Educating Alban

[sawyl]

After leaving it to fester in my to-read pile, I've finally managed to make a start on Alex Ross' highly enjoyable and often deeply funny history of modern music, The Rest is Noise. Here's how Ross describes Alban Berg's apprenticeship with Arnold Schoenberg:

Schoenberg molded Berg into a substantial musical force, but there was a price to be paid for the transformation. For much of his youth Berg was essentially subjected to Schoenberg's will, sometimes functioning as little more than a valet. His tasks in the year 1911 included packing up a van when his teacher moved to Berlin, looking after bank accounts, engaging in fund-raising schemes, addressing legal problems, and proof-reading and indexing Harmonielehre. After one barrage of demands, Schoeberg had the temerity to ask, "Are you composing anything?!?!"

Inspiring stuff!