Anton Webern

Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was a composer of classical music and a member of the so called Second Viennese School. He was born Anton Friedrich Ernst von Webern but never used his middle names, and dropped the von in 1918.

Biography

Webern was born in Vienna, Austria. After spending much of his youth in Graz and Klagenfurt, Webern attended Vienna University from 1902. There he studied musicology with Guido Adler, writing his thesis on the Choralis Constantinus of Heinrich Isaac. This interest in early music would greatly influence his compositional technique in later years.

Related Topics:
Vienna - Austria - Graz - Klagenfurt - 1902 - Musicology - Guido Adler - Heinrich Isaac

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He studied composition under Arnold Schoenberg, writing his Passacaglia, Op. 1 as his graduation piece in 1908. He met Alban Berg, who was also a pupil of Schoenberg's, and these two relationships would be the most important in his life in shaping his own musical direction. After graduating, he took a series of conducting posts at theatres in Ischl, Teplitz, Danzig, Stettin, and Prague before moving back to Vienna. There he helped to run Schoenberg's Society for Private Musical Performances and conducted the Vienna Workers Symphony Orchestra from 1922 to 1934.

Related Topics:
Arnold Schoenberg - 1908 - Alban Berg - Conducting - Ischl - Teplitz - Danzig - Stettin - Prague - Society for Private Musical Performances - Vienna Workers Symphony Orchestra - 1922 - 1934

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Webern's music was denounced as "cultural Bolshevism" when the Nazi Party seized power in Austria in 1938. As a result, he found it harder to earn a living, and had to take on work as an editor and proof-reader for his publishers, Universal Edition. Webern left Vienna in 1945 and moved to Mittersill in Salzburg, believing he would be safer there. On September 15 however, during Allied occupation of Austria, he was shot dead by a drunk American Army soldier following the arrest of his son-in-law for black market activities.

Related Topics:
Nazi Party - 1938 - Universal Edition - 1945 - Mittersill - Salzburg - September 15 - Black market

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