Schoenberg, who taught Webern and Berg, is the well-known inventor of the 12-tone system (Josef Hauer independently invented one on separate principles about the same time). Schoenberg was, amazingly, a self-taught musician, whose Harmonienlehre ("Theory of Harmony") is still studied for the breadth of its understanding of the deepest meaning of structure in music. For all its theoretical underpinning, Schoenberg's music is most often dramatic in a romantic way, at the same time leaping to the horizons of pitch in its melodies and, through fragmentation and "Klangfarbenmelodie" (sound-color-melody), creating an angular, "modern" sound in its rhythm and unique orchestration.
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