Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Stefan George, Richard Dehmel and others, they read Nietzsche, and they
shared an enthusiasm for the work of contemporary German painters and
the music of Wagner. In 1901 they saw a production of Tristan in Graz, and
on Webern's maturation from the Klagenfurt Bundesgymnasium in 1902 his
father rewarded him with a trip to Bayreuth on which he was accompanied
by Diez. They saw Parsifal and Der fliegende Hollnder, and on the trip
home visited several art galleries in Munich, where Webern was particularly
impressed with paintings by Arnold Bcklin, Giovanni Segantini and Moritz
von Schwind, though he expressed the greatest disdain for the fashionconscious Bayreuth audiences as well as for most of the modern art that
he saw in the galleries.
In 1902 he matriculated at the University in Vienna, where he studied
musicology with Guido Adler, harmony with Hermann Graedener and
counterpoint with Karl Navrtil. During these years he continued to study
the piano and cello privately and to compose, writing numerous short piano
pieces and movements for string quartet as well as some pieces for small
orchestra and at least one, the idyll Im Sommerwind after a poem by Bruno
Wille, for large orchestra. He left university in 1906, having successfully
completed work for a doctorate in musicology, which included as his
dissertation an edition of the second volume of the Choralis constantinus
by Heinrich Isaac.
The most influential relationship of Webern's life began in autumn 1904,
when, after travelling to Berlin to inquire about the possibility of studying
composition with Hans Pfitzner and having become enraged at Pfitzner's
attitude towards Mahler and Strauss, he returned to Vienna to become a
student instead of Schoenberg. Not only was this the beginning of his
lifelong devotion to Schoenberg an esteem the fervour of which at times
resembled that of a love affair it was also to determine the company in
which he would move for the rest of his life. The members of Schoenberg's
class Karl Horwitz and Heinrich Jalowetz, who were already Webern's
university friends, as well as Erwin Stein, Egon Wellesz and particularly
Alban Berg became a close circle and were to remain so, often seeing
themselves as an island surrounded by mediocrity and hostility. Their
experience encouraged such a feeling. For example, at what became
known as the Skandalkonzert of 31 March 1913, which included the first
performance of Webern's op.6 pieces for orchestra along with works by
Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, Mahler and Berg, performance of the Berg caused
a riot of such proportions that the concert could not be finished.
Webern's formal study with Schoenberg was over by the end of 1908. Only
the first two of Webern's works with opus numbers were composed during
the time he was Schoenberg's pupil: the Passacaglia and the chorus
Entflieht auf leichten Khnen (both written in 1908). In the years directly
following their apprenticeship both Berg and Webern were kept very busy
copying parts and making piano reductions for Schoenberg, as well as
making numerous arrangements for both his private and his professional
life, which included raising money to try to keep him solvent. Their loyalty
was immense. In autumn 1911 Schoenberg moved to Berlin. Webern
followed him there within the week and, except for occasional trips to
Vienna, remained there until he took up a post at Stettin (now Szczecin) in
June 1912.
Webern married his cousin Wilhelmine Mrtl in 1911. They had four
children: Amalie in 1911, Maria in 1913, Peter in 1915 and Christine in
1919. By the year of his marriage Webern had composed a large number
of pieces, including all those up to op.10. He would not produce another
work until the op.11 pieces for cello and piano in mid-1914. In 19089 he
moved from the extended tonality of the Passacaglia to the aphoristic
atonality of opp.311, perhaps the style for which he is best remembered.
The next eight works with opus numbers, written between 1914 and 1925,
were to represent another change of direction: all are songs, in which text
is used as a way of expanding a style that had reached its maximum
brevity with op.11.
When men begin earning a living and become involved in external matters,
they all get a hole inside. So Webern wrote to Schoenberg in 1910. In the
years immediately following university and his apprenticeship with
Schoenberg, his instability and indecisiveness began to be apparent. In the
years 190813 he took up and quit five theatre conducting jobs in Bad
Ischl in 1908, Innsbruck in 1909, Bad Teplitz in 1910, Danzig in 1910 and
Stettin in 1912 in most cases bolting after only a few weeks. During the
same period he made unsuccessful applications for some 11 other
positions, refused to consider five available posts in Riga, and turned down
a position offered to him at Graz. The pattern of his life during this period
was determined almost entirely by his devotion to Schoenberg and his
fanatical desire to be near him. You are set up in my heart as my highest
ideal whom I love more and more, to whom I am more and more devoted,
he wrote to Schoenberg on 10 June 1914.
Summer 1911 was spent securing the help of Zemlinsky in an application
to the Deutsches Landestheater in Prague. The application was successful,
but when Webern travelled to Prague to take up the position in September
he changed his mind and returned to Vienna. Another change of mind
resulted in a second application for the same job six months later. This was
the beginning of a lengthy series of tergiversations in connection with
Prague. Altogether he applied for the position there seven times and was
given it five. He held it for about six months in total, on separate occasions
in 1916, 1917 and 1920.
In January 1913 he requested and was given sick leave from the job he
had held in Stettin since the previous June. During a two-month stay in a
sanatorium in Semmering he decided not to return to Stettin and again
entered into negotiations with the theatre in Prague, agreeing to go there
for the beginning of the following season. At the end of July, after
completing arrangements for moving his household to Prague, he once
again travelled there and changed his mind, this time asking for, and being
granted, a leave of absence for health reasons. He subsequently converted
this into a formal resignation.
Webern now agreed to a course of psychoanalysis under the Viennese
psychologist Albert Adler. After two months (Adler had suggested three) he
declared himself cured. In April 1914 he signed a contract with Stettin
which was to take effect on 20 August. On 28 July Austria-Hungary
declared war on Serbia, and by 20 August the theatre in Stettin was closed.
