907 (!) angefangen habe und die bis jetzt liegen geblieben ist fertig zu machen. Es sind 2 Sätze da. Der eine fertig bis auf die Schlußtakte, der andere zur Hälfte fertig. Die verschmelze ich zu einem Satz. Das ist der erste Teil. Ich plane nämlich einen 
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12 Schoenberg, letter to Alexander von Zemlinsky dated 12 December 1916. The original German is given ibid., 159-60, and is translated here by the present author: ‘Ich werde aber das Stück nicht für Solo-Instrumente schreiben, sondern sofort eine ganz neue Partitur für (mittelgroßes) Orchester schreiben. … Mit der II hoffe ich in wenigen Tagen fertig zu sein – wenn nichts dazwischen kommt!’ Schoenberg's reference to the initial conception of the work for solo instruments emphasizes the relationship between the 1906 draft of the Second Chamber Symphony and the First Chamber Symphony, op. 9. To the 15 solo instruments of the latter he added a second flute, a second viola, a second cello and a double bassoon.Google Scholar
13 Mitchell, Donald, The Language of Modern Music (London, 1963), 71.Google Scholar
14 Passages that have been crossed out are placed in square brackets.Google Scholar
Text for the Second Chamber SymphonyGoogle Scholar
(Melodrama Title: ‘Turning Point’ Orchestral Work by ASGoogle Scholar
To continue further along this path was not possible.Google Scholar
A ray of light had lit up a sadness of both a generalGoogle Scholar
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[again of a general and particular kind. Then also partic]Google Scholar
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15 See Arnold Schönberg, Sämtliche Werke, IV: Orchesterwerke: Kammersymphonien, Series B, xi/2, ed. Christian M. Schmidt (Vienna, 1979), 202.Google Scholar
16 These include the string-orchestra versions of Verklärte Nacht and the Second String Quartet, op. 10, in 1917 and c.1919 respectively, an arrangement for chamber ensemble (with Felix Greissle) of op. 16, nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 in 1919, the full-orchestra version of op. 9 and an arrangement for mezzo-soprano, 17 instruments and percussion of ‘Lied der Waldtaube’ from Gurrelieder in 1922.Google Scholar
17 See Graubart, Michael, review of Stuckenschmidt, Arnold Schoenberg: His Life, World and Work, Tempo, 111 (1974), 44–9, MacDonald, Schoenberg (London, 1976), 6-7, and H. H. Stuckenschmidt, Arnold Schoenberg: His Life, World and Work, trans. Humphrey Searle (London, 1974), 93-7.Google Scholar
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23 Five sketch-sheets, one of which bears the date 5 November 1939, and the draft written in short score on loose sheets were originally contained in the legacy and are currently housed at the Arnold Schönberg Center. In the draft the composition is completely carried out, on three or four staves, to bar 542. From bar 542 the principal voice continues to bar 618 but countermelodies and harmonization are only partially carried out. There also exists a separate sheet containing another version of bars 534-5.Google Scholar
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