LIFE

MUSIC
SPECIALITY
WORK

ARNOLD
SCHOENBERG

LIFE
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was born in
Vienna
Self-taught musician age 8 began studying
violin and start composing
His father died when he was 16 had to work
as clerk for living
Age 21 lost job and devoted himself to
music
Poor living by conducting a choir of metalworkers in an industrial center outside Vienna

 1904 (age 30) began teaching music

theory and composition
1908 first to completely abandon the
traditional tonal system
1923-1925 published compositions using
his newly developed twelve-tone system
1933 when Nazis came to power he (a
Jew) was forced to leavecame to America
stayed in Los Angeles the rest of his life,
teaching at the University of Southern
California and at UCLA
1951 July 13th ,he died

MUSIC
Earlier pieces quite comprehended &
immaculate
Verklrte Nacht (1899), string sextet
show romantic character, richness
in harmony and color are clearly
seen (features of late romantic style)
Point of departure was the music of
Wagner, Brahms & Mahler
Atonality absence of key
Starting 1908, wrote music without no
key center

SPECIALITY
Twelve-tone system
Gives equal importance all 12 pitches in
octave
Pitches arranged in a sequence or row
(tone row)
No pitch occurs more than once in the 12
note row in order to equalize emphasis of
pitches

4 forms: Original, Retrograde, Inversion,

Retrograde inversion

 Original = original arrangement of the tone, can

be started at any note in 12 chromatic tones
Retrograde = backward, the opposite direction of
the original row
Inversion = upside down, the opposite intervals of
the original. Ex:-

Retrograde inversion = upside down backward,

the opposite direction of the inversion form

WORK
Pierrot Lunaire Op.21 (Moonstruck Pierrot,1912)
A cycle of 21 songs for female voice and an
ensemble of 5 musicians who play 8 instruments:
piano, cello, violin-viola, flute-piccolo, clarinetbass clarinet
Based on weird poems by Belgian poet, Albert
Giraud then translated into German by Otto Erich
Hartleben

 A survivor from Warsaw, Op.46 (1947)

Dramatic cantata for narrator, male chorus, and
orchestra, deals with a single episode in the
murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during world
war II.
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3