Notes to pp. 85–91 507works possible consists of managing the process of thematic work in
every direction, without any remnant and without treating any note in an
arbitrary way. Every twelve-note composition is based on a particular
arrangement of all twelve notes of a “basic row”. An example is C# – A –
Bb – G – Ab – F# – Bb – D – E – Eb – C – F, as in Schoenberg’s
first twelve-tone publication, a waltz’ (Adorno, ‘Arnold Schoenberg’, GS,
vol. 18, p. 317).
13 Adorno, Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link, p. 13. Adorno’s memory
seems to have misled him here, since at this time, January 1925, he was
still in Frankfurt am Main, from where he wrote to Berg in order to ask in
writing whether Berg would take him on as a pupil. Adorno finally moved
to Vienna in the first week in March. Cf. also ‘Im Gedächtnis an Alban
Berg’, GS, vol. 18, p. 487ff.
14 Adorno and Berg, Briefwechsel 1925–1935, p. 9f.
15 See Heinz Steinert, Adorno in Wien, p. 13f.
16 Arthur Koestler, Arrow in the Blue, p. 92.
17 Adorno, ‘Im Gedächtnis an Alban Berg’, GS, vol. 18, p. 496.
18 Heinz Steinert, Adorno in Wien, p. 17 and also p. 74ff.
19 Ibid., p. 52ff.
20 Adorno, ‘Vienna’, in Quasi una fantasia, pp. 201 and 204.
21 Adorno, Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link, p. 13f.
22 Ibid., p. 32.
23 Ibid., p. 27. Apart from Adorno, Berg had almost no other pupils. He gave
lessons only to Julius Schloß, who had also studied at the Hoch Conservatory.
Adorno had no more time for Schloß than did Berg.
24 Adorno, ‘Nach Steuermanns Tod’, GS, vol. 17, p. 312.
25 Ibid., p. 314f.
26 See Adorno, Zu einer Theorie der musikalischen Reproduktion, NaS,
vol. 2.
27 See Adorno, ‘Zum Problem der Reproduktion’, GS, vol. 19, p. 440ff.
28 A year after the death of his first wife, Schoenberg married Rudolf Kolisch’s
sister.
29 A glance at the index of his writings on music yields a list of around 200
composers whose works he analysed. In some cases, such as Gustav Mahler
or Alban Berg, he discussed the entire oeuvre, in others, such as Beethoven,
Mozart, Schubert, Hindemith, Krenek, Debussy, Ravel and Wagner, he
focused on major compositions.
30 Quoted in Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, p. 73.
31 A year before Adorno arrived in Vienna, and following the death of
his first wife, Mathilde, the sister of his teacher Zemlinsky, Schoenberg
had remarried. His second wife, Gertrud Kolisch, the sister of Rudolf, was
significantly younger than him. To Adorno it seemed as if this second
marriage had caused Schoenberg to lead a more private life, and this
resulted in a loosening of the previously firm and continuous ties binding
the circle of his pupils and followers. See Adorno, Alban Berg: Master of
the Smallest Link, p. 29; and also Heinz Steinert, Adorno in Wien, pp. 22ff.
and 60ff.
32 Adorno, Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link, p. 16, alternative transla-
tion [trans.].
33 See Adorno and Berg, Briefwechsel 1925–1935, p. 17.