Arnold Schoenberg Center

The Arnold Schönberg Center on Schwarzenbergplatz

The Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna has been the central repository of Arnold Schönberg's estate and a public cultural center since 1998 . It is located in the Palais Fanto at Schwarzenbergplatz 6 in Vienna's 3rd district, Landstrasse .

The supporting organization of the ASC is the Arnold Schönberg Center Private Foundation, which was established jointly by the City of Vienna and the International Schönberg Society.

The estate of Arnold Schönberg, for whom this museum was established, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Memory of the World) in 2011 .

history

Arnold Schönberg's estate remained in the possession of his family after his death in 1951 and was administered by his widow Gertrud Schönberg until 1964. In the 1970s, his heirs decided to make the collection available to the Arnold Schoenberg Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, founded in 1973 , where an archive was set up in addition to a performance and exhibition room, which was open to the public until 1997. Leonard Stein , a Schoenberg student, headed the institute as its first director.

When the requirement of the Schönberg heirs, institute and archive should relate to Arnold Schönberg in research and teaching, was no longer fulfilled by the University of Southern California in the 1990s, a legal dispute broke out with the heirs in 1996. Cities, universities and private individuals in New York , Vienna , Berlin , The Hague , Basel , Yale , Stanford , Harvard , Arizona , as well as the Getty Center and the University of California at Los Angeles in Los Angeles endeavored to acquire the collection . Finally, Vienna, as Schönberg's birthplace and as the cradle and namesake of the Second Vienna School, became the new location for the estate. At the beginning of 1997 the Arnold Schönberg Center Private Foundation was established by the City of Vienna and the International Schönberg Society. The start-up capital was 8 million Schilling, the City of Vienna and the Republic of Austria also guaranteed an unlimited annual subsidy for the maintenance of ongoing operations of 10.2 million Schilling (value-secured). The value of the archive at that time was an estimated 700 million schillings. At the same time, the foundation board appointed the cultural manager Christian Meyer as founding director. He held this function until 2015 and during this time established the ASC with a variety of activities as a referential place for encounters and confrontation with the work and activities of Arnold Schönberg. The center has been headed by the musicologist Angelika Möser since July 2015.

The purpose of the foundation includes the establishment of the Arnold Schönberg Archive (estate), its preservation and maintenance, the education of the general public with regard to Schönberg's interdisciplinary artistic influence, and the teaching and dissemination of Schönberg's contributions to music and other life's work. The purposes of the foundation are to be achieved, among other things, by enabling access and availability of the Schönberg estate for scientific studies and research, the regular organization of exhibitions, concerts and other events, the holding of symposiums and conferences, and the exhibition of paintings and drawings Arnold Schönbergs, which were made available to the foundation by their owners as long-term loans.

In May 2011, Arnold Schönberg's estate was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World register .

On August 12, 2015, a fire broke out in the roof dome of Palais Fanto. The premises of the Arnold Schönberg Center were damaged by the extinguishing water. The exhibition rooms and the library had to be temporarily closed for renovation.

activities

The center houses an archive and a reference library. It serves as a venue for exhibitions, concerts, lectures, workshops and symposia. Schönberg's study with original furniture and work utensils is accessible all year round. The center publishes the scientific periodical "Journal of the Arnold Schönberg Center". A catalog raisonné was published for Schönberg's artistic oeuvre . In addition, the Schönberg Center, in cooperation with the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin and Deutschlandradio, regularly awards the Arnold Schönberg Prize to international composers. The center operates worldwide as an initiator, lender and content partner.

The archive of the Schönberg Center can be used all year round by scientists, composers, musicians and the general public. The collection includes around 20,000 pages of music and text manuscripts, historical photographs, personal documents, diaries, concert programs, Schönberg's library, memorabilia and instruments; furthermore copies and digital copies of the worldwide holdings at Schönbergiana. Digital facsimiles of all autographs, paintings and letters are published on the website. In addition, Schönberg's works and original sound recordings are available as audio streams.

Schönberg House in Mödling

In March 1997, the International Schönberg Society brought Schönberg's house in Mödling near Vienna, Bernhardgasse 6 (1918–1925) to the newly established Arnold Schönberg Center Private Foundation. Schönberg's apartment has been open to the public as a museum memorial and concert venue since September 1999.

Individual evidence

^ Arnold Schönberg Estate , unesco.org: List of registered heritage
↑ Reinhard Kager : Homecoming of the great innovator. The "Arnold Schönberg Center" was opened in Vienna . In: Opera world . The international opera magazine. No. 5/1998 , May 1998, magazine, p. 52 .
^ Special newsletter 26 of the Arnold Schönberg Center . Special newsletter 26, 2015, accessed on September 21, 2015.
^ UNESCO - Memory of the World: Austria
↑ diepresse.com - "Fire out" in Palais Fanto: Schönberg-Center closed . Article dated August 13, 2015, accessed August 13, 2015.