Schönberg, Arnold#

Schoenberg, Arnold, b. Vienna, Sept. 13, 1874, d. Los Angeles (USA), July 13, 1951. Composer. Largely self-taught; under the strong influence of A. v. Zemlinsky, who was to become his brother-in-law, he began to compose in the tradition of late romanticism around 1890. His "Harmonielehre" (1911) is still very traditional in character; 1901-1903 and 1911-1915 lived in Berlin. As the public performance of his works caused protests he founded the "Verein fuer musikalische Privatauffuehrungen" in Vienna in 1919, which became a centre of the Neo-Viennese School and its representatives. 1925-1933 he directed a master class at the Musikakademie in Berlin, then emigrated to the USA and taught in Los Angeles and Boston 1934-1944 (1941 American citizen).

S. (with J. M. Hauer) established the twelve-tone technique ( dodecaphony), i.e. compositions with a series of 12 tones of equal importance. He was the founder of the Neo-Viennese School, which also comprised A. Berg and A. von Webern (in contrast to the Vienna School or Viennese Classicism). Having his background in late Romanticism he soon found that its tonal possibilities did not suffice him and regarded a system of "equal rights" for all tones as the only possibility for progress in music. The basis for dodecaphony is a true series with three main modulations: retrograde, inversion and retrograde inversion. While S.´s works were characterized by mathematical strictness, his pupils A. von Webern and esp. A. Berg enriched this strict principle with musical-tonal elements. Dodecaphony had a lasting influence on the development of contemporary music in Europe and esp. in America, which became S.´s second home. S. was also an important painter and left about 70 paintings (esp. portraits and visions). In 1998 the City of Vienna acquired Schoenberg´s estate from his heirs and opened an Arnold Schoenberg Centre.

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