Quotes from Malcolm MacDonald

It was in Barcelona that Schoenberg composed much of Act II of Moses und Aron. He never required quietness to work—indeed, he preferred to hear people round about him—and it is odd to think that he wrote some of the deeply tragic final scene of Act II at a window overlooking the sunlit city, one ear cocked to the gossip of his wife and Mrs Gerhard chatting in the room behind him, always ready to take part if he felt inclined. The

Moses sinks down, in defeat: 'Unimaginable God, inexpressible thought of many meanings! So I am defeated! So everything I thought was madness and cannot and must not be spoken. Oh word, oh word that I lack!' The