MUS 337

Instructor:

Dr. Frank T. Restesan

Key Terms

• Expressionism

• Second Viennese School

• Serialism

• Twelve-tone system

• Twelve-tone series (row)

• Sprechstimme

• Hauptstimme

• Nebenstimme

Expressionists & Fauves I.• Sought to express and communicate direct,

extreme & disturbing emotions

• Used abstract images

• The French “Les Fauves = “wild beasts”

– experimented with distortion, the grotesque

– employed “primitive” motifs

– seemingly wild brush work and strident colors, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction

• Music and art had threatening, violent quality

Expressionism in Music II.

• Music of increasing emotionality• Exploited extreme psychological states

–hysteria, nightmare, insanity–reflected fascination with Freud’s work–subjective expression of inner turmoil–distorted, exaggerated melody and

harmony–fascination with tone color and color

theory

Expressionism in Music II.• Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

• Georges Enesco (1881-1955)

• Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

• A. Schoenberg(1874-1951)

• Anton Webern (1883-1945)

• Alban Berg (1885-1935)

• Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893); inspired 20th century Expressionists

“The Emancipation of Dissonance”

• Concept sett forth by Schoenberg: freedom from the need to resolve

• Melody - more complex, harmonies more dissonant

• Tonality - grew more indistinct

• Final result – Atonalism (no tonal center at all)

Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)

• Radical expressionist composer• Leader of the Second Viennese School • Born in Vienna - Son of a Jewish shopkeeper • 1882 - started violin lessons at age 8• 1891 – worked as a bank clerk• 1898 – Converted to Lutheranism to avoid

Anti-Semitism • Largely self-taught in music• Took composition with Alexander Zemlinsky• 1901 – married Zemlinsky’s sister, Mathilde

Cont. Arnold Schoenberg (2)• Moved to Berlin – wrote music for cabaret &

taught at Stern Conservatory (with the help of Strauss)

• 1903 – retuned to Vienna and taught privately (Anton Webern and Alban Berg)

• Also…talented expressionist painter• G. Mahler soon became supporter of his work• After WW1 – founded the Society of Private

Musical Performances – performed his music & other radical composers

Cont. Arnold Schoenberg (3)• 1907 - Began writing atonal works • Early 1920’s - Developed Twelve-tone

System• 1923 – his wife Mathilde died• 1924 – Schoenberg married Gertrud Kolischand moved back to Berlin• 1933 - Flee the Nazi’s – moved briefly to

France & converted back to Judaism• 1934 – arrived to the U.S. (Los Angeles)• Taught at UCLA until 1944

Cont. Schoenberg-OUTPUT(4)

• 2 Operas and 2 Dramas w/ music:

Moses and Aaron (1932)• 4 Orchestral Pieces:

5 Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 (1909)• 4 Instrumental Concertos:

Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (1933)

• 10 Choral Works:

Psalm 130 “De Profundis”, Op. 50b (1950)

Cont. Schoenberg-OUTPUT(5)• 21 Chamber Music Pieces:

String Quartet No. 2, F-sharp minor (with Soprano), Op. 10 (1908) –First step to Atonality!

• 21 Keyboard Pieces:

Suite for Piano, Op. 25 (1923)• 30 Songs:

Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912)• Transcriptions, Arrangements of works by Bach, Schubert and Mahler

Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire ,Op.21 ( 1912)

• Genre: Song cycle for speaker & instr.–“Pierrot”: is the eternal sad clown–“Lunaire”: refers to the moon,

lunacy/insanity• Written in expressionist idiom:

–kaleidoscopic scoring—each song uses different combination of instruments

–texts magnified and distorted by use of Sprechstimme : (Ger., Speaking Voice)

Sprechstimme (b)Def: German melodramatic singing

technique re-invented by Schoenberg

/ “Speech-song” - in between song and speech

• Approximate pitches are notated (“X”)

• Singer speaks in exaggerated, quasi-melodic style but strictly following the rhythm

Cont. Pierrot Lunaire (c)

• Text: Based on 21 poems by Albert Giraud (Belgian symbolist poet)

