Comic Relief: The Arnold Schoenberg Greatest Hits Infomercial

It's too funny not to share: A spoof infomercial offering the greatest hits of the Second Viennese School of musical composition.

These were the people who completely destroyed the idea of 'tonal center' as an idea in classical music. For laymen, that means any sense of the harmony of a piece of music having a 'home base' where the ear can rest was obliterated.

Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: Their names were treated with reverence, their music analyzed, re-analyzed, performed, recorded, re-analyzed... Their music also helped empty concert halls across the world. They were succeeded by Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage, and a host of disciples, many of whom nestled into universities across the fruited plain, writing music no one ever wishes to perform or hear, often at taxpayer expense. Some of their techniques, to be fair, did enter the general vocabulary, and you will hear echoes of their work in film scores.

But, in general, The Viennese imperial personage astride the four-legged equestrian conveyance suffers from both exposure and sunburn after a century of lording it over large parts of high culture.

Hope you enjoy!