Arnold Schoenberg's approach to text setting in "The Book of the Hanging Gardens".

Abstract

This study examines the method of setting poetry to music utilised by Arnold Schoenberg in his composition on Stefan George's poetic cycle Das Buch der Hangenden Garten, and compares that method to the one the composer described in his published writings. The compositional process used in Das Buch will be explicated through an examination of the composer's concept sketches and continuity drafts for the eighth movement, Wenn ich heut nicht deinen Leib beruhre, and the fourteenth movement, Sprich nicht immer von dem Laub. In comparing the compositional method Schoenberg claimed to use with his actual compositional process for Das Buch, it will become apparent that he drew on what he called his "definitive method" but did not restrict himself to it. Schoenberg, in his writing, has shown that he wished for purely artistic reasons to place himself in the position of composer of music with text, but in practical application, he combined many sources of inspiration in this transitional work.