Although Webern was himself seized by an immediate desire to join up and
fight, he petitioned vociferously for Schoenberg's exemption from military
service from the start. He entered military service in February 1915. Five
months and five transfers later he had had enough and succeeded in
getting the theatre in Prague to intercede on his behalf; he was released in
December so that he could take up the position there (for the first time) in
January 1916. In the meantime, however, Schoenberg was called up, and
Webern's guilt at his own reprieve was so great that he left Prague before
the end of the month, without telling anyone of his plans, and returned to
active service. He set out with renewed energy to secure Schoenberg's
release, and, when this campaign was successful, again lost interest in the
cause himself. In October 1916 he approached the long-suffering
Zemlinsky about securing yet another discharge so that he could return to
the position at Prague, which he did in August 1917. In December
Schoenberg moved to Mdling. Webern immediately left Prague, to move
to Mdling as well. Probably as a result of Schoenberg's encouragement,
Webern was to return to the Prague theatre for a third time in 1920, when
the economic climate in Austria was extremely bleak, but once again he left
after a few weeks. This was his last attempt to hold a conducting position in
the theatre.
In November 1918 a short-lived but historically important society was born:
the Verein fr Musikalische Privatauffhrungen, of which Schoenberg was
president and Webern one of three original musical directors. The society's
aim was to provide performances of contemporary music for an audience
of subscribing members, performances which were closed to the general
public and thus to the usual popular critical network. The society's
manifesto was published in February 1919, and in the three years 191921
some 117 concerts were given, including performances of many of
Weberns works. The society disbanded in 1922.
Three things of great importance occurred in Webern's life in the early
1920s. He began to write music using the 12-note technique; he began a
conducting career that was to become, if not very lucrative, certainly more
than moderately successful; and he met Hildegard Jone.
Schoenberg formally introduced his new technique of composition to a
close circle of students and friends in the early 1920s. Webern had already
been experimenting along these lines, and in a letter to Berg dated 8
October 1925 he wrote that 12-tone composition is for me now a
completely clear procedure. He composed the eight songs of opp.1719 in
the years 19246; his first fully developed 12-note piece was the String Trio
op.20, finished in 1928.
Although as a conductor he was never anything like as famous as
contemporaries such as Bruno Walter or Hermann Scherchen, he did
receive a certain acclaim, and Berg wrote to his wife after seeing him
conduct Mahler's Third Symphony: Without exaggeration: Webern is the
greatest conductor since Mahler in every respect. He was appointed
chorus master of the Schubertbund in 1921, of the Mdlinger
Mnnergesangverein in the same year, and of David Josef Bach's
Singverein in 1923; although he resigned from the Schubertbund in 1922,
he remained with the other two organizations for the length of their
existence. In 1927 and 1928 he became conductor of the ArbeiterSymphonie-Konzerts
(a
series
of
concerts
given
by
the
Tonknstlerorchester for a working-class audience) and the Chor Freie
Typographia as well. He first conducted on RAVAG (Austrian state radio) in
1927 and was regularly employed there from 1929 until his dismissal for
political reasons in 1935. In the years 192036 he pursued an international
career, with engagements in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, London and
Barcelona. He conducted almost exclusively the traditional Austro-German
Mdling on foot to join their three daughters and their children in Mittersill,
in the mountains near Salzburg, to get away from the constant bombings in
Vienna; Mdling fell to the Russians six days later. The final irony came
when, four months after the war had ended, Webern was shot dead while
smoking an after-dinner cigar on the veranda of his daughter Christine's
house, the victim indirectly of his son-in-law's black-market activities.
Webern, Anton
2. Juvenilia and student works, 18991908.
The earliest of Webern's compositions to survive were written in 1899, his
16th year, and consist of two pieces for cello and piano and a song with
piano accompaniment on a poem by Avenarius. All are between 21 and 24
bars long and bear key signatures, though the shorter of the cello pieces
shows already an uncomfortable relationship with its key signature that was
to become more pronounced in the pieces written in the next few years.
These and subsequent compositions written prior to the time Webern
entered university in 1902 (eight other works from these years survive, all
songs with piano accompaniment) exhibit the same rich textures and
occasionally adventurous but frequently awkward harmonic language. The
texts of the songs are for the most part lyrical vignettes on subjects from
nature (clouds, stars, the moon, blossoms, the song of the blackbird, etc.);
like both cello pieces, most are in a slow tempo.
Commencing formal studies in harmony and counterpoint in 1902, Webern
began to broaden his horizon. Besides a number of arrangements of music
by Schubert and Wolf, surviving sketches from 1903 and 1904 are of 13
more songs for voice and piano, one for voice and orchestra, 24 pieces for
solo piano, nine movements for string quartet, a theme and variations for
piano quintet and seven works for orchestra. Key signatures disappear for
the first time in some of the songs from 1903; though this does not indicate
the absence of tonality, the more adventurous pieces do not begin and end
in the same key. There is little harmonic progression in the traditional sense
in the early pieces, and the level of dissonance is in most cases rather
high, but the basic harmonic language remains emphatically triadic.
Phrases and movements inevitably end on pure triads, though harmonic
motion between these cadence points is unpredictable. Textures are thick
and a wide range is covered, with extended measured arpeggios, low bass
tremolos and movement in octaves, both open and filled in with 3rds or
triads.
From 1905, Webern's first year with Schoenberg, sketches for only five
works are extant, all instrumental movements; Webern continued to write
almost exclusively for string quartet and orchestra in the next two years.
