Arnold Schoenberg

In this lucid, revealing book, award-winning pianist and scholar Charles Rosen sheds light on the elusive music of Arnold Schoenberg and his challenge to conventional musical forms. Rosen argues that Schoenberg's music, with its atonality and dissonance, possesses a rare balance of form and emotion, making it, according to Rosen, "the most expressive music ever written." Concise and accessible, this book will appeal to fans, non-fans, and scholars of Schoenberg, and to those who have yet to be introduced to the works of one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century.

Charles Rosen, a pianist, is the author of "The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven," winner of the National Book Award, and "Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth Century Art." He is professor in the department of music at the University of Chicago.