ARNOLD SCHOENBERG:

Arnold Shoenberg was born in Vienna in the year of 1874. Almost an entirely self-taught musician.

He acquired his knowledge of music by studying scores, playing in amateur chamber groups and going for concerts. After he lost his kob of a bacnk clerk at the age of 21, he struggled as a conductor of an industrial choir and an orchestrator of operetta. HIs early works were not appreciated but he inspired loyalty and love in students who he taught in Vienna. Two of his students later became leading composers. They are Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

Shoenberg discarded the traditional tonal system. He seemed like a man possessed going around telling everybody that "I have a mission, i am but the loudspeaker of an idea" He took the next eight years polishing his idea. He even told a student that the tonal system would ensure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years. He invented the twelve-tone system which was respected by the composers of his time though not appreciated by the people. He received an important appointment at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin.

After the Nazis took over Germany, Shoenberg who was a Jew lost his appointment in 1933. In the same year, he and his family migrated to America. He joined the music faculty at the University of California in Los Angeles. He was neglected in America. His music were rarely performed and he was poor. But after his death, his twelve-tone system became increasingly important and is used by many contemporaries even up till today.

HIS MUSIC:

HIs music language was an entirely new evolution. His early works were very influenced by late Romantic style with large orchestra angular melodies and dissonances. His later workd were more individual he use whole-tone scales and forth chords.

He started to write atonal music around 1908 and use his twelve-tone scale widely.(See => The twelve tone scale) Atonality does not imply a singel system of composition and neither does it mean freedom of expression and you can do whatever you like. It has to follow certain systems and sequences. The piece usually grow out of a single short motif of music that is being altered by devices such as an inversion, a retrograde etc.

His compositions of atonal music included Five pieces for Orchestra, Pierrot lunaire(Moonstruck Pierrot), characterised by jagged melodies, novel instrumental effects and unusual vocal performance for example, Sprechstimme (Speech-voice)