Two of the movements for string quartet, both written between June and
August 1905, deserve attention. In these pieces we see a composer of
considerably greater refinement and sophistication than the youth of even
one year earlier. Perhaps the most striking difference between these and
earlier pieces is in their coherence, and in the logic, both structural and
harmonic, that governs them. Whereas in the earlier pieces the frequent
unexpected harmonic shifts often seem aimless and without purpose, the
situation is different in the quartet movements, where motion is directed:
here surprises serve to interrupt, rather than to deflect or dissipate. The
first of these movements, published posthumously as Langsamer Satz, is
the shorter and more lighthearted. It is Brahmsian in style and texture with
pieces, 20 or 30 bars long, a few of the songs from his university years had
been two or three times that length, and several of the instrumental pieces
written during his study with Schoenberg were quite extended. The songs
of op.3 range from 10 to 16 bars; those of op.4 are only slightly longer. Two
of the four that were left over are 22 and 30 bars long, which was perhaps
one reason for their being excluded from the published sets. All ten are
studies in near-silence. Half of them use a dynamic range from ppp to p,
with p used very sparingly; in all ten ppp is the level that predominates.
They show a new compression and a new world of dissonant non-triadic
chords: both were to be essential features of Webern's music from this time
onwards. Registrally they cover a wide span in a brief time: the piano
accompaniment in all but one of the ten published songs makes use of
over five octaves, and in two of them the range extends to just short of or
just over six. Textures are dense, with complex cross-rhythms and chords
of up to eight different pitches, as well as the movement in octaves and
octaves filled in with 3rds that had pervaded the earlier songs, but the
remarkable reduction in dynamics and the non-triadic atonal nature of the
vertical collections result in shimmering and quickly changing colours
rather than the turgidity their appearance on the page might suggest. The
same is true of the instrumental works to follow in the next few years,
opp.511.
This was a prolific time for Webern. Besides the completion of the George
songs, 1909 saw the composition of the brief and other-worldly op.5
movements for string quartet and the slightly larger-scale orchestral pieces
of op.6, which he wrote as a memorial to his mother, whose death in 1906
affected him greatly; the op.7 pieces for violin and piano and the op.8 Rilke
songs followed in 1910. In 1911 he wrote four of the Sechs Bagatellen for
string quartet op.9 and two of the orchestral pieces of op.10. These 23
pieces, comprising his published work of 190911, continue on the course
set by the two groups of George songs. They are increasingly minimalist in
nearly every respect; they are fleeting glimpses, whispered suggestions,
breaths with George and Schoenberg of the air of another planet. Igor
Stravinsky would later write of Webern's dazzling diamonds, Schoenberg
of a novel in a single gesture, a joy in a breath.
Schoenberg's brief description is in fact more perspicacious than it might at
first appear. While comparison with a novel implies a compression of
content, the image of a joy supposes nothing of the kind. Each of these
sets of tiny pieces strikes a balance between movements of two sorts:
those in which the most extreme registral and dynamic differences have
been condensed into a few frenzied gestures in as many bars, and those in
which time and activity seem to be suspended for a few seconds. Pieces of
the first sort are generally longer than those of the second and written in a
quick tempo, with thick textures and impassioned activity, and extremes of
register and dynamics (ppp to fff) in close proximity. Pieces of the second
type are usually between eight and 14 bars long (several are over in eight
or nine bars, one in only six), contain a minimum of notes (the fourth piece
of op.10 consists of 28 notes, two of these expressed as a trill), and may
also cover a wide registral canvas, but are confined in dynamic activity to
ppp and pp (in the case of op.7 no.3 never rising above ppp). Multifarious
instrumental effects harmonics, pizzicato, spiccato, non-vibrato, col
legno, am Griffbrett and am Steg in the string parts, fluttertongue in the
flutes, the liberal use of mutes in all parts abound in the pieces of both
Webern are for voice and piano: the Vier Lieder op.12, written in 1915 and
1917. Their texts are from widely divergent sources the first is a
Rosegger text posing as a folksong, the others poems by Li Tai Po (from
Hans Bethge's collection Die chinesische Flte, from which Mahler had
taken texts for Das Lied von der Erde), August Strindberg (from his
Spksonaten) and Goethe and are, as might be expected,
heterogeneous, ranging from the simple piety of the ersatz folksong to the
sensuous pleasures of the poem from the Chinese. Webern follows the
structure of the poetry: the piano supplies short preludes and postludes of
two or three bars and interludes of a similar length between verses or lines
of the poetry.
In the years 191722 Webern composed or sketched a large number of
songs, including those of opp.1315. All of these are for voice and some
combination of instruments. The sources are again diverse in the op.13 set,
which uses texts by Karl Kraus, two more poets from the Bethge collection,
and Georg Trakl a significant choice. Webern was much engaged by
Trakl texts during these years, sketching fragments of several Trakl
settings between 1915 and 1921, and his op.14, finished in 1921, was
Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl. These songs, boasting a
myriad of instrumental effects and instructions for articulation, are wideranging registrally the singer is required to negotiate a range of over two
octaves routinely, and the instruments are treated in a similar way and
rarely rise above pianissimo. Rhythmic complexities and sometimes rapidly
changing metres combine to produce an ametric effect. The texture is
linear but very dense. Webern described the Trakl songs as pretty well the
most difficult there are in this field, and it would be hard to disagree.
The next set of songs, Fnf geistliche Lieder op.15 (19212), used old
German religious texts, at least one of which was taken from Des Knaben
Wunderhorn. Webern's composition of these five songs, which are
generally speaking in the same style as those of the previous set, holds
special significance for his future work. In the first six pages of sketches for
the fourth song, Mein Weg geht jetzt vorber, he wrote out and used a 12note row; this was the first occasion from which 12-note sketches survive.
(The 12-note version was subsequently abandoned, and the method does
not make another appearance until the songs of op.17.) In the fifth song
Webern turns once again to canon, another of the preoccupations of his
later life. The final song, Fahr hin, o Seel (interestingly, the first of the set
to have been written, in 1917), is a double canon in contrary motion. The
songs that followed immediately, another set on old religious texts, this time
from the Latin breviary, were all strict canons. These were finished in 1924.
