Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Comparison of their European and American periods

This dissertation portrays and compares the lives, careers, and compositional styles of three preeminent twentieth-century composers, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The outstanding lives and works of these three musicians are certainly as distinct as they are distinguished. Yet the three men share an interesting commonality. Although their lives all began in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, all three composers later emigrated, from Berlin, Paris, and Vienna respectively, to the United States of America. All three settled near Los Angeles, California to pursue their careers while escaping from the economics and politics of Europe and the oppression of the Nazi regime as it gained power in the 1930's.; Both Schoenberg and Stravinsky were widely recognized as leading composers throughout the twentieth century. They were further established as innovators in composition, Schoenberg, for his twelve-note (twelve-tone) system of continual chromaticism, and Stravinsky, both for his dramatic early escape from Romanticism into Modernism and his later edgy, precise neoclassicism. Korngold however, who began his career in Vienna as a famous composer and true child prodigy, was known for much of the middle and later part of the twentieth century primarily as a composer of Hollywood film scores. Finally, in the 1980's, Korngold's earlier compositions and later contributions to absolute music were rediscovered as part of the movement in Europe to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of artists who had been suppressed by the Nazis before and during the Second World War.; Of special interest in this dissertation is an analysis of the three composers' financial situations relevant to their careers in America and a comparison of the composers' diverse approaches to modern harmony. The composers' European and American compositions are also compared, using specific examples of their works written before and after their emigration to the United States. The European works compared are Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for String Sextet, Op. 4; Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D Major; and Korngold's Piano Trio, Op. 1. The later American works include Schoenberg's Phantasy for Violin and Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47; Stravinsky's Elegy for Viola or Violin, Unaccompanied; and Korngold's String Quartet No. 3, Op. 34.