schoenberg.at - Composition with Twelve Tones. Schönberg’s Reorganization of Music

Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1

Object 1

{"id":3089,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"01-sco_b21_p114.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/01-sco_b21_p114.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/01-sco_b21_p114.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/01-sco_b21_p114.jpg","title":"Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1","short":"Object 1","alt":"","description":"Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 \nFugue No. 24 in B minor, BWV 869 \nEdited by Carl Czerny. Leipzig (ca. 1900)<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAs late as 1950, Sch&ouml;nberg was still occupied with the study of the first book of Johann Sebastian Bach&rsquo;s Well-Tempered Clavier<\/em>. An edition by pianist Carl Czerny dating from the 19th century had been in his personal library for decades. The final Fugue No. 24 in B minor contains annotations made with different writing instruments. Above the first two bars, the numbers &ldquo;1&rdquo; through &ldquo;12&rdquo; are listed near the noteheads. If one arranges the pitches according to Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s numbering, then a chromatic scale that includes all twelve tones from b (1) to a# (12) results. Where the fugue theme is repeated exactly in the bass, Sch&ouml;nberg comes across &ldquo;all 12&ldquo; again. A question is written in green colored pencil before the beginning of the piece: &ldquo;Is this the first composition with 12 tones?&ldquo; In his predecessor&rsquo;s contrapuntally complex works, he recognized efforts to integrate all pitches of the chromatic scale into melodic processes, becoming independent of the limits imposed by the key.<\/p>\n\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/VQTlB-sYsn8\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"194","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"johann-sebastian-bach-the-well-tempered-clavier-book-1","watermark_name":"01-sco_b21_p114.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Theory of Harmony

Object 2

{"id":3088,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"02-tbk2_l26_396-389.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/02-tbk2_l26_396-389.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/02-tbk2_l26_396-389.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/02-tbk2_l26_396-389.jpg","title":"Theory of Harmony","short":"Object 2","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nTheory of Harmony \nVienna 1911 \nSheet with revisions for the 3rd edition, published 1922<\/strong><\/p>\n\nSch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s Theory of Harmony<\/em> leads students from simple chord combinations to increasingly complex harmonic sequences. In the chapter on ninth chords, the composer describes how in 1899 in his string sextet Transfigured Night<\/em>, op. 4 &ndash; &ldquo;without knowing theoretically at the time what I was doing, merely following my ear&ldquo; &ndash; he invented a tone constellation &ldquo;which the theorists declare to be the most excluded.&ldquo; Here, harmony becomes a sonic emblem of musical expression, independent of its functional meaning in a tonal context.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"193","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"theory-of-harmony","watermark_name":"02-tbk2_l26_396-389.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Chamber Symphony, op. 9

Object 3

{"id":3087,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"03-ms76_sk153.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/03-ms76_sk153.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/03-ms76_sk153.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/03-ms76_sk153.jpg","title":"Chamber Symphony, op. 9","short":"Object 3","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nChamber Symphony, op. 9 \nSketch. 1906<\/strong><\/p>\n\nSch&ouml;nberg did not want to completely unhinge music with a revolutionary gesture; he sought, rather, to effect change by means of &ldquo;renewal through gradual expansion.&ldquo; On a sketch sheet for the Chamber Symphony<\/em>, op. 9, he explored possibilities of expanding the tonal chordal system &ndash; based on the interval of the third &ndash; with the melodic and chordal implementation of the fourth. The measures circled in brown crayon on the left side of the sheet reappear in the slow part of the piece as a continuous layering of notes at intervals of a fourth. After twelve fourths, all twelve notes of the chromatic scale have been played once.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/yfeTC34IzS0\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"192","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"chamber-symphony-op-9","watermark_name":"03-ms76_sk153.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

String Quartet No. 2, op. 10/iv. Rapture

Object 4

{"id":3086,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"04-op10.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/04-op10.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/04-op10.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/04-op10.jpg","title":"String Quartet No. 2, op. 10\/iv. Rapture","short":"Object 4","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nString Quartet No. 2, op. 10\/iv. Rapture \nPersonal Copy of Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg. 1909<\/strong><\/p>\n\nThe final movement of String Quartet No. 2<\/em>, op. 10 marks the dissolution of &shy;major\/minor tonality. Figures swirl upward and sound every pitch of the chromatic scale within only two bars. The line of text heard soon after, &ldquo;I feel the air of another planet,&ldquo; can be understood as a poetic description of the rebirth of musical language &ndash; a symbol for the dissolution of the binding forces of tonality.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/9o6uDjVkpQY\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"191","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"string-quartet-no-2-op-10-iv-rapture","watermark_name":"04-op10.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Der Blaue Reiter. Almanac

Object 5

{"id":3085,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"05-skrjabin.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/05-skrjabin.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/05-skrjabin.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/05-skrjabin.jpg","title":"Der Blaue Reiter. Almanac","short":"Object 5","alt":"","description":"Leonid Sabanejew: Prometheus von Skrjabin \nDer Blaue Reiter. Almanac \nMunich 1912, page 61<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAround 1910 Sch&ouml;nberg found a new outlet for his creative inspiration in painting. He developed his own expressionist style in self-portraits, abstract visions and landscapes. His exchange with the painter Wassily Kandinsky led to his participation in an exhibition in Munich in 1912, The Blue Rider. In addition, he participated in the almanac of the artists&rsquo; group published in the same year. In it, Sch&ouml;nberg read an article by the Russian musicologist Leonid Sabanejew and became acquainted with the concept of the &ldquo;mystic chord&ldquo;: a complex arrangement of tones the composer Alexander Scriabin manipulated through transposition and inversion in order to derive the large-scale form of his tone poem Prometheus: The Poem of Fire<\/em>. The structure of the work is no longer determined by a key or the relation of all ideas to a tonal center, but by a single, individually heard chord and its creative potential.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"190","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"der-blaue-reiter-almanac","watermark_name":"05-skrjabin.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Pierrot lunaire, op. 21

Object 6

{"id":3084,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"06-konzert-taschen-buch1911-1912-18-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/06-konzert-taschen-buch1911-1912-18-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/06-konzert-taschen-buch1911-1912-18.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/06-konzert-taschen-buch1911-1912-18-k.jpg","title":"Pierrot lunaire, op. 21","short":"Object 6","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nPierrot lunaire, op. 21 \nJourney Home&ldquo; and &ldquo;Night.&ldquo; Sketches \nKonzert Taschen-Buch 1911\/12<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAt the beginning of 1912 Sch&ouml;nberg received a request to compose melodramas for voice and piano for the singer and reciter Albertine Zehme, who was planning a tour featuring the cycle of poems Pierrot lunaire<\/em> by the Belgian symbolist poet Albert Giraud. The bizarre imagery of the poems, and their play with features of the Commedia dell&rsquo;arte, sparked his enthusiasm and gave him an opportunity to combine his atonal compositional language with historical formal types such as barcarolle, waltz or a baroque trio sonata. Sch&ouml;nberg worked quickly and mostly directly into the score. Some preliminary notes of the melodrama no. 8, &ldquo;Night,&ldquo; have survived. The core idea is hidden behind an inconspicuous sketch in a notebook, in which Sch&ouml;nberg contemplated the layout of the piece. Three notes at intervals of a minor and a major third are repeated steadily in the completed composition, sometimes transposed, in retrograde or inversion. Sch&ouml;nberg refers to the historical form model of the Passacaglia, which is also named in the piece&rsquo;s subtitle. The short motif is sometimes difficult to discern from the dense emsemble playing, but it &ldquo;functions as a basic idea in everything that happens.&ldquo;<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/YzkqmlVzB4o\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"188","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"pierrot-lunaire-op-21-2","watermark_name":"06-konzert-taschen-buch1911-1912-18-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Arnold Schönberg in military uniform

