Composers and Decomposers: Music of The First and Second Viennese Schools

An illustrated talk by Dr Punita G. Singh 

 

Some of the giants of western art music lived and worked in Vienna for seminal periods of their lives. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert dominated the late 18th and early 19th century, composing music characterized by form, elegance and tonal and textural clarity. In contrast with this group referred to as the ‘First Viennese School’, a century later the ‘Second Viennese School’ comprising Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils Anton Webern and Alban Berg, dispensed with tonality and experimented with alternative and often dissonant dimensions of sound to create music. Both schools contributed ideas and sounds that have had a significant impact on the evolution of music.

 

Punita is a musicologist, linguist, acoustician, editor and educator based in New Delhi.