Arnold Schönberg
Phantasy for Violin with Accompaniment of the Piano op. 47
Schönberg created his last instrumental work in March 1949 at the suggestion of American violinist Adolf Koldofsky, firstly just the violin part and only thereafter the piano accompaniment. The piece is among his twelve-tone works, with the two parts based on row segments that, when played together, - form complete rows. While Schönberg certainly designated his op. 47 a “Phantasy”, the orientation of the relatively short piece around sonata form is unmistakable. An unusual wealth of sources survives for this work, which editor Eike Feß, a staff member at Vienna’s Arnold Schönberg Center, has sorted and evaluated with great expertise. Ulf Wallin and Shai Wosner, two specialists in Schönberg’s twelve-tone works, have been enlisted for the fingerings.
About the Composer
Arnold Schönberg
The most important composer of the first half of the twentieth century, who with the transition to atonality and twelve-tone technique influenced musical history like no other.
1874 Born on 13 September in Vienna. Largely self-taught except for lessons with Alexander Zemlinsky.
1890–94 Worked as a bank clerk.
1899 String Sextet “Transfigured Night” op. 4 as first mature original piece.
1900–11 “Gurrelieder”.
1901–03 Conductor in Berlin at Ernst von Wolzogen’s “Überbrettl”.
1903 Symphonic poem “Pelleas and Melisande” op. 6. After returning to Vienna, he taught (pupils included Anton Webern and Alban Berg, with whom he formed the Vienna School).
1906 Chamber Symphony op. 9 with quartal harmony.
1908/09 Shift away from tonality: String Quartet op. 10, Three Piano Pieces op. 11, Five Orchestra Pieces op. 16, monodrama “Erwartung” (Expectations) op. 17 (composed 1909, performed 1924), “Die glückliche Hand” (The Hand of Fate) op. 18.
from 1911 Second sojourn in Berlin. “Theory of Harmony”.
1912 Melodrama cycle “Pierrot lunaire” op. 21 was a great international success.
1918 Founding of the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna.
Ca. 1920 After a creative crisis, he found his way to twelve-tone technique (Suite for Piano op. 25, 1921–23).
1925 Appointed to a professorship at the Prussian Academy of Arts Berlin.
1930 Period-piece opera “Von heute auf morgen” (From Today to Tomorrow) op. 32.
1930–32 Started work on the opera “Moses and Aaron”.
1933/36 Emigrated to the USA, professorship in Los Angeles.
1942 “Ode to Napoleon” op. 41, Piano Concerto op. 42.
1947 “A Survivor from Warsaw” op. 46.
1951 Died on 13 July in Los Angeles.