Arnold Schoenberg, whose work can be briefly described as innovative, lived an interesting and eventful life. He entered the history of world music as a revolutionary who made a revolution in composition, created his own school in music, left an interesting legacy and a whole galaxy of students. Arnold Schoenberg is one of the prominent composers of the 20th century.
Childhood and family
On September 13, 1874, Arnold Schoenberg was born in Vienna, whose biography will be difficult, but always associated with music. The Schoenberg family lived in a Jewish ghetto. Father - Samuel Schoenberg - was from Presburg, had his own small shoe store. Mother - Paulina Nachod - a native of Prague, was a piano teacher. Arnold had an ordinary childhood, nothing foreshadowed his great future.
Gaining a calling
From an early age, his mother began to teach Arnold music, he showed promise. But the family did not have the means to continue their education. He independently comprehended the science of composition. A few lessons on counterpoint were given to him by a brother-in-law, a well-known Austrian composer and conductor, for whom Schoenberg's sister Matilda married, - Alexander von Tsemlinsky. The musicians became very friends, all their life they remained like-minded and often helped each other with advice, argued about art. It was Tsemlinsky who strongly recommended his colleague to become a professional music writer. The future composer Arnold Schoenberg acutely felt his vocation even in his teens, and although the circumstances were not in his favor, he devoted all his free time to music.
The beginning of a professional path
The family did not live well, and when his father died, Arnold at that time was 15, and it became very difficult. The young man had to undertake any work. Arnold Schoenberg worked as a bank clerk, a peddler of purchases, led work choirs, wrote orchestrations for operettas. But he did not leave his studies in music, in his free time he wrote his own works. Already in 1898 in Vienna, Schoenberg's works from the stage were first performed. In 1901, he went to Berlin, where he earned music lessons; at the Stern Conservatory, he even taught a composition course.
At this time, he met with Gustav Mahler, who had a significant impact on Schoenberg's worldview. In 1903 he returned to Vienna and began working at a music school. At the same time, he manages to write music, during this period it is sustained in the traditions of the German composer school of the late 19th century. The most significant work of this stage was: the enlightened string sextet, the poem Pelléas et Mélisande (1902-1903), the cantata Songs of Gurre (1900-1911). Arnold Schoenberg was distinguished by great efficiency, already at the beginning of the way he simultaneously taught, wrote music, gave concerts.
Biography and music
In the work of the composer Schoenberg there are three periods: tonal (from 1898 to 1908), atonal (1909–1922) and dodecaphone (from 1923). The evolution of the musician is associated with his search for a new path and new expressiveness. His fate is first associated with expressionism, on the basis of which he later makes his revolutionary discoveries. Until 1907, Schoenberg moved in the traditional direction of classical music. But this year there is a radical change in his artistic worldview, he ponders a lot about music, writes theoretical work. There is a complication of his musical language, an increased desire for dissonance, but so far the traditional harmony is preserved.
And in 1909, a new round of his life begins. In 1911, Arnold Schoenberg, whose biography is gaining momentum in the music world, again goes to Berlin, where he has been touring for 4 years as a conductor. By this time he was already a well-known musician in Europe. In 1915, the composer was drafted into the army for two years. This atonal period is characterized by the rejection of the tonal center of the work, Schoenberg tries to apply 12 tones of the chromatic scale equally. In 1923 he received the title of professor of music and an invitation to work at the Berlin School of Music. With the Nazis coming to power in 1933, Schönberg was fired from the conservatory, and he, fearing further persecution as a representative of the Jewish nation, emigrated. First, he leaves for France, and later in the USA.
The third period of the composer's work was marked by his main discoveries. He begins to gravitate to the rational organization of the musical series, compositions are built from twelve tones that are not repeated in one row. This is how dodecaphone music appears. Schönberg’s work was fully reflected in an era full of changes, as well as his subjective and emotional experiences.
Music theory
The composer has always tried to control the forms and expressive means of his music, which come most often unconsciously. Therefore, all of his landmark experiences and thoughts were set forth in serious scientific works. In 1911, Arnold Schoenberg wrote his first major theoretical work, The Doctrine of Harmony. Already in it, he outlined his ideas about tonal harmony, which were the main thing for him all his life. This book was the only fully completed work of the composer. Later, he undertakes to write several works at the same time, constantly corrects them and adds them, during his life they were not published.
