Schoenberg, Arnold (Franz Walter)

(born Sept. 13, 1874, Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire—died July 13, 1951, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) Austrian-born U.S. composer. He was raised as a Catholic by his Jewish-born parents. He began studying violin at age eight and later taught himself cello. While working as a bank clerk, he studied composition with Alexander Zemlinsky (1871–1942); Schoenberg soon wrote his first string quartet (1897), which was acclaimed. With Richard Strauss's help he obtained a teaching post in Berlin, but he soon returned to Vienna, having composed his gigantic cantata (1901, orchestrated 1913). In 1904 Alban Berg and Anton Webern began their studies with him, which would profoundly shape their later artistic careers. About 1906 Schoenberg came to believe that tonality had to be abandoned. During his subsequent period of “free atonality” (1907–16) he created remarkable works such as the monodrama (1909), (1909), and (1912). From 1916 to 1923 he issued almost nothing, being occupied with teaching and conducting but also seeking a way to organize atonality. He eventually developed the 12-tone method (see serialism), in which each composition is formed from a special row or series of 12 different tones. In 1930 he began work on a three-act opera based on a single tone row; remained unfinished at his death. The rise of Nazism moved him to reassert his Jewish faith and forced him to flee to the U.S., where he remained, teaching at the University of California at Los Angeles (1936–44). Though never embraced by a broad public, he may have exercised a greater influence on 20th-century music than any other composer.

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