The Five Pieces further develop the notion of "total chromaticism" that Schoenberg introduced in his Three Piano Pieces,
Op. 11 (composed earlier that year) and were composed during a time of
intense personal and artistic crisis for the composer, this being
reflected in the tensions and, at times, extreme violence of the score,
mirroring the expressionist movement of the time, in particular its preoccupation with the subconscious and burgeoning madness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Pieces_for_Orchestra