Webern – Symphonie Op. 21, II Theme and Variation

The second movement of Anton Webern’s Symphonie Op. 21 is built entirely on one theme, and its variations.

I really enjoy Webern’s music, but this offered a new insight into his composition technique as not only a composer of wonderful ideas, and perhaps a precursor to Varese and “sound mass” style composition.

In the opening 11 measures, Webern sets his material up, we have close-intervals and larger leaps, along with a sequence of four tones. This is the basic material he uses.

He then goes on to vary and orchestrate the material.

For example:

Variation I

This movement is entirely in the strings, restating the leaping movement in a far more rhythmically intense texture, with overlapping musical gestures. It is essentially the large-leap motive from the theme restated in many different forms and on all of the strings. It forms a contrasting “sound mass” when compared to the sparse texture in the theme.

Variation II

The strings move into and overlap the harp and other instruments in the second movement, the texture again thins out and this time Webern has focused on adding the four-note motive to the leaps motive, with a few select alterations. The orchestration then leads into

Variation III

Where the entire ensemble is used, and motives are repeated (imitation) throughout the orchestra in an ascending and descending way, like a hyper-passage of the same ideas.

The Rest

As the movement continues, Webern experiments with more alternative statements of the same material, and with the aforementioned soundmasses, where there may be everything, and then nothing. Silence is a friend of Webern’s.

I conclude that the best thing to be learnt from this asides a study in transformation, is that of orchestrating material across multiple instruments to great effect.

Vince

PS. This is a great site on 12-tone technique which is easy to follow and understand. For anyone interested in exploring this type of music, I highly recommend http://www.robertkelleyphd.com/12-tone.htm and also the book “Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory” by Joseph Strauss, usually available at the book shop. This post concludes my Webern studies for the moment.

Webern – Orchestra Pieces (1913)

Hi,

So first up I need to be clear that I’m not sure if this is the “Orchestral Pieces” listed on set listening, the track names are “Funf Orchesterstucke”, but in any case, this is my first listening exercise for the semester.

Webern: serial or not serial?

I tried to find a tonerow in the first couple of bars, but if they are used then Webern is too subtle for my analysis, so I will give my thoughts on each, and a few important compositional points lacking serial analysis.

As a general introductory overview – even though according to the notes at the beginning of the score, some of these pieces are ‘incomplete’ by the composer’s notes – Webern shows an incredible level of artistic and individualistic expression in a very short amount of time in each of these five pieces. This is pertinent in relation to what we all did recently with Barry Conyngham, and also as a general method of articulating one’s musical self clearly without overdoing anything, and through the wringing out of the same idea rather than throwing heaps of new ones at the page.

I – Bewegt. (0:58s)

Texture: very sparse and thing, but still identifiably orchestral, and ornamental effects of fluttertonguing and such, expanding and contracting in dynamics.

Motives: there are two discernable motives or gestures: an ascending/descending run of three notes and a descending or ascending, stepwise motive.

It is these two qualities we can hear the exploration of orchestral texture that preceded people like Takemitsu, where the ‘growl’ of a double bass or the growl of a fluttertongued trombone are equally valid musical gestures as the melodic and rhythmic ones.

I may revisit the other movements later, but the score has been on loan since I returned it.

Vince

Webern – 6 Bagatellen fur Streichquartett

We all know Bagetellen is a synonym for bagel.

So in this piece, another of my deviant listening studies in the ongoing Webern series.

This piece is an interesting one, again it’s an earlier work and does not involve Webern’s total serial technique, or indeed any obvious serial technique.

According to one document that I read on this piece, Webern himself said that he wrote out the chromatic scale and just crossed each note off as he used it, so there was no structured ‘tonerow’ development as there is in his later works.

Schoenberg sums up what makes this collection of short pieces so astounding in the second title page of the study score…

Consider what moderation is required to express oneself so briefly. You can stretch every glance out into a poem, every sigh into a novel. But to express a novel in a single gesture, a joy in a breath – such concentration can only be present in proportion to the absence of self-pity

Which sums it up wonderfully.

Each of the six pieces manages to condense, with amazing articulation, a cohesive whole, and yet each measure, almost, could be drawn out into a much larger form, a chapter in the novel of the book of each movement, to reuse Schoenberg’s analogy.

