Schönberg I

Nach der verklärten Nacht ein weiteres Vordringen zu Schönberg: Das Streichquartett Nr. 1 und die sechs kleinen Klavierstücke. Zum Streichquartett schreibt Greenberg:

An important work is Schoenbergfs String Quartet No. 1 in D minor of 1905. It is a long piece cast in four continuous movements. Three aspects of the quartet emphasize its modernity. First is its incredible polyphonic intensity: Each of the four instruments of the quartet is a soloist much of time. Second, Schoenbergfs phrases are not balanced, poetic phrases with antecedent and consequent structures. Rather, they are prose.like, open ended, and rhapsodic. Third, the variety of string quartet textures Schoenberg employs is mind.boggling.

Zum frühen Werk schreibt er:

Schoenberg believed in melody more than anything else. As the first years of the 20th century progressed, he ceased to believe in the tonal harmonic system. By 1908, Schoenberg had come to the conclusion that functional harmony stifled and constrained melody by forcing it to adhere to what he believed were “artificial” constructs: chords built by stacking thirds and chord progressions based on harmonic motion by perfect fifths.
Schoenberg began to perceive his artistic mission as that of a simplifier, no small irony given how difficult his music can be for the uninitiated listener. Between 1908 and 1913, Schoenberg composed a series of experimental works that remain among the great masterworks of the 20th century, including the Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 (1909), Erwartung, Op. 17 (1909); Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912), and Die glückliche Hand (1913).
To describe his work, Schoenberg preferred the word pantonal, implying that his music embraced a sort of all‑encompassing ur‑tonality. This course will simply call it nontonal.