Video: Arnold Schoenberg

We are down to the last few days of summer school, so I have begun an abbreviated look at the music of the early 20th century with the students.  Today we spent a sizable portion of our time together looking at Arnold Schoenberg.  My students were very impressed with Wagner's contributions at the end of the Romantic era, so they were fascinated with Schoenberg.  It is always amazing to me that Schoenberg's advancements move so far forward that he has to abandon tonality entirely.  I cannot begin to imagine the genius that would conceive of this possibility.

In my research for class, I ran across an interesting (and brief) video on YouTube about the composer's life and influences.  Take a few minutes and appreciate the life and music of Arnold Schoenberg.