Arnold Schoenberg

AKA:
Arnold Schönberg
Birth Name:
Arnold Schoenberg
Birth Date:
September 13, 1874
Birth Place:
Obere Donaustraße 5, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria
Death Date:
July 13, 1951
Place of Death:
116 N Rockingham Avenue, Los Angeles, California
Age:
76
Cause of Death:
Myocardial infarction
Cemetery Name:
Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof
Claim to Fame:
Music
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian-American 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. Schoenberg's approach, both in terms of harmony and development, has shaped much of 20th-century musical thought. Many composers from at least three generations have consciously extended his thinking, whereas others have passionately reacted against it. Schoenberg was known early in his career for simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner. Later, his name would come to personify innovations in atonality (although Schoenberg himself detested that term) that would become the most polemical feature of 20th-century classical music. In the 1920s, Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone technique, an influential compositional method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term developing variation and was the first modern composer to embrace ways of developing motifs without resorting to the dominance of a centralized melodic idea. Schoenberg's archival legacy is held at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna.

Interesting to Know

Schoenberg was also an influential teacher of composition; his students included Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Hanns Eisler, Egon Wellesz, Nikos Skalkottas and later John Cage, Lou Harrison, Earl Kim, Robert Gerhard, Leon Kirchner, Dika Newlin, Oscar Levant, and other prominent musicians. Many of Schoenberg’s practices, including the formalization of compositional method and his habit of openly inviting audiences to think analytically, are echoed in avant-garde musical thought throughout the 20th century.

The composer’s final days are documented in handwritten notes by his wife Gertrud, who meticulously recorded the progression of his illness and the daily routines, along with house visits by his physician Dr Orren Lloyd-Jones. On July 13, 1951 Schönberg did not eat at all and he received a sedative a few hours before his death. At 6 p.m. his pulse was 90, at 7:30 p.m. it was 72. At 11:45 p.m. Arnold Schönberg died with his wife beside him. His final word was “harmony.” On July 14 Anna Mahler took an impression of his face for the death mask.

Over the years since his passing, there has been made much about his anxiety due to triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13). Interesting to note that he died on Friday the 13th at the age of 76 (7+6=13).

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof

1110 Wien

Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, Vienna,

Austria

Europe

Map:

Map of Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof in Vienna Austria
Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof in Vienna Austria

Grave Location:

Gruppa 32 C, Grab Nr. 21A

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery through Tor 2 (Gate 2) drive straight ahead towards The St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery Church in the middle of the Vienna Central Cemetery. As you approach the church take the last soft left turn and look to your left into Gruppa 32 C and you will find the large angled cube that marks the grave of Arnold Schoenberg.

Grave Location GPS

48.15135047185499, 16.43914433457052

Photos:

[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]

FAQ's

Arnold Schoenberg was born on September 13, 1874 .

Arnold Schoenberg was born in Obere Donaustraße 5, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria.

Arnold Schoenberg died on July 13, 1951.

Arnold Schoenberg died in 116 N Rockingham Avenue, Los Angeles, California.

Arnold Schoenberg was 76.

The cause of death was Myocardial infarction.

Arnold Schoenberg's grave is in Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof

Read More About Arnold Schoenberg:

Videos Featuring Arnold Schoenberg:

See More:

Frankie Lymon

popular name: Frankie Lymon

date_of_death: February 27, 1968

age: 25

cause_of_death: Heroin overdose

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were five kids from Washington Heights, just north of Harlem where they sang doo-wop under the streetlight on the corner of 165th and Amsterdam. After just a few months of rehearsal they cut their first record, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” which made it to the top of the national charts. It was 1956 and overnight Frankie Lymon was the hottest singer in America, off on a world tour. At 13-years old he was the hottest singer on the charts, at 14 he quit to go solo, at 16 he was a has-been and at age 25 he was dead of a heroin overdose.

Gioachino Rossini

popular name: Gioachino Rossini

date_of_death: November 13, 1868

age: 76

cause_of_death: Colorectal cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Gioachino Antonio Rossini was the most significant Italian composer of the first half of the nineteenth century. Although he wrote many songs including chamber music and piano pieces, Rossini is most famous for his 39 operas, in particular his comic operas for which he set new standards of composition. Gioachino Rossini’s most famous works include The Barber of Seville (1816), Cinderella (La Cenerentola) (1817) and William Tell (1829). Influenced by the French, he broke traditional forms of opera using unusual rhythms and bring the orchestra to the fore, however his style was tempered by changing tastes and a move away from a more formal ‘classicist’ style to Romanticism. When the family moved to Lugo in 1802, Rossini began studying music with a local priest and was inspired by his collection of Mozart and Haydn. A quick learner, by the age of 12 Rossini had composed six sonatas and two years later he joined Bologna’s Philharmonic School and composed his first opera – Demetrio e Polibio (1806). In 1810 alone, Rossini staged his first opera in 1810 to great success and financial reward and this was quickly followed by three more operas in addition to directing Haydn’s The Seasons in Bologna. In 1812, his two-act comedy La pietra del paragone ran for 53 performances at La Scala in Milan bringing him more financial benefits. Gioachino Rossini announced his retirement from opera in 1829 at the age of 37. However, he continued to compose music after his retirement. Rossini's final opera was Guillaume Tell, which premiered in 1829. Afterwards he negotiated a contract with King Charles X of France for a lifetime annuity in exchange for his retirement. Unfortunately, the July Revolution of 1830 deposed King Charles X and deprived Rossini of his pension. Rossini returned to Paris in 1855 and wrote Petite messe solennelle in 1864. Four years later he  died in France in 1868 after an unsuccessful operation for colorectal cancer. He was buried at Santa Croce Basilica in Florence, Italy.

Steve Peregrin Took

popular name: Steve Peregrin Took

date_of_death: October 27, 1980

age: 31

cause_of_death: Asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry during drug use

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: One-half of the founding members of T. Rex with Marc Bolan, Steve Peregrin Took was by all accounts a remarkable musician and songwriter - when he was sober. After two years and three albums, Took's push to perform more of his own material – as well as his drug use – had driven a wedge between Marc and Steve and Took was fired from the group. He went on to a series of short-lived bands, but never came close to the success Bolan achieved without him. Sadly, relegated to the history books as the Pete Best of glam rock, he is cruelly remembered as the rock star who choked on a cocktail cherry and died.

Back to Top