Correspondence A.Schönberg–Universal-Edition. Hybrid Edition

Arnold Schönberg (born 1874 in Vienna, died 1951 in Los Angeles) composer, writer, painter and teacher was a central personality in the arts world of the 20th century. Before emigrating to the US in 1933 to escape the National Socialists, he published the majority of his works at the publishing house Universal-Edition in Vienna, which specialized in new music. The correspondence between the composer and his music publishers was exchanged over a period of almost four decades, and allows insights into the production of printed music ranging from manuscripts to printed scores and orchestral parts. It documents the communication between the creative artist and all persons/institutions involved in the performance of his works, and illuminates the complex procedures that prevailed in an international music publishing house. The letters span a period that includes the two world wars, and also enable conclusions to be drawn about contemporary events, ultimately creating a cultural panorama of an epoch known as musical modernism. Numbering around 1,600 documents, the correspondence between Arnold Schönberg and Universal-Edition will now be made available (edited) in a research project with two different media: a digital edition that will contain digital copies of the originals and a large quantity of supplementary material in addition to the transcription of the actual letters, some of which use barely legible Kurrent handwriting, and also a traditional printed edition with several volumes. This combined system will enable an ideal blend of the advantages offered by these two media in the form of a historical-critical hybrid edition. State-of-the-art technology and international standards will be employed in order to cover all aspects of the written documents, from pure reproduction of the content to the profundity with which the subject matter is treated. A key role is played by the music here, and the letters include musical notation in many intermediate stages between composing and performance material. This requires a special kind of digital encoding. Each letter will be viewed and presented based on the originals found in archives all around the world. The project will be conducted in cooperation with the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, where the composers Estate is preserved, with the music publishers Universal Edition (also still located in Vienna), whose archives offer important material for the researchers, and the State Institute for Music Research in Berlin (Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung), where the printed edition will be published in the Viennese School correspondence series entitled Briefwechsel der Wiener Schule.

Arnold Schönberg's correspondence with the music publishers Dreililien (Berlin) and Universal-Edition (Vienna) comprises 1,750 documents and constitutes the most extensive collection within the entire correspondence of the composer, theorist, writer, painter, and teacher. The collection of letters and documents is now available in a scholarly critical hybrid edition, i.e., in a freely accessible online digital version as well as a print edition (to be published in autumn 2026). Music publishers played an important role in the dissemination of Schönberg's oeuvre and served as hubs for organisation and communication within his network. The concept of this edition builds on these premises and explores the sources from various perspectives. The digital edition (www.schoenberg-ue.at) contains all surviving letters and documents, including newly discovered material. Letters that are mentioned but are no longer extant are also documented. The web interface presents the digital facsimiles, a critical text indicating corrections and alterations, and a simplified reading version side by side. Indexes of people, organisations, places, musical works, writings, and events serve not only as finding aids but also provide additional information. Various search and filter functions enable searches based on individual interests. Editorial commentaries link specific passages in the correspondence to further sources - music manuscripts and printed scores, photographs, concert programmes, newspaper articles from the Schönberg estate, and other digital archives. The printed edition is a selective publication whose chronological arrangement of the surviving texts foregrounds both the factual as well as the affective trajectory of the correspondence. A thematic introduction, annual chronologies, and thematic as well as passage-specific commentaries situate the letters within broader contexts. The edition was developed in accordance with current scholarly standards - with the aim of optimally exploiting the strengths of both media and producing the digital and printed editions from a shared editorial basis.