Peace on Earth, op. 13

Arnold Schönberg Estate.

Both Peace on Earth, op. 13 and the Two Ballads, op. 12 were composed for competitions.

As was first communicated by Egon Wellesz (Arnold Schönberg. Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich 1921) without specifying further details, both Peace on Earth, op. 13 and the Two Ballads, op. 12 were composed for competitions.

Insights gained from Schönberg’s correspondence reveal that the composition prize for Peace on Earth is associated with the 1st Styrian Music Festival, which was motivated – according to press reports – by the success of the opera Salome by Richard Strauss in the previous year, and was scheduled for the second half of May 1907 as the highlight of the theater season.

The fair copy of the choral setting, which presumably originated directly after the written copy was finished to serve as a manuscript for submission to the Styrian Music Festival competition. For the text of his choral work Schönberg drew upon a Christmas poem written by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer in October 1886. The Swiss poet would later allow Bertha von Suttner, to whose peace movement he was allied, to reprint Peace on Earth in her newspaper Die Waffen nieder (Lay Down Your Arms).

The first verse of Meyer’s poem begins with the tidings of peace from the Christmas story; the second and third verses essay the history of the world after the birth of Christ as a time of war, in which, however, the belief in justice and the hope for peace continue to be upheld: a peace which in future generations becomes reality (fourth verse).

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.