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Webern's Sketches (III)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
Extract
The most extensive sketches in the volume are of a third movement for the String Trio op. 20. Thirty-one bars were completed and are headed ‘planned as third movement ofthe String Trio op. 20 (August 1927 broken off in Hafning)’. The sketches cover five densely-packed pages and are transcribed as Ex. 18. Many passages exist in two, three or even more versions but usually the earlier, superseded, attempts have been crossed out and it is possible to trace the final form by following a path through the maze of vi – de signs, asterisks and arrows. Occasionally, however, there are several versions of a single bar or motive, none of which have been deleted. In the interests of achieving a continuity so that Ex. 18 can be read—and even, perhaps, played—as a torso, I have, in each of these ambiguous places, selected the version which seemsto me to be the most nearly definitive. For example, when one variant has the word ‘gilt’ by it, this is the one I have also chosen, even though the other versions may not have been crossed out.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975
References
Notes
26. Webern's diary, 22 July 1927. Quoted in Kolneder, , op. cit., p. 139 Google Scholar.
27. Krenek's statement (in his Commentary) that ‘through careful inspection of the rows and their numbers it was possible to infer the basic principle of Webern's numbering system’ thus appears somewhat optiimstic. Solutions will be gratefully received.
28. cf Perle, ‘Webern's Twelve-Tone Sketches’, The Musical Quarterly, January 1971, p. 11: ‘… the difficulty with the projected finale of the Trio is that it is too similar to the preceding movements.’
29. cf Perle, , op. cit., p. 11 Google Scholar: ‘The alternating 5/8 and 3/8 time signatures in the viola part seem relevant to its actual rhythmic character, but the composer's purpose in distributing bar lines in one way in the violin part and in another way in the cello part is unclear, since the latter is in strict rhythmic imitation of the former.’
30. Extract from Webern's letter to Hildegard Jone dated Mödling, 6.8.1928, in Webern, Anton: Letters to Hildegard Jone and Josef Humplik, op. cit., p. 10 (letter 4)Google Scholar.
31. Quoted in Kolneder, , op. cit., p. 112 Google Scholar
32. I would like to thank Simon Emmerson for his assistance in analyzing the set-structure of the String Trio.
33. See Perle, , op. cit., pp. 8–9 Google Scholar.
34. But see Perle, , op. cit., p. 10 Google Scholar: ‘The fragment is not sufficiently extensive to permit one to deduce whether or not the third movement was to have been modelled, like the other two, on a traditional formal design.’