Letters and Correspondence

The sections on this page highlight correspondence to, from, and about Arnold Schoenberg.

Correspondence With Schoenberg

Find Schoenberg's correspondence with others in several different places in the Music Division's collections. The locations reflect how the Music Division acquired that correspondence. Search for them using the following information:

By far the largest amount of the Music Division's Schoenberg correspondence exists in the Arnold Schoenberg Collection of Correspondence. View a a more complete description of the collection using the following link. The Performing Arts Reading Room does maintain an internal finding aid for the collection available to researchers for on-site use.

Arnold Schoenberg Collection of Correspondence (catalog record)
Between 1952 and 1972, substantial portions of Schoenberg's correspondence were given to the Music Division. While the collection encompasses material from all periods of Schoenberg's life, the majority of the letters were written after Schoenberg emigrated to the United States in 1933. Schoenberg's two most famous pupils, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, are represented by a long series of letters, dated from 1911-1934 and 1907-1936 respectively, that contain significant information on their creative work and personal lives. Other major correspondents include Rudolf Kolisch, Ernst Krenek, Gustav Mahler, Thomas Mann, Egon Wellesz, and Alexander Zemlinsky. Drafts and carbons of business letters, concert programs, and clippings documenting Schoenberg's early career are also included.

All of this correspondence has also been digitized and made searchable through an online database maintained by the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna:

Arnold Schoenberg Center Correspondence Database External
More than 20,000 pieces of correspondence to and from Schoenberg have been identified from a large variety of sources. Though copies of most of these letters existed in the collections of the Arnold Schoenberg Center, the majority of the original letters are located in other collections.

Search for additional Schoenberg correspondence at the Library of Congress in the following catalog records and collection finding aids:

Search the Online Catalog using the call number ML95 .S374 (catalog records)
Find nine additional letters written by Schoenberg. Correspondents include: Pierre Aelberts, Carl Engel, Emil Gutmann, Fritz Hirt, Jacques Martet, Josefine Redlich, Johannes Schüler, and Egon Wellesz.
Moldenhauer archives (finding aid)
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation collection (finding aid)
Edward and Clara Steuermann collection (finding aid)
Modern Music archives (finding aid)

Search for additional correspondence using the Library's Finding Aids Tool, which searches across multiple finding aids.

Correspondence Concerning Schoenberg

Correspondence not from nor to Schoenberg, but between individuals who knew him personally, demonstrates the richness of materials held in the Music Division. Some of these special collections with finding aids include:

David Diamond papers
Includes correspondence with the Arnold Schoenberg Institute
Moldenhauer archives
Includes several letters that are to and from individuals who knew Schoenberg personally, including his second wife, Gertrud Schoenberg
Rudolf Kolisch collection
Includes several letters exchanged between Kolisch and Anton Webern, one of Schoenberg's most influential students. For example, one letter from Webern to Kolisch (1921 July 25) discusses Webern's orchestration of Schoenberg's Die glückliche Hand for chamber orchestra.

Search for additional correspondence using the Library's Finding Aids Tool, which searches across multiple finding aids.

Published Schoenberg Correspondence

Much of Schoenberg's correspondence has been transcribed, annotated, and published. The following offers a representative, but not exhaustive, list of modern publications of this correspondence. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

The Berg-Schoenberg Correspondence by Donald Harris; Christopher Hailey (Editor); Juliane Brand (Editor)
Call Number: ML410.B47 A4 1987
ISBN: 0393019195
Published/Created: 1987-10-01
The editors have transcribed, translated and annotated more than 800 letters and from this vast body of material have selected 370 that reflect the lives and times of these two great composers. The letters reveal much about the relationship between Berg and Schoenberg: first as pupil and teacher, then as friends and finally, after the premier of Wozzeck, as colleagues and peers. They also shed light on the reasons for Schoenberg's move to Berlin in 1911, the intrigue behind the early demise of the Society for Private Musical Performance, and Schoenberg's feigned indifference to the success of Wozzeck. Schoenberg describes his first years in America and the correspondence ends with Berg's death in 1935. The letters are fully annotated and supplemented with appendices, facsimiles and many photographs.
Arnold Schoenberg Correspondence by Egbert M. Ennulat; Richard Hoffmann (Foreword by)
Call Number: ML410.S283 A4 1991
ISBN: 0810824523
Published/Created: 1991-08-01
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. Selected unpublished correspondence written between 1903 and 1950 includes the responses of the addressees. Gives a vivid picture of the historical controversies between the composer and other major figures in the field.
Schoenberg's Correspondence with American Composers by Arnold Schoenberg; Sabine Feisst
Call Number: ML410.S283 A4 2018
ISBN: 9780195383577
Published/Created: 2018-11-22
Schoenberg's Correspondence with American Composers is the first edition of all known and available letters between Arnold Schoenberg and over seventy American composers written between 1915 and 1951, in English and English translation and with commentary. In six chronologically organized chapters, the correspondence first casts new light on Schoenberg's contacts with American composers before 1933, including correspondence with students and champions of his music (Israel Amter, James Francis Cooke, Henry Cowell, Edgar Varese, and Adolph Weiss among others). The letters after 1933 show how Schoenberg gradually built a network of composer colleagues and friends, among them Mark Brunswick, Oscar Levant, Roger Sessions, Nicolas Slonimsky, Gerald Strang, with whom he discussed compositional ideas, specific musical works and writings, performances and the publication of his compositions. These letters also provide insight into his ideas about teaching in private settings, at the Malkin Conservatory and the University of California.The correspondence of his last years illuminates how the reception of Schoenberg's music in the United States was flourishing and how he attracted a growing number of disciples exploring twelve-tone composition.

Arnold Schoenberg: A Guide to Primary and Secondary Resources at the Library of Congress

Performing Arts: Ask a Librarian

Letters and Correspondence

Correspondence With Schoenberg

Correspondence Concerning Schoenberg

Published Schoenberg Correspondence