Only in 1994 did the works united in one volume be published - “Interconnection, counterpoint, instrumentation, the teaching of form”. These reflections on musical logic and thought, on orchestration, on preparatory exercises in counterpoint and on composition were not completed by the author, but show the direction in which his research went. "The basics of musical composition" were published at the end of the 20th century by the students of the master. Arnold Schoenberg made a significant contribution to the theory of music, he managed to see the evolution of musical thought and anticipate its development for years to come. In his writings, Schoenberg reflects on the integrity of the work, the development of musical thought, and comes to the idea of ​​monotony.
Educational activities
The composer has been teaching throughout his life - first at school, then at the conservatory in Berlin. In exile, he worked at universities in Boston, Southern California, and Los Angeles, teaching music theory and composition. Arnold Schoenberg created a whole school of composers, which received the name "New Vienna School". He educated students in the spirit of serving the music, he categorically did not advise them to follow his example, but to seek only his own path in art. His best students are A. Berg and A. Webern, who until the end of their days remained faithful to his ideas and grew up as independent composers worthy of their teacher. Schoenberg led all musical subjects, paying particular attention to polyphony, which he considered the basis of mastery. With his students, the composer continued to communicate closely and after their release, he was an indisputable authority for them. This is what allowed him to form a whole galaxy of like-minded people.
Dodecafonia Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg, whose brief biography can be described in one word “dodecafonia,” became an ideologist and propagandist of a new direction in music. In his search for the most economical musical writing, the composer comes to the idea of ​​a 12-tone composition system. This discovery makes the composer learn to re-compose music, he experiments a lot with form, looking for new opportunities for his sound-frequency method.
He tests the basics of the new technique on piano pieces, which he writes a lot. Later, he proceeds to create large works (suites, quartets, orchestras) in a new style. His discoveries radically influenced the development of music in the 20th century. His ideas, which he did not fully develop, were picked up by his followers, developed, perfected, and sometimes exhausted. His contribution to music was manifested in the desire to streamline the musical form.
The main works
Arnold Schoenberg left a huge musical legacy. But his most important work is the unfinished opera Moses and Aaron, the concept of which appeared back in the 20s of the 20th century and embodied the entire evolution and search for the composer. In the opera, Schoenberg embodied his whole philosophical worldview, his whole soul. Also significant works of the composer include: "Chamber Symphony", op. 9, opera Happy Hand, 5 piano pieces, op. 23, "Ode to Napoleon."
Personal life
Arnold Schoenberg, whose photo today can be seen in all textbooks on the history of music, lived a busy life. In addition to music, he was engaged in painting a lot, his works were exhibited in major galleries in Europe. He was friends with Kokoschka, Kandinsky, was a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. During his life he wrote about 300 works.
Arnold Schoenberg married for the first time quite early, for this he in 1898 converted to Protestantism. The wife cheated on him, went to her lover, but then returned to the family, and her lover committed suicide. His wife Matilda died in 1923, and this ended the stormy period of the composer's personal life. A year later, he married the violinist’s sister and happily lived the rest of his life with her. In 1933, he decides to return to Judaism and undergoes a corresponding rite in the Paris synagogue.
Arnold Schoenberg's Fears
The composer was distinguished by high intelligence, mathematical abilities, but the irrational beginning was also not alien to him. All his life he was haunted by strange fears and forebodings. What did composer Arnold Schoenberg panically fear? He had a rare phobia - he was panicky afraid of the number 13. He was born on this number, all his life he avoided houses and hotel rooms with such a figure. So what was Arnold Schoenberg afraid of in the end? The numbers? No, of course, he was afraid of death. He was sure that he would die on the 13th, that the number 76 - in the sum of 13 - would bring him death. He lived in tension throughout the year of his upcoming 76th birthday, until one day he went to bed with the confidence that today death would come for him. He lay in bed all day, waiting for the last hour. By night, his wife could not stand it and forced him to stop doing stupid things and get out of bed. But 13 minutes before midnight, he uttered the word “harmony” and left this world. So, on July 13, 1951, the world lost the great composer.