The Belmont Music publishing house, which is responsible for the distribution and promotion of the virtuoso’s works, was reduced to ashes with, inside, some of his “manuscripts” and “original scores”.
This is another major loss reported by the publishing house Belmont Music, one of the countless victims of the fires that have ravaged Los Angeles since January 7, killing 25 people to date. Its entire stock of sales and rental equipment was completely consumed by the flames.
And among the collection which occupied the premises, it is the work of Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer who died on July 13, 1951 in Los Angeles, which went up in smoke, as his son Larry indicated in a press release distributed and relayed on social networks in recent days. Of the « manuscripts » et « original scores » of this Austrian virtuoso, naturalized American, were reported missing. Fortunately, not all of the artist’s documentation was kept in this Angeline publishing house.
Also read
Fire in Los Angeles: the United States faces “one of the biggest losses of works of art” in its history
The majority, moreover, would be in « security » in his hometown of Vienna, in the Arnold Schoenberg Center inaugurated in 1998, which contains 20,000 pages of manuscripts, photographs, personal documents, diaries, concert programs as well as Arnold Schoenberg’s library. It was the University of Southern California which, in 1995, decided to get rid of it and bequeath it to the Austrian capital. This, even though the composer had taught there for a long time following his forced exile after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany at the time.
Obligation to turn to digital
That said, Belmont had the equipment musicians used to play Schoenberg’s music. Their disappearance remains a heavy loss for the publishing house whose sole purpose was the distribution and promotion of the virtuoso’s works, his son Larry being its director. « We are determined to continue our mission of bringing Schoenberg’s music to the world »however, confided the descendant of Arnold Schoenberg, appealing to the musical world to guarantee the prosperity of his father’s works.
We are determined to continue our mission of bringing Schoenberg’s music to the world
Larry Schoenberg, fils d’Arnold Schoenberg
The loss of all of the record company’s equipment will force it to turn mainly to digital and to abandon public performances. « Belmont Music’s evolution toward this model will ensure that Arnold Schoenberg’s groundbreaking works continue to shape the music world for years to come »Larry hopes.
Arnold Schoenberg is considered one of the most important theorists of the 20th century.e century. At the time, he embodied what was known as the “Second Vienna School”. He is then perceived as the father and leader of a movement that led to dodecaphonism, atonality and serialism. And the Belmont press release states: « His compositions challenged conventional approaches to harmony and form and, in doing so, reshaped the course of modern music ».
