No composer was more responsible for changes in the landscape of twentieth century music than Arnold Schoenberg (1874–, 1951), and no other composer’, s music inspired a commensurate quantity and quality of technical description. Yet there is still little understanding of the correlations between Schoenberg’, s musical thought and larger questions of cultural significance in and since his time: the formalistic descriptions of music theory do not generally engage larger questions in the history of ideas and scholars without an understanding of the formidable musical technique are ill-equipped to understand the music. Schoenberg’, s Musical Imagination is intended to connect Schoenberg’, s music and critical writings to a larger world of ideas. While most technical studies of Schoenberg’, s music are limited to a single compositional period, this book traces changes in his attitudes as a composer, and their impact on his ever-changing compositional style over the course of his remarkable career.