Arnold Schoenberg

Overview - Recordings - Scores - Books - Links

Born: September 13, 1874, Vienna, Austria
Died: July 13, 1951, Los Angeles, California, USA

Schoenberg only wrote one piece for band, but it's a band classic: the Theme and Variations, Op. 43a. It's not a twelve-tone work. This late piece was one where Schoenberg returned to tonal music. Fennell has said that some of the lush chords you hear towards the end of the piece were Schoenberg's tribute to George Gershwin. Schoenberg said this was not one of his "major pieces" as it was not twelve-tone, but this work definitely has more fans than nearly anything else in the composer's canon.

Reynish's performance on Chandos is my current favorite on CD, and part of an excellent program of German band classics including Hindemith, Blacher, and Toch. Corporon's version is also fine, in a very different program including works by Maw and Persichetti. Fennell's rendition, alas, has not yet made it to CD.

Recordings

	Works	Performers	Reviews	Stores
	Theme and Variations, Op. 43a	Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra Timothy Reynish	North	Tower Amazon
	Theme and Variations, Op. 43a	Cincinnati Wind Symphony Eugene Corporon	Simmons	Tower Amazon

Scores

Theme and Variations, Op. 43a

Books

Arnold Schoenberg by Charles Rosen
Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg edited by Leonard Stein
The New Grove Second Viennese School by Oliver Neighbour, George Perle, and Paul Griffiths