Object 7

{"id":3083,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"07-ph1221.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/07-ph1221.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/07-ph1221.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/07-ph1221.jpg","title":"Arnold Sch\u00f6nberg in military uniform","short":"Object 7","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg in military uniform \nPhotographer: Alban Berg \n1916<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn July 1914, Austria-Hungary&rsquo;s declaration of war on the side of the German Empire against Serbia triggered the First World War through the involvement of various coalitions. Sch&ouml;nberg reported for military service in May 1915 as a one-year volunteer, but was never involved in combat until he was released in December 1917. An extensive collection of handwritten notes and newspaper clippings documents his participation in an initially widespread enthusiasm for war as well as his uncompromising partisanship for the nations of the German-speaking world. Propaganda against enemies, Sch&ouml;nberg states in a pencil note, was an inevitable side effect of all armed conflicts. Cultural achievements, however, should be spared at all costs: &ldquo;[...] is it really acceptable that the intellectuals of neutral countries call the country of Goethe, Kant, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach (to name only 6 names that cannot be surpassed by all foreign countries) a country of barbarians?&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"187","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"arnold-schoenberg-in-military-uniform","watermark_name":"07-ph1221.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Symphony

Object 8

{"id":3082,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"08-ms93_u395-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/08-ms93_u395-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/08-ms93_u395-k.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/08-ms93_u395-k.jpg","title":"Symphony","short":"Object 8","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSymphony \nfor choirs, soli and orchestra \nFragment. 27 May 1914<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn 1915 Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg announced to Alexander Zemlinsky the composition of a large symphony &ndash; a highly &ldquo;&rsquo;constructed&rsquo; work, in contrast to the many purely impressionistic [pieces] of my recent output.&ldquo; Any work titled &ldquo;Symphony&ldquo; is, simply by virtue of the genre named in its title, part of a tradition that required unifying structural components as the foundation of its compositional design. Sch&ouml;nberg experimented with the possibilities of using identical tone groups to shape different motives and themes (and thereby create unity among different ideas). Later in life he remembered sketches for &ldquo;the theme of the Scherzo [...] which accidentally consisted of twelve tones.&ldquo; The fragmentary short score of the movement shows that Sch&ouml;nberg not only constructed a tone-row using the complete chromatic scale, he also at least partially transposed it.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/CbeNJ9Dq8wM\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"186","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"symphony","watermark_name":"08-ms93_u395-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Jacob’s Ladder

Object 9

{"id":3081,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"09-ms78_sk343-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/09-ms78_sk343-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/09-ms78_sk343-k.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/09-ms78_sk343-k.jpg","title":"Jacob\u2019s Ladder","short":"Object 9","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nJacob&rsquo;s Ladder \nfor choirs, soli and orchestra. Fragment \nSketch. 1917<\/strong><\/p>\n\nSch&ouml;nberg oratorio Jacob&rsquo;s Ladder<\/em> was originally planned as the final movement of a Symphony and eventually evolved into an independent work. The upper staves of a sketchbook page contain the beginning of the piece. A row of six tones unfurls as an ostinato in the low strings. Against this, the wind instruments successively introduce six corresponding tones to produce an aggregate of all twelve tones. Sch&ouml;nberg refers to the six-note sequence as one of the &ldquo;most important themes&ldquo; of the work. He had originally planned to derive all the main subjects of the oratorio from the six tones of the ostinato by changing their sequence, rhythm, and register, but would only realize his intention rudimentarily. In the short score of the oratorio fragment, variations of the sequence are linked with the appearance of quite opposite dramatis personae. It is, thereby, not so much a distinctive event, the return of which can be heard; rather, it is a structural tool that brings unity to a plurality of independent melodic ideas.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/A9hNwIj0tJE\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"185","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"jacob-s-ladder","watermark_name":"09-ms78_sk343-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Five Piano Pieces, op. 23/i

Object 10

{"id":3080,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"10-ms23_10.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/10-ms23_10.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/10-ms23_10.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/10-ms23_10.jpg","title":"Five Piano Pieces, op. 23\/i","short":"Object 10","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nFive Piano Pieces, op. 23\/i \nFirst draft. 9 July 1920<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAt the end of June 1920, Sch&ouml;nberg received a letter from the French musicologist Henry Pruni&egrave;res. The founder of the Revue musicale<\/em> asked for a musical contribution to a special issue of the magazine, which was to be dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy. Sch&ouml;nberg soon set to work. Dated July 9, 1920, it is a piano piece that evokes the tone of a Tombeau. The piece begins as a polyphonic setting, the three voices of which contain 21, 20, and 13 tones, respectively, up to bar 6. Already in the penultimate bar of the fourth staff, Sch&ouml;nberg repeats the upper voice in the bass register. Due to changes in octave position and rhythm, however, it is hardly recognisable. Later, all three tone rows are repeated in the same fashion. This is audible at best with very precise knowledge of the piece. The abstract tone sequences underlying the sounds, which can be flexibly combined with individual musical configurations, act as the structural backbone of the composition.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/5_Hnux6yAck\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"184","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"five-piano-pieces-op-23-i","watermark_name":"10-ms23_10.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Serenade, op. 24/iii. Variations

Object 11

{"id":3079,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"11-ms24_836-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/11-ms24_836-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/11-ms24_836-k.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/11-ms24_836-k.jpg","title":"Serenade, op. 24\/iii. Variations","short":"Object 11","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSerenade, op. 24\/iii. Variations \nSketch. 3 August 1920<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn August 1920, a month after the piano piece begun as a &ldquo;Tombeau for Debussy,&ldquo; Sch&ouml;nberg sketched ideas for an ensemble work. The combination of violin, clarinet, and guitar recalled the kind of open-air music that was popular at the local wine taverns of Vienna and M&ouml;dling. On a sketch, the clarinet plays a theme that consists of two times fourteen tones, the second part of which is a retrograde version of the first fourteen. Under that he wrote an inversion of the same theme, as well as isolated melodic figures that were derived from segments of the sequence, abstracted into a tone row.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Gd28r30yjUM\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"182","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"serenade-op-24-iii-variations","watermark_name":"11-ms24_836-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Autograph Card with Quote from Gurre-Lieder

Object 12

{"id":3078,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"12-gurre_zitat.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/12-gurre_zitat.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/12-gurre_zitat.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/12-gurre_zitat.jpg","title":"Autograph Card with Quote from Gurre-Lieder","short":"Object 12","alt":"","description":"Autograph Card with Quote from Gurre-Lieder \nMattsee. 11 July 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn 1921, after an interruption due to the war, Sch&ouml;nberg traveled to the summer resort again. His stay in Mattsee near Salzburg soon met with opposition. Several newspapers reported on the community&rsquo;s efforts to establish a &ldquo;summer resort free of Jews&ldquo; (Reichspost 28\/183 [6 July 1921]). Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s conversion to Protestantism, which had already taken place in 1898, as well as his uncompromising identification with the German cultural sphere did not matter: he was attacked in the open street and harassed by a threatening anti-Semitic letter. The composer finally found himself forced to flee and settled in Traunkirchen on 14 July. A few days before his departure, he fulfilled the request for an autograph from a music enthusiast who had witnessed his conducting of Gurre-Lieder<\/em> at the Vienna State Opera the year before. The music quotation belongs to the song &ldquo;You wondrous Tove!&ldquo; and forms the instrumental introduction to Waldemar&rsquo;s words &ldquo;It is so calm inside me | So strangely calm.&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"181","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"autograph-card-with-quote-from-gurre-lieder","watermark_name":"12-gurre_zitat.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Suite for Piano, op. 25/i. Prelude

