Arnold Schönberg, Austrian Composer (c. 1930)

Austrian born Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His dodecaphonic method of composition, also known as twelve-tone serialism, is one of the landmarks of musical modernism and was taken up by many of his students, most prominently Anton Webern and Alban Berg. Schönberg was a harsh critic of radio and worried that the coarse, fuzzy sound of radio music would become standard and that the beautiful tones of various instruments would be lost. Despite his misgivings, he accepted a 1927 invitation to conduct his own works for the Berlin Radio Hour [Funk-Stunde Berlin], the first public radio broadcaster in Germany. After the National Socialist takeover in 1933, Schönberg immigrated to the United States, since he had experienced discrimination on account of his Jewish roots.

print version     return to image list

previous image      next image

© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz