Schoenberg: Why He Matters [Hardcover]

A [A]n immensely valuable source for anyone desiring an accessible overview of this endlessly controversial and chronically misunderstood giant of 20th-century music . . . Sachs can be refreshingly candid, sharing his feelings at times as if he were whispering confidentially in your ear during a concert intermission . . . his genuine enthusiasm for those pieces that do stir him is enough to draw the reader in, and in so doing has done a great service to the cause. In this study of Arnold Schoenberg, the Austrian-born composer who immigrated to the U.S. in 1933, Sachs blends fleet-footed biography with an accessible analysis of Schoenbergs works. [A] concentrated meditation . . . It may be recommended for anybody with an interest in the work of the Viennese-American composer Arnold Schoenbergand perhaps especially to those who have never quite been able to crack his music . . . Despite his postwar decades in California, Schoenbergwith his rattles and shimmers, his craggy melodies and pervasive angstnever quite escaped the nightmares of what was then a crabbed and bloody Old World . . . Mr. Sachss fine study should inspire a fresh understanding of his life and work. [A]n earnest attempt by an engaging writer and insightful music historian to explain Schoenbergs significant achievements and understand the lingering resistance to his works . . . compelling. Sachs dissects Schoenbergs complex musical works in an accessible way for the lay reader, thereby encouraging an understanding of the thinking and creative process with which Schoenberg wrote . . . To the end of his days, and beyond, Schoenberg has been misunderstood and underappreciated. Sachs admirably goes the distance in restoring Arnold Schoenbergs singular position in the musical universe. Lucid& Sachss book is a succinct guide to Schoenbergs life and work, one designed in part to make the composers music accessible to a wider audience. Much of the books appeal lies in that implicit promise tlƒ,