About this Piece

Arnold Schoenberg’s career as a composer likely began during his violin lessons: “Even before the age of 9, I started writing small and eventually larger pieces for two violins, imitating the music I played with my teacher and a cousin. When I could play the duets of Viotti, Pleyel, and others, I imitated their style. So I learned to compose to the extent that I learned to play the violin.” In his youth, he wrote mostly songs and smaller instrumental works, probably inspired by his lively chamber music-making with friends. When he found a classmate who played the viola, the duo lineup became a trio. With the money Schoenberg had earned by teaching German, he obtained Beethoven scores: “[...] they were the Third and Fourth Symphonies, two of the Razumovsky Quartets, and the Grosse Fuge for String Quartet, Op. 133. From then on, I had the urge to write string quartets.” The meeting with the violinist and later physician Oskar Adler, Schoenberg’s friend from his secondary school days, was decisive: Adler taught him the basics of harmony and ear training, and together they also played 18th- and 19th-century classics of the string quartet literature among a circle of friends. Schoenberg later vividly recalled that time: “We wanted to play quartets by Mozart and Beethoven, so Adler brought a larger viola strung with zither strings, on which the pitch and range of a cello could be produced. I was supposed to play this instrument, which I did, using viola fingerings, since I didn’t know any better. Soon afterwards, I acquired a cello, and I also played it with the same fingerings I had used on the violin, viola, and also the (so-called by me) violoncello. This went on for quite a while until Adler heard from a real cellist that fingerings on the cello were different.” Playing quartets had also remained vivid in Adler’s memory, as he reported in 1948: “I often think back to the time when we played quartets together, in the Dienstbotenkammerl inAugartenstrasse [in Vienna] on Sunday afternoons, and the subsequent walks in the Prater engaging in philosophical conversations [...].” From then on, Schoenberg kept honing his compositional skills in numerous quartet projects until he completed a string quartet in D major in 1897, his first surviving large-scale composition.  

Schoenberg considered Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, and Dvořák to be his sources of inspiration at that time. Participating in chamber music-making probably played an essential role in the influence of these composers. Dvořák, who otherwise would hardly be counted among Schoenberg’s models, figured prominently in the concert life of the time. It is therefore hardly surprising that his style, along with that of Johannes Brahms, is noticeable in the string quartet. Schoenberg was largely self-taught as a composer. By his own account, he was able to write his first proper sonata-form movement only after the eagerly awaited volume S of the encyclopedia Meyers Konversations-Lexikon had appeared. Nevertheless, Schoenberg also received invaluable advice from his friend, and later brother-in-law, Alexander Zemlinsky, whom he consulted again and again when he encountered difficulties. The D-major quartet was thoroughly revised after Zemlinsky’s evaluation. Schoenberg completely rewrote the first and last movements, and the second and probably the third were replaced. Zemlinsky seemed quite pleased with the result, and with his support the quartet was given its unofficial premiere in a private circle on March 17, 1898, by the Wiener Tonkünstlerverein, which was dedicated to promoting contemporary music. Later that year, on December 20, the Fitzner Quartet gave its public premiere in the Bösendorfer-Saal of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. The review in the Neue Freie Presse on December 24 was decidedly positive: “This year’s first quartet evening by Messrs. Fitzner and his fellow performers contained a very pleasant surprise. [...] A new string quartet by Arnold Schönberg not only achieved extraordinary success, but also made the impression on all music lovers present that its author was a true talent who had spoken his first significant word.”  

The aforementioned influence of Dvořák can be observed above all in the stylistic elements of some themes, though hardly in the sense of outright quotations. Rather, Dvořák’s influence is discernible in certain rhythmic and melodic details. Structurally, however, Brahms’ influence is clearly evident. Even this early work contains latent features of what Schoenberg would later call “developing variation.”  

The quartet begins with a lively movement in sonata form whose secondary theme is relatively broad. The following Intermezzo impresses with its distinctive, restrained soundscape. The strings play muted throughout. The theme is presented first in the viola, and then in the first violin. This is followed by a passage at a tempo twice as fast, with numerous three-note groupings rapidly succeeding one another. The repeated opening section is followed by a coda in which the theme, underpinned by pulsating figures in the second violin and viola, seems to float away in the high notes played by the first violin. The slow movement presents a series of variations that becomes more thoroughly elaborated during the course of the movement, and the finale, structured in sonata-rondo form, provides a brilliant conclusion to Schoenberg’s earliest string quartet, which, rather than a student exercise, deserves the status of a full-fledged chamber music composition. —Eike Feß © Arnold Schönberg Center, Vienna (schoenberg.at)