It is a shame I came to study this piece after finishing the guitar and flute piece, because the condensing of ideas into a short amount of time is so well done with Webern’s work. I think that I will write a series of short pieces (along with some Haiku to go with it) as well, just for practice. These works are the opposite, in effect, of studying ongoing transformation (a la The Rite of Spring) but rather, the short, succinct statements that are whole, that leave nothing unsaid and still maintain a sense of musical coherence.

Easily comparable to Japanese Haiku.

So I’m not going to try and find tonerows, because as mentioned, the composer did not use them (strictly speaking).

I very much like this style of Webern’s, where he repeats notes before all 12 have been sounded, giving a brief sense of tonal center that is quickly abandoned in the ongoing movement of the pieces. He also uses timbral change to great effect: pizzicato, harmonics and tremelo.

Very clever and rewarding study.

-Vin

Webern – Sonatensatz (Rondo) fur Klavier

From Webern, with love.

This is an interesting piece for me to study, when considering Anton Webern, and the first, I believe, since I started at Monash, that is not from the list. So I trust the people who follow such things will excuse my deviation from the set listening list in favour of following something of great interest, from someone of great interest. For the information of those in power to judge such things, this is the first of a bunch of list-deviations in favour of Webern.

The piece was written circa 1906 and not found until 1965, in an attic of his daughter-in-law’s childhood attic. It was written in Webern’s early period and is not actually non-tonal, but it is chromatic. I’m quite pleased with finding this piece because it shows a great many techniques and also shows some interesting ways of using techniques that were later developed.

Webern has used the rondo form for the construction of this piece, with a slight variation. It is as follows: A B A(2) C A(3) B(2) A(4) D. Each of the repetitions of an already stated idea are gradually transformed. Now I just noticed something else interesting about this form. The final D section is actually a further A section (A(5)) and a brief overview of the whole form. If we detach that section entirely, we have a palindromic form: A B A | C | A B A; as it stands, it is asymmetrical: A B A | C | A B A | D. Two larger forms: A B A C | A B A D || perhaps.

Techniques/Concepts

Chromaticism

This is the aspect that I have learned the most about from studying this piece, not just the chromaticism that Webern uses, which is not atonal/12-tone as such, and I think probably one of the most useful things for me to learn and to use when studying 12-tone music and writing using arrays, tonerows, set-theory, etc, is the use of tone centers or tonal gravity*. For those of you who heard the two movements of my piece “Rain” for piano last year, I used this exact concept then, using notes that deviated chromatically away from a tone center but always returned to it. Luciano Berio does the same thing with his Sequenza VII for oboe, constantly gravitating away from the note B and Bartok uses it in Music For Strings, Percussion and Celeste. In Sonatensatz, Webern uses keysignatures to indicate his tonal centers, which is interesting, and adds the requirement for double-sharps and double-flats because the music is always referring back to its tonal center. This tonal gravity technique could be used to great effect in twelve-tone music, using tonerows etc. For example, you could write a series of tonerows off of the one tonic. I’m sure it’s been done before, but have not come across such.

Melodic Leading

This is the most striking application of compositional technique used by Webern in this piece, not the most obvious, but certainly the most elegant and the most well thought out. Without using conventional harmonic cadences to signify key changes, (ie. V/new key – I in new key) or something similar, he has used melodic leading relying on the chromaticism to blur the tone centers enough to make the keychange transparent. The end of the first section (which is in C minor) leads from Ab down to B natural, the first bar of the second section (‘modulated’ to A major) starts on an A.

Cadence/cadential points

Rather than harmonic cadences, Webern uses dynamic cadences, rhythmic cadences etc. to create “tension” and “release”, or musical punctuation as I prefer to call it.

Beethovenism

The other striking quality of this piece is how simple everything is. Just like everything I’ve looked at of Webern’s, he sticks to simple rhythms, patterns, etc and makes it at times complex (for contrast/cadential interest), he sticks mostly to conventional minims, crotchets, quavers and semiquavers. He does use a few cross-rhythms, for interest and great imitative effect, but compared to Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartok and others of the same era, Webern does not use complex rhythmic patterns. Now, what does this have to do with Beethoven? It’s not only his rhythm technique that is “simple”, but also how much he can get out of a very simple idea: let’s take the A section motive: C Bnat C (see not atonal) Bb, with the rhythm: crotchet, dotted quaver, semiquaver, crotchet. Very simple. This forms the basis for the entire section and he gets vast amounts of fresh music out of it, using imitation, registral change, harmonic variation, chromatic alteration, phrasing variations, rhythmic flattening/augmentation, rhythmic diminuendo, etc etc. This is how it’s like Beethoven. Remember the 5th Symphony? Dun dun dun duuuun… that motive is mutated in amazing ways.

