How curious is consciousness, and, what it is in time, learning. This line of thought reminds me of Heidegger's 'Was Ist Denken'? Teaching is speaking and thinking about thinking, according to Heidegger.
I just learnt that Schoenberg did indeed obsess about 'nameless' objects. Based on the story of Anna O, Erwartung refers to material based on Freud's case histories. Schoenberg was friends with Mahler, and we know that Mahler visited Freud himself, though only for one session. The woman in Schoenberg's 'monodrama', nevertheless, is nameless.
A similar theme emerges in Schoenberg's Die Gluckliche Hand. Obsessed by a beast, 'obssedere' being the Latin notion of sitting upon in the manner of a succubus, the nameless protaganist attempts to forge a nameless work of great beauty from nothing, all the while in fear of failure and destruction. A woman mysteriously appears in the story.
There is still the spiritual in Schoenberg, unlike some logical positivism. (Of course, Wittgenstein was quite the Mystic, and himself had a brilliant knowledge of music. His brother Paul was a fabulous one-armed pianist for whom Vaughan Williams, Ravel and Hindemith wrote concerti). Schoenberg in fact sustained a long friendship with the abstract expressionist, Wassily Kandinsky and greatly admired his Concerning the Spiritual in Art. I agree that Kandinsky's treatise is frankly sublime..
Amazing what you can learn, moment-to-moment..
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