Malcolm Hayes: Anton von Webern (1995)

In this biography of one of the twentieth century’s greatest composers, Malcolm Hayes sets Webern’s radical technical advances against the Romantic inheritance of nineteenth-century Austro-Germany, tracing the development of a man and his music.

Born into the Imperial, musical heritage of Vienna, Webern became captivated by Renaissance vocal music, and this student passion was to haunt his compositions all his life. A pupil of Schoenberg, he also came to use the twelve-note method, and combined this with his love of chamber music to create a sound that is entirely his own. Despite a prolific rate of composition in his early years, Webern’s music output is small and tends to extreme brevity. Tragically, he was accidentally shot and killed in the Allied occupation of Austria. His work has continued to influence musicians throughout the twentieth century and since.

Publisher Phaidon Press, London, 1995
20th-Century Composers series
ISBN 0714831573, 9780714831572
240 pages

Publisher
Google books

PDF (77 MB, no OCR)