SCHOENBERG, Arnold 1874-1951

Moses und Aron [Piano-vocal score]

Oper in drei Akten. Klavierauszug von Winfried Zillig. English Translation by Allen Forte

Mainz: B. Schott's Söhne [PN 39487; 4935], ©1957.

Folio. Original publisher's textured paper wrappers. 6ff., 300, [8] pp.

Small Berlin music seller's label to foot of German title. Former owner's signature, "F. Cohen 1957," in ink to upper right corner of title and upper right corner of upper wrapper.

Binding slightly worn and fragile; tear to spine; lower corners slightly bumped. Very slightly browned.

First Edition, first issue. Rufer (E), p. 82. Druckbücher Schott, Bd. 26.
The full score was published a year later.

Schoenberg planned Moses und Aaron as an opera in three acts, crafting the libretto himself, but the third was never completed. It was premiered in this incomplete state first in concert, Hamburg, 12 March 1954, and then staged in Zürich at the Stadttheater, 6 June 1957.

"From every point of view, whether musical, religious or philosophical, the opera is Schoenberg’s most comprehensive masterpiece. The ideas that gave rise to it occupied him for many years before its composition, and their dramatic expression called forth music of immense power and diversity... About 1922–3 he began planning two works in which conflicting aspects of spiritual revelation were to be symbolized by Moses and Aaron. In the first, the prose drama Der biblische Weg (1926–7), which deals with political aspirations in a modern setting, the downfall of the chief protagonist comes about through his attempt to combine the principles of both Moses and Aaron. The second, a cantata to be called Moses am brennenden Dornbusch, was expanded to a full-scale oratorio text entitled Moses und Aron (1927–8), and transformed into an opera libretto in 1930. The first two acts were composed between 1930 and 1932, but the third hung fire, and although to the end of his life Schoenberg frequently spoke of setting it, he never did so." O.W. Neighbour in Grove Music Online.

Item #24931

Price: $350.00  other currencies