The Listening Service - The Listening Service Extra 12 of 12 - Schoenberg’s Compositional Vision

Download The Listening Service Extra 12 of 12 - Schoenberg’s Compositional Vision

Tom explores how Schoenberg hears the music that he is going to write.

'I hear the music which I am going to write. I hear the music and I have acquired a thing which every composer has to acquire in time. I have acquired the capacity of finding out what composes this music which I hear in my mind, in my imagination. And it's a kind of analysis of course but it's possible to mechanically express, if I say analysis, but the process is certainly similar to an analysis. I know, like a good cook would know of what the food is prepared, you know, what is in this food. So the composer knows what is in this sound which he hears.' - Arnold Schoenberg, 1950

Archive audio and photos with kind permission of Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien

Published on Thursday, 29th December 2016.

Available Podcasts from The Listening Service

Subscribe to The Listening Service

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the The Listening Service webpage.