 |
- MK Were you involved
with Schoenberg at that time?
LS Yes.
I had taken some of his classes at USC in 1935 and 1936, so
by the time he came to UCLA I was well prepared with his methods
of teaching and had also assisted him in various ways. In December
1935 he conducted the LA Philharmonic in a special concert at
USC. The program included his orchestra version of the First
Chamber Symphony—originally composed for fifteen solo instruments,
and I was asked to proofread the orchestral parts. Best of all,
however, was that I had the opportunity to attend all the rehearsals,
thus becoming more intimately acquainted with some of Schoenberg’s
music. After the summer of 1936, I followed Schoenberg over
to UCLA.
- [In his first year, he]
taught two classes in counterpoint, one a beginning class, the
other, more advanced, including some students who had studied
counterpoint with him at USC. When I say, "beginning counterpoint,"
I mean that he really started from scratch with the most elementary
exercises in first species counterpoint. Some of these examples
were prepared in advance and passed out to the students, but most
of the work was done in class with first Schoenberg showing how
one must proceed systematically (a favorite word of his),
trying out every possible combination of intervals, and then having
students do the work on the blackboard. These examples eventually
found their way into Schoenberg’s text, Preliminary Exercises
in Counterpoint, which I helped him put together.
-
The other
two classes Schoenberg taught were "Form and Analysis"
and "Beginning Composition." The emphasis in the former
class was on analysis—Schoenberg hated the use of
the word "form" in this context, because there are
so many different "forms." The main text in this class
was Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. Beethoven was chosen over
other composers because of the regularity of his phrases (at
least in the early sonatas) and as a model for the kinds of
structures a beginning student could understand and imitate.
The emphasis was placed on the opening phrases of movements,
usually eight-measure segments that could be explained as either
sentences or periods. These structures can be found in abundance
as the beginning themes in many of Beethoven’s works. Although
there are many other types of themes that deviate from these
models, sentences and periods served as the basic formulation
for thematic construction in Schoenberg’s lexicon. Later,
when I worked with Schoenberg on books on harmony or composition
there were always numerous examples of sentences and periods
culled either from the masters or made up by Schoenberg himself,
in the beginning chapters.
Two
Composition Examples by Schoenberg
- The class in composition
started then with imitations of the forms found in Beethoven and
the other masters and gradually being enlarged into three-part
forms (ABA), Menuets and Scherzos, and finally, into complete
Rondo forms. All based, of course, on strict application of tonal
harmony.
- MK Were you assisting
Schoenberg in his classes at this time?
LS Not entirely.
I was essentially the "house" pianist, so to speak.
I played all the Beethoven examples—an excellent training
for me and a good way to learn the music. Schoenberg’s assistant
at this time was Gerald Strang, a composer who had received his
degree in Philosophy at Stanford, was active in the Henry Cowell
New Music Society in San Francisco, had received a scholarship
to study with Schoenberg at USC, and then followed him to UCLA,
while teaching, at the same time, in Long Beach.
- As a matter of fact there
were too many students in his classes, a fact Schoenberg complained
about in a letter to the president of the university, Robert Gordon
Sproul. This letter was written one year after Schoenberg began
to teach at UCLA. I quote from this letter, dated 2 October, 1937:
At
the present time we have twenty-five students in composition,
and forty-five in analysis, both of which classes are far too
large. But in counterpoint, we have 60 students, which I find
very embarrassing. We have figured that if we wish to correct
the assignments not very carefully, but only superficially,
twenty hours of work a week would be necessary, which is far
too much, even without the papers from the other classes. Furthermore,
we have no opportunity to work with these students at the blackboard,
to help them and to find out what they know … Allow me
to make this following proposal: If you should find it possible
to offer Mr. Strang, my present assistant, a contract as instructor
for next year, we should be able to make some such adjustment
as this: the counterpoint class could be divided into two or
three sections of reasonable size, to be taught by Mr. Strang,
or possibly one group of more talented students could be taken
by me [and the same for the other classes] […] I would
be free to announce a second year of composition and a second
year of analysis, for which there are now a considerable number
of prepared students. (Letters 202)
- But, apparently, although
Schoenberg was able in succeeding years to add advanced classes,
he was still confronted by ever-larger beginning classes, most
of which he taught, although (I think) Strang may have taught
some of these classes, at least until 1939, when I became Schoenberg’s
assistant and handled one or two of these classes, as well as
beginning harmony for the music department. I have evidence in
hand that as late as 1939 or 1940 Schoenberg had as many as thirty-seven
students in an analysis class. I recall, in any case, that I had
to correct their exams and report back to Schoenberg for the determination
of their grades
.
|
|
|
|
