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 Freuds 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)
Bla Bartk (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
(18741951)

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 Zemlinskys 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)
Alsotalented 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 1920s - Developed Twelve-tone
System
1923 his wife Mathilde died
1924 Schoenberg married Gertrud Kolisch
and moved back to Berlin
1933 - Flee the Nazis 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 scoringeach 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, quasimelodic 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.21

No. 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.21

No. 8: Night - (2)
Motivic Transformation : inversions &
retrograde
Motive represents Pierrots 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.21

No. 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 Pierrots 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:
1

R-0:
I-0:
RI-0:

10

11

12

Listening: Schoenberg
Piano 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, Bartk, Enesco

& Webern in his Op. 28
More recently Luigi Dallapiccola &
Yannis Xenakis

Serialism & Unity

The Esthetics of Serialism:
1.A row gives a piece its own sound world
interval sequence determines
melodies and harmonies
2.Each different row creates a different
sound world and color
3.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 (18851935)

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 Mahlers
daughter)
Chamber Music: Lyric Suite (string
quartet) -1926

Berg, Wozzeck (2.2)

Genre: 1922 opera in 3 Acts based on
1837 play by Georg Bchner (Austrian
M.D. and writer)
Conceptually Wagnerian :
Relies on orchestra for
Continuity
Uses leitmotifs, no arias !
Influenced by Expressionism
Sprechstimme technique
Alban 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 ensemble
2/ 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 doctors 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 Wozzecks
obsession with the murder of Marie
Ex. of transformations:

Cont. Act III, scene iii (3.3)

After the dance, Margret sees blood on
Wozzecks 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, Gsharp

Anton Webern (18831945)

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 ToneRows 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