Beethoven: String Quartet 14, op 131

Firstly – Apologies to Tully for following him with the exact same piece.

For this post I’m looking into the shape and transformation of the melodic line(s) used in the 1st movement.

The piece opens with 1st violin presenting the beginning of a fugue. The scored part is:

A basic reduction of this results in the following shape which is made up of four segments, each consisting of 3 notes either rising or descending:

In bar 14 Beethoven changes this slightly by extending it from groups of three into groups of four, as can be seen in the 1st violin part below. He also extends the idea across all the parts and some play upwards whilst others play downwards.

Bar 21 shows another transformation of this figure with three notes ascending, then only two descending:

The key changes at bar 45, and in bar 46 -49 we can easily see the the idea spread out over the four parts:

This score study has demonstrated to me how the basis of a melodic figure or motiv does not need to be based on rhythm or specific pitches, but instead can simply be based on a contour or shape.

Warren.

Alban Berg – Lyric Suite

Yeah, you damned serialists... I see what you did there...

Alban Berg created some of the most lastingly beautiful compositions of the past century. In this alone—as in so many other aspects of this fascinating artist—Berg continues to defy some of the more dogged clichés about “modern music.” True enough, his scores abound with labyrinthine complexities—as do, for that matter, those of J.S. Bach. But for all their intricacies, Berg’s compositions remain rooted in the Romantic tradition, particularly its conviction that music can convey the most intimate emotional truths*.

Sure thing, captain. Captain Berg, that’s a good one. Hahahoho.

So anyway, Berg is a pretty cool guy who doesn’t afraid of anything.

This is 12-tone music, using a tonerow, but there is occasional rhythmic repetition of a pitch…

Thanks Wikipedia, you are amazing. You can see here the initial row used (and the repetition of that damnable Db, making the key completely Db! At least for that small segment of time.

Because of that rhythmic repetition, for motivic reasons, there is for brief points in time, audible tonal centres. The amazing thing about this piece is the orchestration of tonerows, the use of counterpoint and the level of complexity without sounding particularly dissonant or ugly, like some of Schoenberg’s music can. In fact, his melodic use of the tonerow is beautiful.

He employs some common compositional techniques that stretch back, probably as far as 16243BCE, such as:

+ immitation

Immitation in the sense that a motive or gesture will be repeated, though with different pitches, on multiple instruments, creating a sense of fluency to the music and a sense of continuity – something that can be lacking in 12-tone music.

+ Repetition

Berg quite often repeats a similar idea multiple times for quite a substantial amount of time, leading the listener to be able to grasp the musical material and hold on to it through the rough ride that 12-tone music can be.

+ Counterpoint

Berg uses melodic counterpoint effectively, in four parts, in 12-tone. The most impressive part of this is that it is derived from one single row, rather than multiple rows, which I have experimented with.

* www.nws.edu/downloads/programNotes/BergLyricSuite.pdf

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 – 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

Beethoven’s 14th String Quartet

I thought that this was a thoroughly relevant piece to study. I only looked at the first movement (which was complicated enough to merit an entire seesion) and guess what I found? That’s right… you guessed it, melodic and rhythmic transformation!

So, the remainder of this blog will essentially describe the process that Beethoven used. First of all, let me propose that this movement is primarily in ternary form. Beethoven first provides us with a melodic idea, which he orders in a fugal fashion and also fragments it; with a middle section where he varies a second theme. He then rounds off the movement with more variations on his original theme.

Studying this made me realise that fugues are effectively a contrapuntal means for melodic variation; and that the structure of the fugue is not merely present as a basis for forming harmony.  Beethoven, in the traditional fugal arrangement, progressively presents his material from the highest instrument to the lowest instrument; with every second exposition undergoing a modulation to the dominant. However, this fugue sounds anything but traditional as Beethoven uses a lot of chromaticism; allowing his “new” approach in composition to be founded on a traditional basis.

