Evolution from tonality of Arnold Schoenberg

Until that period all of Schoenberg’s works had been strictly tonal; that is, each of them had been in a specific key, centred upon a specific tone. However, as his harmonies and melodies became more complex, tonality became of lesser importance. The process of “transcending” tonality can be observed at the beginning of the last movement of his Second String Quartet (1907–08). That work is innovative in another respect, too: it is the first string quartet to include a vocal part. The opening words of the Finale, “Ich fühle Luft von anderen Planeten” (“I feel air from another planet”), by the poet Stefan George, have often been symbolically interpreted in the light of Schoenberg’s breakthrough to a new world of sound.

On February 19, 1909, Schoenberg finished the first of three piano pieces that constitute his opus 11, the first composition ever to dispense completely with “tonal” means of organization. Such pieces, in which no one tonal centre exists and in which any harmonic or melodic combination of tones may be sounded without restrictions of any kind, are usually called atonal, although Schoenberg preferred “pantonal.” Atonal instrumental compositions are usually quite short; in longer vocal compositions, the text serves as a means of unification. Schoenberg’s most-important atonal compositions include Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16 (1909); the monodrama Erwartung, Op. 17 (1924; “Expectation”), a stage work for soprano and orchestra; Pierrot Lunaire, 21 recitations (“melodramas”) with chamber accompaniment, Op. 21 (1912); Die glückliche Hand, Op. 18 (1924; “The Hand of Fate”), drama with music; and the unfinished oratorio Die Jakobsleiter (begun 1917; “Jacob’s Ladder”).

Schoenberg’s earlier music was by that time beginning to find recognition. On February 23, 1913, his Gurrelieder (begun in 1900) was first performed in Vienna. The gigantic cantata calls for unusually large vocal and orchestral forces. Along with Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (Symphony of a Thousand), the Gurrelieder represents the peak of the post-Romantic monumental style. Gurrelieder was received with wild enthusiasm by the audience, but the embittered Schoenberg could no longer appreciate or acknowledge their response.

In 1911, unable to make a decent living in Vienna, he had moved to Berlin. He remained there until 1915, when, because of wartime emergency, he had to report to Vienna for military service. He spent brief periods in the Austrian Army in 1916 and 1917, until he was finally discharged on medical grounds. During the war years he did little composing, partly because of the demands of army service and partly because he was meditating on how to solve the vast structural problems that had been caused by his move away from tonality. He wanted to find a new principle of unification that would help him to control the rich harmonic and melodic resources now at his disposal. Near the end of July 1921, Schoenberg told a pupil, “Today I have discovered something which will assure the supremacy of German music for the next 100 years.” That “something” was a method of composition with 12 tones related only to one another. Schoenberg had just begun working on his Piano Suite, Op. 25, the first 12-tone piece.

In the 12-tone method, each composition is formed from a special row or series of 12 different tones. That row may be played in its original form, inverted (played upside down), played backward, or played backward and inverted. It may also be transposed up or down to any pitch level. All of it, or any part of it, may be sounded successively as a melody or simultaneously as a harmony. In fact, all harmonies and melodies in the piece must be drawn from that row. Although such a method might seem extremely restrictive, that did not prove to be the case. Using his technique, Schoenberg composed what many consider to be his greatest work, the opera Moses und Aron (begun in 1930).

For the rest of his life, Schoenberg continued to use the 12-tone method. Occasionally he returned to traditional tonality, for, as he liked to say, “There is still much good music to be written in C major.” Among those later tonal works are the Suite for String Orchestra (1934), the Variations on a Recitative for Organ, Op. 40 (1940), and the Theme and Variations for Band, Op. 43A (1943).

After World War I Schoenberg’s music won increasing acclaim, although his invention of the 12-tone method aroused considerable opposition. In 1923 his wife, Mathilde, died after a long illness, and a year later he married Gertrud Kolisch, the sister of the violinist Rudolf Kolisch. His success as a teacher continued to grow. In 1925 he was invited to direct the master class in musical composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin.

It seemed that Schoenberg had reached the peak of his career. His teaching was well received, and he was writing important works: the Third String Quartet, Op. 30 (1927); the opera Von Heute auf Morgen, Op. 32 (1928–29, first performed in 1930; “From Today to Tomorrow”); Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene, Op. 34 (1929–30; “Accompaniment to a Film Scene”). But political events proved his undoing. The rise of National Socialism in Germany in 1933 led to the extirpation of Jewish influence in all spheres of German cultural life. Schoenberg was dismissed from his post at the academy. He immigrated to the United States via Paris, where he formally returned to the Jewish faith, which he had abandoned in his youth. In November 1933 he took a position at the Malkin Conservatory in Boston, and in 1934 he moved to California, where he spent the remainder of his life, becoming a citizen of the United States in 1941. He held major teaching positions at the University of Southern California (1935–36) and at the University of California at Los Angeles (1936–44).

Schoenberg’s major American works show ever-increasing mastery and freedom in the handling of the 12-tone method. Some of the outstanding compositions of his American period are the Violin Concerto, Op. 36 (1934–36); the Fourth String Quartet, Op. 37 (1936); the Piano Concerto, Op. 42 (1942); and the Fantasia for violin with piano accompaniment, Op. 47 (1949). He also wrote a number of works of particular Jewish interest, including Kol Nidre for mixed chorus, speaker, and orchestra, Op. 39 (1938)—the Kol Nidre is a prayer sung in synagogues at the beginning of the service on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)—and the Prelude to the “Genesis Suite” for orchestra and mixed chorus, Op. 44 (1945).

On July 2, 1951, Hermann Scherchen, the eminent conductor of 20th-century music, conducted the “Dance Around the Gold Calf” from Moses und Aron at Darmstadt, then in West Germany, as part of the program of the Summer School for New Music. The telegram telling of the great success of that performance was one of the last things to bring Schoenberg pleasure before his death 11 days later.