My Background

My name is Arnold Schonberg and I was born on September 13, 1874 in Austria. My father, Samuel Schonberg,was a shopkeeper while my mother, Pauline, was a piano teacher. My family neither rich nor poor, so I would consider us middle class. My inspiration for music led to a great deal of trying to teach myself the art of music. I guess my mom's musical talents had rubbed off on me because she never really taught me anything. However, Alexander von Zemlinsky, my brother-in-law, had given me quite a few lessons so I can play much better. During my twenties, I had started making a living by composing my own music and orchestrating operas. Richard Strauss had heard one of my pieces of music, Gurre-Lieder, and after 1909, he began to support me. I was overjoyed by his decision to help me in my music career. This happiness would help me get over my wife, Mathilde, who left me for some painter. This year, I completed my best work yet, the String Quartet No. 2! During 1910, I decided to spread my intelligence in the subject of music to everyone in my book Harmonielehre. In 1912, Wilhem Bopp had asked me and Franz Schreker to join his great Vienna Conservatory and teach there. I had declined even though the salary was quite high, but Schreker had taken the job. I later wrote to him saying, "It would be a bad idea for you to accept the teaching position." At age 42, my life took an unexpected turn when I went into the army fighting in World War I. I left many of my musical pieces unfinished and was unable to create new works. An officer also questioned my identity, and I quite remember I responded, "Beg to report, sir, yes. Nobody wanted to be, someone had to be, so I let it be me." In 1920, I had developed a new system of composition, the twelve-tone composition which is the use of a scale of tweleve notes independent of any tonal key. The Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin had appointed me as post in 1925 and I had started in 1926. After the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, I was warned not to return to Germany. I took my family and had to the United States where I began teaching at Malkan Conservatory in Boston. Later, I moved to Brentwood Park, where I had settled down and taught at University of Southern California and then the University of Los Angeles. At the University of Los Angeles, I had composed most of my works including Violin Concerto, Kol Nidre, Piano Concerto, and A Survivor from Warsaw. The thing that people do not know about me is that I had a terrible condition called triskaidekaphobia, which is the fear of the number 13. On my 76 birthday, I had received a letter that my 76th birthday would be a "crucial one because 7+6=13." I guess this led me to my deep depression. I quickly fell ill and have anxiety. I have been lying in my bed since July 13, 1951 feeling sick, weak, and anxious. 


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schoenberg
http://www.classiccat.net/schonberg_a/biography.php