Object 13

{"id":3077,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"13-ms25_27ar-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/13-ms25_27ar-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/13-ms25_27ar-k.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/13-ms25_27ar-k.jpg","title":"Suite for Piano, op. 25\/i. Prelude","short":"Object 13","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSuite for Piano, op. 25\/i. Prelude \nFirst draft. Started 24 July 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n\nThe scenic surroundings of Lake Traunsee offered the best conditions for Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s need for recreation and inspired him to create new works. He began to notate a piano piece on 24 July 1921. The place name &ldquo;Traunstein&ldquo; was corrected: Sch&ouml;nberg first localized his piece with that mountain, which he could see from his domicile on the opposite shore of the lake. The composition evolves from the integration of four-pitch figures that can be combined into twelve-tone rows. In the secondary voice, the row is shifted to the note b; after that, a repetition of notes marks the beginning of the inversion of the row: The intervals between the notes remain the same, but they are inverted. The ordering of the pitch material is bound to the requirement that no pitch is repeated in the course of a row before the others have sounded once &ndash; however, immediate repetitions of individual tones or of groups of tones occur frequently<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/FErHpawevRs\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"180","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"suite-for-piano-op-25-i-prelude","watermark_name":"13-ms25_27ar-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Suite for Piano, op. 25/iv. Intermezzo

Object 14

{"id":3076,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"14-ms25_27h.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/14-ms25_27h.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/14-ms25_27h.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/14-ms25_27h.jpg","title":"Suite for Piano, op. 25\/iv. Intermezzo","short":"Object 14","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSuite for Piano, op. 25\/iv. Intermezzo \nSketches. July 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n\nFrom the twelve-tone sequence of a piano piece that he had begun on 24 July 1921 in Traunkirchen, Sch&ouml;nberg developed various chords on a sketch sheet. The letters U and K stand for &ldquo;Umkehrung&ldquo; [inversion] and &ldquo;Krebs&ldquo; [cancer, retrograde] &ndash; the same tone row sounds from left to right. The letter &ldquo;T&ldquo; stands for the original (or primary) form of a twelve-tone row and alludes to the &ldquo;tonic&ldquo; of the major\/minor tonality. &ldquo;D&ldquo; stands for the Dominant form, which is represented by a transposition of the row by six semitones (a tritone). The chords worked out on the sketch form accompanying patterns in the Intermezzo from the Suite, op. 25, begun in July 1921 and completed in 1923. They function as harmonic reference marks, offering listeners orientation in the slowly unfolding movement.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"179","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"suite-for-piano-op-25-iv-intermezzo","watermark_name":"14-ms25_27h.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Letter to Alma Mahler

Object 15

{"id":3075,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"15-id6079-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/15-id6079-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/15-id6079-k.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/15-id6079-k.jpg","title":"Letter to Alma Mahler","short":"Object 15","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nLetter to Alma Mahler \nTraunkirchen. 26 July 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAfter the distressing experiences with his &ldquo;Mattsee &lsquo;compatriots&rsquo;, &ldquo; Sch&ouml;nberg wrote to his good friend Alma Mahler that he had finally started working again in Traunkirchen. &ldquo;Something completely new! The German Aryans who persecuted me in Mattsee will have to thank this innovation (this specific one) that even they will still be respected abroad in 100 years, because they belong to the nation that has recently secured for itself hegemony in the field of music!&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"178","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"letter-to-alma-mahler","watermark_name":"15-id6079-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Self-Portrait

Object 16

{"id":3074,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"16-cr297-14v.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/16-cr297-14v.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/16-cr297-14v.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/16-cr297-14v.jpg","title":"Self-Portrait","short":"Object 16","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSelf-Portrait \nTraunkirchen, 22 October 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n\nTowards the end of his stay in Traunkirchen, Sch&ouml;nberg drew a small self-&shy;portrait in a sketchbook. His melancholy gaze and the considerable shadowing on the left side of the face allow for different interpretations. The happy and productive summer holiday was coming to an end. Sch&ouml;nberg had made a compositional discovery that, he believed, could determine &ldquo;the development of music for the next hundred years.&ldquo; He seemed to be aware, after writing the piano compositions he began in July of that year, of the opportunities that his methodical work with fixed pitch sequences would provide. In the following months, Sch&ouml;nberg tested different variants of his idea on individual pieces for an ensemble work. Could it be possible to derive the musical material for a complete work from a single melodic idea? He tried out different working techniques, which, however, could hardly be generalized to a viable system. His work was branching into different directions. The new trails could be discerned, but their goal still remained uncertain.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"177","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"self-portrait","watermark_name":"16-cr297-14v.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

On the Essence of Music

Object 17

{"id":3073,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"17-book_h16_30_31.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/17-book_h16_30_31.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/17-book_h16_30_31.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/17-book_h16_30_31.jpg","title":"On the Essence of Music","short":"Object 17","alt":"","description":"Josef Matthias Hauer \nOn the Essence of Music \nFundamentals of Twelve-Tone Music \nVienna 1920. With annotations by Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAs early as 1920 Josef Matthias Hauer formulated his idea of composing with the total chromatic set in a short book titled On the Essence of Music: Fundamentals of Twelve-Tone Music. Hauer presented his thoughts about a twelve-tone scale, which should run its course so as to avoid any implication of a tonic emphasis. Sch&ouml;nberg later admitted having read the text soon after receiving it from the publisher Waldheim-Eberle on 18 September 1920, which is nearly one year before his own attempts to move in the direction detailed by Hauer. But the creative results as found in Hauer&rsquo;s works never had similarities with Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s music. Hauer understood the twelve-tone row as a law (&ldquo;Nomos&ldquo; in Greek), which was self-sufficient enough to be presented entirely, if somewhat archaically, in half-notes at the opening of his piano piece Nomos<\/em>, op. 19. But from the time of Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s first attempts with the twelve-tone method, the row literally remained in the background. What one heard instead were characteristic musical ideas, which were developed and transformed from a fixed tone row: &ldquo;the biggest step forward,&ldquo; Sch&ouml;nberg wrote in 1932, &ldquo;was not the one to 12 tones; rather, it was the invention of innumerable ways to create themes and all other material from a basic shape.&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"176","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"on-the-essence-of-music","watermark_name":"17-book_h16_30_31.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Sketch for Serenade, op. 24/v. Dance Scene

Object 18

{"id":3072,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"18-asc12258-lpr.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/18-asc12258-lpr.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/18-asc12258-lpr.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/18-asc12258-lpr.jpg","title":"Sketch for Serenade, op. 24\/v. Dance Scene","short":"Object 18","alt":"","description":"Allgemeiner Deutscher Musiker Kalender \nSketch for Serenade, op. 24\/v. Dance Scene \nBetween 19 and 22 October 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n\nSch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s path to the twelve-tone method can only in retrospect be read as a goal-oriented development. At first, the focus was less on the integration of all tones of the chromatic scale than on the manifold possibilities of abstracting tone rows from melodic sequences and giving them new characters by changing rhythm and octave position. The Serenade, op. 24 played an important role in this development; its title was only determined later during the course of combining different ensemble pieces into a cycle. Between October 19 and 22, 1921, Sch&ouml;nberg noted a sequence of notes in a pocket calendar: it contains an alternative version of the mandolin line from the &ldquo;Dance Scene&ldquo; begun the preceding year. The main melody is reshaped in this pencil jotting and transformed into a theme that includes all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale. Directly underneath, Sch&ouml;nberg wrote out an inversion of the same theme in ink.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"175","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"sketch-for-serenade-op-24-v-dance-scene","watermark_name":"18-asc12258-lpr.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Ruler

