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 10 - Tonality
from Part III - Approaches to Composition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 September 2025
Edited by
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
Tonality was a central concept and practice for Schoenberg, informing compositions thatspan the periods most often characterized as tonal, atonal and twelve-tone. Through to about 1908 Schoenberg’s musical language is based on tonality as largely understood and practised by Brahms and Wagner, and by composers closer to Schoenberg’s generation, including Wolf, Pfitzner, Zemlinsky, Reger, Mahler and Strauss. Subsequent works from about 1909 to 1921 avoid standard forms and harmonies but feature many tonally oriented gestures and phrases. Many of his twelve-tone compositions also contain structural traces of tonality, such as what he thought of as ‘tonic’ and ‘dominant’ forms of the row. Several of Schoenberg’s works after 1934 show him yielding to an urge to (in his own words) ‘compose tonal music’.
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- Schoenberg in Context , pp. 99 - 107Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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