Composer Richard Hoffmann is a former student and amanuensis of Arnold Schoenberg, and whilst on a visit to the United States last year I took the opportunity to record this interview impromptu. Richard Hoffmann started life in Vienna and then emigrated to New Zealand with his family at the age of eight. Subsequently he went to California to study with Schoenberg and act as his assistant. Here he recounts the history of his association with the great Viennese maestro. His memoirs are peppered with interesting anecdotes, not the least being the story of the fiasco of Thomas Mann’s dedication of Doctor Faustus.