Transcript Chapter 49. The Early Music of Beethoven

Chapter 66
Atonality:
Schoenberg and Scriabin
Lecture Overview
• Atonality in music
• Nonrepresentational painting
• Arnold Schoenberg
– Piano Piece, Op. 11, No. 1
– Pierrot lunaire, No. 8 (“Nacht - Passacaglia”)
• The spread of the atonal style
• Alexander Scriabin
– life and music
– Piano Prelude, Op. 74, No. 5
• Review
Features of Atonal Music (ca. 1910 - )
• dissonant chords used freely, interchangeably with
triads
• all tones of chromatic scale drawn upon as though
structurally equivalent
• basic chords made from any number of tones and
intervallic structures
• no large-scale functional harmonic progressions
Abstract painting
Early in the 20th century important artists in different locations around the
world explored a new style of painting in which familiar objects were absent or
only hinted at. Their style was thus non-representational or abstract, and
the meaning of such works turned on the inherent expressive power of
materials themselves—of colors and shapes. At about the same time that
abstract paintings appeared, composers such as Schoenberg began to write
atonal music, which invites a comparison of such music with nonrepresentational art works such as Kandinsky’s Impression 3 (Concert), shown
above.
The Life of Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1874 born in Vienna
c1895 informal private study in music with Alexander Zemlinsky
1901 moves to Berlin, works as orchestrator and cabaret conductor
1903 returns to Vienna, lives mainly as private teacher
1908 begins to compose atonal music
1911 again moves to Berlin, publishes a treatise on tonal harmony
(the Harmonielehre)
1913 triumphant premiere in Vienna of the romantic oratorio
Gurrelieder
1917 follow service in the Austrian military, Schoenberg settles in
Mödling (a Vienna suburb)
1923 begins to compose twelve-tone music
1925 appointed Professor of Composition at the Academy of the Arts
in Berlin
1933 dismissed by the Nazis from his Berlin position, flees to Paris,
then to America
1936 appointed Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles
1951 dies in Los Angeles
Principal Compositions by Arnold Schoenberg
• Operas: 4, including
– Erwartung
– Moses und Aron (incomplete)
• Orchestra: chamber symphonies (2), tone poem
Pelleas und Melisande, concertos (violin, piano),
character pieces
• Chamber music: includes 5 string quartets and a
woodwind quintet
• Songs: numerous collections, also the melodrama
Pierrot lunaire
• Piano: character pieces
• Chorus: including
– Gurrielieder (cantata)
– A Survivor from Warsaw (narration with chorus)
Arnold Schoenberg, Piano Piece Op. 11,
No. 1, 1909
Ternary form
Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire, 1912,
No. 8 (“Nacht-Passacaglia”)
Through-composed passacaglia (with a hint of ternary form)
The Life of Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
• 1872
born in Moscow
• 1888-92
studies at Moscow Conservatory
• 1898-1903 teaches piano at Moscow Conservatory
amid European and American tours
• 1902-1908 concert tours of Europe and America
• 1915
dies in Petrograd of blood poisoning
Principal Compositions by Alexander Scriabin
• Piano: sonatas (10), character pieces
• Orchestra: 5 symphonies, Piano Concerto
Alexander Scriabin, Piano Prelude,
Op. 74, No. 5, 1914
Free rondo (ABAB) form
Review Key Terms
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Vasili Kandinsky
emancipation of dissonance
atonal music
tone-color melody (Klangfarbenmelodie)
piano harmonics
melodrama
Albert Giraud
Sprechgesang
passacaglia
basso ostinato
twelve-tone method of composition
octatonic scale
mystic chord
(symmetric) inversion