Five Pieces For Orchestra

The Five Pieces for Orchestra (Fünf Orchesterstücke) Op. 16 was composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909. The titles of the pieces, reluctantly added by the composer after the work's completion upon the request of his publisher, are as follows:

1. "Vorgefühle", Sehr rasch. ("Premonitions", very fast.)
2. "Vergangenes", Mäßige Viertel. ("The Past", moderate.)
3. "Farben", Mäßige Viertel. ("Summer Morning by a Lake: Chord-Colors", moderate.)
4. "Peripetie", Sehr rasch. ("Peripetia", very fast.)
5. "Das obligate Rezitativ", Bewegte Achtel. ("The Obbligato Recitative", with movement.)

The Five Pieces further develop the notion of "total chromaticism" that Schoenberg introduced in his Three Piano Pieces op.11 (composed earlier that year) and were composed during a time of intense personal and artistic crisis for the composer, this being reflected in the tensions and, at times, extreme violence of the score, mirroring the expressionist movement of the time, in particular its preoccupation with the subconscious and burgeoning madness.