On 15 September, 1945 the composer Anton Webern was shot in confusing circumstances in a small mountain village near Salzburg, and the world lost a composer of extreme originality whose mature music was still almost unknown. When Webern's works did come to light he immediately became one of the most influential figures in music of the second half of this century. But the composer who was hailed as the originator of the hyperintellectualised serialism...