Schoenberg's famous public annunciation of his new compositional
technique occurred in February 1923; Webern got to know of it at the latest
in summer 1922, and possibly much earlier. Schoenberg's reminiscences
at the end of his life were contradictory on this matter: on one occasion he
claimed to have carefully guarded his secret from Webern until 1923, while
on another he said that he was experimenting with 12-note themes in 1914
and corresponded enthusiastically with Webern on this subject at that time.
Schoenberg's first works to be based on 12-note rows, the piano pieces
opp.23 and 25 and the Serenade op.24, were written in 192023, years in
which Webern was occupied with the composition of the opp.1416 songs.
As early as 1911 Webern seems to have been thinking along the lines of
12-note fields (see his admittedly retrospective description, quoted above,
of the way he proceeded when composing the first Bagatelle), and though
a sketch of the sort he describes does not exist for op.9 no.1, a sketch
dated April 1914 (of a setting of Stefan George's Kunfttag III that was
subsequently discarded) is very like this. It contains a list of the 12 notes in
which nine have been crossed off, these being the pitches played by the
instruments in the final chord while the voice fills in the remaining three.
The next step occurred, as we have seen, in summer 1922.
The eight songs of opp.1719, composed in 19246, represent a
concentration on various aspects of the 12-note method of composing,
none making use of all the possibilities it offers. The first two songs of
op.17 proceed by means of chromatic fields; only in the second are the
notes within all the fields ordered in the same way. The third song of this
set contains the first linear presentation of a row in Webern's music, though
the sketches show that he had experimented with linear rows before he
began writing op.17. The first two songs of op.18 again proceed through a
succession of rows which are shared by voice and accompaniment. In
contrast, the style of op.18 no.3 is completely linear, each of the three
participants setting forth a series of complete rows. This song also makes
use of the row's inversion and retrograde for the first time. Row technique
is more sophisticated in op.19, the first work in which the several
movements (in this case only two) are based on the same row, and the first
to use transposition, though only at the tritone.
Webern, Anton
5. 12-note instrumental works, 192740.
In the String Trio op.20, completed in 1927, Webern was clearly master of
the method of composition with 12 notes related only to each other. This
work was a turning point in many ways. It represented a return to
instrumental writing after 13 years in which the only works Webern felt to
be worthy of opus numbers and publication were songs. Although the song
had perhaps always been the medium in which he was most at ease,
undoubtedly there was a crisis. (It is a mistake to view this long period of
song production in a negative light, simply as the failure to produce
instrumental music.) During this time Webern made arrangements of many
earlier works, both his own and Schoenberg's, and sketched a number of
movements for string quartet and trio, as well as two short piano pieces
published posthumously, the Kinderstck (1924) and Klavierstck (1925),
but as had been the case also with both Schoenberg and Berg, the
abandonment of tonality had resulted in an inability to sustain extended
forms without the aid of a text. 12-note technique provided a solution to this
difficulty, and with the complete adoption of it Webern was able for the first
time to write in the forms that had moulded German music for the previous
two centuries, albeit considerably tailored to suit the conditions of the new
method. Whereas for the slightly older Schoenberg this step represented a
return to the old forms, for Webern it was a beginning: the traditional
instrumental forms, while alluded to occasionally in his early music, were
not followed rigorously in any of the atonal music. After his adoption of 12note technique, although brevity would remain a cardinal feature of his
works, he was to produce no more through-composed aphorisms of only a
few bars. All the instrumental movements from op.20 onwards make
reference to the old forms: binary and ternary forms, sonata, rondo,
variations and on occasion in the Variations op.27 for piano, the first
movement of the String Quartet op.28 and the Variations op.30 for
orchestra a combination of two or more of these.
With this new-found formal stability Webern turned to writing for
instruments with considerable vigour, producing three major works in four
years (opp.2022, 192730). The fourth big instrumental work, the
Concerto op.24 for nine instruments, should have followed immediately
the first sketches run on directly from those for the op.22 Quartet with
saxophone but Webern suffered an impasse with the first movement, and
its composition was to occupy him on and off for three years. As before in
times of compositional crisis, he turned to song writing, composing the
three songs of op.23 and the first of op.25 during intervals in his work on
op.24.
Shortly after the completion of the Concerto the second and third
movements were composed in record time Webern turned again to the
poetry of Hildegard Jone (the opp.23 and 25 songs had been on Jone
texts) and spent most of the following year writing his first cantata (though
not so called), Das Augenlicht. Between October 1935 and August 1937 he
composed two more large instrumental works, the Piano Variations and the
String Quartet, and in 1940, after composing another cantata on Jone texts
the genre acknowledged in the title this time he wrote what was to be
his last instrumental work, the Variations for orchestra, in the space of eight
months. These seven instrumental works, all substantial, each for a
different combination of instruments and each incorporating either a sonata
or a variations movement and in some cases both, comprise the entire
body of Webern's mature abstract (i.e. untexted) composition.
Although the length and formal scope of Webern's works changed
significantly with his adoption of 12-note technique, most aspects of
composition that had interested him from the time of the early aphoristic
pieces continued to occupy him; thus many features of his style remained
much the same. Two traits of his early music that might be singled out as
particularly characteristic also of his later style are his special fondness for
the interval of a semitone, together with its inversion and the various
octave expansions of both, and his pointillistic scoring, with its resultant
kaleidoscopic textures. When writing with a 12-note row, a preponderance
of semitones could be assured by building them into the row. Thus this
interval predominates in many of Webern's rows. The most rigorously
organized example is the row for the Trio op.20, which consists of six
semitones separated by larger intervals: the 48 row forms divide into two
groups, in each of which all rows contain the same six semitones. One of
these groups is shown in ex.2.
Scattered scoring is a feature of all Webern's 12-note works, the
occasional section in which a long line is played by a single instrument (the
theme, and variations 1, 2 and 6 of the second movement of the
Symphony, for example) being the exception. Typically lines are divided
among several dissimilar instruments and widely divergent registers,
making continuity difficult to apprehend. Thus music which is already
problematic for the hearer because of its dissonant intervals and its
conciseness (material is not repeated or played out in any way) is made
even more formidable by its angularity and constant shifts of colour.
