annus mirabilis

Science is not art.
Art is not science.

Science is the art of proposing falsifiable ideas.
Art is the science of proposing unassailable impressions.

Nevertheless, their set-theoretic intersection, if you will, is not empty.
The same trump card is available in both games.
Imagination – buoyant free association – grants a license not available to the sober mind.

___________________

In 1905, during an eight-month period, Albert Einstein published five papers in Annalen der Physik that would come to change the world forever.

Spanning three quite distinct topics – relativity, the photoelectric effect and Brownian motion – Einstein overturned our view of space and time, showed that it is insufficient to describe light purely as a wave, and laid the foundations for the discovery of atoms.

– Matthew Chalmers, "Five papers that shook the world.")

His general relativity was yet to come, but physicists today refer to 1905 as Einstein's annus mirabilis – "extraordinary year."  A gift to future generations – even if it eventually turns out that his work is superseded.

Three years after Einstein's annus mirabilis, Arnold Schoenberg completed his String Quartet no.2, op.10. That year, 1908, marked the beginning of a remarkable period of creativity for him – musical Gedankenexperimente which culminated in Pierrot Lunaire, op.21 in 1912 and 4 Lieder, op.22 in 1913.  The most prolific year during this span of time, 1909, might be considered as representing this entire creative explosion.

The achievement of Schoenberg and his school between the years 1908 and 1913 is still so explosive in its implications that we are only beginning to understand it today. . . .  In a single year, 1909, Schoenberg finished Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten . . . and wrote the piano pieces, opus 11; the Five Pieces for Orchestra; and the one-act opera Erwartung. . . .

The works from 1908-1913, the great expressionist period, remain an achievement that we have not yet come to terms with.

– Charles Rosen, Arnold Schoenberg (1975)

In summary :

Schoenberg overturned our view of consonance and dissonance, showed that it is insufficient to describe chromaticism purely as decoration and modulation, and laid the foundations for the discovery of serialism and non-functional tonality.

His "Twelve-Tone Composition" and Piano Pieces, op.23 were yet to come, but composers today ought to refer to 1909 as Arnold Schoenberg's annus mirabilis.  A gift to future generations – even if it eventually turns out that his work is buried.

___________________

In the end, sobriety returns
to remind us.

Science is not art.
Art is not science.

The history of science is progressive.
The history of art is cumulative.




.