The original essays in this collection chronicle the transformation of Arnold Schoenberg's works from music as pure art to music as a vehicle of religious and political ideas, during the first half of the twentieth century. This interdisciplinary volume includes contributions from musicologists, music theorists, and scholars of German literature and of Jewish studies. "The seriousness and steadfastness of his "mission"--to be a beacon for music in contemporary culture--and the ambivalence of his position as a thoroughly Europeanized Jew resonante in these informative, thoroughly documented articles, written primarily by younger scholars." -- Choice