Schönberg, Trauma, and the Unrepresentable

Why Moses und Aron Could Never Be Finished

Abstract

This examination raises the possibility, that the completion of Schönberg's opera Moses und Aron became impossible in light of antisemitism and the Holocaust, Schönberg’s personal memory of the family’s precipitous flight from Nazi Germany just as Act II was completed, and the murders of those relatives left behind. Did Schönberg suffer from a resulting form of writer’s block, in which a hopeful conclusion to Act III of the opera could no longer be envisioned? Extant text sketches for Act III suggest a grim post-traumatic reaction, and preoccupation with a militant version of Zionism. To understand these factors, we must first examine the vicissitudes of Schönberg’s cultural and political identifications over many years.