Overview
Introduction
A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, is a cantata by the Los Angeles-based Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, written in tribute to Holocaust victims. The main narration is unsung; “never should there be a pitch” to its solo vocal line, wrote the composer.[this quote needs a citation]
Scored for narrator, men's chorus and orchestra, it resulted from a suggested collaboration between Russian émigrée dancer Corinne Chochem and Schoenberg, but the dancer’s initiative gave way to a project independently developed by the composer after he received a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation for an orchestral work. Concept, text, and musical sketches date from July 7 to August 10, 1947 – the text, by Schoenberg, being in English until the concluding Hebrew plea, except for interjections in German. Composition followed immediately, from Aug. 11 to 23,[2] four years before the composer died. The work was premiered by the Albuquerque Civic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kurt Frederick on November 4, 1948.