More Webern, coming soon.

-Vin

* Tonal Gravity: there is an idea floating around that the lydian mode (major #4) has the greatest tonal gravity, the idea being that it is the only mode which has a full collection of perfect fifths, and is thus the most harmonically stable in relation to the fundamental. Let’s look at C lydian (F#). C D E F# G A B is the pitch collection. When stacked as successive fifths: C G D A E B F#. It is important to note here that C to G is a P5, G to D is as well, and importantly, the B to F# is as well. It would be a diminished 5th if it were from C major. The idea of gravity then comes from the fact that every single one of those notes reinforces the fundamental of C, causing the strongest tonal relationship available.  Interesting. What would the chords be? Imaj7, II7, iii-7, iv-7b5, Vmaj7, vi-7, vii-7. Unless I’m mistaken… now if you were to flatten that V chord to make it dominant, you’d still have your regular harmonic function there, using a lydian tonality. Most interesting. G B D Fnatural instead of F#.

Something to think about perhaps?

This idea is (badly) interpreted from a book called “The Lydian Chromatic Concept” which I borrowed from the library earlier this year, but did not get a chance to thoroughly read. I understand this perfect fifth order as the concept, though.

Webern – Streichquartett op.28

Webern, influencing Iron Maiden since whenever he was born...

This post marks my study of serialism/12-tone composition, and will include a number of pieces not on the listening list.

Webern was part of the Second Viennese School with Schoenberg and Berg, the latter whom he met while still studying with Schoenberg. I found the surrounds of his death (according to Wikipedia) interesting:

He left Vienna near the end of the war, and moved to Mittersill in Salzburg, believing he would be safer there. On 15 September 1945, during the Allied occupation of Austria, he was shot dead by an American Army soldier following the arrest of his son-in-law for black market activities, when, despite the curfew in effect, he stepped outside the house to enjoy a cigar so as not to disturb his sleeping grandchildren. The soldier responsible, army cook Pfc. Raymond Norwood Bell, was overcome by remorse and died of alcoholism in 1955

Poor buggers.

Anyway… on to the music.

Twelve-tone technique

While I understand that the use of tonerows does not imply atonality or serialism, part of the technique developed by Schoenberg and used by Berg and Webern is the idea that you can’t repeat a note until all the rest have been sounded, which creates a complete sense of ambiguity. I suppose (from what I read) that this would be called “strict-atonality”, but it is still certainly possible to create something using chromatic tone-rows that has a tone center, or a shifting tone center. More on that some other time.

Streichquartett op.28

Massig (first movement)

P-0 Tonerow Analysis, Mvt. 1.

As you can see by this analysis I did of the primary tonerow, Webern has taken a lot of thought into the generation of the contour and implied harmony. Nested within each tetrachord (learned something: a use for tetrachords/trichords) is the same major/minor 2nd relationship. In interval-class theory, this is class 1 and 2, respectively, meaning 1 or 2 semitones.

One of the most amazing aspects of this particular tonerow is that the second tetrachord is how it encompasses so totally the motive of a minor 2nd, with neighbours and melodic embellishment (all the niceties of conventional tonal composition) established in the first tetrachord, contrasted because now the movement is downward rather than upward. The third tetrachord also uses downward motion in its motive, and diatonically speaking we see a gradual tetrachordal movement from G to E, going UP but with downward motion.

Webern uses very simple rhythmic patterns, but very large dynamic, timbrel and interval contrasts (interval meaning the actual distance between the notes, rather than the stated value of the notes as in the tonerow). He also imposes two or more aspects of the tonerow on top of each other, creating harmony, so when he was deciding what pitches to use for the composition of this piece, he must have had an idea of the form of the piece first.

As the thin texture becomes richer (not thicker, really) Webern begins to add the transpositions and inversions of the tonerow, along with contrast with technique, using pizz. to contrast with the arco, sometimes both at once, and building in intensity using more frequent note placements.

