Though a great deal has been written about the life and work of Arnold Schoenberg, it is an astonishing fact that no substantial English language monograph has been published exclusively on Schoenberg's chamber music. We hope that this collection of essays will begin to address that lacuna. The book issues in part from an international symposium that took place at Carleton University, Ottawa, during the summer of 2007, in conjunction with a series of concerts sponsored by the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival (OICMF), featuring Schoenberg's chamber works. It was a particular honor to host these events in Canada. Canadian advocacy of Schoenberg's music has always been strong: one thinks of the pianists Glenn Gould, Léo-Pol Morin, and Karl Steiner, composers John Weinzweig, John Beckwith, Jean Coulthard, Otto Joachim, and Udo Kasemets, film documentarists Franz Kraemer and Larry Weinstein, and an impressive number of Canadian Schoenberg scholars, some of whose work appears in this volume. Canada is clearly Schoenbergfriendly territory. Perhaps there is a certain affinity between the Canadian identity and Schoenberg's indefatigable spirit. Like Schoenberg, Canadians often tend to see themselves as benevolent but embattled outsiders vis à vis more dominant forces of contemporary culture.

The Ottawa conference team was frequently reminded of Schoenberg's spirit as we prepared for the summer of 2007. Two anecdotes are worth recounting here. On New Year's Eve, 2006, we towed a large multi-media exhibition on Schoenberg's life and work from Boston to Ottawa in a thirtyfoot truck. The exhibition had been mounted by the Schoenberg Center in Vienna, in collaboration with the Schoenberg family. It had visited thirty-five cities, but had never been viewed in Canada. When we encountered severe snow storms in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and were nearly forced to return to Boston, we feared that the Canadian public might never view the exhibit. Our initial elation upon arrival at the Canadian border was dampened when we were detained overnight by Canada Customs for interrogation about the nature and legitimacy of our load. The stand-off ended when a new shift of Customs agents arrived, one of whom was an amateur musician who knew very well of the importance of Arnold Schoenberg. Lawrence Schoenberg later reminded us that, when asked about what contemporary music needed most, his father once quipped: “We need many good amateur musicians.” Thankfully we found one at the Custom's office that early New Year's morning.