12 January 2011

"How one becomes lonely"

As usual, after this tremendous success [Vienna premiere performance of Gurrelieder in 1913] I was asked whether I was happy.  But I was not.  I was rather indifferent, if not even a little angry.  I foresaw that this success would have no influence on the fate of my later works.  I had, during these thirteen years, developed my style in such a manner that, to the ordinary concert-goer, it seemed to bear no relation to all preceding music.  I had had to fight for every new work; I had been offended in the most outrageous manner by criticism; I had lost friends and I had completely lost any belief in the judgement of friends.  And I stood alone against a world of enemies.
~ Arnold Schoenberg         
"How One Becomes Lonely" (1937)         
Reprinted in Style and Idea, p.41          



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