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Tuesday, May 2, 1995
Home Edition
Section: PART A
Page: A-1
Schoenberg Heirs Plan to Take Collection From USC; Music: Move would end long
feud over the composer's archives. Family seeks a new home for the materials.;
By: LARRY GORDON
TIMES STAFF WRITER
The family of composer Arnold Schoenberg plans to pull the
world-renowned collection of his scores, artifacts and papers from its
home at USC, bitterly ending a feud between the school and the heirs of
the towering figure of 20th-Century arts.
"Were the collection to leave there, it would deal a real blow to the
cultural life of Southern California and the university," said Walter
Frisch, a Schoenberg scholar and chairman of Columbia University's music
department. He described the archives as "certainly one of the greatest
collections in the world" of music, an assessment shared by other
experts.
Since 1977, Schoenberg's enormous holdings of music, writings, concert
programs, tapes and even his desk and piano have been kept in their own
USC building, an international magnet for scholars. A long squabble over
control of that building and archive copyrights recently reached a
breaking point, both sides say, and Schoenberg's children are seeking
another university or library to house the collection.
Scholars around the nation are dismayed by the archive's likely move
out of Southern California, where Schoenberg had strong ties. After
escaping Nazism, the Viennese-born inventor of 12-tone music lived in Los
Angeles for 17 years, until his death in 1951 at age 76. He taught at
UCLA and USC while continuing to write atonal music that partisans
praised as revolutionary and skeptics found unlistenable.
In interviews, the Schoenbergs have stressed that they have no
intention of selling or breaking up the collection, which was appraised
20 years ago at about $3 million and is now thought to be worth much
more. Several out-of-state universities and libraries reportedly want the
archives, but the heirs declined to identify those sites or say when the
move might occur.
The dispute partly involves the 200-seat recital hall inside the
Schoenberg Institute building. In the original contract that awarded the
collection to USC, that hall was supposed to be used only for
performances of--or lectures about--Schoenberg's music and that of other
modernists. Citing academic freedom and a campus space crunch, school
officials contend that they no longer can limit use of the hall. USC pays
more than $300,000 a year for the salaries of five institute employees
and the building's maintenance.
In addition, the Schoenbergs say the university ignores program
suggestions and refuses to convene the institute's advisory board, on
which the family holds three of seven seats. The squabble extends to the
question of who should grant authors copyright permissions.
Claudio Spies, a music professor at Princeton University, declared:
"The importance of that collection could not be overstated. It is
extremely important that it continue to be housed as it has been housed.
. . . It is unthinkable that it be used as part of some ridiculous
squabble."
While some observers think a last-minute compromise remains possible,
participants say the break is irreparable.
"There is no reason to expect or think that any reconciliation could
occur," said Lawrence Schoenberg of Pacific Palisades, youngest of the
composer's three surviving children.
"It is with with no joy that we see it go, but I think it is perhaps
inevitable with the differences of opinion," said USC Provost Lloyd
Armstrong Jr., who likened the situation to the end of a long marriage.
He added that he sympathized with "the desires of the heirs to find a
place that is more philosophically in tune . . . much as we feel bad
about it going."
The collection includes about 6,000 pages of music, drawings and
writings; 2,000 published volumes of music and books; many diaries,
calendars and photographs; all the furniture from Schoenberg's Brentwood
study, and recordings of many compositions that scholars say had immense
influence worldwide. Although many Schoenberg letters are at the Library
of Congress, the breadth of the USC holdings is very rare among music
libraries.
Located on the northwest side of USC's campus, the two-story
Schoenberg Institute is a concrete-and-glass structure whose modernist
design is supposed to evoke the composer's music, which threw out
classical harmonies and outraged traditionalists. In a sign of
Schoenberg's stature, the West Berlin government donated money to USC for
the institute's furnishings and equipment.
In a first-floor, high-security room, the temperature is kept at 65
degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity at 62% to protect such items as
Schoenberg's original 1903 score--in his slanted black-ink
handwriting--of the tone poem "Pelleas und Melisande."
Among other things, the tall steel shelves contain Schoenberg's
handwritten score of his unfinished 1930s opera "Moses und Aron"; a copy
of Thomas Mann's novel "Doktor Faustus" inscribed to Schoenberg and
signed by the author; an original program from a 1902 performance in
Vienna of Schoenberg's "Verklaerte Nacht," or "Transfigured Night"; a
copy of his influential book "Theory of Harmony," inscribed in German in
1924 to his second wife "Meine Liebste " (my love) by "dein
(your) Arnold ." His volumes of Goethe, Shakespeare and Nietzsche
are also there, annotated in his fraktur, the antique Gothic-style
handwriting.
"Anyone serious about doing Schoenberg research is going to make
contact with us," said R. Wayne Shoaf, the institute's archivist. He
estimated that several hundred published books "wouldn't exist without
the resources we've provided."
On the second floor, behind a glass pane, Schoenberg's Brentwood study
is recreated with the original furniture, lamps, pens and his upright
piano. Just behind is the recital hall, which has been rarely used in
recent years since the family complained about violation of its booking
rules.
"The fundamental disagreement is over the single focus, the
memorializing of Schoenberg to the exclusion of studies of other
20th-Century music or other emigre studies," said Lynn Sipe, the acting
director of USC's libraries.
USC also wants more control over the archives' copyrights, which the
family retains. Provost Armstrong called the current copyright
arrangement "not consistent with our standards of academic freedom"
because the family holds ultimate power over the material's use.
The Schoenbergs stress that they have never denied a scholar the right
to quote or reproduce anything for free, a point several scholars
confirmed. USC's efforts now show disrespect to the artistic legacy, the
heirs maintain.
"It's astonishing; it's very painful to hear them say we are
infringing on their academic freedom," said Lawrence Schoenberg.
Some observers liken the situation to the controversy that arose in
March when Yale University returned a $20-million gift from Texas
financier and alumnus Lee M. Bass because he wanted to approve faculty
appointments to a Western civilization study program he funded. The
crucial difference, Schoenberg supporters stress, is that USC is
attempting to break a two-decade-old agreement that the university
eagerly sought.
Others say the feud mirrors Schoenberg's feeling that he was never
recognized or rewarded enough in his lifetime. They cite his rejected
application for a 1945 Guggenheim Fellowship.
"The squabbles have gone on and on and on," said one person who is
knowledgeable about the USC debate and who requested anonymity. "Neither
side wants to back down because it's a matter of pride. Who wants to lose
and who wants to have their nose shoved in the dirt?"
It may be difficult to find another library that will agree to similar
restrictions and care for the collection as well as USC has, some
scholars suggested. Initial response from outside California proves
otherwise, the Schoenbergs contend.
"It is nice to have it (nearby) but it is nice to have it
appreciated," explained the composer's other son, Ronald Schoenberg, who
is a Los Angeles municipal judge.
USC leaders say the school will retain much of the collection's
intellectual value by keeping microfilm and other copies as well as the
many books acquired without the family's help. However, the school has
not determined future use of the building and whether the Schoenberg name
will stay on it.
"I hope the institute will continue to exist," said its director, USC
music professor Paul Zukofsky. "The (remaining) material will certainly
be utilized. How, exactly? At this point, nobody knows. This will take
time."
PHOTO: Archivist R. Wayne Shoaf with Schoenberg music.
PHOTOGRAPHER: ALAN J. DUIGNAN / For The Times
Descriptors: SCHOENBERG, ARNOLD; UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA;
COLLECTIONS; FAMILIES; FEUDS;
Copyright (c) 1995 Times Mirror Company
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