Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Phantasy, Op.47 (1949)

The title of the Fantasy is appropriate, given the process used in its composition: Schoenberg composed the solo violin melody first alone, and then wrote a separate piano accompaniment to go with it. The composition of the melody apart from the accompaniment was no doubt facilitated by the twelve-note idiom, applied here with the same kind of rigor as in the much earlier Piano Pieces, Op. 33a & b.

The Fantasy was composed for violinist Adolf Koldofsky, a native of Los Angeles, and was first performed by him on the International Society for Contemporary Music's concert in commemoration of Schoenberg's seventy-fifth birthday in 1949.

—John Palmer