Liebeslied

At the beginning of 1917, Arnold Schoenberg began his first studies eventually leading him towards the twelve-tone technique. A few months later "Liebeslied" was created, but it was abandoned right before it's completion, it just lacks several bars of the instrumental accompaniment. Thanks to recent musicological results of the Schoenberg complete edition the special compositional technique between the atonal and the twelve-tone phase could be decoded and the missing bars could be newly created in the manner of the existing parts. Thus it could be managed to complete the fragment for a performable version. This edition offers an access to a yet unnoticed original work, shows Schoenberg in a state of searching new compositional methods and extends Schoenberg's canon of works for voice and ensemble with a highly emotional opus.

Arnold Schönberg: Liebeslied (1917) for voice, string trio and harmonium (organ/accordion/piano). Completed as a performable version by Lorenz Trottmann. Score. Edition Gravis, eg 3256
With this edition, Lorenz Trottmann brings to light an unfinished work from a significant transitional period in Arnold Schönberg's career, between free atonality and twelve-tone technique—a period from which relatively few completed works by the composer survive. The editor was able to draw on a comparatively advanced fragment dating from 1917, which was published in 2016 as part of the complete edition (Section VI, Series B, Vol. 23, Part 2).
The fragment comprises the fully worked-out vocal part and portions of the instrumental parts. In his extensive accompanying notes, Trottmann documents and explains in detail, and with admirable clarity, the approach he took in completing the work to create this performable version. The result sounds thoroughly authentic and derives much of its distinctive colour from the harmonium. This inevitably limits the options for concert programming, unless the harmonium is replaced by an accordion or organ; a piano would probably be no more than a makeshift substitute.
The expressive setting of Rilke's "Liebes-Lied" (as the poet himself spells the title) demonstrates impressively how naturally the poem lends itself to musical treatment: "[…] Yet everything that touches us, you and me, / draws us together like the stroke of a bow, / sounding a single voice from two strings. / On what instrument are we strung? / And what violinist holds us in his hand? / O sweet song."

Juan Martin Koch, in: nmz 10/26, p. 8. Reproduced by kind permission.