Editing Opera in German (section)

==Modernism: Second Viennese School==
Following the example of Wagner, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky and Schreker had pushed traditional tonality to the absolute limits. Now a new group of composers appeared in Vienna who wanted to take music beyond. Operatic [[modernism]] truly began in the operas of two composers of the so-called [[Second Viennese School]], [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and his acolyte [[Alban Berg]], both advocates of [[atonality]] and its later development (as worked out by Schoenberg), [[dodecaphony]]. Schoenberg's early musico-dramatic works, ''[[Erwartung]]'' (1909, premiered in 1924) and ''[[Die glückliche Hand]]'' display heavy use of chromatic harmony and dissonance in general. Schoenberg also occasionally used [[Sprechstimme]], which he described as: "The voice rising and falling relative to the indicated intervals, and everything being bound together with the time and rhythm of the music except where a pause is indicated". Schoenberg intended ''[[Moses und Aron]]'' as his operatic masterpiece, but it was left unfinished at his death.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/may/04/classicalmusicandopera "Schoenberg: ''Moses und Aron''"] by Andrew Clements, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 5 May 2001</ref>

The two operas of Schoenberg's pupil Alban Berg, ''[[Wozzeck]]'' and ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'' (left incomplete at his death) share many of the same characteristics described above, though Berg combined his highly personal interpretation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique with melodic passages of a more traditionally tonal nature (quite [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]]ian in character). This perhaps partially explains why his operas have remained in standard repertory, despite their controversial music and plots.