Object 19

{"id":3071,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"19-reihenschieber-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/19-reihenschieber-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/19-reihenschieber.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/19-reihenschieber-k.jpg","title":"Ruler","short":"Object 19","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSerenade op. 24\/iv. Sonnet \nRuler \n1922 or 1923<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn 1922, Sch&ouml;nberg sketched a vocal movement in a small sketchbook based on a sonnet by Francesco Petrarca. The vocal part is based on a series of twelve different tones, which in strictly syllabic setting come up against fourteen eleven-syllable verses. This results in a regular shift between the beginning of the verse and the beginning of the row. In the course of completing the movement, Sch&ouml;nberg succeeded in deriving the entire music from the unaltered twelve-tone row. In order to keep track of this structural challenge, he assembled a mechanical device, which allows the tones to be shifted freely in relation to their numerical position.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"173","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"ruler","watermark_name":"19-reihenschieber-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Claude Debussy: Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano

Object 20

{"id":3070,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"20-pm-lg4-debussysonatevc-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/20-pm-lg4-debussysonatevc-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/20-pm-lg4-debussysonatevc.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/20-pm-lg4-debussysonatevc-k.jpg","title":"Claude Debussy: Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano","short":"Object 20","alt":"","description":"Claude Debussy \nSonate pour Violoncelle et Piano \nParis 1915. Title page<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn 1918 Sch&ouml;nberg founded the Society for Private Musical Performances in M&ouml;dling. The aim of this association was to familiarize its members, without ideological restrictions, with contemporary music production throughout Europe. The international repertoire also included works by Claude Debussy, who had polemicized against a cultural&ldquo;barbarie allemande&ldquo; during the First World War. His Violoncello Sonata<\/em> alone was performed five times &ndash; the title page shows its rich use. This piece belongs to the late Sonatas for Various Instruments<\/em>, which translate idioms of the French baroque to a modern compositional language. The avowal of national identity that Debussy made with the printed self-declaration &ldquo;musicien fran&ccedil;ais&ldquo; was surely noticed by Sch&ouml;nberg.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"171","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"claude-debussy-sonate-pour-violoncelle-et-piano-e","watermark_name":"20-pm-lg4-debussysonatevc-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Suite for Piano, op. 25/iii. Musette

Object 21

{"id":3069,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"21-ms25_24r.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/21-ms25_24r.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/21-ms25_24r.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/21-ms25_24r.jpg","title":"Suite for Piano, op. 25\/iii. Musette","short":"Object 21","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSuite for Piano, op. 25\/iii. Musette \nFair copy. 1923<\/strong><\/p>\n\nSch&ouml;nberg&#39;s Suite for Piano<\/em> op. 25, completed in 1923, is perhaps a subtle echo of the Sonates pour divers instruments<\/em>&nbsp;of his French colleague Claude Debussy, who translated idioms of the French baroque into a contemporary sound language in this group of works. In Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s piece, formal characteristics of stylized dance movements are emphasized by the conditions imposed by the twelve-tone method. The classical Musette is characterized by a pedal tone, by means of which the tonic is continuously heard. Sch&ouml;nberg chose the third tone of the series, g, for the sustained pedal of his Musette, op. 25\/iii, and let it wander audibly through octave transpositions while the remaining tones of the series prance about it with stereotypical melodic figures. The work&rsquo;s compositional models are the piano suites of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose name is also echoed in the series&rsquo; retrograde beginning with b-a-c-h (standard pitch nomenclature in Central Europe uses &ldquo;b&ldquo; to represent b\u266d and &ldquo;h&ldquo; for b\u266e). By referencing the &ldquo;first of all German and foreign artists&ldquo; (Johann Nikolaus Forkel), Sch&ouml;nberg created an association with the origins of the tradition whose continuation he believed he could secure with the twelve-tone method.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Ss2wcpNCEPs\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"170","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"suite-for-piano-op-25-iii-musette","watermark_name":"21-ms25_24r.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Analysis (in the form of Program notes) of the four String Quartets

Object 22

{"id":3068,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"22-t70_03_a_2v.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/22-t70_03_a_2v.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/22-t70_03_a_2v.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/22-t70_03_a_2v.jpg","title":"Analysis (in the form of Program notes) of the four String Quartets","short":"Object 22","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nAnalysis, (in the form of Program notes) of the four String Quartets \nManuscript. 1950<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAs an adolescent, Sch&ouml;nberg waited eagerly for the arrival of the &ldquo;S&ldquo; volume in a set of encyclopedias to which his parents had subscribed, to learn under the entry &ldquo;Sonata,&ldquo;&ldquo;how a first movement of a string quartet was to be constructed.&ldquo; With Ludwig van Beethoven&rsquo;s work as a guideline, the sonata scheme was regulative for the design of larger formal processes up to his String Quartet No. 2<\/em>, op. 10. With the transition to atonality, however, the harmonic plan of the sonata scheme became obsolete. The structural functions of the twelve-tone method opened up new perspectives for this classical formal model.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"169","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"analysis-of-the-four-string-quartets-e","watermark_name":"22-t70_03_a_2v.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Twelve-tone selection dial

Object 23

{"id":3067,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"23-ms26_drehscheibe-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/23-ms26_drehscheibe-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/23-ms26_drehscheibe.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/23-ms26_drehscheibe-k.jpg","title":"Twelve-tone selection dial","short":"Object 23","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nWind Quintet, op. 26 \nTwelve-tone selection dial \n1923\/24<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn his Wind Quintet<\/em>, op. 26, Sch&ouml;nberg replaced the harmonic functions of the sonata form by transposing the row to selected tones of the chromatic scale: Most movements start with the basic shape, which represents the tonic. Subsidiary themes are assigned to inversions. To keep track, Sch&ouml;nberg used a device consisting of paper discs. Numbers mark the position of the pitches on the chromatic scale for the original row and its inversion. By moving the numbers disc, each tone in the row can be defined as the first, while the ratios of the tones to each other remain the same.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"167","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"twelve-tone-selection-dial","watermark_name":"23-ms26_drehscheibe-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Letter to Arnold Schönberg

Object 24

{"id":3066,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"24-berg-brief.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/24-berg-brief.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/24-berg-brief.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/24-berg-brief.jpg","title":"Letter to Arnold Sch\u00f6nberg","short":"Object 24","alt":"","description":"Alban Berg \nLetter to Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \n13 September 1925 \n&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/strong> \nAt the end of 1921 Sch&ouml;nberg began to share his discoveries in the realm of twelve-tone composition with a circle of confidants. In doing so, he conveyed a conclusive picture of the genesis and technical rationale of the new method, but was only vague about compositional details. Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s students had to find their own way to their teacher&rsquo;s recent works. Alban Berg described his analytical forays as true voyages of discovery: &ldquo;Casting a glance into your new score a while back was immeasurably exciting. How long will it be before I understand this music as thoroughly as I fancy, for example, that I understand Pierrot. For the present I am slowly familiarizing myself with your Opera 23&ndash;26, the only scores I have up here with me. But to think what you have achieved in the meantime?!&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"166","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"letter-to-arnold-schoenberg","watermark_name":"24-berg-brief.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Four Pieces for Mixed Chorus, op. 27/iv

