7 Arnold Schoenberg 7aroused considerable opposition. In 1923 his wife, Mathilde,
died after a long illness, and a year later he married Gertrud
Kolisch, the sister of the violinist Rudolf Kolisch. His
success as a teacher continued to grow. In 1925 he was
invited to direct the master class in musical composition
at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin.
Schoenberg’s teaching was well received, and he was
writing important works: the Third String Quartet, Opus
30 (1927); the opera Von Heute auf Morgen (From Today to
Tomorrow), Opus 32 (1928–29, first performed in 1930);
Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene (Accompaniment to a Film
Scene), Opus 34 (1929 –30). But political events proved his
undoing. The rise of National Socialism in Germany in
1933 led to the extirpation of Jewish influence in all spheres
of German cultural life. Schoenberg was dismissed from his
post at the academy. He emigrated to the United States via
Paris, and in November 1933 he took a position at the Malkin
Conservatory in Boston. In 1934 he moved to California,
where he spent the remainder of his life, becoming a citizen
of the United States in 1941. He held major teaching posi-
tions at the University of Southern California (1935–36) and
at the University of California at Los Angeles (1936 –44).
Schoenberg’s major American works show ever-
increasing mastery and freedom in the handling of the
12-tone method. Some of the outstanding compositions
of his American period are the Violin Concerto, Opus 36
(1934–36); the Fourth String Quartet, Opus 37 (1936); the
Piano Concerto, Opus 42 (1942); and the Fantasia for violin
with piano accompaniment, Opus 47 (1949). He also wrote
a number of works of particular Jewish interest, including
Kol Nidre for mixed chorus, speaker, and orchestra, Opus 39
(1938), and the Prelude to the Genesis Suite for orchestra and
mixed chorus, Opus 44 (1945).
On July 2, 1951, Hermann Scherchen, the eminent
conductor of 20th-century music, conducted the “Dance