Expressionism as a musical genre is notoriously difficult to exactly define. It is, however, one of the most important movements of 20th Century music. The central figures of musical expressionism are Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, Anton Webern and Alban Berg, the so-called Second Viennese School. The expressionist period can be associated loosely with Schoenberg's atonal period, which can be found after he finally rejected tonality, but before he began composing according to the twelve-tone technique, although the extent to which clear divisions between periods can be made is debatable. 20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Impressionism of Claude Debussy, and ranging to such distant sound-worlds as the complete serialism of Pierre Boulez, the simple triadic harmonies of minimalist composers... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1938 For the American music critic and journalist, see Harold Charles Schonberg. ... Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer. ... Alban Maria Johannes Berg (February 9, 1885 – December 24, 1935) was an Austrian composer. ... The Second Viennese School was a group of composers made up of Arnold Schoenberg and those who studied under him in early 20th century Vienna. ... Atonality in a general sense describes music that departs from the system of tonal hierarchies that are said to characterized the sound of classical European music from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. ... Tonality is a system of writing music according to certain hierarchical pitch relationships around a center or tonic. ... Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ...

Roughly speaking, musical expressionism can be said to begin with Schoenberg's Second String Quartet (written 1907-08) in which each of the four movements gets progressively less tonal. The third movement is arguable atonal and the introduction to the finale is very chromatic, arguably has no tonal centre, and features a soprano singing "Ich fühle luft von anderem planeten" ("I feel the air of another planet"), taken from a poet by Stefan George. This may be representative of Schoenberg entering the 'new world' of atonality. 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Stefan George (1910) Stefan George (Bingen, Hesse, July 12, 1868 – Locarno, December 4, 1933) was a German poet and translator. ...

In 1909, Schoenberg composed the one act 'monodrama' Erwartung. This is a thirty minute, highly expressionist work in which atonal music accompanies a musical drama centred around a nameless woman. Having stumbled through a disturbing forest, trying to find her lover, she reaches open countryside. She stumbles across the corpse of her lover near the house of another woman, and from that point on the drama is purely psychological: the woman denies what she sees and then worries that it was she who killed him. 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

The plot is entirely played out from the subjective point of view of the woman, the audience is never able to get an objective viewpoint. Furthermore, the emotional distress of the woman is reflected in the music; this might be compared to the aesthetic of Edvard Munch's The Scream, in which the surrounding landscape is affected by the scream of the protagonist. This inter-disciplinary comparison is representative of the inter-disciplinary nature of expressionism; it is a genre that is found in literature and in painting. The plot to Erwartung has some grounding in reality in the true story of the lunatic Anna O. (real name Bertha Pappenheim). The libretto was written by her sister, Marie: an expression of her own anguish perhaps? These three features (subjectivity, the aesthetic of the 'scream', and an expression of real life hardship, are all characteristic features of other musical expressionist works. Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm, 1895 Edvard Munch (December 12, 1863 – January 23, 1944) was a Norwegian expressionist painter and printmaker. ... An agonized figure wails against a blood red Oslofjord skyline in Edvard Munchs The Scream (1893), National Gallery, Oslo. ... The protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often referred to as a storys main character. ... Anna O. was the name given to a patient of the physician and physiologist Josef Breuer in his book Studies on Hysteria, written in collaboration with Sigmund Freud. ... A libretto is the complete body of words used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. ...

In 1909, Schoenberg completed the Five Orchestral Pieces. These were constructed freely, based upon the subconscious will, unmediated by the conscious, anticipating the main shared ideal of the composer's relationship with the painter Wassily Kandinsky. As such, the works attempt to avoid a recognisable form, although the extent to which they achieve this is debatable. Subconscious may refer to: that which is subliminal to consciousness the underlying consciousness see subconsciousness. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... Wassily Kandinsky On White II (Kandinsky 1923) Wassily Kandinsky (Russian: Василий Кандинский, first name spelled as [vassi:li]) (December 4, 1866 (O.S., December 16, 1866 N.S.) – December 13, 1944) was a Russian-French painter and art theorist. ...

Between 1908-1913, Schoenberg was also working on a musical drama, Die Glückliche Hand. The music is again atonal. The plot begins with an unnamed man, cowered in the centre of the stage with a beast upon his back. The man's wife has left him for another man; he is in anguish. She attempts to return to him, but in his pain he does not see her. Then, to prove himself, the man goes to a forge, and in a strangely Wagnerian scene (although not musically), forges a masterpiece, even with the other blacksmiths showing aggression towards him. The woman returns, and the man implores her to stay with him, but she kicks a rock upon him, and the final image of the act is of the man once again cowered with the beast upon his back. 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

This plot is highly symbolic, written as it was by Schoenberg himself, at around the time when his wife had left him for a short while for the painter Richard Gerstl. Though by the time Schoenberg began the work, she had returned, their relationship was far from easy. The central forging scene is seen as representative of Schoenberg's disappointment at the negative popular reaction to his works. His desire was to create a masterpiece, as the protagonist does. Once again, Schoenberg is expressing his real life difficulties. Self-portrait, 1901. ...

