Arnold Schoenberg: Tonality
Austrian Composer, Professor, Father of 12-Tone and Serial Technique
Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (Schönberg) is the proponent or father, the ‘real developer’ of the twelve-tone technique often referred to as ‘atonal’ or ‘absence of key.’ Not that there is no tone, but that since all the notes are being treated equally, it makes it impossible for one tone to be heard above the others.
Early Life and Musical Training
Arnold Schoenberg was born in Vienna, Austria on September 13, 1874. Prior his musical life, he became a bank clerk to support his widowed mother while studying music during the evenings.
Schoenberg began violin lessons when he was eight years old and almost immediately started composing, though he had no formal training until he was in his late teens when composer Zemlinsky became his teacher and friend. He eventually married Mathilde, Zemlinsky’s sister.
Early Compositions and Twelve-Tone System
After his early Romantic works such as Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for string sextet and the Gurrelieder (Songs of Gurra, he experimented with atonality, producing works such as song-cycle Pierrot lunaire (Moonstruck Pierrot) for chamber ensemble and voice, before settling on the twelve-tone system of musical composition. This was further developed by his pupils Alban Berg and Anton von Webern.
Schoenberg founded Society for Private Musical Performances, to help avant-garde composers. He was also appointed professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts.
Germany, Paris and USA
Being a Jew, he was forced to leave Berlin, Germany from the Nazi regime. This was in 1933, and so he seek refuge in Paris. Later the same year, he left for the USA, settled in Los Angeles, and became a citizen 8 years later.
He composed Ode to Napoleon, reflecting political events in Europe. After a heart attack, he made some return to expressionism, as well as writing religious choruses. He passed away in Los Angeles, USA, aged 77.
Much of his music may be unconventional especially to the traditional classical music ears, but certainly, his twelve-tone system has opened up a whole new world of musical sound.
Works of Schoenberg
- Verklárte Nacht (The Transfigured Night) for string sextet, later, for string orchestra, 1899
- Symphonic poem, Pelleas und Melisande, 1903
- Erwartung (Expectation) for soprano and orchestra, 1909
- Gurrelieder (Songs of Gurra) for voices and orchestra, 1911
- Song-cycle, Pierrot lunaire (Moonstruck Pierrot), 1912
- Die Glückliche Hand (The Lucky Hand), drama for orchestra and chorus, 1913
- Opera, Moses and Aaron, 1932
- Violin Concerto, 1936
- Ode to Napoleon, for speaker and chamber ensemble, 1942-43
- Piano Concerto, 1942
- Fantasia, for violin and piano, 1949
- De profundis, for a capella choir, 1951
Sources:
The Chronicle of Classical Music by Alan Kendall, Thames & Hudson (2000)
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Muscians, 2nd Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (2000)
Arnold Schoenberg
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