Arnold Schoenberg

Modernist composer who pioneered atonality and the twelve-tone technique.

Chronology: 1874-09-13 – 1951-07-13

Origins & Early Life

Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was an Austrian and American modernist composer, music theorist, and teacher associated with developing variation, the emancipation of the dissonance, and twelve-tone composition. He taught composition in Vienna and at the Prussian Academy of Arts (1925–1933), resigning in anticipation of Nazi Germany's civil–service restrictions. He defiantly reaffirmed his Judaism before immigrating to the United States, where he taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (1936–1944). Early works like Verklärte Nacht (1899) and Gurre-Lieder (1900–1903, orch.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

1910–1911) represented a synthesis of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner, while Richard Strauss influenced Pelleas und Melisande (1902–1903). Schoenberg mentored Anton Webern and Alban Berg, among others tied to the Second Viennese School, and they began writing atonal, expressionist music. He visited extremes of emotion in his String Quartet No. 2 (1907–1908) and Erwartung (1909), and used word painting structurally in Herzgewächse (1911, published with his other works in Der Blaue Reiter Almanach in 1912) and Pierrot lunaire (1912). As opposition and antisemitism gradually...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Source: Wikipedia