Arnold Schoenberg and Roberto Gerhard: Correspondence

Paloma Ortiz-de-Urbina

I am currently editing the hitherto unpublished correspondence between Roberto Gerhard and Arnold Schoenberg (almost 65 letters) and have just published in JSMI an article about this subject. I think you might be interested in this fascinating epistolary exchange:

http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/view/122

Abstract:

On 18 October 1923 Roberto Gerhard wrote a long letter to Arnold Schoenberg asking to be accepted as his pupil. Two weeks later he received a positive answer and left for Vienna at once. There, he met Schoenberg and began a master-pupil relationship that would gradually turn into deep friendship, as attested by fifty-three extant letters written between 1923 and Schoenberg’s death in 1951. Existing in archives in several countries and, for the most part, unpublished, these letters provide a wealth of information about Gerhard’s personal life and professional career, with interesting insights into Gerhard’s compositional process.

Carson Farley

Thank you for this Paloma.  I can't wait to read this!

J. Daniel Jenkins

Thank you so much, Paloma. 

 

Carson Farley

Wow, I didn't know that Schoenberg lived in Spain or that he associated with Casals!  Interesting that Casals liked Schoenberg's music and was working on his cello concerto (a work I have not heard!), but never performed it.