Schoenberg, Arnold Franz Walter (1874-1951)

Austro-Hungarian composer, a US citizen from 1941. After late Romantic early works such as Verklärte Nacht/Transfigured Night (1899) and the Gurrelieder/Songs of Gurra (1900-11), he was one of the first composers to use atonality (absence of key), producing works such as Pierrot lunaire/Moonstruck Pierrot (1912) for chamber ensemble and voice, before developing the twelve-tone system of musical composition.

After 1918, Schoenberg wrote several free-atonal works for chamber ensembles, using classical forms, as well as numerous works for solo piano. He taught at the Berlin State Academy in 1925-33. The twelve-tone system was further developed by his pupils Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Driven from Germany by the Nazis, Schoenberg settled in the USA in 1933, where he influenced a generation of US composers. His legacy is still visible internationally in art music, where numerous forms of non-tonal music have now become mainstream in composition. His large collection of essays, published as Style and Idea, is set reading at most music colleges worldwide. Later works include the opera Moses und Aron (1932-51).