7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

which to improvise. With his “Memphis Blues” (published
1912) and especially his “St. Louis Blues” (1914), he intro-
duced a melancholic element, achieved chiefly by use of
the “blue” or slightly flattened seventh tone of the scale,
which was characteristic of African American folk music.
Later he wrote other blues pieces (“Beale Street Blues,”
1916; “Loveless Love”) and several marches and symphonic
compositions. He issued anthologies of African American
spirituals and blues (Blues: An Anthology, 1926; W.C. Handy’s
Collection of Negro Spirituals, 1938; A Treasury of the Blues,
1949) and studies of black American musicians (Negro
Authors and Composers of the United States, 1938; Unsung
Americans Sung, 1944). His autobiography, Father of the
Blues, was published in 1941.

Arnold Schoenberg

(b. Sept. 13, 1874, Vienna, Austrian Empire [Austria]—d. July 13, 1951,
Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.)

A

ustrian-American composer Arnold Franz Walter
Schoenberg (also spelled Schönberg) created a new
method of composition based on a row, or series, of 12
tones—a method described as atonality. He was also one of
the most influential teachers of the 20th century, among his
most significant pupils were Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

Early Life

Schoenberg’s father, Samuel, owned a small shoe shop in
the Second, then predominantly Jewish, district, of Vienna.
Neither Samuel nor his wife, Pauline (née Nachod), was
particularly musical. There were, however, two profes-
sional singers in the family—Heinrich Schoenberg, the
composer’s brother, and Hans Nachod, his cousin.