Second Viennese School facts for kids
The Second Viennese School (also known as the New Vienna School) was a special group of composers. They worked in Vienna in the early 1900s. The most important person in this group was Arnold Schoenberg. His main students were Alban Berg and Anton Webern.
At first, their music sounded like late-Romantic music, but with more complex sounds. Later, they started using a style called expressionism. This music often didn't have a clear main key, which is sometimes called atonality. Even later, Schoenberg created a new system called the twelve-tone technique. This was a way to organize all 12 notes of music equally.
This group of composers changed music a lot. Even though they worked together, they didn't always follow the same path. Schoenberg's teaching was actually very traditional. The school grew because his students were inspired by his creative ideas.
Who Were the Members?
Besides Schoenberg, the main members were Alban Berg and Anton Webern. They were among his first students for composition. Both Berg and Webern were already talented composers. They felt Schoenberg's teaching gave them new direction.
Other important members from that time included Ernst Krenek, Heinrich Jalowetz, Erwin Stein, and Egon Wellesz. Later students included Eduard Steuermann, Hanns Eisler, Robert Gerhard, and Nikos Skalkottas. Schoenberg's brother-in-law, Alexander Zemlinsky, is sometimes included too. However, he was not Schoenberg's student and kept using traditional music keys.
Berg and Webern quickly started using the twelve-tone technique like Schoenberg. But not all of his other students did this right away. Some later students, like Gerhard from Catalonia and Skalkottas from Greece, are also part of the group. They studied with Schoenberg in Berlin, not Vienna.
The term "Second Viennese School" usually doesn't include Schoenberg's many students in the United States after 1933. People like John Cage are not usually counted. However, students of Schoenberg's students are often included. For example, Hans Erich Apostel (Berg's student) and René Leibowitz (Webern's student) are part of the group.
How They Worked
The composers in this school had very different musical styles. For example, Berg's music sounds very different from Webern's. Webern was the only one who always used a single twelve-tone row throughout all parts of a piece. Some composers, like Gerhard, even used folk music from their home countries.
The group seemed very connected because some members wrote books about their ideas. Wellesz wrote the first book about Schoenberg. Other friends and students also wrote special books about him. Rufer and Spinner wrote books explaining the twelve-tone technique.
A very important book was Schoenberg et son école by Leibowitz. This book helped show the world that these composers were a "school" after World War II. Many members of the group were also great teachers. Others were performers who helped spread the group's ideas and music.
The ideas of the school became very important after World War II. This happened at the Darmstadt New Music Summer School. Schoenberg was invited but was too sick to go. At this school, Webern's music became very influential. Composers from the Second Viennese School met with new composers like Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
First Viennese School
In Germany, this group is called the "Vienna School" or "New Vienna School." Sometimes people talk about a "First Viennese School." This term usually means the famous composers from Vienna in the late 1700s and early 1800s. These include Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert.
Mozart and Schubert did not study with Haydn. But Mozart and Haydn admired each other's music. They likely influenced each other's work. Beethoven did take lessons from Haydn for a while. However, he was not a student in the same way Berg and Webern were students of Schoenberg.
See also
In Spanish: Moderna Escuela de Viena para niños
