Fin de Siècle

Aside from Hauer's rows, there were other precurssors of Dodecaphony (1914/15) which Schönberg only grudgingly recognized. Berg confronted his teacher with the composition Maschine (1914) by his student, Fritz Heinrich Klein (1892 Budapest/Hungary -1977 Linz/Upper Austria), a work that combines twelve-tone themes and chords as an impressive tonal experience without shocking the listener. Klein's foremost principle was the acceptance by listeners without any special knowledge of the compositional techniques. Schönberg was unimpressed by the work, as he admitted himself. Klein worked together with Alban Berg for years: he prepared piano reductions of various works by Berg. (Illustration: titlepage to the manuscript of Berg's Kammerkonzert Chamber Concerto) (M. Saary)