Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
The first half of the career of the Viennese composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
is characterized by innovation of expressionism through harmony.
The expressionist movement influenced Schoenberg to utilize the power of art to
convey thought and emotion. Significant compositions from this period in
Schoenberg’s career (1899-1916) include:
Verklarte Nacht (1899)
Gurrelieder (1903)
Kammersymphonie (1902-1906)
Five Orchestral Pieces(1909)
Erwartung (1909)
Pierrot Lunaire (1912).
Verklarte Nacht, a string sextet, Gurrelieder, a large orchestral work with soloists and chorus,
and the Kammersymphonie all demonstrate Schoenberg’s innovation through harmony.
In the Five Orchestral Pieces and the opera Erwartung (or “Expectation”),
Schoenberg explores expressionism through his use of harmony, rhythm and tone
color to infuse emotion into his music.
Indeed, one does not know what to expect harmonically or melodically of
Schoenberg’s music, and this is most evident in his Pierrot Lunaire.
A German translation of twenty-one poems by Albert Giraud,
Pierrot Lunaire is the most expressive of Schoenberg’s early work.
Schoenberg shapes the vocal line utilizing Sprechstimme, a vocal
technique which combines speech and song. He wrote varying chamber
instrumentation to accompany each poem, creating a unique sound and texture for
each movement.
The second half of Schoenberg’s career is characterized by his serial odyssey,
the innovation of atonality through the twelve-tone system.
Significant compositions from Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method include:
the religious oratorio Die Jacobsleiter (1917)
the opera Moses und Aron (1930-1932).
Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method indicated that the composition
contained “twelve tones related only to one another”.
In other words, no pitch could be repeated until all twelve pitches had been played.
It is captured visually through the construction of a twelve-by-twelve
matrix with the pitch classes ascending chromatically.
Of this system Schoenberg declared in 1921 that he had
“discovered something which will assure
the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years”.
The elimination of harmonic framework through the twelve-tone system was a
ground-breaking innovation of Schoenberg.
The influences of Schoenberg are expressed through the success of his students and
his important theory of harmony text. Anton Webern and Alban Berg were two of
Schoenberg students who learned from his innovations. Webern expanded on
Schoenberg’s freedom of expression through klangfarbenmelodie,
or the predomination of tone colors and timbral effects over tonality.
Berg’s opera Wozzeck conveys the emotional and psychological struggles of the main character
through the music, a technique reminiscent of Schoenberg’s Erwartung.
The influence of Schoenberg’s innovation was experienced by countless musicians
through his 1911 Harmonielehre, or theory of harmony text.
Schoenberg’s innovation of expressionism and atonality makes him one of the most
significant musicians of the first half of the twentieth century.
is characterized by innovation of expressionism through harmony.
The expressionist movement influenced Schoenberg to utilize the power of art to
convey thought and emotion. Significant compositions from this period in
Schoenberg’s career (1899-1916) include:
Verklarte Nacht (1899)
Gurrelieder (1903)
Kammersymphonie (1902-1906)
Five Orchestral Pieces(1909)
Erwartung (1909)
Pierrot Lunaire (1912).
Verklarte Nacht, a string sextet, Gurrelieder, a large orchestral work with soloists and chorus,
and the Kammersymphonie all demonstrate Schoenberg’s innovation through harmony.
In the Five Orchestral Pieces and the opera Erwartung (or “Expectation”),
Schoenberg explores expressionism through his use of harmony, rhythm and tone
color to infuse emotion into his music.
Indeed, one does not know what to expect harmonically or melodically of
Schoenberg’s music, and this is most evident in his Pierrot Lunaire.
A German translation of twenty-one poems by Albert Giraud,
Pierrot Lunaire is the most expressive of Schoenberg’s early work.
Schoenberg shapes the vocal line utilizing Sprechstimme, a vocal
technique which combines speech and song. He wrote varying chamber
instrumentation to accompany each poem, creating a unique sound and texture for
each movement.
The second half of Schoenberg’s career is characterized by his serial odyssey,
the innovation of atonality through the twelve-tone system.
Significant compositions from Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method include:
the religious oratorio Die Jacobsleiter (1917)
the opera Moses und Aron (1930-1932).
Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method indicated that the composition
contained “twelve tones related only to one another”.
In other words, no pitch could be repeated until all twelve pitches had been played.
It is captured visually through the construction of a twelve-by-twelve
matrix with the pitch classes ascending chromatically.
Of this system Schoenberg declared in 1921 that he had
“discovered something which will assure
the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years”.
The elimination of harmonic framework through the twelve-tone system was a
ground-breaking innovation of Schoenberg.
The influences of Schoenberg are expressed through the success of his students and
his important theory of harmony text. Anton Webern and Alban Berg were two of
Schoenberg students who learned from his innovations. Webern expanded on
Schoenberg’s freedom of expression through klangfarbenmelodie,
or the predomination of tone colors and timbral effects over tonality.
Berg’s opera Wozzeck conveys the emotional and psychological struggles of the main character
through the music, a technique reminiscent of Schoenberg’s Erwartung.
The influence of Schoenberg’s innovation was experienced by countless musicians
through his 1911 Harmonielehre, or theory of harmony text.
Schoenberg’s innovation of expressionism and atonality makes him one of the most
significant musicians of the first half of the twentieth century.