Arnold Schönberg

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(1874 – 1951)

Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg (the anglicized form of Schönberg – Schoenberg changed the spelling officially when he re-converted to Judaism in 1933) (September 13, 1874 – July 13, 1951) was an Austrian composer. One of the most important composers of the 20th century, he is particularly remembered as one of the first composers to embrace atonal motivic development, and for his twelve tone technique of composition using tone rows. He was also an important music theorist and an influential teacher of composition.

Biography

Arnold Schönberg was born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in the Leopoldstadt district (in earlier times a Jewish ghetto) in Vienna. Although his mother Pauline, a native of Prague, was a piano teacher (his father Samuel, a native of Bratislava, was a wealthy shopkeeper), Arnold was largely self-taught, taking only counterpoint lessons with the composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, who was to become his first brother-in-law. In his twenties, he lived by orchestrating operettas while composing works such as the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”) in 1899. He later made an orchestral version of this, which has come to be one of his most popular pieces. Both Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler recognized Schoenberg’s significance as a composer, Strauss when he encountered Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, and Mahler after hearing several of Schoenberg’s early works. Mahler adopted Schoenberg as a protégé and worried about who would look after him after his death. Schoenberg, who criticized Mahler’s first several symphonies, was nevertheless influenced by Mahler’s art, championed his work and considered Mahler a “saint.

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  • GiaNXGX

    1m at last

    28 Mar 8:47pm Reply
  • VivianeLost

    24 Mar 4:32am Reply
  • Diverman2010

    How can something be 'absolutely recondite'? That's like saying I absolutely understand it is hard to understand. By the way, he does indeed have a very precise expression.

    5 Mar 11:05pm Reply
  • Charles_Heres

    Congrats for reaching 1.000.000 scrobbles, master.

    17 Feb 4:06pm Reply
  • PetitSagittaire

    "He's so avant-garde he can play table tennis sideways without a net" LMAO

    7 Feb 7:05pm Reply
  • Grosseteste

    "I dare anyone to attempt to refute that absolutely recondite miasma of expression during the end of the second movement of the string quartet no. 1 in D minor." If I could work out what on Earth that meant, I might take up the dare.

    27 Jan 11:31am Reply
  • Catata

    too much lines.

    15 Jan 5:56pm Reply
  • toztizokzndz

    you should try to listen to some of alban berg's music emparrat. chamber concerto for example.

    7 Nov 2012 Reply
  • Emparrat

    today I still don't understand atonal music

    7 Nov 2012 Reply
  • RaggaGammler_

    Sehr kompliziert.

    5 Oct 2012 Reply
  • JoshP1134

    Happy birthday, Herr Schoenberg.

    13 Sep 2012 Reply
  • douluvurbody

    hey Arnold, do you really really really wanna go hard?

    10 Aug 2012 Reply
  • hea1901

    http://www.facebook.com/DissonanceIsAwesome

    1 Aug 2012 Reply
  • johnstrieder

    schoenberg = awesome

    12 Jul 2012 Reply
  • ViperaAmmodytes

    I don't really listen to Schönberg, but I really hope the table tennis pic stays the main one forever. It just wouldn't be the same without it!

    7 Jul 2012 Reply
  • actsyalawlz

    lmao

    29 Jun 2012 Reply
  • Naneykins

    He's so avant-garde he can play table tennis sideways without a net.

    6 Jun 2012 Reply
  • Siphonblast

    I dare anyone to attempt to refute that absolutely recondite miasma of expression during the end of the second movement of the string quartet no. 1 in D minor. The quartet may as well be an orchestra of sorrow -- and genius recapitulation of the themes introduced earlier, only to lead to more and more development. Eternal.

    21 May 2012 Reply
  • Bedschibaer

    thanks to my vote the table tennis pic is back again.

    19 May 2012 Reply
  • Dani_Gabarrot

    I WANT THE TABLE TENNIS PIC BACK [2]

    14 May 2012 Reply
  • All 336 shouts