Digging Schönberg

This publication explores the multifaceted reception history of Arnold Schoenberg within popular music, examining the varied perceptions of his personage across fields ranging from jazz to punk, Brazilian rock, film and video game music. Moving beyond close artistic alignment with the composer’s aesthetic, the collected articles highlight artists’ responses to him through to the 21st century. The title "Digging Schönberg" emphasizes that encountering the composer does not necessarily require intensive study or unbiased identification. It can also be a surprising – and surprisingly pleasurable – discovery while rummaging through a box of records, leaving you in a state of wonder and inspiring you to connect with this musical experience. The editors’ intention was to spark a multi-voiced conversation about incorporating Schönberg into a repertoire with which he had only limited familiarity during his lifetime and to open up new avenues of collaborative thought and interdisciplinary research. The volume contains essays by Manuel Becker, Nicole Biamonte and Jerry Cain, Alexander Carpenter, Hippocrates Ching-nam Cheng, John Covach, Juri Giannini, Saskia Jaszoltowski, Elizabeth L. Keathley, Ricardo Athaide Mitidieri, Keith Salley and Jakob Uhlig.