The composer’s vast archive destroyed in the Los Angeles fires

At least 100,000 scores by pioneering 20th-century Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg have been destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires.

The sheet music was kept at his family’s music production company, which burned in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood last week.

While no original manuscripts were lost, the music owned by Belmont Music Publishing had been the primary collection of sheet music rented to orchestras and musicians.

American Symphony Orchestra conductor Leon Botstein said they had been an “indispensable resource” for performing musicians.

Schoenberg’s son, Larry, 83, said the sheet music had been kept in a building behind his house. Both buildings were razed by fires last week.

Other Schoenberg memorabilia was also destroyed, including photographs, letters and posters.

“For a company that focused exclusively on Schoenberg’s works, this loss represents not only a physical destruction of the property but a profound cultural blow,” Larry said in a statement.

He described the collection as “essential” for musicians who rely on the “meticulously curated editions” of his father’s back catalogue.

Arnold Schoenberg was born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1874. He achieved great success as a composer in Berlin before fleeing to the United States in 1933 to avoid persecution by the Nazis.

He finally settled in Los Angeles, where he continued his innovative compositions. He was known for atonality and his 12-tone technique that departed from conventional harmonies. He died in 1951 at the age of 76 in Los Angeles.

In a statement, Belmont said it hoped to create digital copies of the scores.

“We hope that in the near future we will be able to ‘rise from the ashes’ in a completely digital form,” the statement said.

Most of Schoenberg’s original manuscripts are housed in a museum in Vienna, Austria.

Firefighters are still fighting to control the massive wildfires in Los Angeles that started in early January. So far they have killed at least 24 people, destroyed thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Two major fires continue to rage in Los Angeles, including the largest fire in the Palisades, which has burned more than 24,000 acres.