Anton Webern

{ Anton Webern (German: [ˈantoːn ˈveːbɐn] ; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonal and twelve-tone techniques. His approach was typically rigorous, inspired by his studies of the Franco-Flemish School under Guido Adler and by Arnold Schoenberg's emphasis on structure in teaching composition from the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, the First Viennese School, and Johannes Brahms. Webern, Schoenberg, and their colleague Alban Berg were at the core of what became known as the Second Viennese School. Webern was arguably the first and certainly the last of the three to write music in an aphoristic and expressionist style, reflecting his instincts and the idiosyncrasy of his compositional process. He treated themes of love, loss, nature, and spirituality, working from his experiences. Unhappily peripatetic and typically assigned light music or operetta in his early conducting career, he aspired to conduct what was seen as more respectable, serious music at home in Vienna. Following Schoenberg's guidance, Webern attempted to write music of greater length during and after World War I, relying on the structural support of texts in many Lieder. He rose as a choirmaster and conductor in Red Vienna and championed the music of Gustav Mahler. With Schoenberg based in Berlin, Webern began writing music of increasing confidence, independence, and scale using twelve-tone technique. He maintained his "path to the new music" while marginalized as a "cultural Bolshevist" in Fascist Austria and Nazi Germany, enjoying mostly international recognition and relying more on teaching for income. Struggling to reconcile his loyalties to his divided friends and family, he opposed fascist cultural policy but maintained ambivalent optimism as to the future under Nazi rule. He repeatedly considered emigrating as his hopes proved wrong, wearing on him. A soldier shot Webern dead by accident shortly after World War II in Mittersill. His music was then celebrated by composers who took it as a point of departure in a phenomenon known as post-Webernism, closely linking his legacy to serialism. Musicians and scholars like Pierre Boulez, Robert Craft, and Hans and Rosaleen Moldenhauer studied and organized performances of his music, establishing it as modernist repertoire. Broader understanding of his expressive agenda, performance practice, and complex sociocultural and political contexts lagged. An historical edition of his music is underway. {

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