At around 1911, the painter Wassily Kandinsky wrote a letter to Schoenberg, which initiated a long lasting friendship and working relationship. The two artists shared a similar viewpoint, that art should express the subconscious (the 'inner necessity') unfettered by the conscious. Kandinsky's Concerning The Spiritual In Art (1914) expounds this view. The two exchanged their own paintings with each other, and Schoenberg contributed articles to Kandinsky's publication Der Blaue Reiter. This inter-disciplinary relationship is perhaps the most important relationship in musical expressionism, other than that between the members of the Second Viennese School. 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Wassily Kandinsky On White II (Kandinsky 1923) Wassily Kandinsky (Russian: Василий Кандинский, first name spelled as [vassi:li]) (December 4, 1866 (O.S., December 16, 1866 N.S.) – December 13, 1944) was a Russian-French painter and art theorist. ... Cover of Der Blaue Reiter almanac. ... The Second Viennese School was a group of composers made up of Arnold Schoenberg and those who studied under him in early 20th century Vienna. ...

The inter-disciplinary nature of expressionism found an outlet in Schoenberg's paintings, encouraged by Kandinsky. An example is the self portrait Red Gaze (see [1]), in which the red eyes are the window to Schoenberg's subconscious.

Webern's music was close in style to Schoenberg's expressionism for only a short while, c. 1909-13. His Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10 (1911-13) are an example of his expressionist output, and might be compared to Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16, composed 1909. 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Berg's contribution includes his Op. 1 Piano Sonata, and the Four Songs of Op. 2. His major contribution to the genre, however, is the opera Wozzeck, composed between 1914-25, a very late addition to the genre. The opera is highly expressionist in subject material in that it expresses mental anguish and suffering and is not objective, presented, as it is, largely from Wozzeck's point of view, but it presents this expressionism within a cleverly constructed form. The opera is divided into three acts, the first of which serves as an exposition of characters. The second develops the plot, while the third is a series of musical variations (upon a rhythm, or a key for example). Berg unashamedly uses sonata form in one scene in the second act, describing himself how the first subject represents Marie (Wozzeck's mistress), while the second subject coincides with the entry of Wozzeck himself. This heightens the immediacy and intelligibility of the plot, but is somewhat contradictory with the ideals of Schoenberg's expressionism, which seeks to express musically the subconscious unmediated by the conscious. While Wozzeck helped to popularise the genre, it did so at the expense of the ideals. 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... An exposition may be one of the following: In music an exposition is the first of the sections in sonata allegro form. ... In music, variation is a formal technique where material is altered during repetition; reiteration with changes. ... Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... In music theory, the key identifies the tonic triad, the chord, major or minor, which represents the final point of rest for a piece, or the focal point of a section. ... Sonata form refers to both the standard layout of an entire musical composition and more specifically to the standardized form of the first movement. ...

Indeed, by the time Wozzeck was performed in 1925, Schoenberg had introduced his twelve-tone technique to his pupils, representing the end of his expressionist period (in 1923). Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ...

As such, musical expressionism can be said to be chiefly centred upon the ideas and work of Arnold Schoenberg (1907-1923), although Berg and Webern did also contribute significantly to the genre. It was a significant, if not altogether popular style, and some of its influences can be seen in Béla Bartók's opera Bluebeard's Castle (1911), with its emphasis on psychological drama represented in music. 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Béla Bartók in 1927 Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. ... A Kékszakállú herceg vára, (commonly referred to by its English name, Bluebeards Castle) is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...

References

• David Fanning, 'Expressionism', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [12-06-2005]), <[2]>. Access requires payment, access acquired entirely legally.
• O. W. Neighbour, 'Glückliche Hand, die', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [12-06-2005]), <[3]>
• O. W. Neighbour, 'Erwartung', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [12-06-2005]), <[4]>
• Wassily Kandinsky, trans. M. T. H. Sadler, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1977
• Jim Samson, Music In Transition. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London, 1977
• ed. Leonard Stein, Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg. Faber and Faber, London, 1975.

External links

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Expressionism (music)

• Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna
• List of Links (compiled by Schoenberg's grandson Randol)
• Complete Schoenberg Discography
• Schoenberg's Paintings and Drawings