Object 25

{"id":3065,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"25-ms27_537.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/25-ms27_537.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/25-ms27_537.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/25-ms27_537.jpg","title":"Four Pieces for Mixed Chorus, op. 27\/iv","short":"Object 25","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nFour Pieces for Mixed Chorus, op. 27\/iv \nThe lover&rsquo;s wish \nFirst draft. 14 October 1925<\/strong><\/p>\n\nThe new twelve-tone method was used in the Four Pieces for Mixed Chorus<\/em> for the first time in the context of a vocal work, without the support of accompanying instruments. As an accomplished former choral director, Sch&ouml;nberg must have been aware that the adequate presentation of musical ideas was dependent upon the singers&rsquo; ability to find points of orientation in an unfamiliar musical language. The last two pieces are based on the popular collection of poems The Chinese Flute, which had already inspired Gustav Mahler to write The Song of the Earth<\/em>. &ldquo;The lover&rsquo;s wish&ldquo; is based on two alternating derivations of the twelve-tone row. The ensemble of clarinet, mandolin and strings introduces them like a motto. Compositional self-restraint results in a unified harmony that, in conjunction with the instruments, greatly facilitates tonal orientation.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/blFeNe4AXp4\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"165","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"four-pieces-for-mixed-chorus-op-27-iv","watermark_name":"25-ms27_537.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Presentation of the Idea

Object 26

{"id":3064,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"26-t35_02_1r.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/26-t35_02_1r.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/26-t35_02_1r.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/26-t35_02_1r.jpg","title":"Presentation of the Idea","short":"Object 26","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nPresentation of the Idea \nManuscript. 12 November 1925<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAt about the same time that he formulated the basic principles of twelve-tone composition, Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg set to work on a music-theoretical text which, together with numerous other manuscripts and typescripts, was summarized under the title The Musical Idea<\/em>. A three-page manuscript describes what changes a new pitch system implies for the perception of musical artworks. In &ldquo;Composition with 12 tones which are related only with one another [&hellip;] the relationship among the 12 tones is defined once and for all for an entire movement, indeed for an entire piece, and no other relationships can ever arise but those given by the basic idea. The unfolding process of the piece serves to make comprehensible, through frequent repetition and varied presentation, everything that cannot be understood upon first hearing.&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"164","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"presentation-of-the-idea","watermark_name":"26-t35_02_1r.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Suite, op. 29

Object 27

{"id":3063,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"27-ms79_sk577.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/27-ms79_sk577.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/27-ms79_sk577.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/27-ms79_sk577.jpg","title":"Suite, op. 29","short":"Object 27","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSuite, op. 29 \nSketch. 1924<\/strong><\/p>\n\nOn August 28, 1924, Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg and Gertrud Kolisch, sister of the violinist Rudolf Kolisch, were married in the Protestant Parish Church in M&ouml;dling. The wedding photo was taken in the studio of the renowned photographers Trude Geiringer and Dora Horovitz. This happy period in the composer&rsquo;s life took musical form in a Suite for Piccolo Clarinet, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano<\/em>, which he began in the autumn of 1924 and dedicated on the printed score &ldquo;to my dear wife.&ldquo; The abbreviation &ldquo;Jo-Jo,&ldquo; which can be read on a sketch, stands for &ldquo;Jolly Joker,&ldquo; a pseudonym of Gertrud Sch&ouml;nberg, who early on tried her hand as an author of plays and film scripts. She also goes by &ldquo;Tennis-Dame | Frau A. S.&ldquo; [Tennis Lady | Mrs. A. S.] in the upper right corner. Somewhat hidden on the fifth stave of the sketch sheet, under the cryptic note &ldquo;Ich bin ein B&uuml;rgersm&auml;dchen,&ldquo; [I am a girl of the bourgeoisie] is a diatonic melody distantly reminiscent of &ldquo;&Auml;nnchen von Tharau.&ldquo; Sch&ouml;nberg was to use the popular folk song as the theme of a twelve-tone variation movement. It is composed of tone selections from the original row, while the piano provides the accompaniment in conjunction with an inversion of the row.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/_j74pDmMfcE\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"163","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"suite-op-29-2","watermark_name":"27-ms79_sk577.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Suite, op. 29

Object 28

{"id":3062,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"28-ms29_reihenschieber-k.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/28-ms29_reihenschieber-k.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/28-ms29_reihenschieber-k.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/28-ms29_reihenschieber-k.jpg","title":"Suite, op. 29","short":"Object 28","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nSuite, op. 29 \nRuler with Twelve-Tone Notation. 1924<\/strong><\/p>\n\nWith atonality and the twelve-tone method, the accidentals used in traditional notation as signposts to tonality became de facto obsolete &ndash; where there is no tonic keynote, accidentals such as # and \u266d do not have to give direction to the course of the melody. In January 1925, Sch&ouml;nberg published his ideas for a simplified twelve-tone notation in the music journal Anbruch. The musical staff is reduced to three lines and short diagonal lines assume the function of accidentals. For the Suite<\/em>, op. 29, he worked out a ruler that combines the basic form with various derivations. As with languages and their codification in different systems of characters, it should eventually become common &ldquo;to master two different musical notations equally well.&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"161","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"suite-op-29-2-2","watermark_name":"28-ms29_reihenschieber-k.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Inversions and (superfluous) devices, Twelve tone dice

Object 29

{"id":3061,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"29-objekte.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/29-objekte.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/29-objekte.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/29-objekte.jpg","title":"Inversions and (superfluous) devices, Twelve tone dice","short":"Object 29","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nInversions and (superfluous) devices \nTwelve tone dice \nUndated<\/strong><\/p>\n\nEven when not working on a concrete piece, Sch&ouml;nberg engrossed himself in abstract tasks. Such problem-solving often prepared the ground for later ideas. A whole series of self-made, small booklets is labeled with &ldquo;Umkehrungen&ldquo; [Inversions] on the cover. Sch&ouml;nberg notated only chromatic scales in these, first ascending and then descending &ndash; that is, inverted, in relation to the sequence of notes notated in each case on the first staff line. He also highlighted individual pitches in both staff lines: either in places where octaves occur in the same position, or where tritones or perfect fifths occur. The significance of these small books is, to date, as little understood as is the purpose of two red-colored dice made from wood or papier m&acirc;ch&eacute;. Thinking about the dice might lead to the unfortunate speculation that Sch&ouml;nberg composed his twelve-tone rows by chance procedures; but such a conjecture can be dismissed with certainty. If one writes out the pitches found on the sides of the dice, two six-tone series result, each of which is a whole-tone scale that can be combined with the other to form a twelve-tone row.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"160","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"inversions-and-superfluous-devices-twelve-tone-dice","watermark_name":"29-objekte.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

String Quartet No. 3, op. 30

Object 30

{"id":3060,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"30-op30-ueq823_6.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/30-op30-ueq823_6.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/30-op30-ueq823_6.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/30-op30-ueq823_6.jpg","title":"String Quartet No. 3, op. 30","short":"Object 30","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nString Quartet No. 3, op. 30 \nProof of a photocopy of the manuscript \nUniversal Edition A.G., Wien, with kind permission \n1927&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\nNearly twenty years after completing his Opus 10, Sch&ouml;nberg began to compose a new string quartet. The genre had an aura and reputation that demanded a contribution from the now well-proven twelve-tone method. Self-made row charts with vertically movable sliders helped him to keep orientation within the compositional progression. The photocopy of the neatly executed manuscript exhibits numerous comments and additions; those in &shy;magenta-colored pencil may be traced back to Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s son-in-law Felix Greissle, who clarified hard-to-read details of the score for the final engraving. Greissle also checked the score for inconsistencies. A forgotten accidental at the beginning of bar 164, indicated with a red question mark, was verified by Sch&ouml;nberg with blue pencil on the right page border. In bar 176 Greissle noted at the very bottom &ldquo;\u266d oder \u266e??&ldquo; [b\u266d or b\u266e?] Sch&ouml;nberg confirmed this pitch with the pencil note &ldquo;\u266d ist richtig&ldquo; [b\u266d is correct] which indeed corresponds with the row partitioned between the two simultaneously playing violins.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"159","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"string-quartet-no-3-op-30","watermark_name":"30-op30-ueq823_6.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Letter to Rudolf Kolisch

