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# Schoenberg’s “Weihnachtsmusik” (“Christmas Music”): A Chamber Fantasia
- URL: https://serenademagazine.com/schoenbergs-weihnachtsmusik-christmas-music-a-chamber-fantasia/
- Published: 2023-12-21T18:31:39.000Z
- Updated: 2023-12-21T20:12:22.000Z
- Author: Timothy Judd
- Tags: Know Your Composer, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-08-26 18:53

As dean of the Second Viennese School, Arnold Schoenberg was one of the twentieth century’s greatest exponents of atonal music. Yet, Schoenberg resisted dogma. Long after developing his twelve-tone system, he asserted that “there is still much good music to be written in C major.”

*Weihnachtsmusik* (“Christmas Music”) is one of the rare pieces in which Schoenberg embraces the tonal consonance of C major. Composed in 1921, the brief fantasia is scored for a chamber ensemble consisting of piano, string trio, and harmonium. It begins with the 1599 hymn tune, *Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming*, harmonized by Michael Praetorius in 1609, and morphs into fragments of *Silent Night.* As the piece unfolds, the two melodies enter into a dreamy contrapuntal dialogue. Kyle Gann [points out](https://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2006/12/merry%5Fchristmas%5Ffrom%5Fahnold.html) that both begin with the same sequence of four pitches (G-A-G-E). To my ear, there are also subtle intimations of *Joy to the World*, and echoes of the chamber music of Brahms.