Why were audiences so hostile to Arnold Schoenbergs music?
Audiences were hostile to the music of Vienna-born American composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) because he threw out traditional rules for composing music. Instead of relying on tonality (arrangement of notes to produce a harmonious effect), he developed a new twelve-tone serial technique. In his youth Schoenberg was a fan of German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883), and he saw each of Wagner’s operas several times. Schoenberg’s early work reflects Wagner’s influence, but at the turn of the twentieth century he set out on his own path. Despite a lack of formal training, he composed Three Pieces for piano in 1909. Some music historians argue that this is the single most important composition of the twentieth century. Three Pieces displays Schoenberg’s new atonal style because it lacks any reference to key. This work was…
