The return of expressionistic textures in Arnold Schoenberg's late chamber works creates a play of allusion that raises important questions about his creative process in the ‘American’ period. Passages in the Phantasy and the String Trio resemble the characteristic sound of the so-called Klangflächen (‘sound sheets’) that were located at key expressive moments in his music from the first two decades of the century. Their return in these two late instrumental works evokes associations with the mystical and spiritual, and gives rise to intertextual resonances that extend beyond the confines of closed form and the immanent referentiality of the musical material.

This article seeks to reassess Schoenberg's concept of expression by means of a hermeneutic understanding of his belated expressionism. Rather than adopting a conventional analytical approach that emphasizes structure and pitch, it makes the musical surface of the works the primary focus of attention. By pursuing the mimetic and allusive properties of sensuous similarity in certain textures within these works, the discussion elucidates how a hermeneutic approach might cause us to redefine Schoenberg's belated expressionism as self-reflexive Late Style.