Autograph manuscripts and other sources that are significant for establishing the genesis of a work, but are still considered missing, are frequent even in Schönberg’s well-connected universe.
Devastation wrought by wars, clients or recipients who mislaid possessions, postal errors – the reasons why sheet music, letters, documents and other papers known from numerous contexts have gone missing are as varied as the composer’s biography.
In the Schönberg Complete Edition, missing sources are awarded an asterisk: such as op. 34, B* (fair copy of the Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene – most probably destroyed in a fire in World War II). It is very rare for an asterisk to be removed from the source reference, and this process sometimes takes several decades.
In the late summer of 1909 Schönberg composed the monodrama Expectation op. 17 based on a text by Marie Pappenheim. Early in the following year, he discussed the premiere of his work at Mannheim National Theater with conductor Artur Bodanzky. During preparations for the forthcoming premiere, and in the absence of a separate document for the copyist, between February and June 1910 parts were prepared directly from Schönberg’s autograph full score. The premiere failed to go ahead owing to an insufficient number of musicians in the Mannheim orchestra and it had to be initially postponed to the 1913/14 season. On October 25, 1913 Schönberg wrote to his publisher Emil Hertzka that he was now in possession of a “copy” besides his own score: “I have two scores; the copy is not yet corrected, though […] Allow Mr [Hermann] Scherchen to examine the copy and let us use that one for printing. I will correct it first myself, then Scherchen will read through for the second time.”
The second attempt at performing Expectation in Mannheim was unsuccessful as well; the premiere of the monodrama would only take place in 1924, conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky in Prague. The orchestra parts produced in Mannheim remained in the music archives of the National Theater and were presumably destroyed when the building was bombed on September 5, 1943.
The two full scores mentioned in the letter to Emil Hertzka went separate ways: the autograph fair copy of the score remained in the archives of Universal Edition and was used in connection with printing of the work. It was subsequently purchased in 1962 by US collector Robert Owen Lehman. Today, this manuscript is stored in The Morgan Library & Museum (formerly Pierpont Morgan Library), Mary Flagler Cary Music Collection, in New York.
The whereabouts of the copy were long unclear. The Schönberg Complete Edition (Serie B/Band 6,2 – Series B/Volume 6,2) contains the entry “D* copy of the full score missing.” A copy of Expectation recently presented to our Archive by a private owner, which had been prepared by a copyist, seems to be identical to this source. The manuscript was possibly given by Schönberg himself to his pupil Norbert von Hannenheim as a gift. In June/July 1930, Hannenheim had completed several pieces of correction work in Berlin for his teacher relating to printing of the Six pieces for male chorus op. 35 by Bote & Bock. Furthermore, there was an overlap with a stage performance of Expectation, which took place on June 7, 1930 in Berlin’s Kroll Opera House, directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt (conductor: Alexander Zemlinsky). It is possible that Hannenheim received the manuscript from Schönberg in appreciation of his good work.
After Hannenheim’s death (†1945), the manuscripts of his own compositions and other sheet music that survived the war passed into the possession of pianist Else C. Kraus (†1978), and subsequently – at least in part – to the composer, musicologist and Hannenheim researcher Dieter Acker (†2006). We would like to thank his widow for reuniting Expectation Source D (now without *) with the Schönberg Collection, stored at the Center in Vienna.
Therese Muxeneder
Further reading
Herbert Henck: Norbert von Hannenheim. Die Suche nach dem siebenbürgischen Komponisten und seinem Werk. Deinstedt 2007
Arnold Schönberg: Bühnenwerke I. Erwartung op. 17: Kritischer Bericht, Skizzen, Textgenese und Textvergleich, Entstehungs- und Werkgeschichte, Dokumente. Und Pippa tanzt! (Fragment). Ed. Ullrich Scheideler. Mainz, Wien 2005 (Sämtliche Werke. Abteilung III: Bühnenwerke. Reihe B, Band 6, 2 – Complete Works, Section III: Stage works, Series B, Volume 6, 2)