Tape Dispenser Painted by hand in oil, brushstroke by brushstroke

“The fruit of Schönberg’s extra-musical activities were conceived by his ever-creative mind and represent a fusion of invention and craftsmanship. Next to his study, where he composed and did his writing, there was a room where my father worked on his other activities. It was called “das zweite Zimmer” (the second room), and it had a big work table and hammers and saws, special knives for cutting leather and ivory spatulas for bookbinding and many other fascinating tools. I used to love to watch him working there, creating models of his inventions, cutting and sawing and gluing. Here I came to understand his great love and respect for craftsmanship and for materials. Many of these objects had been invented to fulfill exigencies of everyday life long before the ones we now take for granted were on the market; others were necessary for his work (slide rules for working out the possible combinations of the twelve tones of the musical scale and relationships between tone-rows). In everything he did, Schönberg tried to evolve the current forms to fit the times in which he lived.” (Nuria Schoenberg Nono, The Role of Extra-Musical Pursuits in Arnold Schoenberg’s Creative Life, in Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute 5/June 1981).