Arnold Schönberg - Eric Schaal pictures of Schönberg at Pierrot lunaire

Arnold Schönberg Estate.

Eric Schaal pictures of Schönberg at Pierrot lunaire, op. 21, New York’s Town Hall.

Eric Schaal took some pictures of Arnold Schönberg during a performance of Pierrot lunaire, op. 21 in New York’s Town Hall. A print surviving in the photographer’s Estate bears an annotation by Schönberg: “To Mr. Eric Schaal, for not only making this picture, but also promising to send me copies. I hope this promise will be as good as this picture | Arnold Schoenberg January 1941” “I am enclosing the promised duplicates of the color pictures, which you will please use for yourself, i.e. not forward them to magazines for publication […] I would like to keep the photograph in the transparent envelope for myself; I would ask you to be so kind as to write a few lines in the empty border on the front side.” (Eric Schaal to Arnold Schönberg, 3 December 1940).

The Arnold Schönberg Estate contains the records of Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), a composer, painter, teacher, theoretician, and innovator who is ranked amongst the prominent artistic figures in the history of western culture. His writings, apart from his compositions, are valuable documents for the musical, intellectual, and cultural history of the first half of the 20th century, as well as for exile studies, and thus for contemporary history. They are evidence of the multifaceted interests of an eminent artistic personality, and also address questions of aesthetics, Jewish affairs, politics, and religion.