Verklaerte Nacht Poem by gershon hepner

Six men sat down for him and played
his great Verklärte Nacht;
they’d shown that they could make the grade
and Beethovened and Bached,
and Mozarted and Schuberted,
and Bartóked, too, and Haydned,
together they had Jupitered,
and plumbing depths, Poseidoned.
The man six men from Hollywood
were playing music for
exclaimed: “You all were jolly good! ”
then placed upon the floor
six donuts and a fifth of Scotch,
“I loved your playing, so
enjoy, for you are all top notch! ” ––
they played no encore though.

While Scotch and donuts may be fine,
real artists never dare to
play Arnold’s music line by line,
when sense becomes verklärte.


When Arnold Schönberg asked the artists of the Hollywood String Quartet and two other musicians to play his Verklärte Nacht, he was so enraptured that he told them that he could find nothing to criticize about their performance. To show his appreciation, he brought them donuts and Scotch.

© 1997 3/12/97