Arnold Schönberg
Moses and Aron
Sketchbook
1931

The fragmentary opera Moses and Aron is Schönberg’s main religious work and touches on central themes of his world view. The fundamental conflict of this three-act piece for music theater can be traced back to the second commandment of the Bible, which concerns the core idea of the Semitic religions’ rejection of idol worship: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above.“ The third scene of Act II forms the most extensive part of the opera with the “Dance around the Golden Calf.“ Planning sketches give an indication of the fluency with which Schönberg drafted a pagan celebration, with the help of a virtuosic command of twelve-tone compositional techniques. Schönberg only wrote out the themes completely. The harmony is sometimes suggested with cue notes, but is completely missing in other places. Instead, there are references to the row derivations used (T-5, U-7, T+7) These provide information about the relationship between the pitch sequences and the twelve tone row, and they make it possible to fill in the empty spaces of the short score with the help of rudimentary accompaniment patterns.