| Five Pieces for Orchestra | |
|---|---|
| by Arnold Schoenberg | |
 Portrait of Arnold Schoenberg by Richard Gerstl, ca. June 1905 | |
| Native name | Fünf Orchesterstücke |
| Opus | 16 |
| Style | Free atonality |
| Composed | 1909 |
| Movements | Five |
| Scoring | Orchestra |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 3 September 1912 |
| Location | London |
| Conductor | Sir Henry Wood |
The Five Pieces for Orchestra (Fünf Orchesterstücke), Op. 16, were composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, and first performed in London in 1912. The titles of the pieces, reluctantly added by the composer after the work's completion upon the request of his publisher, are as follows:
- "Vorgefühle", Sehr rasch ("Premonitions", very fast)
- "Vergangenes", Mäßige Viertel ("The Past", moderate crotchets)
- "Farben", Mäßige Viertel ("Summer Morning by a Lake: Chord-Colors", moderate crotchets)
- "Peripetie", Sehr rasch ("Peripeteia", very fast)
- "Das obligate Rezitativ", Bewegte Achtel ("The Obbligato Recitative", busy quavers)
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.[citation needed]