Anton Webern

Anton Webern studied under Guido Adler and fell into Arnold Schoenberg's orbit in Vienna, forming with Schoenberg and Alban Berg what became the Second Viennese School. He worked as a choirmaster and conductor — championing Mahler, often stuck programming operettas when he wanted serious repertoire — while writing aphoristic, expressionist scores on love, nature, and mysticism. After World War I he began using twelve-tone technique with growing confidence, but as a "cultural Bolshevist" he was marginalized under Fascism and Nazism, teaching for income and helping Jewish friends escape even as…