ABSTRACT
In a 1957 book review of the facsimile edition of Schoenberg’s last work, Moderne Psalmen [Modem Psalms], Hans Keller begins with a description of “Schoenberg’s last and very fragmentary work… whose completion was prevented by his death.” After discussing the musical setting of the first text, “Psalm no. 1” (op. 50c), he concludes by referring to “… the fact that [Schoenberg’s] death prevented him from completing the piece.”’ 1 This explanation of the work’s unfinished condition conveys a perfectly reasonable assumption that has stood largely unchallenged for the last forty years. Furthermore, Keller’s assumption is undoubtedly true if one considers “the work” to comprise all sixteen texts that Schoenberg had written between 29 September 1950 and 3 July 1951. 2 The composer had entitled each of the individual texts either “Psalm” or “Moderner Psalm” and given them the collective title of Modeme Psalmen, presumably with the intention of setting them to music; at the time of his death on 13 July 1951, however, he had composed music only for the first text, now simply referred to as “Modern Psalm” (op. 50c). 3 The music of this setting, like the texts themselves, remained incomplete. Considerations of “the work” aside, however, Keller’s assertion about “the piece”—the music of the first “Modern Psalm”—is problematic, as it implies that Schoenberg was still actively engaged in composing music for his first text some nine months after he had begun; as we shall see, certain aspects of the composition suggest that he had intentionally and permanently ceased composing at some earlier point. The intellectual and spiritual struggle embodied in the text, as well as shifting patterns of text setting in the last section of music composed, indicate that Schoenberg had reached an impasse in his attempt to express the in-expressible through music. He therefore made the same decision he had made on two previous occasions when confronted with the same problem: he left the work without ending it.
