Webern, Anton von (1883 - 1945)

As his dissertation he published an edition of early sixteenth-century liturgical chants. Webern, who was a student of Arnold Schönberg, is considered the father of ”serial”, systematically deconstructed music. His reductionist but by no means unemotional compositions are miniature masterpieces. Webern composed cantatas, lieder, choral music, pieces for piano, as well as orchestral and chamber music, and also held a series of lectures entitled ”The Path to New Music”. On 15th September 1945 Anton von Webern was shot and killed by mistake in Mittersill in Salzburg province by a soldier of the American occupation forces in a raid intended to capture his son-in-law who was involved in cigarette smuggling.