Arnold Schoenberg, the Appalachian Trail's Oldest Hiker, and an Artist's Desert Oasis

Arnold Schoenberg was a 19th- and 20th-century composer, teacher, theorist, and painter who abandoned traditional musical ideas in favor of experimenting with sound and dissonance. He's best known for inventing the 12-tone technique, a radical idea that has influenced generations of musicians.

> Schoenberg's innovations expanded the confines of music. (Watch)
> In addition to musicians, film composers also followed in his footsteps. (Read)

Arnold Schönberg was born in Austria and taught in Germany before leaving the country in 1933 after the Nazis took power. He moved to Los Angeles and began using the more Americanized "Schoenberg." In the US, he embraced his Jewish heritage and, in 1947, wrote "A Survivor from Warsaw," in which a narrator recounts the horrors of the death camp over the composer's dissonant music.

> The instructions for "A Survivor from Warsaw" said "there should never be a pitch" in the narrator's voice. (Listen)

> Schoenberg invented a board game that mimicked geopolitics. (Read)

> He was close friends with painter Wassily Kandinsky, a pioneer of abstract painting. (Read)

Throughout his life, Schoenberg was associated with various avant-garde artistic movements, including romanticism, modernism, and expressionism. Although his music was sometimes poorly received by audiences during his lifetime, he's now widely considered the most influential classical composer of the 20th century.

> Fed up with difficult audiences, Schoenberg started a private concert club that prohibited audible reactions. (Read)

> Among his acolytes were jazz legend Ornette Coleman and avant-garde composer John Cage. (Watch)

Discover more: 

> Browse a gallery of Schoenberg's paintings. (Explore)

> He designed a musical typewriter that transcribed complex compositions with a simple keyboard. (Read)

> Arnold Schoenberg was superstitious about the number 13 and died on Friday, July 13, 1951. (Read)

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Behind the News 

1440 brings you the knowledge behind the week's stories:

Nathan Fielder teases new documentary about notorious Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. (More)

> Holmes was sentenced to prison in 2022 for defrauding investors.

> Fielder once opened a store called "Dumb Starbucks," which was protected by parody law.

A 91-year-old man becomes the oldest person to hike the Appalachian Trail. (More)

> The Appalachian Trail was originally envisioned as a utopian project.

> Explore an interactive map of the trail's 2,198 miles.

Artist Donald Judd's unique galleries in Marfa, Texas, to be restored. (More)

> Judd turned the small desert town into an internationally recognized artists' oasis.

> Despite its tiny population, Marfa is home to an award-winning radio station.

Rapper Lil Durk awaits verdict in murder-for-hire case. (More)

> Lil Durk became popular for his associations with Chicago's drill rap, which has since become an international sound.

> Hip-hop lyrics are often used in criminal trials in a controversial practice that blurs the line between art and evidence.

Cultural Context

Beyond our weekly deep dives, we love finding great takes on the culture currently shaping our lives. Here are some of the best reactions, profiles, and think pieces we encountered this week.

College Football's Beer Boom Is About More Than Thirsty Fans

Food & Wine | Rich Manning. Serving alcohol during college games was once taboo, though it's now commonplace for the country's biggest teams. Manning unpacks how schools have likely used beer sales as much-needed cash injections for their revenue-sharing agreements with their players. (Read)

> College football generates over $13B annually, but many programs run at a loss.

> See some of college football's most iconic game day traditions.

The Most Enduring Piece of 9/11 Art

NY Times | Michael Paulson. "Come From Away"—a musical about the small Canadian town that welcomed 7,000 travelers stranded in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks—was a hit on Broadway when it premiered in 2017. It remains one today, 25 years after the events that inspired it. (Read, free w/email)

> Broadway theaters reopened 48 hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the request of the mayor.

> After the attacks, The Onion stuck to satire.

Has Taking the Perfect Photo Ruined Tourism?

The New Yorker | Yasmin van Dorp. The iPhone has turned every tourist into a prolific photographer. This short film, called "The Spectacle," turns the camera on those amateurs, capturing them as they attempt to take the perfect Instagram picture, seemingly oblivious to the beauty around them. (Watch)

> Some tourist hot spots, including Barcelona and Mexico City, are shunning tourists.

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 Etcetera 

> The first horror movie was an 1896 "trick film" that pioneered special effects.

> Only three recordings have sold over 20 million units, a status called "double diamond."

> "Cat poo coffee" is one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

> During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson was better known as a gardener than a poet.

> A part-owner of the Oakland Raiders spearheaded the first fantasy football league.

> Brian Wilson called one of the Ronettes' tracks "the greatest record ever produced."

> Jean-Paul Sartre rejected his Nobel Prize in literature, believing it was antithetical to his role as an artist.
 

> Check out George Washington's recipe for "small beer," a low-alcohol alternative to water.

> Interest in eating "natural foods" likely began with a 19th-century minister.
 

> Vaudeville performer Charley Case is widely considered the first stand-up comedian.

> The Rolling Stones got their name from a Muddy Waters song.

> Explore a map of songs about places, how Michelin moved from tires to restaurants, and the rise of the radio jingle at 1440's Society & Culture hub.