Second Viennese School?

The term ‘Second Viennese School’ arose as a convenient way of collectively referring to Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. It was at once adopted by writers on the music of these three composers, and is still widely current. In fact, it is only recently that the concept of a second Viennese school has been questioned: if there is such a ‘School’, where is its predecessor? Certainly, Mozart and Haydn became friends—they played in quartets together—and when two such geniuses meet, an interchange of ideas is inevitable. But both Mozart and Haydn were mature composers at the time of their first meeting, and there's no question of a master-pupil relationship between them. Beethoven did, it is true, take a few composition lessons from Haydn; but these were highly unsatisfactory to both teacher and student, and in fact nothing that Beethoven learnt from Haydn came from their meetings. As for Schubert, he was too shy ever to approach Beethoven.