Ringer: Arnold Schoenberg: The Composer as Jew

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

>From B&N for those interested in reviews on Yannay's recommended
book::
Arnold Schoenberg : The Composer as Jew
Alexander L. Ringer
1st ed., 288pp.
ISBN:  0198163541
Publisher:  Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Pub. Date:  April 1993

Reviews and Commentary
>From C. Adams - Choice:
This stimulating volume is significant not only for what it says about
Schoenberg, but for its broader picture of the political and
intellectual milieu of Jewish artists during the first half of the
20th century. . . . The four appendixes of primary documents include a
racial diatribe against Schoenberg's Berlin appointment that should be
required reading for all students. Ringer's impassioned book requires
the reader's concentrated attention, for he has broad concerns and
forceful opinions that will provoke strong responses. There is
overstatement. . . . Bibliography is limited to works cited. Ringer's
chilling and insightful commentary, which goes beyond musical
boundaries, is highly recommended for large public libraries and for
graduate and undergraduate music libraries.

>From Michael Tanner - The Times Literary Supplement:
Part of the reason why this book, though it contains a wealth of
interesting material, fails to add up to anything more than a set of
chapters on closely related, often overlapping themes . . . is that
Ringer mainly eschews a chronological approach, so does not address
himself on a large scale to the question of Schoenberg's development.
If one didn't have a fairly firm grip on Schoenberg's biography to
begin with, it would be confusing. . . . So although Ringer devotes
much space to the nature of Schoenberg's movement to full acceptance
of the Jewish faith, his plans for an international Jewish community,
and the works in which he attempted the fullest expression of his
beliefs, . . . he leaves the reader unclear as to the relations
between them.