Style and Idea


Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg is the name for a published collection of essays, articles and sketches by Arnold Schoenberg, that has appeared in various forms.
The earliest may date to c. 1950, edited and translated by Dika Newlin, and contains fifteen essays, published by Philosophical Library, New York:
  1. The relationship to the text
  2. Gustav Mahler
  3. New music, outmoded music, style and idea
  4. Brahms the progressive
  5. Composition with twelve tones
  6. A dangerous game
  7. Eartraining through composing
  8. Heart and brain in music
  9. Criteria for the evaluation of music
  10. Folkloristic symphonies
  11. Human rights
  12. On revient toujours
  13. The blessing of the dressing
  14. This is my fault
  15. To the wharfs.
A Spanish translation was published by Taurus of Madrid in 1951.
The 1975 edition first published by Faber and Faber, published in the United States by Belmont Music Publishers and by St. [Martin's Press] the same year 1975, was twice as long, contained 94 selections of varying lengths in 10 themed sections in translations by Leo Black, edited by Leonard Stein - "A Dangerous Game" and "To the Wharfs" were dropped between versions.
The sections of the new version are:
  1. Editor's preface
  2. Translator's preface
  3. Personal Evaluation and Retrospect
  4. Modern Music
  5. Folk-Music and Nationalism
  6. Critics and Criticism
  7. Twelve-Tone Composition
  8. Theory and Composition
  9. Performance and Notation
  10. Teaching
  11. Composers
  12. Social and Political Matters
  13. Sources and Notes
  14. Appendices
  15. Index
The Philosophical Library reprinted the 14-item 1950 edition in 2010.