- unrhymed poems with strict form

(13 lines long: 2 Quatrains + 1 Quintain)

• Melody: Atonal – no pitch serves as tonal center

• Form: Motivic Development (Developing Variations – Brahms)

Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21No. 8: “Night” - (1)

• Setting/Orchestration: voice, piano, bass clarinet, cello

• Form: Passacaglia (set of variation over repeated bass)– “3-note ostinato” (recurring figure or motive)–overlapping versions, freely transposed–dense polyphonic texture–soprano sings the motive at “verschwiegen”

Cont. Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21No. 8: “Night” - (2)

• Motivic Transformation : inversions & retrograde

• Motive represents Pierrot’s obsession with the Giant Moths or “the wings of the moth”

• Motive = creates a sense of “tonal location” or “home region”

• Houptstimme (Ger.“Leading Voice”): cello

Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21No. 13: “Beheading”

Text: Pierrot imagines he is beheaded by the moonbeam for his crimes

Music material used:

1.Whole –tone scales & parallel augmented chords

2.Creates vivid imagery – follows closely the text – (first 5 m. evoke the scimitar shape of the Moon)

Pierrot lunaire, No 18: “The Moon-struck”

• Setting/Orchestration: voice, piano, piccolo, clarinet, violin, cello

• Piano introduction–Dense texture, dissonant, alarmingly

intense• Depicts Pierrot’s obsession

–high-pitched, quicksilver motives–fugues and canons–fantastic web of atonal sounds

Schoenberg and Serialism• Schoenberg confessed that he saw the

danger of chaos in atonality …

• Twelve-Tone System

–“method of composing with the 12 tones solely in relation to one another”

–became known as Serialism

–ensures atonality while imposing order and coherence (scientific approach to composition)

Serialism• Composer creates a basic Twelve-Tone

Row (series) = Prime (P)–puts the 12 notes of chromatic scale in a

fixed order• Notes must be used in the order

prescribed by the row–in any octave or rhythm

• All notes must be used before starting over with the first pitch–no repetitions or backtracking allowed

Row Transformations (I)• Other versions of the series may be used

–Severe compositional limits are balanced by a variety of options:

1.Transposed: ex.<P-6>(six half-steps!)= transposed up/down)–same note order starting on different pitch

2.Inverted: (I-4)–with intervals turned upside down

3.Retrograde: (R or RI)–played backwards or the inversion of that

Row Transformations (II)P-0:

R-0:

I-0:

RI-0:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Listening: SchoenbergPiano Suite Op.25 (1923)

• Genre: Dance Suite• Music Organization: Twelve-Tone Row

(8 types of rows used)• Form: Free form • Use of Tetrachords with connotations

(segments of 4 notes) :

“B-A-C-H” Motive (first 4 notes of R-0)• Used only 2 Transposition of each row

Cont. Piano Suite Op.25• Other composers who used the Motive:

Liszt, Schumann, Reger, Bartók, Enesco & Webern in his Op. 28

• More recently Luigi Dallapiccola & Yannis Xenakis

“B A C H”

Serialism & UnityThe Esthetics of Serialism:

1.A row gives a piece its own sound world–interval sequence determines

melodies and harmonies2.Each different row creates a different

sound world and color3.Attempts to achieve the Romantic ideal

of unity

“The Second Viennese School”

• Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg–Webern and Berg studied with

Schoenberg in Vienna before WWI

–both adopted Serialism• Very different musical personalities• Serialism accentuated their unique

qualities

Alban Berg (1885–1935)• Most traditionalist of the three - open to

Romantic tradition• Started studying composition with

Schoenberg at age 19 (1904)• Scored more success that his own mentor• Both his operas: Lulu and Wozzeck

banned by the Nazis • Made use of numerology - referred to his

secret love (for Alma Mahler) in musical codes

Cont. Berg – OUTPUT(2.1)

• 2 operas (Lulu, Wozzeck)

• 5 vocal pieces (5 Songs on Postcard Texts of Peter Altenberg, Op. 4)

• Violin Concerto (1935) – dedicated to the death of Manon (Alma Mahler’s daughter)

