Gianmario Borio

Event in German language

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In the Schönberg literature, the term Expressionism mostly appears in connection with the creative phase of 1910–1920, a period characterized by Schönberg’s friendship with Kandinsky and his own painting activity, and whose musical equivalent consists of the monodrama “Erwartung,” op. 17 and the Five Orchestral Pieces, op. 16. The immediacy of expression, the absence of any fixed form, and the depiction of fear and shock constitute the main elements of this aesthetic; the compositions that followed showed a retreat to a classicist idiom evident in the use of traditional forms and motivic work. In my lecture, I instead explore the thesis that Schönberg’s involvement with expressionism became part of his permanent musical inventory and that its traces can be observed in later works such as the String Trio, op. 45 and the “A Survivor from Warsaw,” op. 46. This requires a broader view of the influence exerted by expressionism that can reflect its versatility.

Cooperation with the Center for Research on Arnold Schönberg and the Viennese School at the Department of Musicology and Performance Studies of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna