Quartet p.22 Webern Backgrund Infrmatin and Perfrmance Circumstances Antn Webern (1883-1945), tgether with Schenberg and Berg, was ne f a grup f Viennese pineers f an early 20 th Century style. Frm 1904 bth Berg and Webern had studied with Schenberg, the acknwledged leader f the grup, which has becme knwn as the Secnd Viennese Schl. The first Schl had cnsisted f Haydn, Mzart, Beethven and their 19 th Century successrs. Like Schenberg, Webern wrte in atnal style befre fllwing the example f his teacher and writing serial music frm the early 1920s. Webern was als an admirer f Mahler, whse music had taken traditinal tnality t chrmatic extremes. Atnality, r abandnment f tnality, was the lgical prgressin frm chrmaticism. A prblem the cmpsers came upn was that abandning tnality meant that the structural supprt it prvided was n lnger available t them. One slutin was t write such shrt pieces that structure was hardly relevant. The furth f Webern s Five Pieces fr Orchestra p.10 cntains nly 28 ntes. His sngs p.3 are all between 10 and 16 bars lng. It became clear that sme new structural device was necessary t replace tnality. Serialism was the answer that Schenberg devised and Webern and Berg quickly adpted it (see the sectins n tnality and meldy belw). Webern was the mst extreme in his adptin f the technique. Whereas Berg allwed himself t repeat ntes and phrases and even use ntes frm utside the series, Webern was very rigid in keeping t the precise rder, whether in prime (i.e. riginal) rder, inversin, retrgrade r retrgrade inversin. T many listeners present at the rare ccasins in these early years that the music f the Secnd Viennese Schl cmpsers was perfrmed, the style seemed almst impssibly alien. This was als the case, even in pre-serialist days. In 1913 at a cncert f their music there was a rit and the perfrmance came t a premature cnclusin. When the Nazis annexed Austria befre the 2 nd Wrld War, Webern s music was banned as being degenerate. The main characteristics f the music f the Secnd Viennese Schl are: atnality dissnance use f serialism frm the early 1920s nwards extreme brevity in the case f Webern angular meldies with wide leaps an interest in pintillist writing (see meldy sectin) 1
The music in the anthlgy is the first mvement f a tw-mvement wrk, cmpleted in 1930. The wrk requires highly skilled players. Perfrming Frces and their Handling Webern was interested in achieving the widest range f timbre frm a small number f players, s in this quartet there is a: string instrument (vilin) standard wdwind instrument (clarinet) saxphne (which has characteristics f bth wdwind and brass families pian. Players use a wide variety f techniques t prduce the maximum variatin f tne clur. The vilin is directed t play with mute (mit Dämpfer) up t bar 17, where the directin is Dämpfer ab (mute ff). The first tw vilin ntes are played with the bw (arc), then the third is marked t be plucked (pizzicat) befre reverting t arc again. Smetimes the player has t alternate the tw techniques very rapidly (bars 22-3). The pian part has arrws shwing the directin f spread chrds (nly ever tw ntes at a time), smetimes the mre cmmn rising spread chrd (l.h. bar 14) and smetimes the descending versin (same bar, right hand). The directin f the arrw als indicates the rder f the ntes f the series. The players explit a large pitch range. The vilin rises t a tp C at the climax f the mvement (bar 22). There are many ther perfrmance directins: tenut markings, staccat, slurs. Dynamic range is wide. Webern was particularly fnd f writing quiet music. Half f his sngs frm p.3 and p.4 use a dynamic range frm ppp t p. In this mvement mst f the music is quiet apart frm frte markings fr individual ntes and accent markings. The music rises t a frtissim climax at bar 22, befre subsiding t pianissim fr the end. Texture The texture is extremely thin. Even at the climax, where all five musical lines are playing (the pian part is essentially tw lines f music), rests prevent mre than three parts playing tgether simultaneusly. The music is ften almst mnphnic. Only ccasinally in the five bar intrductin d tw parts sund tgether. 2
