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Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

The early music of Arnold Schoenberg represents the culmination of romantic musical ideals. His gigantic cantataGurre-Lieder   is, together with Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony, one of the last great works in the monumental style. It seemed impossible for music to develop any further in this direction.

Schoenberg was born in Vienna on Sept. 13, 1874. His interest in music began early. When he was eight years old, he started to learn the violin, and he soon began composing violin duets. His parents were not musicians - his father, Samuel, owned a shoe store - but they enjoyed music and were sympathetic to his musical development.

He was acknowledged as one of the most significant figures in modern music history

He was an Austrian composer who was the most controversial creator of the twelve tones composition technique radically transformed 20th-century music, seems to have had a great fear of the number thirteen. Legend states that he had predicted the date of his own death, which occurred on Friday the 13th July 1951 at the age of 76  

He was largely self-taught as a musician, but studied briefly with Alexander Zemlinsky, his eventual brother-in-law. His early works are clearly in the high German Romantic tradition this is still very much the case in his first important composition, Verklärte Nacht (1899)

Schoenberg entered a more forward-looking phase of his career, trying to write what he wished to call "pantonal" music,

something that did not please many critics at the time. 

In 1923 Schoenberg finished his first strict 12-tone composition, the Suite for Piano. 

Schoenberg was offered the post of Director of a Master Class in Composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin.

He continued in this post until the election of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1933, when he was forced into exile .

The composer spent most of the remainder of his life in the U.S. Despite much critical resistance, Schoenberg always stuck to his ideas, insisting that the death of tonality was an inevitable step in the evolution of music. He was a brilliant teacher, partly through his method of engaging with the methods of the great classical composers, partly through his focus on bringing out the musical and compositional individuality of his students. He published a number of books, for example the famous Harmonielehre (Theory of Harmony, 1911).

Development of Atonality In Vienna, Italy , Schoenberg began

to teach his talented pupils: Alban Berg and Anton Webern that came to him at that time.

A stylistic change was the beginning to occur in Schoenberg's work. Tonality, which had been more and more freely treated in such pieces as his Second String Quartet, was finally abandoned.

  Schoenberg  composed the Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, and Op. 17 “Erwartung”. They are very important in the composer’s development.

These pieces were Schoenberg´s first steps on the path toward serialism; they must therefore also be considered crucial landmarks in the music history of the 20th century.

TWELVE-TONE SYSTEM

In July 1921 Schoenberg told his pupil Josef Rufer, "Today I have discovered something which will assure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years." It was the method of composition with twelve tones.

In the twelve-tone method each composition is based on a row, or series, using all twelve notes of the chromatic scale in an order chosen by the composer.

The Prelude of Schoenberg's Piano Suite, Opus 25 is probably the first twelve-tone composition.

All harmonies and melodies in a composition are derived from its special row; thus, unity is assured. While some critics feared that music written in this way might become mechanical and inexpressive.

Besides being presented in its original form, the row may be inverted, played backward, played backward in inversion, or transposed to any scale step.

Schoenberg continued to write highly personal and expressive compositions, using the expanded resources made available by the new method. From time to time he would return to traditional tonality in one or more works. It really made no difference to him whether his compositions were tonal, atonal, or twelve-tonal. As he said once, "I like them all, because I liked them when I wrote them."

Notable works: Verklärte Nacht, Op.4 (1899) (string sextet) Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912) ("melodrama" for narrator and five musicians) Violin Concerto, Op. 36 (1935-1936) Piano Concerto, Op.42 (1942) A Survivor from Warsaw, Op.46 (1947) Fantasy for Violin and Piano Op. 47 (1949) 

Famous works

Title Key Published Type Level

Piano Piece - op 11 no 1

n/a 1909 Piece 8+

Piano Piece - op 11 no 2

n/a 1909 Piece 8+

Piano Piece - op 11 no 3

n/a 1909 Piece 8+

Three Piano PiecesThe Three Piano Pieces of Op. 11 were written in a very productive creative phase in 1909.

Arnold Schoenberg - Three Piano Pieces :Piano Piece, opus 11 no 1

The date of completion of the piano piece Opus 11, no. 1 (Feb. 19, 1909), is an important one in

the history of music, for this is the first composition to dispense completely with

traditional tonality. In this new style any chord combination can be freely used, and there is no differentiation in the treatment of consonances

and dissonances.The date of completion of the piano piece Opus 11, no. 1 (Feb. 19, 1909), is an important one in the history of

music, for this is the first composition to dispense completely with traditional tonality. In this new style any chord combination can be

freely used, and there is no differentiation in the treatment of

consonances and dissonances.

Key: n/a Published: 1909

Level: 8+ Period: Modern

 Piano Piece opus 11 no 1 (sheet music)

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In Feb. 19, 1909 is the of completion of the piano piece Opus 11, no. 1,it is an important one in the history of music, for this is the first composition to dispense completely with traditional tonality. In this new style any chord combination can be freely used, and there is no differentiation in the treatment of consonances and dissonances.

Arnold Schoenberg - Three Piano Pieces :Piano Piece, opus 11 no 2

Key: n/a Published: 1909

Level: 8+ Period: Modern

 Piano Piece opus 11 no 2BACK

Arnold Schoenberg - Three Piano Pieces :Piano Piece, opus 11 no 3

Key: n/a Published: 1909

Level: 8+ Period: Modern

 Piano Piece opus 11 no 3BACK