Webern provided a good introduction to this eccentric type of orchestration
(though this was not his purpose) in the arrangement he made in 19345
of the six-part ricercare from Bach's Musikalisches Opfer. Here, because
the music itself is tonal and conjunct, and, indeed, familiar, the linear
connections are easier to grasp. In one sense the most extreme example
of Webern's pointillism is the second movement of the Piano Variations,
where the impossibility of timbral variety is compensated for by a rigorous
maintenance of registral disjunction.
Two predispositions that consistently shape Webern's 12-note writing are
his propensity for canon and his fascination with symmetry. These
preoccupations are interrelated, as we can see from the Symphony op.21,
where they converge. This work is a brilliant tour de force of simultaneous
vertical and horizontal symmetries (mirrors and palindromes) unfolding
through a series of double canons. In fact, imitation in Webern is seldom
direct: it is usually in inversion, sometimes in retrograde, and both of these
situations result in symmetry.
The fascination that symmetry had held for Webern since at least as early
as the op.5 pieces for string quartet acquired new scope with his adoption
of the 12-note method of composition: now symmetry, like the semitone,
could be built into the row itself if desired, as, indeed, it was in the row for
the Symphony (ex.3a). This deceptively simple-looking row is symmetrical
at two levels. Besides the obvious palindrome (the second hexachord
being the retrograde of the first at the tritone transposition, and thus any
two rows related as R6 and P0 being identical), there is a second and more
subtle symmetry between any pair of rows related as I 9 to P0. This can be
seen in ex.3b. The two movements of the Symphony, in ternary sonata and
variation form respectively, exploit these two symmetrical relationships, the
first making use of the I9P0 relationship in the outer sections and the
palindrome produced by P0P6 (i.e. P0R0) in the central development,
while the second movement offers the complement to this arrangement.
The row structure of the second (variation) movement reflects the
horizontal symmetry of the row itself: here not only is each of the nine
sections (theme, seven variations and coda) palindromic, but the row
structure of the whole movement is a palindrome, turning on the fourth
variation as its axis. Characteristically, this structure is successfully
obscured by the meticulous adherence to all the outward features of theme
and variations: successive 11-bar sections are scored for different groups
of instruments, each section heralding a change of tempo, texture and
style, and these features are not symmetrically arranged.
The hiatus Webern suffered in his composition of op.24 resulted from his
continued aspiration after symmetrical perfection. His row for this work was
inspired by a Latin proverb (ex.4a) which can be read in four directions.
The row he finally decided upon approximated the symmetry of this
proverb to a very high degree. The second, third and fourth trichords
represent the three permutations of the first (in the order P, RI, R, I), with
the result that groups of four row forms related as P 0, R6, RI7 and I1 are
made up of identical trichords, and if listed in the same way as the words of
the proverb they produce a similar result (ex.4b). As demonstrated here,
several of the forms offered by such a row contain the same trichords in a
different order or with their internal content reversed. This characteristic is
exploited in op.24, where, for example, structural returns use different rows
to produce the same figures on the same pitches but in a different order.
The question with which Webern struggled for three years was whether to
preserve the internal integrity of the row by allowing all the trichords of all
rows to replicate the contour established by the first. In the end he adopted
a compromise. In his exploration of symmetrical possibilities op.24
represents an extreme in its concern with microcosmic details.
The other work in which symmetry is an obvious feature is the Piano
Variations op.27. In this case the symmetry is not built into the row; any row
can produce palindromes and mirrors when combined with its retrograde
and its inversion, and this is what happens in the first and second
movements respectively.
The kind of symmetry that Webern seemed to favour in his last years is the
much less obvious but perhaps more comprehensive one that combines
inversion and retrograde in one operation: the rows of his opp.2830 are all
identical with their own retrograde inverted forms. This is not a relationship
that can be heard, but Webern presumably saw it as a strongly unifying
device. The fact that it is not audible he would have found attractive, as one
of the idiosyncratic features of his writing is the careful masking as in the
case of the variations movement of the Symphony noted above of
painstakingly constructed symmetries, as if in the end they were a matter of
interest to the composer alone.
In fact this inclination to conceal is one of Webern's principal traits, and is
largely responsible for the listener's difficulty in coming to terms with his 12note music. The form of these works is clearly delineated by the row
structure reprises use the same rows and the same transpositions as the
original but the musical manifestation of these is so varied as to make
aural recognition unlikely. Webern does not work with themes and barely
with motifs, except in the rhythmic sense. With the exception of op.30, even
his variation movements do not have themes (in spite of the misleading
Thema written over the first section of the op.21 variations). These are
nevertheless almost certainly the easiest of his structures to identify aurally
because of the careful manipulation of secondary features; his penchant
for veiling the truth in these instances serves to hide the absence rather
than the presence of the traditional content.
The Variations op.30 for orchestra is perhaps the most rigorously motivic of
all Webern's 12-note works. Here the entire fabric is woven from a
multitude of versions of two rhythmic motifs presented in the opening bars.
The motifs are derived from or reflect the row (ex.5). This movement
illustrates a problem endemic in 12-note music: the discrepancy between
variation as a technique and variation form. Music composed on a row
inevitably proceeds through a process of continual variation, and this is
true whatever form the movement is cast in. In spite of Webern's
description of the first 20 bars of op.30 as the theme, the material that is
varied throughout the movement unfolds in the first four bars, and the
remainder of the theme is already concerned with the variation of this
material.
Webern, Anton
6. 12-note works with voice, 193343.
