Roberto Gerhard frente al modelo de modernidad schoenberguiano (1926 – 1928)

n 1928, shortly after having finished his studies with Arnold Schoenberg, Gerhard composed the Wind Quintet. With this work he clearly partook in Schoenberg's model of modernity: at a technical level, Gerhard used the serial technique; at a formal level, he chose traditional, neoclassical structures; the Quintet also constituted a determined approach to anti-romantic formalism, constructivism and objectivity, typical of post-war modernism. At the same time, the Wind Quintet showed many signs of creative independence, particularly in a personal use of serialism and in the reference to folk-like elements within the serial fabric of the music. After the completion of the Wind Quintet, Gerhard chose a new aesthetic direction and style, which -at least at first glance-diverged from Schoenberg's conception of modernity and harmonic avant-garde. Simultaneously, Gerhard vehemently defended the abandonment of tonality as an artistic historical necessity and therefore as the starting point of New Catalan Music. In the first part of this paper I analyse Gerhard's Wind Quintet as a paradigm of modernity after Schoenberg's teachings. In the second part, I study the aesthetic shift that followed, the reasons that may have led to it and the apparent contradictions with Gerhard's theoretical discourses in this period.