JUDAISM - CHRISTIANITY - FAITH
BRIEF TIMELINE
1933
Reconverted to Judaism in Paris
1898
1874
Jewish
Converted to Protestantism, baptized in the Viennese Dorothee Parish
Culturally Slovak, religious-ethnically Jewish, I sometimes incorporated Jewish hints in my music, but sometimes I did not.
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CHRIST
Vision of Christ (1919)
Christ (1910)
Here what I believed two years before my death, while being a Lutheran, Zionist, and Jew.
9th Psalm 'Jesus' 'the pureset, the most innocent,unselfish, and idealist being.'
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I now call myself a Jew with pride; but I know how difficult it is to really be one.
(Schönberg, 1932)
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MOSES AND ARON
O Word, thou Word that I lack.
"Moses and Aron is one of my major works. The material and its treatment are purely of a religious, philosophical nature."
(Schoenberg, 1951)
Plot line: an incomplete musical idea represents an unresolved conflict between communicating with God using word or image, a Biblical story.
Unfinished: Wrote all three acts (text), then composed first two.
Fun fact: It used just one 12 tone inverted, retrograted, in transposition. 2000 measures are all related to ONE row.
What you’ll hear: Wagner’s motivic writing (Parsifal or Ring) with a hint of Brahms.