Webern's 12-note vocal works stand as a monument to his friendship with
the poet Hildegard Jone. Jone's poetry is strange and mystical, an
7. Style.
Webern's style changed three times: in 1908, when he abandoned tonality
altogether and began to write the very brief, pointillistically disposed pieces
of opp.311; in 1914, when he took up songwriting again and began to
connect the scattered parts of his ensembles to form continuities; and in
1926, when he became secure in the 12-note technique and for the first
time began to compose successfully in extended instrumental forms. His
style emphatically did not change with his adoption of 12-note technique,
though it did change as the result of the stability the technique offered him.
Certain features of his style, however, were very little affected by any of
these changes. The semitone always figures significantly in his music,
usually taking the form of 7ths and 9ths and more expanded forms, and his
lines tend to be angular and disjunct. Extremes of register are used in
close proximity. Silence and near-silence prevail, in the form of rests and
very low dynamic levels; louder passages, when they occur, are usually
sudden and of very short duration. The juxtaposition of extremes remains a
characteristic of Webern's music. Rhythm and metre are never prominent,
the one tending to be complex and the other often almost completely
obscured.
Ironically Webern, the composer who was seen by many as the originator
of the hyperintellectualized serialism of the decades immediately following
his death and whose own music most people found thoroughly bewildering
upon first hearing, was by nature an ardent romantic who always held
feeling and passion and comprehensibility to be important above all
else in art. Nature, and the Alps in particular, were almost an obsession
with him, and his love of the peace and solitude to be found in the
mountains, as well as his fascination with the flowers of the alpine
meadows, were an influence on his work in many ways, some of which will
probably never be understood. Work on many of his seemingly most
abstract works was preceded by sketches or outlines in which the various
movements, sections and themes were likened to specific alpine places
and flowers, to climatic situations (coolness of early spring etc.) and to
members of his immediate family. A more tangible manifestation of this
fascination with alpine flowers is his interest in Goethe's theories of colour
and of the Urpflanze, the latter being of course another expression of the
idea of unity, which to him as to Schoenberg was paramount.
A student of Schoenberg early in life and a devoted disciple lifelong,
Webern wrote music that is nevertheless quite different from that of his
master. Ideas that Schoenberg guarded jealously as his own assumed a
greater intensity with Webern: the 12-note row was used both more
ingeniously and more rigorously by Webern; Klangfarbenmelodie took the
form of a shotgun-like dispersal of orchestral elements, embracing both
timbre and register; continuous variation proceeded from the smallest units
and encompassed all musical parameters. The idea of a musical unity that
was to be achieved through the synthesis of the horizontal and the vertical,
an idea so often given voice by Schoenberg, was carried out relentlessly
by his one-time pupil, whose distillation of material to its very essence
resulted in minute masterpieces of such concentration and brevity that they
were generally perceived as entirely enigmatic. Theodor Adorno, in
contrasting the two composers, wrote of the assault that Schoenberg's
constructivism launched against the walled doors of musical objectivism as
being, in Webern, just a vibration which comes to us from extreme
orchestral
op.
Im Sommerwind, idyll after B. Wille, 1904 (New York, 1966)
Three studies on a bass ostinato, 1907, unpubd [studies for op.1]
1 Passacaglia, 1908 (1922); arr. 2 pf 6 hands, 1918, lost
6 Sechs Stcke, 1909 (1913), rev. 1928; arr. fl, ob, cl, str qt, perc, hmn, pf, 1920,
unpubd
10 Fnf Stcke, chbr orch, 191113 (1923); arr. pf qt, hmn, 1919, unpubd
Eight fragments, 191113, unpubd
Orchestral Pieces, 1913 (New York, 1971) [related to op.10]
21 Symphony, 19278 (1929)
30 Variations, 1940 (1956)
choral
2 Entflieht auf leichten Khnen (S. George), SATB, 1908 (1921); rev. pf qt, hmn, 1914,
unpubd
19 Zwei Lieder (J.W. von Goethe), SATB, cl, b cl, cel, gui, vn, 19256, vs (1928): Weiss
wie Lilien, Ziehn die Schafe
26 Das Augenlicht (H. Jone), SATB, orch, 1935 (1956)
29 Cantata no.1 (Jone), S, SATB, orch, 19389 (1954), vs, 1944 (1954): Zndender
Lichtblitz, Kleiner Flgel, Tnen die seligen Saiten Apolls
31 Cantata no.2 (Jone), S, B, SATB, orch, 19413 (1956), vs, 1944 (1951): Schweigt
auch die Welt, Sehr tiefverhalten, Schpfen aus Brunnen, Leichteste Brden,
Freundselig ist das Wort, Gelockert aus dem Schosse
solo vocal
Three Poems, 1v, pf, 18991903 (New York, 1965): Vorfrhling (F. Avenarius),
Nachtgebet der Braut (R. Dehmel), Fromm (G. Falke)
Vorfrhling II (Avenarius), 1v, pf, 1900, unpubd
Wolkennacht (Avenarius), 1v, pf, 1900, unpubd
Wehmut (Avenarius), 1v, pf, 1901, unpubd
Eight Early Songs, 1v, pf, 19014 (New York, 1965): Tief von Fern (Dehmel),
Aufblick (Dehmel), Blumengruss (Goethe), Bild der Liebe (M. Greif), Sommerabend
(W. Weigand), Heiter (F. Nietzsche), Der Tod (M. Claudius), Heimgang in der Frhe
(D. von Liliencron)
