Turn-of-the-century Vienna was at the vanguard of all that was artistically innovative in Europe. It was here, in a climate of intense cultural ferment, that the foundations of Modernism were laid. Freud and Schnitzler, Loos and Klimt, Kraus and Kokoschka, as well as many other artists, writers, painters, composers and ideologues made up this astonishing group of visionaries.
Three musicians, Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, though weaned in the tradition of German composers such as Bach, Wagner and Brahms, came to the fore as among the great composers of their era, capturing its effervescence and anxiety through atonalism and expressionism. Their fascinating journey, both individual and collective, is charted here.
The ideas they introduced in their music influenced composers from the late 1800s to the postwar period, and a close look at such works as “Pierrot lunaire”, “Wozzeck”, and “6 Pieces, Opus 6” illustrates where a cross-fertilization of art and culture were at play, making this book indispensable not only as a remarkable musical history, but as a great cultural one as well.