Arnold Schoenberg - Andrew Lesser Music

WorksSchoenberg’s earliest known works illustrate a gravitation toward complicated thematicprogressions, flowing in unbroken phrases directly opposite to the ideals of the late-Romanticmovement. Though retaining influences of Wagner, particularly in Transfigured Night, Op. 4,Schoenberg quickly reached the outskirts of chromatic harmony. In the period between 1907 to1909, Schoenberg departed from tonality altogether, producing works such as The Book of theHanging Gardens, Op. 15 and the Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16. In these works, there is noresolution to any tonic note, nor is there any sense of tonal center entirely. Schoenberg called thisthe “emancipation of dissonance”, where tones are “set free”, not relying on any kind of triadicstructure. This kind of music was labeled by critics as “atonal”, which is still in use to the presentday. Schoenberg’s melodies become more or less smaller, more compact, versions of themselves,sometimes as few as three or four notes. These “cells” as they are called, are altered to producenew pitch combinations that are related, yet can create individual phrases. This period ofSchoenberg’s work leading up to World War I is referred to as his Expressionist period.Expressionism, the complete opposite of Romanticism, is the quality of dealing with the innernature of the human psyche. It is straightforward, intense, and distorted, resulting in a raw, barestructure that reflects the complicated nature of the subconscious. Schoenberg’s most famouswork, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21, illustrates a disturbing insight into the nature of the mind in itstwenty-one songs. In 1911, Schoenberg published his Harmonielehre (Theory of Harmony), whichhas become one of the twentieth-century’s central texts on musical composition.During World War I, Schoenberg wrote little, believing his previous work had notachieved the grand design that he felt he was meant to create. The resulting twelve-tone methodthat he pioneered divided composers into those who followed Schoenberg, such as Webern andBerg, and another camp that favored the preservation of tonality, like Stravinsky and Prokofiev.After this period of experimentation came a mass output of creativity, all relying on the twelvetonerow. A three act opera, Moses und Aron, was started between 1930 and 1932, but remainedunfinished at the composer’s death. In 1933, Schoenberg’s music was denounced by the NaziParty, in part because of Schoenberg’s Jewish heritage. The composer was vacationing in France atthe time, and did not return to Germany but immigrated to America, where he changed his familyname from Schönberg to Schoenberg upon becoming an American citizen in 1941. During his finalyears in America he developed a renewed interest in tonality, evident in the Theme and Variationsfor Band, Op. 43. Though this may seem a contradiction to Schoenberg’s compositional ideology,Schoenberg referred to himself as a “conservative revolutionary”, extending the current traditionof music but not intending to replace it. In his music the world saw a completely new form ofmusical composition, and Schoenberg’s seminal importance in the development of twentiethcenturymusic cannot be overstated.Suggested ListeningTransfigured Night, Op. 4 (1899); The Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15 (1909); Five OrchestralPieces, Op. 16 (1909); Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912); Four Orchestral Songs, Op. 22 (1916); ViolinConcerto, Op. 26 (1936); Theme and Variations for Band, Op. 43 (1943); A Survivor from Warsaw,Op. 46 (1947); Moses und Aron (unfinished, 1932)