BETWEEN TONALITY AND ATONALITY: STRUCTURAL POLARITIES IN ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG’S OP. 19, NO. 4

English (OpenAlex)

ABSTRACT This paper examines Arnold Schönberg’s Sechs Klavierstücke, Op. 19, No. 4 (1911) as an important example of the fluid interplay between tradition and innovation in Schönberg’s oeuvre. While written in a free atonal framework, the piece retains strong ties to tonal conventions through phrase structures, rhetorical gestures, and rhythmic punctuations. In this scope the analysis proposes a multifaceted approach that combines set-theoretical methods with tonality guided perspectives, discussing its formal structure and tension-resolution relationships in regard to pitch structure. The possibility of multiple readings of macroform highlights Schönberg’s critique of schematic formalism and underscores his insistence on expressive necessity in composing music. On the micro-level, pitch-class sets and intervallic structures reveal a dynamic interplay between two Whole-Tone collections (WT0-WT1), whose juxtaposition generates a pseudo-tension-resolution relationships, which function as the deeper structural engine of the piece. This dual emphasis on continuity and rupture exemplifies Schönberg’s progressive rethinking of form and tonality.