The Listening Service Extra 5 of 12 - Boiling Water
Schoenberg’s experience in the new atonal world...
Tom looks at Schoenberg’s own experience in the new atonal world that he entered, which Schoenberg likened to being dropped in boiling water.
‘Personally I had the feeling as if I had fallen into an ocean of boiling water, and not knowing how to swim or to get out in another manner, I tried with my legs and arms as best as I could. I do not know what saved me; why I was not drowned or cooked alive. I have perhaps only one merit: I never gave up! I had fallen into an ocean, into an ocean of overheated water and it burned not only my skin, it burned also internally. And I could not swim.
…At least: I could not swim with the tide, all I could do was to swim against the tide--whether it saved me or not…' - Arnold Schoenberg 1947
Archive audio and photos with kind permission of Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien
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The Listening Service
An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service
