Three Men of Letters

A look through the correspondence of two befriended pupils and their teacher: Schönberg, Berg, Webern This book examines the relationship of three very different men who are usually seen as the most important composers of the so-called Second Viennese School - Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern - in the years 1906 to 1921 through a close examination of their correspondence with each other. To date only one of these correspondences, that of Schönberg and Berg, has been published, so the other two sets of letters are not yet widely known. The largely differing personalities of these three men come out clearly in their letters to each other: Schönberg, the master who demands a great many things from his two pupils (long after they have ceased to be that); Berg, from whom he demands the most; and Webern, his pious devotee. The book covers the period linking the first correspondence between master and pupils in 1906 and the dissolution of the Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen in 1921, the period when these men were most closely bound together.

Kathryn Bailey Puffett has published articles on the music of Bach, Stravinsky, Bartók and Nono, as well as articles on the music of the three composers of the Second Viennese School; she also published two books on Webern and his music ("The Twelve-Note Music of Anton Webern. Old Forms in a New Language" and "The Life of Webern") She was a founding member of the Anton Webern Gesamtausgabe at Universität Basel.

Acknowledgements Conventions Preface The Letters Arnold Schönberg The Schönberg Aktion Anton Webern Webern and the Theatre Alban Berg Exploitation An Unlikely Friendship The War Finale Select Bibliography Index

Sonstiges