
Schönberg's Variations on a Recitative op. 40, composed in Los Angeles in 1941, are considered to be the composer's only completed organ work, and they owe their existence to the initiative of the American organist William Strickland, who founded the Contemporary Organ Series at the New York music publisher H. W. Gray Publishing. At Strickland's suggestion, Arnold Schönberg created an opus – his longest for a solo instrument – that was also notationally different from anything that had been written for the organ:
Based on his orchestral writing, Schönberg used an idiosyncratic 'result notation', which reproduces the desired concert pitches, often exceeding the keyboard range of the organ. In addition, he used pianistic coll'ottava signs (col 8 basso = with 16-foot, col 8 = with 4-foot, etc.) to indicate registration-related octave doublings – a unique notation for organ music that was both creative and in need of explanation. The previous editions dealt with this in different ways.
The first edition, published by Gray in 1947, was arranged by Carl Weinrich, the performer of the world premiere in New York in 1944, who was then Director of Music at Princeton University Chapel. Based on the disposition of the Skinner organ there, he developed a meticulous registration plan that gave the Variations a sound-image suited to large American organs. Weinrich's approach provoked immediate international criticism, and was subsequently strictly rejected by the composer - despite his initial approval; until the last months of his life, Schönberg insisted with Gray on an 'unregistered' second edition ('...so that everyone can make their own registration'), which never materialised. It was not until 1973 that an Urtext, edited by the musicologist Christian Martin Schmidt, was published as part of the Schönberg Complete Edition, making the Variations available for the first time in their authentic reading. The philological edition adheres strictly to Schönberg's original notation, which in turn makes practical access more difficult.
The aim and purpose of the new UE edition is therefore to provide a scholarly music text that also meets the specific requirements of performance practice. The sources, now preserved at the Arnold Schönberg Centre in Vienna, have been reassembled from the point of view of performance practice; in addition, a list of errata written by Schönberg in 1941 and not included in previous editions has been consulted. The ‘result notation‘ of the autograph has been converted into a more practical ‘grip notation’, in which the desired pitches result from the corresponding registrations; Schönberg's indications for octave doubling have also been 'translated' into common pitch level indications (16’, 8’, 4’, 2’). An extensive preface (in English) provides information on the genesis of the work and Schönberg's conception of the organ, as well as notes on interpretation. The music section is footnoted with references to the corresponding notes in the accompanying critical report.
(Pier Damiano Peretti)