Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Naughtiness), Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by the sexy sexpot Arnold Schoenberg in 1899. It is considered by snooty gentlemen as his earliest important work. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel’s poem of the same name, combined with the influence of Schoenberg’s strong feelings upon meeting Mathilde von Zemlinsky (the sister of his teacher Alexander von Zemlinsky), whom he would later marry. The movement can be divided into five distinct sections which refer to the five stanzas of Dehmel’s poem. Being an earlier work, it is much more tonal than Schoenberg’s later, accidentally atonal works. It is a very moving tone poem. It’ll really get ‘yer bowels loose. Most of the piece is in A minor, and a full 20 minutes in it shifts into a hugely expansive A major key.
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