Belmont Music Publishers, which preserves and promotes the compositions of Arnold Schoenberg, was among many structures destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles.
“The entire inventory of sales and rental materials – comprising some manuscripts, original scores, and printed works – has been lost in the flames,” writes Larry Schoenberg, the composer’s son, who established Belmont in 1965. “For a company that focused exclusively on the works of Schoenberg, this loss represents not just a physical destruction of property but a profound cultural blow. . . .
“Belmont Music’s catalog encompassed Schoenberg’s complete range of compositions, from his early Romantic works to his groundbreaking twelve-tone pieces. These works, including compositions like ‘Verklärte Nacht’ and ‘Pierrot Lunaire,’ are foundational to the 20th-century classical repertoire. Belmont’s role in preserving and distributing these masterpieces was invaluable for musicians and scholars alike, who turned to the publisher for access to authentic, carefully edited editions of Schoenberg’s challenging but transformative music.”
Leaving his post at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin after the Nazis took power in 1933, Arnold Schoenberg settled in Los Angeles in 1935, teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC), as well as teaching privately, until his death in 1951. (Among his students in LA was the teen-aged Dika Newlin, who in later life taught at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.)
In his home in LA’s Brentwood neighborhood, still standing as of this posting, Schoenberg was host to many gatherings of musical and show-business luminaries. Shirley Temple was a neighbor, and George Gershwin was a frequent tennis partner.
Larry Schoenberg, whose home also was burned, writes that Belmont will rebuild and distribute its collection in a digital format.
(via http://slippedisc.com)
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