Three Songs (Avenarius), 1v, pf, 19034 (New York, 1965): Gefunden, Gebet,
Freunde
Hochsommernacht (Greif), S, T, pf, 1904, unpubd
Five Songs (Dehmel), 1v, pf, 19068 (New York, 1966): Ideale Landschaft, Am Ufer,
Himmelfahrt, Nchtliche Scheu, Helle Nacht
3 Fnf Lieder aus Der siebente Ring (George), 1v, pf, 19089 (1919): Dies ist ein
Lied, Im Windesweben, An Bachesranft, Im Morgentaun, Kahl reckt der Baum
4 Fnf Lieder (George), 1v, pf, 19089 (1923): Eingang, Noch zwingt mich Treue, Ja
Heil und Dank dir, So ich traurig bin, Ihr tratet zu dem Herde
Vier Lieder (George), 1v, pf, 19089 (New York, 1970): Erwachen aus dem tiefsten
Traumesschosse, Kunfttag I, Trauer I, Das lockere Saatgefilde
8 Zwei Lieder (R.M. Rilke), 1v, cl + b cl, hn, tpt, cel, hp, vn, va, vc, 1910, rev.
[undated], 1921, 1925 (1926), arr. 1v, pf, 1925, unpubd: Du, der ichs nicht sage, Du
machst mich allein
Schmerz immer, Blick nach oben (Webern), 1v, str qt, 1913, unpubd [related to op.9]
Three Orchestral Songs, S, orch, 191314 (New York, 1968): Leise Dfte (Webern),
Kunfttag III (George) [reconstructed from sketch by P. Westergaard], O sanftes
Glhn der Berge (Webern) [related to op.10]
12 Vier Lieder, 1v, pf, 191517 (1925): Der Tag ist vergangen (P. Rosegger), Die
geheimnisvolle Flte (Li Tai Po, trans. H. Bethge), Schien mir's, als ich sah die
Sonne (A. Strindberg), Gleich und Gleich (Goethe)
13 Vier Lieder, 1v, chbr orch, 191418 (1926), arr. 1v, pf, 1924 (1926): Wiese im Park
(K. Kraus), Die Einsame (Wang Seng Yu, trans. Bethge), In der Fremde (Li Tai Po,
trans. Bethge), Ein Winterabend (G. Trakl)
14 Sechs Lieder (Trakl), S, cl + E -cl + b cl, vn, vc, 191722 (1924), arr. 1v, pf, 1923,
unpubd: Die Sonne, Abendland I, Abendland II, Abendland III, Nachts, Gesang einer
gefangenen Amsel
15 Fnf geistliche Lieder, 1v, fl, cl + b cl, tpt, hp, vn + va, 191722 (1924), arr. 1v, pf,
1923, unpubd: Das Kreuz, das musst' er tragen (Rosegger), Morgenlied (Des
Knaben Wunderhorn), In Gottes Namen aufstehn (Rosegger), 1921; Mein Weg geht
jetzt vorber (anon. chorale), Fahr hin, o Seel, zu deinem Gott (Rosegger)
16 Fnf Canons nach lateinischen Texten, 1v, cl, b cl, 19234 (1928): Christus factus
est (Maundy Thursday gradual), Dormi Jesu (Des Knaben Wunderhorn), Crux fidelis
(Good Friday hymn), Asperges me (Ordinary antiphon), Crucem tuam adoramus
(Good Friday antiphon)
17 Drei Volkstexte, S, cl, b cl, vn + va, 19245 (1955): Armer Snder, du (Rosegger);
Liebste Jungfrau, wir sind dein (Rosegger); Heiland, unsre Missetaten (anon.)
18 Drei Lieder, 1v, E -cl, gui, 1925 (1927): Schatzerl klein (Rosegger), Erlsung (Des
Knaben Wunderhorn), Ave regina coelorum (Marian antiphon)
23 Drei Gesnge aus Viae inviae (Jone), 1v, pf, 19334 (1936): Das dunkle Herz, Es
Strzt aus Hhen Frische, Herr Jesus mein
25 Drei Lieder (Jone), 1v, pf, 1934 (1956): Wie bin ich froh!; Des Herzens Purpurvogel;
Sterne, ihr silbernen Bienen
chamber and solo instrumental
Two Pieces, vc, pf, 1899 (New York, 1975)
Scherzo and Trio, a, str qt, 1904, unpubd
Langsamer Satz, str qt, 1905 (New York, 1965)
String Quartet, 1905 (New York, 1965)
Satz, pf, 1906 (New York, 1970)
Rondo, str qt, 1906 (New York, 1970)
Sonatensatz (Rondo), pf, 1906 (New York, 1969)
Quintet, pf, str qt, 1907 (Hillsdale, NY, 1953)
String Quartet, a, 1907, unpubd [reconstruction by E. Haugan]
5 Fnf Stze, str qt, 1909 (1922); arr, str orch, 1928, rev. 1929 (1961)
7 Vier Stcke, vn, pf, 1910, definitive version 1914 (1922)
9 Sechs Bagatellen, str qt, 1911, 1913 (1924)
11 Drei kleine Stcke, vc, pf, 1914 (1924)
Main MS collection in CH-Bps; some MSS and other material in A-Wst, US-CA, NYpm; MS and MS
photocopies in US-Wc
Webern, Anton
WRITINGS
Einleitung to H. Isaac: Choralis constantinus II, ed. Webern, DT,
Jg.16/132 (1909) vii
Der Lehrer, Arnold Schnberg, ed. A. Berg and others (Munich, 1912/R),
857; Eng. trans. in F. Wildgans: Anton Webern (London, 1966/R),
16062
Schnbergs Musik, Arnold Schnberg, ed. A. Berg and others (Munich,
1912/R), 2248
Analyse der Passacaglia op.1, AMz, xlix/212 (1922), 465, 467; repr. in R.
