Jane Coppock
A CONVERSATION WITH ARTHUR BERGER
Jane Coppock:
Tell me something about your musical education.
Arthur Berger:
I learned to read music and to play by ear. By about 1924
I was composing. I took books out of the library and set myself the
task of writing a Mozart sonata, which came out sort of Schubert. By
that time I had a Polish piano teacher. She would bring me pieces by
Rachmaninoff, Paderewski, and Scharwenka. At the beginning
when I had absolutely no technique, I murdered, I really murdered
them, and she'd say, "marvelous!" and promptly give me another
such piece. At Townsend Harris I pursued my musical interests by
establishing a club called the Fine Arts Society. Townsend Harris
was the first of the advanced high schools in New York, and it
provided an excellent education. But there was no music that I can
remember, no music at all . The club helped fill the gap. Through it,
we would get tickets
to
the opera and concerts.
Coppock:
Had you ever heard of Stravinsky or Hindemith?
Berger:
No, no, not until I got to college. And not until I entered New
York University in 1930 did I start hearing their music, although I
recall Scriabin and Prokofieff as the "modern" composers more
frequently played. I transferred to NYU after two years at City
College, since by that time I had definitely decided I wanted
to
go
into music and City had nothing to offer in this field. My father 's
reaction was the proverbial one: he was upset since he had deter–
mined I shou ld be a lawyer.
Coppock:
This was in 1930?
Berger:
Yes.
It
was the Depression and since there was a likelihood I'd
have
to
earn a living as a teacher-a high school teacher, since the
prospects of a college job were utopian-I thought I had better get a
degree in education. That's where things broke loose, because that is
where I met Jerome Moross and Bernard Herrmann . We became the
holy terrors with our avant-gardism. They had already found out
about Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, George Antheil,
From
Perspect ives of N ew Music,
Fall-Winter issue, 1979.
