1. Schoenberg and Scriabin
Chapter 66
Atonality:
Schoenberg and Scriabin

2. Lecture Overview Atonality in music Nonrepresentational painting
Arnold Schoenberg
Piano Piece, Op. 11, No. 1
Pierrot lunaire, No. 8 (“Nacht - Passacaglia”)
The spread of the atonal style
Alexander Scriabin
life and music
Piano Prelude, Op. 74, No. 5
Review

3. Features of Atonal Music (ca. 1910 - )
dissonant chords used freely, interchangeably with triads
all tones of chromatic scale drawn upon as though structurally equivalent
basic chords made from any number of tones and intervallic structures
no large-scale functional harmonic progressions

4. Abstract painting
Early in the 20th century important artists in different locations around the world explored a new style of painting in which familiar objects were absent or only hinted at. Their style was thus non-representational or abstract, and the meaning of such works turned on the inherent expressive power of materials themselves—of colors and shapes. At about the same time that abstract paintings appeared, composers such as Schoenberg began to write atonal music, which invites a comparison of such music with non-representational art works such as Kandinsky’s Impression 3 (Concert), shown above.

5. The Life of Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
1874 born in Vienna
c1895 informal private study in music with Alexander Zemlinsky
1901 moves to Berlin, works as orchestrator and cabaret conductor
1903 returns to Vienna, lives mainly as private teacher
1908 begins to compose atonal music
1911 again moves to Berlin, publishes a treatise on tonal harmony (the Harmonielehre)
1913 triumphant premiere in Vienna of the romantic oratorio Gurrelieder
1917 follow service in the Austrian military, Schoenberg settles in Mödling (a Vienna suburb)
1923 begins to compose twelve-tone music
1925 appointed Professor of Composition at the Academy of the Arts in Berlin
1933 dismissed by the Nazis from his Berlin position, flees to Paris, then to America
1936 appointed Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles
1951 dies in Los Angeles

6. Principal Compositions by Arnold Schoenberg
Operas: 4, including
Erwartung
Moses und Aron (incomplete)
Orchestra: chamber symphonies (2), tone poem Pelleas und Melisande, concertos (violin, piano), character pieces
Chamber music: includes 5 string quartets and a woodwind quintet
Songs: numerous collections, also the melodrama Pierrot lunaire
Piano: character pieces
Chorus: including
Gurrielieder (cantata)
A Survivor from Warsaw (narration with chorus)

7. Arnold Schoenberg, Piano Piece Op. 11, No. 1, 1909
Ternary form

8. Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire, 1912, No. 8 (“Nacht-Passacaglia”)
Through-composed passacaglia (with a hint of ternary form)

9. The Life of Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
born in Moscow
studies at Moscow Conservatory
teaches piano at Moscow Conservatory amid European and American tours
concert tours of Europe and America
dies in Petrograd of blood poisoning

10. Principal Compositions by Alexander Scriabin
Piano: sonatas (10), character pieces
Orchestra: 5 symphonies, Piano Concerto

11. Alexander Scriabin, Piano Prelude, Op. 74, No. 5, 1914
Free rondo (ABAB) form

12. Review Key Terms Vasili Kandinsky emancipation of dissonance
atonal music
tone-color melody (Klangfarbenmelodie)
piano harmonics
melodrama
Albert Giraud
Sprechgesang
passacaglia
basso ostinato
twelve-tone method of composition
octatonic scale
mystic chord
(symmetric) inversion