Unquestionably decisive. Roberto Gerhard studies with Arnold Schoenberg

This chapter discusses Roberto Gerhard's compositional training under Arnold Schoenberg and the technical and aesthetic relationships between them during the period prior to their exile. The Central-European cultural environment was an unusual destination for a young Spanish composer in training, as Spain was a country so much under French influence on artistic matters at the time. In the String Quartet, tonal relations and functions are still present but they are weakened by a number of procedures, including linear chromaticism, the superimposition of modal and chromatic lines, simultaneous use of different key centres, or moral ambiguity. Works such as the Wind Quintet constitute the best evidence of Gerhard's acquisition under Schoenberg of an excellent compositional craftsmanship. The Sonata for clarinet and piano and Andantino were conceived as exercises in which Gerhard tried out new compositional procedures that no longer relied on tonal functionality and expectation.