A brief discussion took place recently concerning the Brahms' influence,
in particular on Schoenberg.  The cute, but uninformed, comment that he was
the first major composer to have no influence belongs in the same category
as similarly specious comments regarding Vivaldi's contributions, for
example.  First, we need to examine any direct connections between Brahms
and Schoenberg.

As a teenager in Vienna, Schoenberg was nearly destitute, so practically
the only music he was able to hear was played by himself and his friends.
He joined an amateur "orchestra", that was organized and conducted by the
slightly older Alexander von Zemlinsky.  Schoenberg and Zemlinsky became
fast friends.  While at the Vienna Conservatory, Zemlinsky attracted the
attention and support of Brahms for his early works.  This recognition came
as a result of Zemlinsky's early works displaying a clear stylistic
extension of Viennese classicism.

This is a tenuous connection, and in the absence of further evidence, any
claims of influence would be equally tenuous.  However, Oliver Neighbour's
excellent, myth-dispelling biography of Schoenberg for the New Grove does
have something to say on the subject.  In writing of Schoenberg's piano
works from 1896/7 (including the Op. 1 set) in the chapter titled "Early
tonal works", Neighbour states:

   There is no reason to suppose that these sets of pieces would
   appear specially important in Schoenberg's if more of it were known.
   The D major String Quartet, however, marks a huge stride forward,
   and not only on the available evidence: the composer himself recognised
   it as a turning point and remembered it with affection.  Brahms is
   still the dominant influence.  The work owes its Classical four-movement
   layout to his mediation, its structural cogency and clarity derive
   from him, and so to a large extent does the style...

Later in the same chapter Neighbour continues, touching on other influences
on Schoenberg:

   The D minor Quartet, Schoenberg's first wholly characteristic
   and assured large-scale masterpiece, consists, like Pelleas und
   Melisande, of a single vast movement, but naturally without illustrative
   interludes. ...  The general idea for such a form originates in Liszt,
   whose novel formal concepts Schoenberg admired while finding his
   attempts to put them into practice schematic and unfelt.  But the
   quartet arose more directly from Schoenberg's fundamental preference
   for abstract composition reasserting itself and acting upon his recent
   cultivation of the Straussian symphonic poem.  The twin formative
   influences of Wagner and Brahms once again find an even balance, as
   they had in Verklarte Nacht, but now completely and finally assimilated.
   perhaps the single most striking quality of this work is its
   extraordinary melodic breadth.  As the melodies move away from their
   initial, firmly tonal contexts, develop, and combine contrapuntally,
   as they form what Schoenberg called vagrant harmonies; the music,
   though not very dissonant, loses tonal definition.

Here we have an analysis that ties Schoenberg's early compositions directly
to Brahms' influence.  In fact, if you listen to the quartet carefully, I
think it's quite easy to see that it is a synthesis of Wagnerian/Lisztian
and Brahmsian approaches to composition - a collaboration of harmonic
daring and absolute music, if you will.  It was this reliance on, and
affinity with, structural formality - as learned from Brahms - that allowed
Schoenberg to define a new compositional paradigm.

But did this early influence have lasting consequences? In Schoenberg's
work, especially the early and late period works, I think it's obvious.
But what about those who were strongly influenced by Schoenberg? In his
biography of Webern for the New Grove, Paul Griffiths makes the observation
in the chapter titled "Towards atonal concision":

   With the Piano Quintet (1907) Webern produced a work firmer in form
   and tonality: it can be regarded as a sonata movement in C major and
   in a somewhat solid Brahmsian style.  Brahms again, now seen from
   the standpoint of Reger and Schoenberg, lies behind the Passacaglia
   Op. 1 for orchestra (1908).

Both the Piano Quintet and the Passacaglia were composed near the end of
Webern's studies with Schoenberg.  I believe it's clear that Schoenberg
was propagating, via his own belief system, the influence of Brahms to his
student.

I also believe its obvious that many of the works of composers such as
Reger, Zemlinsky, Hindemith, and Schmidt show a strong Brahmsian influence,
but, being a simple engineer, I lack the descriptive analytical tools to
provide further musical argument.

Dave
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