In 1904, Berg responded to an advertisement placed by Schoenberg, who was looking for pupils. Even though Berg had written only a few amateurish songs, Schoenberg was impressed enough to take him on, even waiving his first year's tuition fees. Schoenberg's faith in his new pupil paid off. Not only was Berg able to follow his teacher's revolutionary experiments in atonality but was soon able to initiate his own.
The String Quartet (1910) showed Berg to be an...