Arnold Schönberg on the Musical Idea

The musical idea is not defined solely by its visible and audible dimension: the text of the notes only roughly conveys its true content. An idea is the production of a relationship between concepts otherwise having no relationship to one another. The idea and the motive as different levels of the being of a musical work. Schönberg downplayed the role of the performer: the idea is a finished product, without any interpretation, as soon as it is notated. Style is transient, idea (the totality of a piece) is eternal. The goal of the musical form is not beauty, but perceptibility; however, if that goal is achieved, then beauty emerges of itself. Schönberg composed by juxtaposing motifs and themes rather than 12 tones one with another. Schönberg’s concept of the musical idea shares a similarity with the theory of H. Schenker (a primordial structure in all musical works) and B. Asaf’ev’s theory of intonation.