Preface to Volume 20 B

This volume contains the editorial notes for the works included in Volume 20 of Series A.

In addition, all the known sketches for these works are reproduced and annotated. The sketches for the second movement of Opus 10 merit particular attention, because they show that the formal plan underwent a number of stages of evolution. With regard to the fragment of a String Quartet in D minor (1901–1904), note should be taken of the reproduction of the first draft of a second movement apart from the fugue, a scherzo which has hitherto been viewed as an independent work. With regard to the First String Quartet, Opus 7, the early draft of the first development section, which was revised and drastically shortened only in the fair copy, is of great interest. The text of the concealed programme of the First String Quartet and Schoenbergs highly illuminating performance instructions of 1909 concerning the Second String Quartet are supplementary source materials deserving attention.

The Appendix contains two fragments which, unlike the two included in the Series A volume, did not reach a definitive stage in the compositional process. All fragments have been numbered consecutively, for case of identification.

The editor has received considerable help in the preparation of this volume. Mention must be made first and foremost of Mr Albi Rosenthal of Oxford, who has made possible, and energetically encouraged, the publication of the performance instructions for Opus 10. Mr John Rothgeb of the State University of New York at Binghamton has undertaken the task of describing the sources held in the Library of Congress in Washington and has performed this task meticulously. Frau Camilla Ueberschaer has done a considerable amount of preliminary work making detailed comparisons of the numerous sources of the Second String Quartet. I should also like to thank Mr O. W. Neighbour of the British Library, London; Frau Marion von Hartlieb of Universal Edition, Vienna; Frau Rosemary Hilmar of the Musiksammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; Herr Ernst Hilmar of the Musiksammlung der Wiener Stadtbibliothek; Herr Hans-Günter Klein of the Musiksammlung der Staatsbibliothek (Preußischer Kulturbesitz), Berlin; and the staff of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles, particularly the Institutes archivist, Mr Jerry McBride.

Berlin, May 1985
Christian Martin Schmidt