Object 31

{"id":3059,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"31-2259_1.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/31-2259_1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/31-2259_1.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/31-2259_1.jpg","title":"Letter to Rudolf Kolisch","short":"Object 31","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nLetter to Rudolf Kolisch \nBerlin. 27 July 1932 \nThe Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n\nSch&ouml;nberg was cautious in revealing details about his compositional method. He regarded it as a tried-and-true basis for the design of non-tonal music &ndash; helpful for the creator, less important for the listening comprehension of a work. When his student Rudolf Kolisch discovered the unusual shape of the row of his String Quartet No. 3<\/em>, op. 30 after lengthy analyses, his teacher warned him not to overestimate such craft aspects: &ldquo;My works are twelve-tone-compositions, not twelve-tone-compositions.&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"158","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"letter-to-rudolf-kolisch","watermark_name":"31-2259_1.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, op. 34

Object 32

{"id":3058,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"32-op34.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/32-op34.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/32-op34.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/32-op34.jpg","title":"Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, op. 34","short":"Object 32","alt":"","description":"Gertrud and Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nAccompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, op. 34 \nProgrammatic sketch. 1929<\/strong><\/p>\n\nTo mark a company anniversary, the publisher Heinrichshofen, based in Magdeburg, commissioned composers to write pieces for use in cinemas. Because films had long been produced without soundtracks, so-called &ldquo;cue sheets&ldquo; were issued at the time, and these contained collections of recommended musical ideas that could be freely combined with any kind of film. These custom-made musical arrangements of emotional states seem to have inspired Sch&ouml;nberg: A handwritten memo outlined atmospheric settings under the general terms &ldquo;danger &ndash; fear.&ldquo; A note in the lower-right corner of the page, &ldquo;Lessingtheater | Cyankali,&ldquo; refers to the contentiously debated play Cyankali<\/em> [Cyanide] by Friedrich Wolf, which broached the issue of the so-called Abortion Law Paragraph &sect;218. The cited dramatic points echo as subtitles, &ldquo;imminent danger &ndash; fear &ndash; catastrophe,&ldquo; in the orchestra piece composed for the publisher Heinrichshofen. Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s Opus 34 took up the ideas of programmatic tone poems such as Transfigured Night<\/em>, op. 4, or Pelleas and Melisande<\/em>, op. 5, and it combined the practice of leitmotivic references with the unifying possibilities of the twelve-tone method.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"157","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"accompaniment-to-a-cinematographic-scene-op-34","watermark_name":"32-op34.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

From Today till Tomorrow, op. 32

Object 33

{"id":3057,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"33-ms33_2748.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/33-ms33_2748.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/33-ms33_2748.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/33-ms33_2748.jpg","title":"From Today till Tomorrow, op. 32","short":"Object 33","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nFrom Today till Tomorrow, op. 32 \nSketch for the disposition of the twelve-tone row. 1928\/29<\/strong><\/p>\n\nVon heute auf morgen<\/em>, op. 32, which was begun in the French Riviera commune of Roquebrune in 1928, is Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s contribution to the genre of &ldquo;Zeitoper&ldquo; [opera of the time]. The piece is conceived as a mirthful critique of passing fads in both life and music. Sch&ouml;nberg sought to write music that was memorable and appealing. In sketches and row charts, he experimented with segments of the twelve-tone row that recur in similar groupings and facilitate orientation within the complex compositional structure. The composer recalled that this way of working also suited the singers: &ldquo;The technique, rhythm and intonation of all these parts were tremendously difficult for them, though they all possessed absolute pitch. But suddenly one of the singers came and told me that since he had become familiar with the basic set, everything seemed easier for him. At short intervals all the other singers told me the same thing independently.&ldquo;<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/VkFPH7U-Hsw\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"156","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"from-today-till-tomorrow-op-32","watermark_name":"33-ms33_2748.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Analysis of Variations for Orchestra, op. 31

Object 34

{"id":3056,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"34-t16_06_6.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/34-t16_06_6.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/34-t16_06_6.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/34-t16_06_6.jpg","title":"Analysis of Variations for Orchestra, op. 31","short":"Object 34","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nAnalysis of Variations for Orchestra, op. 31 \nLecture. Typescript. 1931<\/strong><\/p>\n\nOn the occasion of a performance of the Variations for Orchestra<\/em>, op. 31, by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hans Rosbaud, Sch&ouml;nberg gave a radio lecture on 22 March 1931 that can be considered his earliest public presentation of fundamental techniques of the twelve-tone method. Above all, the composer wanted to help his public understand the musical coherence of his language. To this end, he translated the theme of the Variations into a tonal version. Sch&ouml;nberg left it for his listeners to form their own opinions on the new version: &ldquo;Some will find this arrangement better than my original. I don&rsquo;t like it that much myself, but it is a matter of taste. Why then, when I can write like this, would I provide another accompaniment that will certainly appeal to fewer people? I assure you it is not out of malice. Rather, the theme did not come to mind with this kind of harmonization, and no subsequent artful arrangement could make it actually take on a sense of F major, retaining it, and imposing it on the variations.&ldquo;<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/lzJpaWtW_r4\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"155","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"analysis-of-variations-for-orchestra-op-31","watermark_name":"34-t16_06_6.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Piano Piece, op. 33a

Object 35

{"id":3055,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"35-ms37_28.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/35-ms37_28.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/35-ms37_28.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/35-ms37_28.jpg","title":"Piano Piece, op. 33a","short":"Object 35","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nPiano Piece, op. 33a \nFirst draft. 25 December 1928<\/strong><\/p>\n\nWith the opera From Today till Tomorrow<\/em>, op. 32, Sch&ouml;nberg established a standard for the combination of row forms, which would remain relevant for the structuring of almost all of his later works: &ldquo;the inversion a fifth below of the first six tones, the antecedent, should not produce a repetition of one of these six tones, but should bring forth the hitherto unused six tones of the chromatic scale. The advantage of this is that melodic segments built from the first set of six pitches can be accompanied by harmonies built from the second set of six pitches, without any pitch duplication.&ldquo; The fragmentary first draft of Piano Piece<\/em>, op. 33a, which he began on 25 December 1928, was preserved on a single page, the bottom of which contains a row table. On the left half of the page, Sch&ouml;nberg notated the primary form with the inversion, transposed down by a perfect fifth. The six opening four-note chords provide a motto-like prefix consisting of the row and its inversion. They appear at key points of the work and form the harmonic backbone of the entire composition. The song-like subsidiary idea, which begins with the indication &ldquo;cantabile&ldquo; (3rd system), corresponds to the primary form in the treble clef, while the melody in the bass linearly unfolds the inversion transposed by a fifth.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/_qvmWYV1e-A\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"154","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"piano-piece-op-33a","watermark_name":"35-ms37_28.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Moses and Aron

