Arnold Schoenberg: biography and creativity briefly, photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

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 outstanding composers of the 20th century.

Childhood and family

On September 13, 1874, Arnold Schoenberg was born in Vienna, whose biography will not be easy, but always associated with music. The Schoenberg family lived in the Jewish ghetto. Father - Samuel Schoenberg - was from Pressburg, 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.

Finding 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. Several lessons oncounterpoint was given to him by his brother-in-law, the famous Austrian composer and conductor, whom Schoenberg's sister Matilda married, Alexander von Zemlinsky. The musicians became very close friends, remained like-minded all their lives and often helped each other with advice, argued about art. It was Zemlinsky who urged his colleague to become a professional music composer. The future composer Arnold Schoenberg, already in his teens, keenly felt his vocation, and although circumstances were not in his favor, he devoted all his free time to music.

Beginning of a professional path

The family did not live well, and when his father died, Arnold was 15 at the time, it became very difficult. The young man had to take on any job. Arnold Schoenberg worked as a bank clerk, a peddler of purchases, led working choirs, wrote orchestrations for operettas. But he did not leave his music lessons, in his free time he wrote his own works. As early as 1898, Schoenberg's works from the stage were performed for the first time in Vienna. In 1901, he left for Berlin, where he earns money with music lessons, he even teaches a composition course at the Stern Conservatory.

At this time, he meets 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 were: string sextet"Enlightened Night", the poem "Pelleas and Mélisande" (1902-1903), the cantata "Songs of Gurre" (1900-1911). Arnold Schoenberg was distinguished by his great capacity for work, already at the beginning of his journey he simultaneously taught, wrote music, gave concerts.

Biography and music

There are three periods in the work of the composer Schoenberg: tonal (from 1898 to 1908), atonal (1909–1922) and dodecaphonic (from 1923). The evolution of the musician is connected with his search for a new path and new expressiveness. His fate is first connected with expressionism, on the basis of which he later makes his revolutionary discoveries. Until 1907, Schoenberg moves in the traditional mainstream of classical music. But this year there is a radical change in his artistic outlook, he thinks a lot about music, writes a theoretical work. There is a complication of his musical language, the craving for dissonance increases, 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 tours as a conductor for 4 years. By this time he was already quite 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 equally use 12 tones of the chromatic scale. In 1923 he received the title of professor of music and an invitation to work at the Berlin School of Music. With comingto the power of the Nazis in 1933, Schoenberg was fired from the conservatory, and he, fearing further persecution as a representative of the Jewish nation, emigrated. First he goes to France, and later to the USA.

The third period of the composer's work was marked by his major discoveries. He begins to gravitate toward the rational organization of the musical series, the compositions are built from twelve tones that are not repeated in one row. This is how dodecaphone music appears. Schöngberg's work fully reflected an era full of change, as well as his subjective-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 his milestone experiences and reflections were set out in serious scientific papers. 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 ones for him all his life. This book was the only fully completed work of the composer. Later, he takes up writing several works at the same time, constantly corrects and adds them, they were not published during his lifetime.

Only in 1994, works were published, united in one volume - "Relationship, counterpoint, instrumentation, the doctrine of form." These reflections on musical logic and thought, on orchestration, on preparatory exercises in counterpoint and on composition, have not been completed by the author, but show the direction in whichwhich he did his research. "Fundamentals of Musical Composition" were published already at the end of the 20th century by the master's students. Arnold Schoenberg made a significant contribution to music theory, he was able to see the evolution of musical thought and anticipate its development for years to come. In his works, Schoenberg reflects on the integrity of the work, the development of musical thought and comes to the idea of monotonality.

Pedagogical activity

The composer has been teaching throughout his life - first at school, then at the conservatory in Berlin. In exile, he worked at the universities of Boston, Southern California, Los Angeles, teaching music theory and composition. Arnold Schoenberg created an entire school of composition, which was called the "New Viennese School". He educated students in the spirit of serving music, he categorically advised them not to follow his example, but to seek only their own path in art. A. Berg and A. Webern are considered his best students, who remained faithful to his ideas until the end of their days and grew up as independent composers worthy of their teacher. Schoenberg taught all musical subjects, paying special attention to polyphony, which he considered the basis of mastery. The composer continued to communicate closely with his students and after their graduation, he was an indisputable authority for them. This is what allowed him to form a whole galaxy of like-minded people.

Arnold Schoenberg's dodecaphony

Arnold Schoenberg, whose brief biography can be described in one word "dodecaphony", has becomeideologist and propagandist of a new direction in music. In his search for the most economical musical writing, the composer comes up with the idea of a 12-tone composition system. This discovery makes the composer learn to compose music again, he experiments a lot with the form, looking for new possibilities for his sound-frequency method.

He tests the basics of the new technique on piano pieces, which he writes a lot. Later, he moves on to creating 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 followers, developed, brought to perfection, sometimes to exhaustion. His contribution to music manifested itself in the desire to streamline the musical form.

Main compositions

Arnold Schoenberg left a huge musical legacy. But his most important work is the unfinished opera "Moses and Aaron", the idea of which appeared back in the 20s of the 20th century and embodied the whole evolution and search of the composer. In the opera, Schoenberg embodied his entire philosophical outlook, his entire soul. Also, the composer's significant works include: "Chamber Symphony", op. 9, opera Lucky Hand, 5 piano pieces, op. 23, "Ode to Napoleon".

Private life

Arnold Schoenberg, whose photo can be seen today in all textbooks on the history of music, lived a busy life. In addition to music, he did a lot of painting, hisHis work has been 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 converted to Protestantism in 1898. His wife cheated on him, went to her lover, but then returned to the family, and her lover committed suicide. His wife Mathilde died in 1923, ending a tumultuous period in the composer's personal life. A year later, he married the violinist's sister and lived happily with her for the rest of his life. In 1933, he decides to return to Judaism and undergoes the corresponding ceremony 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 was the composer Arnold Schoenberg afraid of? He had a rare phobia - he was terribly afraid of the number 13. He was born on this number, all his life he avoided houses and hotel rooms with this number. So what was Arnold Schoenberg ultimately afraid of? Numbers? No, of course he was afraid of death. He was sure that he would die on the 13th, that the number 76 - for a total of 13 - would bring him death. Throughout the year of his upcoming 76th birthday, he lived in suspense, until one day he went to bed with the certainty that death would come for him today. He lay in bed all day, waiting for the last hour. By nightfall, his wife could not stand it and forced him to stop doing stupid things and get out of bed. But 13 minutes beforeat midnight he uttered the word "harmony" and left this world. So, on July 13, 1951, the world lost a great composer.