Schoenberg

18 Posts
archive-post-image
Mathilde Schoenberg and Richard Gerstl
Muse and Femme Fatale
It is somewhat tempting to speculate that the doomed love affair between the young and brilliant painter Richard Gerstl and Mathilde Schoenberg—a tiny, dowdy mother of two and wife to Arnold Schoenberg—served as a catalyst for the composer’s historic leap
Read more
archive-post-image
Arnold Schoenberg
“Great art presupposes the alert mind of the educated listener” I am sure that at one point or another you’ve heard the slant that Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) is the only classical composer who uniquely can empty any concert hall by
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
13 July: Arnold Schoenberg Died
The great composer Dimitri Mitropoulos said in 1951, “I was profoundly shocked to read of the death of Arnold Schoenberg. He was one of the greatest geniuses of our time. He did for music in the twentieth century what Einstein
Read more
archive-post-image
The Non-Meeting of Two Masters: Schoenberg’s Book of the Hanging Garden
The German symbolist poet Stefan George (1868-1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) probably never met – as one commentator said, ‘One reason could be that as charismatic leaders of cults, they too much resembled each other.’ In Paris in 1889, Stefan
Read more
archive-post-image
The Transfigured Night
Richard Dehmel, Arnold Schoenberg and Oskar Fried
In his breakthrough instrumental piece, written in 1899 and given its premiere in 1902, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) set aside all the vocal music he’d been writing to produce a work of true beauty. Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) was based on
Read more
archive-post-image
Musicians and Artists: Schoenberg and Kandinsky
When you get two modern artists together, something special happens. In this case we have a composer/painter in Arnold Schoenberg and the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. As the story goes, in early January 1911, Kandinsky, who was in Munich, went
Read more
archive-post-image
Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra
Premiered Today in 1912
There is considerable debate across the entire scholarly and social spectrum as to what composer was most influential in the field of Western Classical music. It may, or may not surprise you to learn that Glenn Gould considered Arnold Schoenberg
Read more
archive-post-image
WWI Composers: Elgar, Schoenberg and Holst
The First World War was not merely a global military conflict; it also had far reaching implications for civilian life. It called upon women to become a fundamental part of the war effort, carrying out domestic labor, waged industrial labor,
Read more