This week on “Sweetness and Light,” the focus is on… Arnold Schoenberg?!!! That’s right, the High Priest of Dodecaphonic Music.

Schoenberg was born on September 13, 1874, 150 years ago. But before you scroll to the next post, I hasten to add, there will be no twelve-tone music on the program. Instead, we’ll enjoy the LIGHTER SIDE of this 20th century master.

And contrary to his many somber portraits and photographs, Schoenberg could indeed smile.

We’ll hear arrangements of music by Johann Strauss II and Johann Sebastian Bach, a cello concerto freely adapted from a harpsichord piece by 18th century composer Georg Matthias Monn, and, since Schoenberg regarded himself as the artistic heir of Johannes Brahms, a German folk song setting – directed by Pierre Boulez, no less!

We’re coming up on the 29th anniversary of my professional radio debut on September 28, 1995 (having honed my craft in the bush league of community radio for 9 years before that), so I thought I’d conclude with a Schoenberg cabaret song I programmed on that very first morning. The text is by none other than Emanuel Schikaneder, Mozart’s librettist for “The Magic Flute.”

It’s Schoenberg for people who think they don’t like Schoenberg on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

Since yesterday’s post for Schoenberg’s actual birthday got no love, here it is again:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1381350726117320&set=a.883855802533484

Then sample some Schoenberg paintings and drawings:

https://www.schoenberg.at/index.php/en/schoenberg-2/bildnerischeswerk

Schoenberg speaks (one of many such files on YouTube):

PHOTOS (counterclockwise from top): Schoenberg on cello, horsing around with musician friends (including violinist Fritz Kreisler); with Charlie Chaplin; smiling with his daughter; and ready for a match (possibly with his frequent tennis partner, George Gershwin)