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the 17th century, was being
stretched to its limits. In 1908, he
also faced a personal crisis when
his wife, Mathilde, had an affair with
the artist Richard Gerstl, who then
committed suicide. Schoenberg’s
resulting sense of despair was
reflected in a more chaotic, free
chromatic style, with little tonal
structure, first in a setting of “Du
lehnest wider eine Silberweide” by
the German symbolist poet Stefan
George, and more dramatically in
his String Quartet No. 2, which
moves in and out of keys, seemingly
at random, and adds the surprise
of a soprano voice to its third and
fourth movements.
Soon, Schoenberg recognized a
drawback to his new compositional
technique: while free chromaticism
allowed a more varied harmonic
range for emotional expression,
it lacked the structural discipline
of classical forms, such as the
sonata, which are based mainly
on relationships between keys.
Schoenberg therefore set about
finding a way to reconcile atonality
with classical structure and
romantic expression—the opposinglegacies of Haydn and Mozart, and
Wagner. He was not alone in trying
to find a new way of approaching
these legacies. In France, for
example, Erik Satie was producing
coolly detached and often static
music, and Claude Debussy was
developing his free-flowing style
using the less dissonant of the
chromatic harmonies.Embracing dissonance
In his early forays into atonality,
Schoenberg used chromatic chords
to create an ethereal atmosphere
through an unexpected but still
harmonious combination of notes.
However, his interest in the new
expressionist movement of writers
and artists in Vienna led him to
develop a starker musical language.
Above all, he saw his task as the
“emancipation of dissonance,”
allowing a dissonant chord to
stand by itself as a harmony, not
as a “subsidiary” chord requiring
resolution onto a consonance. This
was similar to Debussy’s use of
chromatic chords, but Schoenberg
did not confine himself to mild
dissonance; he also boldly used
harsh and jarring dissonances. ❯❯See also: The Ring Cycle 180 –187 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■
Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■ Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21 264–265 ■
Ionisation 268–269 ■ Gruppen 306–307MODERN 1900 –1950
Arnold Schoenberg
Born in 1874 in Vienna to a
Jewish family, Schoenberg
was primarily self-taught
in music but took theory
lessons with the composer
Alexander Zemlinsky, whose
sister, Mathilde, Schoenberg
married. In 1898, he converted
to Christianity, hoping for
greater acceptance in
Viennese cultural life. His
first compositions, in a late
Romantic style, were well
received. In the 1920s, after
his “middle period” rejection
of traditional tonality, he
invented a new method of
composition, systematically
using all 12 notes of the
chromatic scale.
With the rise of Nazism,
Schoenberg felt increasingly
vulnerable in Europe, and in
1933 he moved to the US,
having reverted to Judaism
during a short stay in Paris.
He became a US citizen in
1941 and spent the rest of
his life in California, where
he died in 1951.Other key works1899 Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
1909 Erwartung, Op. 17
1926–1928 Variations for
Orchestra, Op. 31
1930–1932 Moses und AronThe expression, “atonal
music” is most unfortunate—
it is on a par with calling
swimming “the art of
not d row n i ng.”
Arnold SchoenbergIt is the organization of a
piece which helps the listener
to keep the idea in mind, to
follow its development.
Arnold SchoenbergUS_240-245_Schoenberg.indd 243 26/03/18 1:01 PM