Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Orchestral works

Arnold Schoenberg was one of the most controversial and influential composers of the twentieth century, although the composer himself hated being called a revolutionary. Whilst his discovery of the twelve-note technique did indeed revolutionise the musical language of the last century, his respect for the musical past can be seen both in his thorough grounding in the classics and in the formal models of his own compositions: the string quartet, the concerto, the chamber symphony. Stylistically, Schoenberg's works can be divided into four distinct periods: an early tonal period; a second period of atonal works dating from 1908 onwards (Schoenberg thought the term 'atonal' offensive and preferred 'pantonal'); a third period, from 1920-36, of works based on the twelve-note, or serial, technique; a more stylistically heterogeneous fourth period dating from the 1930s that is marked by the intermittent reappearanc