Joseph Auner has successfully demonstrated that although many supporters of and objectors to Arnold Schoenberg’s music had described the composer as elitist, his relation to the public was complex. Many of his compositions from the 1920s simultaneously participate in and challenge contemporary popular genres. Auner claims that ‘the image of an uncompromised Schoenberg making no concessions to the performer or listener is … mistaken.’ (Joseph Auner, ‘Schoenberg and His Public in 1930’, in ed. Walter Frisch, Schoenberg and His World (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1999).

I have just read an interesting letter Schoenberg wrote in 1930 to Dr. Flesch from Radio Berlin. In this letter he suggests a radio program where there will be a ‘confrontation of divergent opinions and the author’s remark on them.’ Schoenberg suggests that the program will include parts that will be written in advance and a ‘free discussion’ part. Schoenberg’s suggestion was adopted and I think that there is such a radio recording, with Schoenberg as the author, which exists (perhaps in the Schoenberg Center in Vienna). It is amazing that Schonberg writes that ‘for years I had the idea of getting someone to start a periodical in which the public could express opinion in the manner described above’. Are we evident here of an insight into the future were online journals will enable comments of the readers? In one of my previous posts I reviewed some of the current online music journals and suggested how the online music journal of the future will look like. I hope that the guys in Music Theory Online (or any other online journal) will pick up the glove.