<P> But in 1950, on his seventy - sixth birthday, an astrologer wrote Schoenberg a note warning him that the year was a critical one: 7 + 6 = 13 (Nuria Schoenberg - Nono, quoted in Lebrecht 1985, 295). This stunned and depressed the composer, for up to that point he had only been wary of multiples of 13 and never considered adding the digits of his age . He died on Friday, 13 July 1951, shortly before midnight . Schoenberg had stayed in bed all day, sick, anxious and depressed . His wife Gertrud reported in a telegram to her sister - in - law Ottilie the next day that Arnold died at 11: 45 pm, 15 minutes before midnight (Stuckenschmidt 1977, 520). In a letter to Ottilie dated 4 August 1951, Gertrud explained, "About a quarter to twelve I looked at the clock and said to myself: another quarter of an hour and then the worst is over . Then the doctor called me . Arnold's throat rattled twice, his heart gave a powerful beat and that was the end" (Stuckenschmidt 1977, 521). </P> <P> Schoenberg's ashes were later interred at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna on 6 June 1974 (McCoy 1999, 15). </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Second String Quartet, fourth movement Played by the Carmel Quartet with soprano Rona Israel - Kolatt, in 2007 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Second String Quartet, fourth movement Played by the Carmel Quartet with soprano Rona Israel - Kolatt, in 2007 </Td> </Tr>

Schoenberg's third period in which he developed