Schoenberg’s Three Piano Pieces come from 1894, long before he had developed the theories that led to serial music. His pupil Berg’s Sonata, Op. 1 was written as his period of study came to an end. Paul Hindemith represents a different and equally original school of composition, his three Piano Sonatas dating from the later 1930s when his work, like that of Berg and Schoenberg, had already been condemned by Germany’s Nazi government. Hartmann, who has enjoyed less distinction, studied with Schoenberg's pupil Webern and was a survivor of the political events of the 1930s and of the war. His Sonata of 1945, revised in 1947, reflects his reaction to the events through which he had lived.