Stephan: Weberns Werke auf deutschen Tonknstlerfesten, Mz,
xxvii (1972), 1217, esp. 1234
Zum [Schoenbergs] 50. Geburtstag, Musikbltter des Anbruch, vi (1924),
272; Eng. trans. in Die Reihe, ii (1958, rev. 1959), 10
[untitled], Adolf Loos zum 60. Geburtstag (Vienna, 1930), 67
WS
Bailey (1996)
bibliographies and catalogues of works
collections of essays
published correspondence
biographical studies, reminiscences
general studies
studies of specific works
Webern, Anton: Bibliography
bibliographies and catalogues of works
H. and R. Moldenhauer: Work List, Anton von Webern: a Chronicle of his
Life and Work (London, 1978), 697750
Z. Roman: Selected Bibliography, ibid., 75773
Z. Roman: Supplement to Webern Bibliography, Newsletter of the
International Webern Society, no.21 (1987), 1117
F. Meyer with S. Hnggi-Stampfli: Anton Webern: Musikmanuskripte,
Inventare der Paul Sacher Stiftung, no.4 (Winterthur, 2/1994)
N. Boynton: A Webern Bibliography, WS (Cambridge, 1996), 298362
Webern, Anton: Bibliography
collections of essays
Webern zum 50. Geburtstag, 23: eine Wiener Musikzeitschrift, no.14
(1934)
Anton Webern Dokumente, Bekenntnis, Erkenntnisse, Analysen, Die
Reihe, ii (1955); Eng. trans. in Die Reihe, ii (1958, rev. 1959) [Webern
issue]
W. Reich, ed.: Anton Webern: Weg und Gestalt, in Selbstzeugnissen und
Worten der Freunde (Zrich, 1961) [WG]
H. Moldanhaver and D. Irvine, eds.: Anton von Webern: Perspectives
(Seattle, 1962) [ AWP]
W. Hofmann, ed.: SchnbergWebernBerg: BilderPartituren
Dokumente (Vienna, 1969)
U. von Rauchhaupt, ed.: Die Streichquartette der Wiener Schule:
Schoenberg, Berg, Webern (Munich, 1971; Eng. trans., 1971)
Anton von Webern, Mz, xxvii (1972), 11383
Webern-Kongress V: Vienna 1972 [WK]
L. Ferrari, ed.: Webern: cento anni (Venice, 1983)
E. Hilmar, ed.: Anton Webern 1883 1983 (Vienna, 1983) [AWH]
D. Rexroth, ed.: Opus Anton Webern (Berlin, 1983) [OAW]
H.-K. Metzger and R.Riehn, eds.: Anton Webern, Musik-Konzepte
Sonderband (Munich, 19834) [AW]
K. Bailey, ed.: Webern Studies (Cambridge, 1996) [WS]
Webern, Anton: Bibliography
published correspondence
Aus unverffentlichten Briefen, Der Turm, i (19456), 39091
Aus dem Briefwechsel, Die Reihe, ii (1955), 2028; Eng. trans. in Die
Reihe, ii (1958, rev. 1959), 1321
Briefe der Freundschaft (19111945), Die Stimme der Komponisten:
Aufstze, Reden, Briefe 190758, ed. H. Lindlar (Rodenkirchen,
1958), 12633
Letters of Webern and Schoenberg (to Roberto Gerhard), The Score,
no.24 (1958), 3641
J. Polnauer, ed.: Briefe an Hildegard Jone und Josef Humplik (Vienna,
1959; Eng. trans., 1967)
[letters to W. Reich], Der Weg zur neuen Musik, ed. W. Reich (Vienna,
1960), 6372; most repr. in WG (Zrich, 1961), 5075 passim; Eng.
trans. (Bryn Mawr, PA, 1963), 5867
Briefe an Alban Berg, WG (Zrich, 1961), 1922
Zwei Briefe an Hanns Eisler, Sinn und Form, xvi (1964), 1089 [Hanns
Eisler issue]
W. Reich, ed.: Briefe aus Weberns letzten Jahren, Mz, xx (1965), 407
11
I. Vojtch: Arnold Schnberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg: unbekannte
Briefe an Erwin Schulhoff aus den Jahren 191926, MMC, no.18
(1965), 3183, esp. 3840
W. Reich, ed.: Berg und Webern schreiben an Hermann Scherchen,
Melos, xxxiii (1966), 2258
P. Op de Coul: Unverffentlichte Briefe von Alban Berg und Anton Webern
an Daniel Ruyneman, TVNM, xxii/3 (1972), 20120
F. Glck: Briefe von Anton von Webern und Alban Berg an Adolf Loos,
Mz, xxx (1975), 11013
[letter to E.Stein] in F. Dhl: Weberns Beitrag zur Stilwende der neuen
Musik: Studien ber Voraussetzungen, Technik und sthetik der
Komposition mit 12 nur aufeinander bezogenen Tnen (Munich,
1976), 4437
H. Moldenhauer: Webern an Hartmann: bisher unverffentlichte Briefe
und Postkarten, Karl Amadeus Hartmann und die Musica Viva:
Essays, bisher unverffentlichte Briefe an Hartmann, ed. R. Wagner
and others, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: Austtellungs-Kataloge, no.21
(Munich and Mainz, 1980), 8191
Webern schreibt Briefe, AWH (Vienna, 1983), 5991
H.-K. Metzger and R.Riehn, eds.: Anton Webern, Musik-Konzepte
Sonderband (Munich, 19834) [incl. Briefe an Theodor W. Adorno,
ed. R. Tiedemann, i, 622; Aus dem Briefwechsel WebernSteuermann, ed. R. Busch, i, 2351; Aus dem Briefwechsel WebernKrenek, ed. C.M. Zenck, ii, 15161; Briefe Weberns an Johann
Humpelstetter, ed. R. Riehn, ii, 35464]
Vier Briefe an Alban Berg, OAW (Berlin, 1983), 8692
P. Sulzer: Zehn Komponisten um Werner Reinhart, i, Abb. 37, iii
(Winterthur, 1983), 11750
H. Weber, ed.: Zemlinsky Briefwechsel mit Schnberg, Webern, Berg und
Schreker, Briefwechsel der Wiener Schule, i (Darmstadt, 1995), 281
302
Webern, Anton: Bibliography
biographical studies, reminiscences
M.D.P. Cooper: Atonality and Zwlftonmusik (Written after Attending a
Course of Lectures by Dr Anton Webern), MT, lxxiv (1933), 497500