Second Viennese School

The Second Viennese School

The emergence of the Second Viennese School culminated with the advent and embracement of atonality . It was a direct response to the late-Romantic period that was heavily influenced by the great masters such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Richard Wagner , Joseph Haydn , and Johann Brahms . The new style connected to the Second School was concerned with advancing the art form of composing to break away from the traditional tonal conventions and modes of creating music . This brief essay will describe the major influences of the Second School of

Vienna with a discussion of the principle leaders and how their innovations changed the musical landscape

The Second School was led by the inventive and creative force of Arnold Schoenberg and his two major pupils , Alan Berg and Anton Webern Schoenberg taught at the school from 1903 until 1925 . During this period , he and his pupils moved away from the tonal formality of the previous masters and discovered the possibilities of atonality and dissonance . That being said , the Second School did not adopt a uniform structure , nor did they simply follow what Schoenberg was preaching Instead , many members of the Second School contributed to the movement with their own ideas and styles in an attempt to break free from strict musical ideology

This break from the past was quite radical in its implementation . For example , with the vast straining of the tonal structure , Schoenberg Berg and Webern , among others , found little use of the time signature in their compositions...