Book contents
- Schoenberg in Context
- Composers in Context
- Schoenberg in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Part I Schoenberg in Place
- Part II More than a Composer
- Part III Approaches to Composition
- Chapter 10 Tonality
- Chapter 11 Atonality
- Chapter 12 The Twelve-Tone Style
- Part IV Paradoxes and Predicaments
- Part V Schoenberg’s Others
- Part VI Viennese Institutions
- Part VII Performers and Critics
- Part VIII Ideas, Beliefs and Interventions
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 12 - The Twelve-Tone Style
from Part III - Approaches to Composition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 September 2025
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Book contents
- Schoenberg in Context
- Composers in Context
- Schoenberg in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Part I Schoenberg in Place
- Part II More than a Composer
- Part III Approaches to Composition
- Chapter 10 Tonality
- Chapter 11 Atonality
- Chapter 12 The Twelve-Tone Style
- Part IV Paradoxes and Predicaments
- Part V Schoenberg’s Others
- Part VI Viennese Institutions
- Part VII Performers and Critics
- Part VIII Ideas, Beliefs and Interventions
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter begins by discussing the impulses that motivated Schoenberg to begin composing in the twelve-tone style: his desire to circulate through all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale, and his need to make the remainder of a piece develop from its initial material or Grundgestalt. It briefly traces his path toward twelve-tone music, as well as relating that journey to Josef Matthias Hauer’s work. The main part of the chapter defines the principal feature that set Schoenberg apart as a twelve-tone composer: the ‘musical idea’, and illustrates the musical idea as an overarching framework in an analysis of the Prelude from the Suite, op. 25. It then explains how Schoenberg’s followers and successors moved away from the notion of ‘idea’ as framework toward other modes of organization.
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- Schoenberg in Context , pp. 122 - 132Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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