Arnold Schoenberg

Austrian-American composer who developed twelve-tone technique — the most radical reorganization of musical language in Western classical music — and founded the Second Viennese School.

Emancipation of dissonance: the development of chromaticism to its logical conclusion — atonality, the abandonment of tonal centers. Twelve-tone technique (dodecaphony): all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale must be used before any can be repeated — replacing tonal hierarchy with serial organization. Second Viennese School: Berg and Webern as students and extensions of his project. Theory of Harmony: the most influential music theory textbook of the 20th century.