Composers: Pianissimo Prophet

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After the Nazis took over Austria in 1938, Webern's works were banned as "cultural bolshevism" and his activities were severely restricted. He withdrew more and more completely into mystical seclusion, poring over volumes of poetry and developing a passionate interest in that plant life around his suburban Vienna home. His calm perseverance as a composer in the face of ridicule and neglect gave him a saintly aura. To see him touch a single note on the piano, said Swiss Conductor Ernest Ansermet, was to see a man in an act of devotion.

His life ended in an explosion of violence. One night in 1945, while visiting his son-in-law at the Austrian resort of Mittersill, he stepped outdoors for a cigar, unaware that U.S. occupation forces were at that moment closing in on the house to arrest his son-in-law for black-market activities. Somehow he encountered a U.S. soldier in the dark. He was shot, staggered inside and died. He was 61.*

Atonality for Children. Within a decade of his death, Webern's music was enthusiastically taken up not only by established masters like Igor Stravinsky but also by a whole generation of postwar avantgardists, particularly in Europe. Now the question that remains for the future is how well it will stand up in its own right. "His influence," suggests U.S. Composer Aaron Copland, "may turn out to be far greater than the intrinsic value of his music, which may some day seem too mannered in style and too limited in scope." Webern himself did not think so. "In fifty years at the most," he told a friend shortly before his death, "everyone will experience this music as their innate music. Yes, even for children it will be accessible. People will sing it."