Schoenberg's own early music belongs to the
Late Romantic
period. Music during this era was dominated by Wagner's psychological music-dramas, with their rich harmonies and orchestration. Schoenberg's early works were very much a part of all this: the orchestral piece Verklärte Nacht of 1899; the “monodrama
” for singer-actor and orchestra Erwartung of 1909; the orchestral tone poem Pelleas und Melisande; and the massive choral and orchestral cantata, Gurrelieder, finished in 1911. These...