Arnold Schoenberg Quotes

Austrian-Jewish American composer (1874-1951)

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Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg [originally Schönberg] (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was an Austrian-born composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. As a Jewish composer, Schoenberg was targeted by the Nazi Party, which labeled his works as degenerate music and forbade them from being published. He emigrated to the United States in 1933, becoming an American citizen in 1941.

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Alternative Names: Arnold Schönberg • A. Schenberg • Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg • Arnold Schonberg • Arnolʹd Shenberg • A. Shenberg • Arnold Franz Walter Schönberg

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I have never seen faces, but because I have looked people in the eye, only their gazes.

I find above all that the expression, "atonal music," is most unfortunate — it is on a par with calling flying "the art of not falling," or swimming "the art of not drowning."

I am delighted to add another unplayable work to the repertoire.

There is a great Man living in this country — a composer. He has solved the problem how to preserve one's self and to learn. He responds to negligence by contempt. He is not forced to accept praise or blame. His name is Ives.

An artistic impression is substantially the resultant of two components. One what the work of art gives the onlooker — the other, what he is capable of giving to the work of art.

Hauer looks for laws. Good. But he looks for them where he will not find them.

If music is frozen architecture, then the potpourri is frozen coffee-table gossip... Potpourri is the art of adding apples to pears…

"My works are 12-tone compositions, not 12-tone compositions

My music is not modern, it is merely badly played

...if it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.

I believe that he (Strauss) will remain one of the characteristic and outstanding figures in musical history. Works like Salome, Elektra and Intermezzo, and others will not perish.

Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value. … Unqualified judgment can at most claim to decide the market-value — a value that can be in inverse proportion to the intrinsic value.

There are no more geniuses, only critics.

Although our "gentle air" cannot improve the way hate and envy look, it does seem not to encourage firmness and decision. All is compromise; caution and refinement are everywhere. Everything has to "make a good impression" — whether or not it is any good: the impression is the main thing.

My music is not lovely.