Arnold Schönbergs Streichquartett op. 7

Arnold Schönberg's String Quartet op. 7 is one of the most demanding chamber music works of the late Romantic period. The monograph by Hamburg musicologist Peter Petersen approaches the work from three directions: (1) themes and motifs are identified, whereby a theme unmentioned by the composer comes to light; (2) the course of the quartet movement is analyzed in terms of music dramaturgy, thus expanding the aspect of the four-movement structure in the single-movement structure; (3) the now well-known program of a love story, which Schönberg concealed, is examined in terms of its aesthetic relevance to the work as a whole – with the result that it only partially steered the course of the composition, but gave direction to the musical imagination.