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)

• 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

• Josef Matthias Hauer• aggregate• hexachord• complementary hexachords• twelve-tone method• row• retrograde• transposition• inversion• serialism• partitioning• pointillism