\version "2.6.1"

atonicKey = 
  #(def-music-function (parser location) ()
     #{ #(ly:export (make-music 'EventChord
                     'origin $location
                     'elements (list (make-music 'KeyChangeEvent
                                      'tonic (ly:make-pitch -1 4 0)
                                      'pitch-alist '((5 . 1)
                                                     (6 . 1)
                                                     (0 . 1)
                                                     (1 . 1)
                                                     (2 . 1)
                                                     (3 . 1)
                                                     (4 . 1))))))
        \set Score . extraNatural = ##f
        \override Score . KeySignature #'print-function = ##f #})

\header { 
  title = \markup { "" \translate #(cons 4.0 0.0) 
    \bigger \bigger \bigger \bigger "S U I T E" }
  subtitle = "für Klavier"
  composer = "Arnold Schoenberg"
  %composer = \markup { \normal-font Arnold Schoenberg Op. 25 }
  Style = "Modern"
  opus = "Op. 25"
  mutopiatitle = "SUITE FOR KLAVIER"
  mutopiacomposer = "A. Schoenberg (1874-1957)"
  mutopiapoet = "O 25"
  mutopiainstrument = "Piano, Keyboard"
  date = "1925"
  source = "Universal Edition, 1925"
  style = "Atonal"
  copyright = "Public Domain"
  maintainer = "Stephen McCarthy"
  maintainerEmail = "address@hidden"
  lastupdated = "2005/July/05"
}

\paper {
  #(set-paper-size "letter")
  firstpagenumber = 4
  linewidth = 164\mm
  bottommargin = 6\mm
  aftertitlespace = 7\mm
  betweensystempadding = -1\mm
 }
 
\score { 
  \header {
    piece = "Präludium"
  }
  \context PianoStaff << 
    \context Staff = upper { \atonicKey \time 6/8 c' } 
    \context Staff = lower { \atonicKey \time 6/8 \clef F c } 
>> 
  \layout { } 
} 

%{


Schoenberg modeled his Suite after the Keyboard Suites of Bach in that his 
atonal Twelve-Note System was meant to be a return to polyphony. Most of the 
movements were named after the dance movements of a Baroque suite, although 
they resembled such only in tempo and character. In the Twelve-Tone System, 
both melodies and chords are formed by an arrangement of the twelve notes of 
the chromatic scale in a particuliar order, called a tone-row, which may be 
transposed, inverted, reversed, or reversed and inverted.
Schoenberg used the method much less rigidly in his later works than he does 
here. [exerpted from 'The New College Encyclopedia of Music']

It is clear to me that the composer respected Bach and was trying to reach 
back in time toward a polyphonic era, by-passing the Classical period and at 
the same time reaching forward to a new music. He must have been bored by the 
sameness of melody and harmony in most of the late Romantic Music. I am not 
trying to characterize any music myself, but only to suggest what may have 
been the impetus for this music.  SCM


%}