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SCHOENBERG, Arnold (1874-1951)
Typed letter signed ('Arnold Schonberg') to Carl Engel of G. Schirmer Inc., Chautauqua, N.Y., 20 August 1934.
In German. Two pages on a single leaf, 276 x 214mm, the second page in inverse orientation, a number of details underlined in red pencil. Provenance: with David Schulson Autographs, 2015.
On his Concertos for Cello and for String Quartet: 'the works are fully tonal and seldom and in no essential way overstep Brahms's harmonics'. Writing to his American publisher in the year after his move to America, Schoenberg sketches the outline of a contract for the American rights for his works, noting his usual percentages on sales of scores, performance fees etc. He has usually received an advance on new works, but his present concern is less to have money up front: 'I would like to spend this winter in a warm environment in order to rest and complete some work, and only accept occasional students or concerts etcetera'. For this purpose he needs at least $300 per month, and he requests this as an advance against two concertos: the Cello Concerto after the Concerto for harpsichord in D major by Matthias Monn and the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, adapted from Handel's Concerto gross in B flat major: 'the works are fully tonal and seldom and in no essential way overstep Brahms's harmonics, but I have used the material in individual, weaker movements and in bad passages in a completely free way, sometimes reconstructing such movements completely, so that the whole thing can actually be regarded as an original work to a certain extent. The two pieces are extraordinarily brilliant and effective, as Casals and Kolisch confirmed to me'. Apart from these, he has only completed a small group of songs, 'but as you know my opera Moses und Aron is close to completion and a theoretical work is also on the way', and he is also contemplating a new edition of some of his early works. He has made a piano reduction for the Cello Concerto, and plans one for the Concerto for String Quartet: in his view, only these piano reductions need to be printed – 'the score can easily be distributed or loaned as a photographic reproduction of my original manuscript'. The letter begins with a discussion of whether travel costs for his wife can be included in his lecture fees.
Schoenberg's Moses und Aron is generally considered his masterpiece, even if (in spite of his optimistic statement here) he never completed more than a few sketches for Act 3.
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