Arnold Schoenberg: The Composer as Jew

Arnold Schoenberg was preoccupied with Judaism and biblical themes throughout his life, despite his conversion to Protestantism in 1898. Religious motives inspired an abortive symphonic project as early as 1912, long before the profoundly disturbing "A Survivor from Warsaw" for speaker, male chorus, and orchestra, composed in 1947. The essays collected in this volume represent a comprehensive attempt to shed light on the work and personality of the composer in this pertinent yet unaccountably neglected context. This book should be of interest to musicologists and students of 20th-century music and Jewish studies.