Transcript Chapter 49. The Early Music of Beethoven

Chapter 69
Vienna in the Aftermath of War:
Twelve-Tone Methods
Lecture Overview
• Vienna after World War I
• Josef Matthias Hauer’s method of organizing the 12
tones
• Arnold Schoenberg:
– twelve-tone method
– String Quartet No. 4, movement 1
• Anton Webern:
– life and music
– compared to Schoenberg
– Symphony, Op. 21, movement 2 (Variations)
• Pointillism in art and music
• Review
Aspects of Schoenberg’s
Twelve-Tone Method (1923- )
• The basic pitch resource in a piece consists of a
succession (“row”) of the 12-tones
• These are used in 48 forms derived from the basic
row by transposition, inversion, retrogression, or a
combination of these
• Row forms are then deployed as lines, or
“partitioned” into the texture, or both
• The notes of a row form are freely placed in
differing registers
Arnold Schoenberg, String Quartet No. 4, Op.
37, 1936, movement 1
Free sonata form (this analysis is based on the composer’s own)
The Life of Anton Webern (1883–1945)
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1883 born in Vienna
1902 enters the University
of Vienna to study
musicology with Guido Adler
1904 private instruction
with Arnold Schoenberg
begins
1908 works as conductor
in various cities
1927 conducts and
consults for the Austrian
Radio in Vienna
1945 flees bombardment
in Vienna and settles in
Mittersill; accidentally shot
to death by an American
occupation soldier
Principal Compositions by Anton Webern
• Orchestra: mainly small character pieces, including
a two-movement Symphony (1928)
• Chorus: music includes two Cantatas to words by
Hildegard Jone
• Songs: about 85
• Chamber music: pieces for string quartet, string
trio, miscellaneous
Anton Webern, Symphony, Op. 21, 1928,
movement 2
Variations form
Pointillism
Camille Pissarro’s Woman
in the Meadow at Eragny
is an example of a
development among
impressionist painters in
the 1880s called
pointillism. The artist
places dots of color on
the canvas, and it is left
to the eye of the viewer
to merge these into
recognizeable images and
coloristic tones. A similar
phenomenon is found in
the music of Anton
Webern in which isolated
notes can be merged by
the listener into familiar
lines, chords, and
textures.
Review Key Terms
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Josef Matthias Hauer
aggregate
hexachord
complementary hexachords
twelve-tone method
row
retrograde
transposition
inversion
serialism
partitioning
pointillism