Arnold Schoenberg

Austria, 1897–1951

Creator of atonal and serial technique. His twelve-tone method — in which all notes of the chromatic scale are treated as equal — broke the centuries-old system of tonal harmony.

MusicRoots documents 3 artists who influenced Arnold Schoenberg and 7 artists Arnold Schoenberg influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Arnold Schoenberg?

• Max Reger — Reger's saturated chromaticism pushed tonality to its limit, and Schoenberg - who admired and programmed him - is among the modernists he opened the door for.
• Johannes Brahms — Schoenberg wrote 'Brahms the Progressive' — Brahms's dense counterpoint was a key structural influence on his atonality.
• Richard Wagner — Wagner's extreme chromaticism in Tristan und Isolde was the direct precursor to Schoenberg's atonality.

Which artists did Arnold Schoenberg influence?

• John Cage — Schoenberg was Cage's direct teacher in Los Angeles, though Cage later rejected twelve-tone writing entirely in favour of chance.
• Andrei Volkonsky — Schoenberg's twelve-tone method — obtained via smuggled scores — was the foundation Volkonsky brought into Soviet music.
• Arthur Lourié — Lourié's move into an early dodecaphony (from 1914) followed Schoenberg's expressionist atonality.
• Anton Webern — Webern was Schoenberg's devoted pupil from 1904 and remained his closest disciple — the defining apprenticeship of the Second Viennese School.
• Luigi Nono — Nono's opus 1 is a set of canonic variations on a series by Schoenberg — whose daughter Nuria he later married; the lineage is both musical and familial.
• GAS — Schoenberg is the other composer named among the records Voigt takes apart for GAS.
• Wallingford Riegger — Riegger took the twelve-tone method from studying Schoenberg — and treated it as a starting point to be assimilated rather than a doctrine to follow.