Arnold Schönberg

1874 Wien - 1951 Los Angeles
Composer. Born September 13, 1874 in Vienna, composer, music theoretician and teacher. As a composer autodidact,; from from 1882 on he learned violin and violoncello, a.o. with Oskar Adler (1875 Vienna-1955 Willesden). As a member of the amateur orchestra Polyhymnia he became friends with Alexander Zemlinsky, whose sister Mathilde he married in 1901. 1902 he moved to Berlin, where he taught at the Stern'sche Konservatorium and worked as a composer and conductor for the 'Überbrettl' cabaret. Return to Vienna in 1903, where in 1906 he founded the 'Vereinigung schaffender Tonkünstler' together with Zemlinsky and Karl Weigl. His group of pupils, amongst the Alban Berg and Anton (von) Webern, was later to be defined as the ' Wiener Schule' (Viennese School of Music). Between 1908 and 1910 he created the greater part of his 58 paintings and 150 aquarell pictures. In 1918 Schoenberg created the famous 'Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen' dedicated to promoting contemporary music. 1923 his method of 'Komposition mit zwölf Tönen' (twelve-tone composition) was made public. From 1926 on Master class for composition at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin. Dismissed from the Academy in 1933, he from Barcelona to Paris, where he reconverted to Judiasm and exile in the USA, with his family. Teaching positions at Malkin Conservatory, Boston, and New York; 1935-36 at the University of Southern California (USCLA); 1936 at the University of California (UCLA). US-citizenship in 1940. Arnold Schoenberg passed away July 13, 1951. Selection of works: 1899 string sextet 'Verklärte Nacht', 1902-03 symphonic poem 'Pelleas und Melisande'; 1906 1st Kammersymphonie, 1909 'Erwartung', Monodram für Sopran und Orchester, 1901-11 'Gurrelieder', 1912 'Pierrot lunaire', 1930-1932 'Moses und Aron', Opera, 1935-1936 concert for violin, 1936 4th string quartet, 1906-39 2nd Kammersymphonie, 1947 'A survivor from Warsaw'