Reviews for Style and Idea: Selected Writings

The average rating for Style and Idea: Selected Writings based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-05-13 00:00:00 Kristjon Imperio This collection of essays by Arnold Schoenberg is not exactly a fun or completely pleasurable read, but it is very illuminating and very worthwhile for anyone interested in modern music. Schoenberg was very intelligent and had a truly impressive understanding of music and ability to convey his analysis of various works. His prose style is not always beautiful, but it is always clear and expresses his ideas well. And at times, especially when responding to critics, Schoenberg can produce a withering sarcasm that is subtly amusing. Reading Style and Idea all at one go did give me the advantage of understanding what was truly important and even crucial to Schoenberg, through seeing which ideas came up repeatedly, across many years and many subjects. He was concerned above all with the clear conveying of a musical idea. He really believed that he had, in his twelve-tone compositional technique, discovered the next logical step in the development of Western art music and that he had thus secured the future of music. Perhaps at times he seems a little too sure of its centrality. He had extremely exacting and high standards for music and musicians (especially composers). I very much admired his intellect and insight.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-08-07 00:00:00 Elizabeth C. Reyes "Every tone which is added to a beginning tone makes the meaning of that tone doubtful. If, for instance, G follows after C, the ear may not be sure whether this expresses C major or G major, or even F major or E minor; and the addition of other tones may or may not clarify this problem. In this manner there is produced a state of unrest, of imbalance which grows throughout most of the piece, and is enforced further by similar functions of the rhythm. The method by which balance is restored seems to me the real idea of the composition. [...] The tool itself may fall into disuse, but the idea behind it can never become obsolete. And therein lies the difference between a mere style and a real idea. An idea can never perish." "He who really uses his brain for thinking can only be possessed of one desire: to resolve his task. He cannot let external conditions exert influence upon the results of his thinking. Two times two is four-whether one likes it or not. One thinks only for the sake of one's idea. And thus art can only be created for its own sake. An idea is born; it must be molded, formulated, developed, elaborated, carried through and pursued to its very end."