The music is, thugh, fundamentally plyphnic. There are five parts (separate hrizntal lines f music fr the fur instruments). Webern delighted in the use f cann (precise imitatin). In this piece he writes mirrr canns at the beginning and elsewhere. In mirrr canns, the standard versin f a phrase is imitated by the inversin (upside dwn versin) f the same music. At the beginning Webern actually des the reverse the inversin in the tenr saxphne is imitated by the vilin, playing a transpsed versin f the rw. Structure Althugh the tnal aspect f traditinal structure was replaced by serial technique, Webern was keen t intrduce Classical frms n tp f the serialist base. All f his instrumental pieces f arund this time and later, emply such frms, including binary, ternary, rnd and variatin frm. This piece culd be regarded as being in ternary frm (with intrductin r cda) r even snata frm, thugh it is certainly difficult fr the listener t hear this, and there are nne f the key relatinships assciated with the frm. The structure is as fllws. Bars 1-5 Bars 6-15 Bars 16-23 Bars 24-27 Bars 28-39 Intrductin mirrr canns. Begins with I0 (inversin untranspsed) in tenr saxphne, imitated by P10 (prime rw transpsed up 10 semitnes) in vilin. Expsitin with main serial theme (prime rw) in un-transpsed frm n the saxphne (bars 6-10). The expsitin is then repeated, exactly as in a Classical piece. Develpment sectin begins with I9 in the vilin and P1 in the clarinet. Rises t a climax at the tp C in the vilin part, bar 22, which immediately leads t a retrgrade (backwards) versin f the music immediately preceding it (but with the ntes distributed differently amng the instrumental parts). Effectively, this is a palindrme. Link Recapitulatin begins with the same ntes as the expsitin (C#- E). The rw nw appears in Klangfarbenmeldie (see belw) with the ntes mving arund the instrumental parts, instead f remaining in the saxphne as it had in the expsitin. Bars 39-43 Cda basically the intrductin in a cmplex reverse versin ending with the first nte f the mvement C# - the enharmnic equivalent f Db. Tnality The music is bth atnal (in that there is n key) and serial. Serialism is the arrangement f a series f ntes in a fixed rder. The rder remained the same, except that the series culd be inverted (intervals turned upside dwn), played in retrgrade (backwards), r in retrgrade inversin. Each f the fur versins f the series culd be transpsed up r dwn by up t 11 semitnes. This gives 48 pssible versins f the rw. 3
Harmny Ntes tend t ccur individually, s frequently there is n harmny. When there are tw r mre ntes sunding tgether, the effect is frequently dissnant. The first chrd at the beginning f the secnd bar prduces a clashing majr 2 nd interval. On ne f the few ccasins when three ntes sund simultaneusly, in bar 20, a C# clashes against a D and E flat. Meldy The tne rw n which the music is based is reprduced belw. There are 5 semitnes (a favurite interval f Webern s). The individual ntes culd always be transpsed up r dwn ne r mre ctaves, s these semitnes ften became 7 ths r 9 ths as shwn in the tenr saxphne versin f the theme at bar 6. Wide, angular intervals are a feature thrughut the mvement. The interval f the tritne (diminished 5th r augmented 4th) ccurs between the 10th and 11th ntes f the series. This was anther favurite interval, which helped t detract frm any sense f key. The meldic lines are fragmentary (interspersed with rests). The technique f dividing ntes between instruments, using a wide variety f instrumental techniques was called Klangfarbenmeldie - frm the German wrds Klang (tne), Farben (clurs), Meldie. This is heard right frm the start, where the 10th transpsitin f the prime rw mves arund frm vilin (pizzicat and arc) t pian (left hand), then vilin, clarinet and finally pian (left hand). The idea f making a meldy frm little splashes f varying instrumental clur was called pintillist (after the technique used by sme French Impressinist painters wh built up pictures frm a multitude f small dts f clur). 4
Rhythm and Metre Webern s mvement is mainly in triple time, thugh it is nt easy t hear a real sense f triple metre especially as the time signatures change frequently, as early as bars 3 and 4 where it mves t quintuple, then quadruple metre and back. Frequent rests make the music sund very fragmentary. The music sunds mre cntinuus as it reaches the climax in bar 20. There are three recurring rhythmic grupings: semiquaver-quaver-semiquaver rest-quaver (as in the first three saxphne ntes) three semiquavers (pian in bar 3) and tw semiquavers (vilin, bars 3-4). The rhythm is very precisely ntated (all part f the tne clur meldy idea). This is enhanced by the use f tenut and staccat markings. A pause mark is used just befre the recapitulatin. The speed is slw. The marking at the beginning sehr mässig means very mderate. There are frequent changes f temp. Ritardand a temp markings are used at the beginning f sectins. Near the end there is a caland marking a cmbinatin f getting quieter and slwer. 5