Object 36

{"id":3054,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"36-ms63_3034.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/36-ms63_3034.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/36-ms63_3034.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/36-ms63_3034.jpg","title":"Moses and Aron","short":"Object 36","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nMoses and Aron \nSketchbook \n1931<\/strong><\/p>\n\nThe fragmentary opera Moses and Aron<\/em> is Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s main religious work and touches on central themes of his world view. The fundamental conflict of this three-act piece for music theater can be traced back to the second commandment of the Bible, which concerns the core idea of the Semitic religions&rsquo; rejection of idol worship: &ldquo;Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above.&ldquo; The third scene of Act II forms the most extensive part of the opera with the &ldquo;Dance around the Golden Calf.&ldquo; Planning sketches give an indication of the fluency with which Sch&ouml;nberg drafted a pagan celebration, with the help of a virtuosic command of twelve-tone compositional techniques. Sch&ouml;nberg only wrote out the themes completely. The harmony is sometimes suggested with cue notes, but is completely missing in other places. Instead, there are references to the row derivations used (T-5, U-7, T+7) These provide information about the relationship between the pitch sequences and the twelve tone row, and they make it possible to fill in the empty spaces of the short score with the help of rudimentary accompaniment patterns.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"153","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"moses-and-aron","watermark_name":"36-ms63_3034.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Enigma of Modern Music

Object 37

{"id":3053,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"37-enigma.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/37-enigma.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/37-enigma.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/37-enigma.jpg","title":"Enigma of Modern Music","short":"Object 37","alt":"","description":"Musical America. 10 November 1933 \nAlbum Nuria Schoenberg<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn April 1933, the &ldquo;Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service&ldquo; had been enacted in Germany, and this allowed the ruling National Socialist Party to dismiss employees with Jewish background from public service. Sch&ouml;nberg, professor of composition at the Berlin Academy of Arts, recognized the immediate danger posed by the new ruling powers and decided, nearly 60 years old, to emigrate to the United States. He returned to the Jewish religious community in Paris on 24 July. On 25 October, together with his family, Sch&ouml;nberg boarded the &ldquo;&Icirc;le de France,&ldquo; one of the largest ocean liners in the world, in Le Havre. Upon his arrival in New York, he was greeted by the American press as the &ldquo;enigma of modern music.&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"152","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"enigma-of-modern-music-e","watermark_name":"37-enigma.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Lecture in Princeton

Object 38

{"id":3052,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"38-t25_01_25.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/38-t25_01_25.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/38-t25_01_25.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/38-t25_01_25.jpg","title":"Lecture in Princeton","short":"Object 38","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nLecture in Princeton. 6 March 1934 \nManuscript<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAfter his arrival in the United States, Sch&ouml;nberg did not have to wait long for invitations from renowned institutions. For 1934, Princeton University offered him the opportunity to give a lecture on a freely chosen topic. On 6 January Gertrud Sch&ouml;nberg, acting on behalf of her husband, announced the title &ldquo;Composition with 12 Tones Related Only to One Another&ldquo; and requested a projector to display musical examples transferred to glass plates. The text was begun in German but later written completely in English; it represents the first detailed engagement with the principles of the twelve-tone method outside of the rudimentary technical comments given in the radio lecture on the Variations for Orchestra<\/em>, op. 31. On a piece of paper, Sch&ouml;nberg noted a key sentence about flexibility and artistic freedom in twelve-tone composition: &ldquo;The row will do its duty &ndash; you only have to command!&ldquo;<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"151","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"lecture-in-princeton","watermark_name":"38-t25_01_25.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

String Quartet No. 4, op. 37

Object 39

{"id":3051,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"39-ms41_1032a.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/39-ms41_1032a.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/39-ms41_1032a.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/39-ms41_1032a.jpg","title":"String Quartet No. 4, op. 37","short":"Object 39","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nString Quartet No. 4, op. 37 \nThemes on hotel stationary. 1936<\/strong><\/p>\n\nDrafts of melodies for a four-movement work are sketched on stationary of Santa Barbara&rsquo;s Hotel El Mirasol. It is possible Sch&ouml;nberg was brought to the place for a concert by the Abas String Quartet. These musicians regularly played his works for String Quartet at concerts in and around Los Angeles in the years 1935\/36. The fact that an American ensemble was willing to take on his most recent twelve-tone quartet may have made Sch&ouml;nberg hopeful for the future of his music. The pitch series under &ldquo;II&ldquo; could be connected, in retrospect, with the row used for String Quartet No. 4<\/em>, op. 37: it corresponds with the first four pitches of the primary form. The &ldquo;Largo&ldquo; would become the third movement of the quartet, but with a completely new theme in correlation with a complete statement of the row. The motive written under &ldquo;III&ldquo; ended up as an accompaniment in the scherzo-like second movement. This small sheet of paper is illuminating for Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s working method: At the beginning is inspiration &ndash; melodic ideas that are realized later in detail. The twelve-tone row emerges only gradually, in accord with the development of the themes.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/v-UgaIdrq7Q\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"150","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"string-quartet-no-4-op-37","watermark_name":"39-ms41_1032a.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Variations on a Recitative for Organ, op. 40

Object 40

{"id":3050,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"40-ms44_81.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/40-ms44_81.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/40-ms44_81.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/40-ms44_81.jpg","title":"Variations on a Recitative for Organ, op. 40","short":"Object 40","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nVariations on a Recitative for Organ, op. 40 \nSketch for Variation VIII. 1941<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAccording to Dika Newlin, Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg urged his students to never blindly follow modern idioms, but instead to make artistic decisions independent of compositional fads: &ldquo;There is still plenty of good music to be written in C major.&ldquo; As seeming proof of this dictum, Sch&ouml;nberg created no twelve-tone works for several years after completing his String Quartet No. 4<\/em>, op. 37. Although he began a twelve-tone sonata for the Contemporary Organ Series published by H. W. Gray in 1941, he discarded initial sketches in favour of Variations on a Recitative for Organ<\/em>, op. 40. The underlying theme spans 11 measures and contains all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale. Free pitch repetitions make clear by the fourth measure, at the latest, that there is no twelve-tone row but rather a melody that is based on d as a tonal center. The page for Variation VIII is hardly distinguishable from similar twelve-tone sketches. The system in the middle of the page shows three-note groups written in red pencil; these turn out to be inversions of the pitch groups written in blue ink immediately above &ndash; the theme of the recitative dispersed into cascades of pitches. With these variations, the composer achieved the &ldquo;carefully considered use of the entire twelve-tone space&ldquo; (Jan Maegaard) without having to completely relinquish the principles of major\/minor tonality.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"149","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"variations-on-a-recitative-for-organ-op-40-2","watermark_name":"40-ms44_81.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, op. 42

Object 41

{"id":3049,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"41-ms46_118.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/41-ms46_118.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/41-ms46_118.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/41-ms46_118.jpg","title":"Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, op. 42","short":"Object 41","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nConcerto for Piano and Orchestra, op. 42 \nSketch. 1942<\/strong><\/p>\n\nOscar Levant, a former student of Sch&ouml;nberg, was one of the most well-known pianists in the United States: he appeared regularly on radio shows, he composed for film and Broadway, and performed in major concert halls. For him, Sch&ouml;nberg conceived his Concerto for piano<\/em>, op. 42. The American composer David Diamond was overwhelmed at an early rehearsal for the piece: &ldquo;Oscar, it&rsquo;s beautiful [&hellip;] It&rsquo;s not &hellip; that dry Schoenberg. [&hellip;] it&rsquo;s gonna be a beauty because it opens this way.&ldquo; The beginning of the piece, in a restrained 3\/8 meter, is represented by the pitch series of the underlying row, the beginning of which echoes the key of B\u266d major. Levant had interpreted the opening melody in the style of a Viennese waltz. Perhaps he sensed that the composer was dealing with his exile situation with the piece, as programmatic references on further sketches prove. The premiere was finally given by Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s Viennese student Eduard Steuermann, who had also emigrated to the USA in 1936.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/efKUyA68xK8\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"148","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"concerto-for-piano-and-orchestra-op-42-2","watermark_name":"41-ms46_118.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, op. 41