• Chamber Music: “Lyric Suite” (string quartet) -1926

Berg, Wozzeck (2.2)• Genre: 1922 opera in 3 Acts based on

1837 play by Georg Büchner (Austrian M.D. and writer)

• Conceptually “Wagnerian” : Relies on orchestra for Continuity Uses leitmotifs, no arias !• Influenced by Expressionism

–Sprechstimme techniqueAlban Berg in 1935

Berg, Wozzeck (2.3)• Melody: combination of tonal with atonal

music • Form- Outer: 3 Acts - Inner: Highly inventive - each

scenes uses a different form• Orchestration: 1/ Pit Orchestra: winds, brass, strings &

large percussion ensemble2/ Onstage Groups: Marching Band, Tavern

Band & Chamber Orchestra

Cont. Wozzeck: Plot (2.4)• Wozzeck is a poor, oppressed soldier

–troubled by visions, tormented by his captain

–submits to doctor’s experiments in order to earn more money

–His wife Marie has an affair with the ‘Drum Major’

• Finally pushed over the edge–murders Marie, goes mad, drowns

himself by accident –their young child orphaned

Cont. Act III, scene iii (3.1)• First 4 measures - invention on a rhythm

–Master Rhythm (Hauptrhythmus) used throughout in many different settings

• Form: Fast Polka

–Wozzeck sings accompanied by a mistuned tavern piano

–timpani also begins master rhythm at

m. 140 followed by a variation on the snare-drum

Cont. Act III, scene iii (3.2)The Master Rhythm

• Used constantly to convey Wozzeck’s obsession with the murder of Marie

Ex. of transformations:

Cont. Act III, scene iii (3.3)• After the dance, Margret sees blood on

Wozzeck’s hand (m.185)

• Music intensifies – “accusations” (p to ff –m.211)

Cont. Act III, scene iv (3.4)

• Plot: Wozzeck returns to murder scene–orchestra creates eerie night sounds–drowns while trying to hide the knife in

the pond–vivid orchestral “gurgles”–The Doctor and the Captain walk by but

are oblivious to the suffering

• Music: based on the use of invented chord of six notes: B-flat, D-flat, E-flat, E, F, G-sharp

Anton Webern (1883–1945)• Fought against Romantic grandiosity

and ideals; developed unique style

• Style: composed abstraction, quiet, & extremely brief compositions (No. 4 from “Five Pieces for Orchestra” Op.10 - is only 6 measures long!

• Texture: Minimalistic and Pointillist

• Inspired many composers after WWII

Cont. Webern: Short BIO (4.1)

• Studied musicology with Guido Adler at the University of Vienna

• 1904 -Started studying with Schoenberg

• 1906 – received his Ph.D.(dissertation on Heinrich Isaac)

• Wrote series of lectures: “ The path to the new Music” (published posthumously) –argued that Twelve-Tone is “the natural result of music evolution”

Cont. Webern - Style (4.2)• Went through 3 compositional stages (like

Schoenberg & Berg):

1/ Late-Romantic; 2/ Chromaticism/ Atonalism; 3/ Serialism

• Focused on structure and unity above everything else

• Took Serialism a step further : used symmetric organization of his Tone-Rows to achieve motivic unity

Cont. Webern (4.3)• Used Klangfarbenmelodie extensively

to distribute a musical line or melody to several instruments (see slide 6)

• Unwilling to compromise for popular appeal – became a hero for the later generations of composers

• Shoot to death by an Allied soldier at the end of WWII

Cont. Webern –OUTPUT (4.4)

• 20 early works without opus number

(Three Poems for Voice and Piano;1899–1902)

• 31 mature works (virtually all genres)

Listening: Symphony,Op. 21 (Mvt.1)-1928 Form: Sonata Style: mix of Twelve-tone with traditional

forms and tonality to evoke old genre of the symphony

Cont. Webern (4.5)

Webern's arrangement of Bach's Ricercar from Musical Offering (BWV 1079)

Cont. Webern, Ex: Five Orchestral Pieces (4.6)

• IV Movement: a short time segment of very high intensity

–6 measures (30’’ seconds)

• Disconnected registers, colors, rhythms