Anton Webern

Anton (Friedrich Wilhelm) Webern was born in Vienna on December 3, 1883. From an early age, Webern studied piano and cello, performing trios with his sisters and playing in orchestras. His earliest works include pieces for cello and piano, pieces for piano, and songs with piano accompaniment. Although he received musical education, his composition was entirely self-taught until he began studying with Arnold Schoenberg in 1904.

In 1902, Webern enrolled at the University of Vienna, where he studied Renaissance polyphony under Guido Adler, earning a doctorate, and also studied harmony and counterpoint. Deeply influenced by the music of Wagner and Mahler, his first independent work after leaving Schoenberg's tutelage, Passacaglia, Op. 1, also shows influences from Brahms's Symphony No. 4.

After becoming independent, he worked as a conductor in various locations to earn a living. Following the end of World War I, he co-founded the Society for Private Musical Performances with Schoenberg in Vienna, where new works were presented. Perhaps the most significant aspect of Webern's conducting career was his world premiere recording of Berg's Violin Concerto in London.

Webern's first work to approach serial technique was likely Kinderstück (Children's Piece). In this work, the technique is employed very simply, but thereafter, Webern developed it into his unique method by introducing symmetry.

The works created using this technique spurred the "Webern Renaissance" movement in post-World War II music history, led by intellectual avant-garde composers such as Boulez. It is largely due to this movement that Webern became widely known as a member of the "New Viennese School" (also known as the "Second Viennese School"), and particularly as a composer of "serial technique."

After Austria's annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938, Webern's works were branded as "degenerate music," and his official activities were restricted. Despite this, he maintained absolute trust in the regime.

On September 15, 1945, in Mittersill near Salzburg, with Germany having already unconditionally surrendered and Austria occupied by American forces, Webern was accidentally shot by an American soldier and suddenly passed away.