Now, what I found most interesting was not the use of a fugue, but rather the later fragmentary presentations of both themes. The first interval in the primary theme is shortened; in fact, the whole theme is compacted into one bar, and appears spontaneously through the first and last sections as either a melody or a harmony. Beethoven applies a similar method to the second theme; which is also compacted and presented as a harmony at differewnt points.

This for me really showed that an idea is not static, rather, it represents an infinite number of opportunities.

All the best,

Timothy

Dmitry Shostakovitch- String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110

String Quartet No.8 is a multi-movement work, comprised of 5 movements, I. Largo, II.Allegro molto, III.Allegretto, IV.Largo, V.Largo. The piece is unified by a signature trademark motif that was unique to Shostakovitch, comprised of the notes D-Eb-C-B (which stands for his initials in German spelling). This short motif is used and manipulated in many ways, sometimes played slowly and peacefully, or sometimes is rough and jagged (as exemplified in movements II,III,IV) and being played in short semiquaver stabs. This is a great example of a short motif being explored and transformed into a fully realized composition.

Each movement often preceeds one another in stark contrast (eg I. Largo to II. Allegro), a method of tension-release is prevealant, with moments of intensity followed by slowerm more subtle moments. The role of each string player often has 2 players in the low register as support and 2 in the upper register for melody (though this is never fixed). The 2nd movent has alot of staccato in the strings with a polyphonic texture, the 2 groups of string players often imitating each other and swapping roles to maintain fluid exploration of the instrumentation.

What I learnt most from this is how when developing an idea, you allow yourself the most freedom when you maintain the bare basics of the motif and not rely on specific pitches or rhythmic patterns to make it a coherent idea. Shostakovitch explores all these possibilities in such a way, which makes this a worthwhile listen.

Shannon

George Crumb: Black Angels – A Listening Study

Thirteen Images from the Dark Land

George Crumb’s other famous work I have chosen for listening study, Black Angels, is an avant-garde work written for an “electric string quartet” (in Crumb’s own words), over the course of a year.

The piece displays many numerological connections to the prime numbers 7 and 13 in its construction, as intended by Crumb. The three parts that comprise the entirety of the work (Departure, Absence and Return, respectively) are separated into multiple sections each, and each of these sections own their make-up significantly to a relationship between the 2 above-mentioned prime numbers, reflected in various ways such as the length of the section, note values, the patterns followed by the motifs etc. This is the first time I’ve personally encountered a piece that has been so heavily influenced by numerology alone, and as Crumb himself said, he has even forgotten how some of the numbers tie in to their respective sections, as he got carried away with the “Friday the 13th” concept used in its writing process (the date on the score itself reads Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970).

The religious undertones evident in the piece follow a very story-like structure, beginning right off the bat with an ear-piercing extended technique played by violins. This opening section (named Night of the Electric Insects) of the 1st “part” or threnody (Departure)  was used to great effect in the classic film The Exorcist. It introduces the dark mood of the piece to shocking effect, and sets the dark/deathly theme quite well. The violins symbolise the music of the Devil, whilst the cello symbolises the “voice of God” (featured mainly in the 3rd threnody).

The instrumentation of the piece is also extremely elaborate, and really showcases Crumb’s creativity in bringing together his experimental ideas for extended techniques into one solid mass. Not only is each string player required to play their amplified primary instrument, they are also assigned multiple sets of instruments such as glasses filled with different levels of water, or to whisper/speak at specific intervals (reminiscent of the speaking/yelling in his other work, Ancient Voice of Children). I really love the use of the simultaneous shouting and whispers of these words by the performers (especially in the section  Threnody II: Black Angels!), it adds great effect to an already powerful piece.

The third and final part, Return, brings the listener back to calmer waters with the cello playing the “voice of God”, who inevitably triumphs over the fallen angels. However, the piece culminates in a reprise of the introductory section, Night of the Electric Insects, and finally fades into obscurity with the crystal glass technique.

Marvelous.

- Rey