Anton Webern (1883-1945) was a modernist Austrian composer and a member of what is called the Second Viennese School. Webern was a student of Arnold Schoenberg and a friend of Alban Berg, and the three composers were the most important practitioners of twelve tone or dodecaphonic music. The delicate sounds, efficient techniques, and extreme brevity of Webern's music inspired the generation after him to develop serial music, derived in part from his rigorous methods. A virtual hostage of the Nazis during World War II, Webern was tragically shot and killed by an American soldier in Mittersill, months after the war ended.