Object 42

{"id":3048,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"42-t68_03_810.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/42-t68_03_810.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/42-t68_03_810.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/42-t68_03_810.jpg","title":"Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, op. 41","short":"Object 42","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nOde to Napoleon Buonaparte, op. 41 \nDraft speaking voice. 1942<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn March 1942 Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg received a letter from the League of Composers to compose a new work on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the association. He accepted: &ldquo;My piece will be a melodram, for piano, string quartet and recitation [&hellip;]. The poem of my composition is by Lord Byron and has much relation to present days feelings.&ldquo; Sch&ouml;nberg wanted to address the crimes and human upheavals of the time, which he had been forced to experience in Europe at first hand as a Jewish &eacute;migr&eacute;. The rows, which have been expanded by variants into flexibly usable groups of six tones, span a network of references across the work. Among these, the &ldquo;Washington&ldquo; motif stands out in particular, which Sch&ouml;nberg already envisages in the draft of the speaking part for the passage &ldquo;the living great.&ldquo;<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/4fp8kg9P0vM\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"147","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"ode-to-napoleon-buonaparte-op-41-2","watermark_name":"42-t68_03_810.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Prelude for Genesis op. 44

Object 43

{"id":3047,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"43-op44.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/43-op44.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/43-op44.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/43-op44.jpg","title":"Prelude for Genesis op. 44","short":"Object 43","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nPrelude for Genesis op. 44 \nRecord cover Artist JS 10<\/strong><\/p>\n\nThe composer, arranger and conductor Nathaniel Shilkret was awarding commissions to six American composers &ndash; including, in addition to Sch&ouml;nberg, Igor Stravinsky, Ernst Toch, Alexandre Tansman, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Darius Milhaud &ndash; to compose one part of a large-scale Genesis Suite<\/em> for speaker, choir, and orchestra; the piece would appear on record immediately after the premiere. He sought with this &ldquo;Bible Album&rdquo; to reach out to the wider public: &ldquo;My idea is strictly one for the masses &ndash; I wanted to appeal to all record buyers. [&hellip;] not only music lovers of the ultra modern type but to all buyers and lovers of music and the bible.&rdquo; Sch&ouml;nberg agreed to compose a short Prelude<\/em> for choir and orchestra that would appear at the beginning of the Suite. Despite the concise and formally straightforward structure of the work, Nathaniel Shilkret expressed concerns about it to his wife: &ldquo;Schoenberg&rsquo;s music is so ultramodern and in the 12 tone scale that even you with all your experience will think that the cat is just jumping all over the piano &ndash; It is a great piece of music but oh &ndash; so new in sound.&rdquo; He was similarly concerned about Igor Stravinsky&rsquo;s composition Babel. In order not to frighten his public, Shilkret decided to place both works at the end of the pastiche, thereby somewhat arbitrarily transforming Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s Prelude into a Postlude.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"146","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"prelude-for-genesis-op-44-2","watermark_name":"43-op44.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

A Survivor from Warsaw op. 46

Object 44

{"id":3046,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"44-ms50_949.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/44-ms50_949.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/44-ms50_949.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/44-ms50_949.jpg","title":"A Survivor from Warsaw op. 46","short":"Object 44","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nA Survivor from Warsaw, op. 46 \nCondensed score. 1947<\/strong><\/p>\n\nSch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s A Survivor from Warsaw<\/em>, op. 46 portrays a roll call during which the prisoners of a camp are sent to be murdered in the gas chambers. The piece culminates in a chorus by those fated to die. Together, they intone the &ldquo;Schma Jisrael,&ldquo; one of the most important prayers in Judaism, at the beginning of which stands a proclamation of the unity and uniqueness of God. Sch&ouml;nberg&rsquo;s cantata is both an emotional musical confession and a music-combinatorial work of art. The underlying twelve-tone row is designed in such a way that positions 3 to 5 in all of the 48 derivations contain only four different three-tone groups, which are related to one another by major thirds and can form, accordingly, four different augmented triads. A large-format sketch page was used for the preparation of bars 35 to 37 and 72 to 80, in which the orchestra allegorizes the &ldquo;Abz&auml;hlen&ldquo; [counting off] &ndash; the selection of camp inmates for execution. In the uppermost music staff, Sch&ouml;nberg notated the four augmented triads, which &ldquo;rotate&ldquo; around their own axes in changing placements while the remaining pitches of the row are grouped into different collections. Sch&ouml;nberg constructed a nightmarish intensification that breaks off suddenly and leads into the &ldquo;Schma Jisrael&ldquo; intoned by the men&rsquo;s chorus (the beginning of which is sketched on the upper left of the page). The melody corresponds exactly to the row sequence, so that the rhythmic organization and the repetition of certain pitch collections evoke the aura of psalmodic chant.<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/5pzbIZaxIUc\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"145","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"a-survivor-from-warsaw-op-46-2","watermark_name":"44-ms50_949.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Doktor Faustus

Object 45

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String Trio, op. 45

Object 46

{"id":3044,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"46-ms49_1033.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/46-ms49_1033.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/46-ms49_1033.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/46-ms49_1033.jpg","title":"String Trio, op. 45","short":"Object 46","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nString Trio, op. 45 \nFair Copy. 1946<\/strong><\/p>\n\nAs a result of cardiac insufficiency, Sch&ouml;nberg suffered a collapse in 1946 in the midst of work on the String Trio<\/em>, op. 45, which confined him to bed for several weeks. The final transcription of the trio was begun on 20 August, while he was still recovering from his illness, and he referred to the piece as a &ldquo;&lsquo;humorous&rsquo; representation of my illness.&ldquo;<\/p>\n\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/MV7Gg3VN0VE?controls=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"143","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"string-trio-op-45-2","watermark_name":"46-ms49_1033.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, op. 47

Object 47

{"id":3043,"form_id":36,"category":"category-1","name":"47-k8.jpg","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/47-k8.jpg","url":"https:\/\/schoenberg.at\/images\/bagallery\/original\/47-k8.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-36\/thumbnail\/category-1\/47-k8.jpg","title":"Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, op. 47","short":"Object 47","alt":"","description":"Arnold Sch&ouml;nberg \nPhantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, op. 47 \nNote with directions for playing technique. 1949 \n&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/strong> \nIn March 1949, at the request of the violinist Adolph Koldofsky, Sch&ouml;nberg wrote a Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment<\/em>, op. 47, which would be the last chamber music piece he completed. The title is meant to convey the piece&rsquo;s independence from conventional formal plans. The leading role of the violin was an essential part of the compositional process: Sch&ouml;nberg composed the string part first and then supplemented it with the piano part &ndash; &ldquo;as something appended, as support, such that it would not be seen as a duet.&ldquo; Sch&ouml;nberg called for a variety of different playing techniques in the Phantasy, the execution of which he discussed with Adolph Koldofsky. In this process, he clarified many details and accepted the suggestions of his performer.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"142","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"phantasy-for-violin-with-piano-accompaniment-op-47-2","watermark_name":"47-k8.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":""}

Thrice A Thousand Years, op. 50A

Object 48

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Modern Psalm, op. 50C

Object 49

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Fragment for Voice, Cello, and Piano

Object 50

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Composition with Twelve Tones. Schönberg’s Reorganization of Music