Schoenberg's Tonal Music

Jack Boss's third book on the most famous member of the 'second Viennese School', this work offers an intriguing revisionist history of Schoenberg's early music. It provides close readings of six pieces from Op. 1 to Op. 9, illustrated by detailed motivic analyses as well as Schenkerian graphs, to show how tonality and motive work together to project the 'musical idea,' and how Schoenberg's tonal style gradually became more dissonant, leading to atonality. Boss's earlier books argued that the atonal and twelve-tone works were part of a consistent development tied together by the expression of a common narrative-the conflict, elaboration, and resolution of what Schoenberg himself called the 'idea.' This book completes the circle by showing that the early, tonal works also project musical idea narratives. It justifies Schoenberg's preference for setting music to text early in his career, by showing how his chosen texts helped shape these narratives of conflict and resolution.