Fascinatingly, despite the nature of the melody being quite compound (2nds) it does not have the same sombre, dark mood as compositions I’ve done using the same interval classes. This has to do with how the composer has treated the material. There is a very clear logic to the composition and arrangement of material by Webern, presumably as there is with Schoenberg, Berg and other twelve-tone composers.

Gemachlich (second movement)

Prime Tonerow, 2nd movement

This is similar in construction to the first tonerow, with similar motives and similar, but not as wide, motion.

According to Anthology of Twentieth Century Music (Morgan) this second tetrachord is a major third transposition of the first, and the third is a retrograde of the first.

Based on these two (out of three) movements of Streichquarett we can see that Webern considers everything, and his decisions are both micro and macro. His expression of the music reflects his motives and everything has its own logic.

I think that, asides tetrachords, I have learnt a lot about not only twelve-tone composition, but also any other form of composition, in the sense that I need to be aware of everything in the piece, at all times, and the impact that one change can have on everything else, kind of like a rock being dropped into a placid pond.

Vin

Anton Webern – 5 Movements for String Quartet

I’m going to take a moment to just presume that the piece on the list titled “String Quartet” is probably op 28, called “String Quartet”. I fell over, however, this piece by Webern, which is a much earlier composition, that is also for String Quartet. I found this piece very interesting to study because of the vast differences between the movements. It is similar in this respect to the Flute piece that I am writing, in which each movement is distinctly different from the last and the next.

I would love to see the job ad they posted

I found several things about this particular string quartet very interesting. Webern is known for his use of tonal atonalism, and this is fairly apparent in this piece – and although he used twelve tone composition for much of his work, this piece does not feature this, although it seems to draw heavily from a similar concept. Many of the movements are written at very slow tempi, =40 for one section, and instead feature predominantly semiquavers or demisemi’s. This seemed rather strange to me, as I would personally have written it perhaps at a faster tempo and simply doubled the note values, because for a performer it would seem especially strange to play semi quavers that last for longer than a crotchet at 120bpm! It does make the piece much shorter on the paper, however, 3 of the 5 movements taking up just a single page of score, but lasting for 2 or 3 minutes.

The use of dissonance as a result of the apparent atonalism can be a little bit jarring, especially when there are sustained chords made up of tritones and semitones – F and B in the cello and C and F# in the viola, as one example – but there are very effective passages which can sound nice, but don’t rely on the use of tonal centres or even proper chords to do so. One example of this would be the beginning of MVT III, the short staccato cello notes clashing with very fast upward leaps in the other instruments.

One technique that I absolutely adore in Webern’s writing is the use of continuing a melodic fragment between instruments, especially in passages of downward motion where the scale starts in the violin and continues down to the cello, to be brought back to the viola, but always downwards.

Webern uses several interesting “Scalic” ideas within the piece, and one which occurs several times is a scale that involves E, G#, F, C#, Bb. I did wonder if perhaps the Bb should have been an A# as often there are B naturals fairly close to this scale fragment, but I presume Webern had his reasons. I’ll research this issue further, I feel…

Saska

Anton Webern’s Symphonie (op. 21)

Hey guys,

Timothy here. For this week, I studied the first movement of the afore-mentioned work.

This work is atonal, but it appears not to be serial (ie, Webern doesn’t employ a set order of the 12 tones). In fact, Webern does seem to repeat a few notes, ie, F# over bars 2, 3 and 5, but his use of dissonance does not allow us to presume that this repeated tone suggests tonality (for instance, the F# is repeated over a F natural, and is then proceeded by an E).

The melodic construction I found simultaneously intersting and confusing. Peter, could we possibly go over this, and the structure of form and harmony? I would like to inderstand what he is doing here, and I find most of what he does is confusing!

But, returning to what I do understand, the texture appears almost pointilistic (ie, creating texture with single notes). Webern gives more than 3 notes in a row to any instrument. The result is a combination of notes that reveal certain timbres of instruments, which are combined gradually to create a shifting tone colour. Contrast in these timbres is also employed, such as where a horn plays a high note against a low note from another horn, and pizzicato is often followed by arco playing in the strings.

Another aspect of this work is employment of the meter. Webern appears to almost ignore the meter, such as where he creates quavers that go across the bar. I think this is interesting as the freedom of rhythm combines with the freedom in pitch, which focusses our attention on what he does with timbre.