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On the Horizontal and Vertical Presentation of Musical Ideas and on Musical Space (I)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Regina Busch
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Extract

‘His Own Attempts at Explanation, just like his compositional work, lend themselves to misunderstanding’. This opinion dominates Webern literature now as in the past, though naturally not always in this formulation of Dohl's. Sometimes we read of contradictions, of imprecisions; errors of fact or of mental processes can be ‘demonstrated’; and, depending on the particular author's field of interest and study, these are treated with indulgence or gentle annoyance, with indignation or knowing dismissal. Who could expect of a composer—a composer, moreover, like Webern: naive, at times culpably naive, withdrawn from reality; with a music so ‘abstract’, so in need of help or redemption by means of interpretation—who could expect of such a composer pertinent and consistent, or at least apt, music-theoretical concepts or utterances? Hardly anyone, in fact, seems to have dared to expect this kind of thing of Webern so far. That this might indeed involve some daring can be recognized from the conditions, the fuss, and circumstance with which Webern is approached. Whether they have sprung from the soil of serial music or not, all the systematic investigations, the numbering of note-rows, classifying of pitches, durations and so on, considerations of ‘structure’ (many investigations, too, of ‘form’, of symmetries)—they all seem like precautions against the music. Since the music is not trusted, the traditional music-theoretical concepts presented by Webern (and Schoenberg, too) are also regarded as unsuited for coping with the music. Instead, attempts are made using, for instance, the idea of a cell (usually a three-note basic cell) and its metamorphoses—an idea which is at least as anachronistic as the traditional ones, is scarcely strong enough to bear the burden of explication, and is exactly as vulnerable to criticism on scientific and ideological grounds as a serious preoccupation with Webern's own statements is alleged to be.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 154 , September 1985 , pp. 2 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Döhl, Friedhelm, ‘Zum Formbegriff Weberns. Weberns Analyse des Streichquartetts op.28 nebst einigen Bemerkungen zu Weberns Analyse eigener Werke’ (On Webern's Concept of Form. Webern's Analysis of the String Quartet op.28, together with some observations on Webern's analysis of his own works), in Östereichische Musikzeitschrift 27 (1972), pp. 131–148, especially p. 137Google Scholar. Cf.also Döhl's, ‘Weberns Beitrag zur Stilwende der neuen Musik’ (Webern's contribution to the change in style of the New Music) in Berliner musikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten Vol. 12 (Munich-Salzburg 1976), p. 337ffGoogle Scholar.

2 German ‘Dummheit’ —see Csipák, Károly, ‘Probleme der Volkstumlichkeitbei Hanns Eisler’ (Hanns Eisler and the problem of popularity) in Berliner musikwissenschaflliche Arbeiten Vol. 11 (Munich 1975)Google Scholar; Csipák, Károly, ‘Was heisst “Dummheit in der Musik”? Uberlegungen zu Hanns Eislers Musikdenken’ (What does'stupidity in music' mean? Reflections on Hanns Eisler's musical thinking), in Notizbuch 5/6: Musik, edited by Kapp, Reinhard (Berlin-Vienna, 1982), pp. 175–202 Google Scholar.

3 Cf. for example Dahlaus, Carl, ‘Schönbergs musikalische Poetik’, in Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft 33 (1976), pp. 81–88 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 For instance, Stephan, Rudolf, ‘Der musikalische Gcdanke bei Schönberg’ (The musical idea in Schoenberg), in Rudolf Stephan, Vom musikalischen Denken. Gesammelte Vorträge, edited by Damm, Rainer and Traub, Andreas (Mainz, 1985), pp. 129–137 Google Scholar; also Rudolf Stephan, ‘Zum Terminus “Grundgestalt”’ (On the term ‘Basic Shape’) ibid. pp. 138–145.

5 Webern, Anton, Der Weg zur neuen Musik, edited by Reich, Willi (Vienna, 1960)Google Scholar; English Version The Path to the New Music (Bryn Mawr and London, 1963), translated by Leo BlackGoogle ScholarPubMed. (The passages appearing in this article have been translated by Michael Graubart.)

6 Cf. for example August Halm, Von zwei Kulturen der Musik (Of two cultures of music) (Munich, 1913, reprinted Stuttgart, 1947); see also Busch, Regina, ‘August Halm über die Konzertform’ (August Halm on concerto form), in Notizbuch 5/6: Musik (Berlin-Vienna 1982), pp. 107–153 Google Scholar.

7 1941; first published 1950 in Style and Idea (New York), ed. Newlin, Dika Google Scholar; the above quotation, and those following, are taken from the new edition of Style and Idea (London, 1975), ed. Stein, Leonard Google Scholar, where the essay appears as ‘Composition with Twelve Tones (1)’. (Claudio Spies, in his introduction to the 1934 lecture-notes—see next note—states that the 1941 essay was originally given at UCLA in March 1941 and repeated at the University of Chicago in May 1946.—M.G.)

8 Published in Perspectives of New Music, Fall–Winter 1974, Vol. 13 No. 154 Google Scholar.

9 ‘Gesetz’. Spies's translation, ‘notion’ (loc.cit) misses the binding force of Schoenberg's expression.—M.G.

10 ‘Anschauung’ (‘way of regarding’); Spies's ‘conception’ does not convey the implication.—M.G.

11 In Arnold Schoenberg, Gesammelte Schriften, edited by Voytěch, Ivan (Frankfurt, 1976), pp. 272–282 Google Scholar.

12 Cf. Hans, and Moldenhauer, Rosaleen, Anton von Webern. A Chronicle of his Life and Work, (New York, 1979), pp. 373f Google Scholar. Schoenberg's suggestion in the following sentence is quoted from p.374.

13 My translations.—M.G.

14 German ‘Grundton’, ‘Grundtonart’. I have chosen ‘foundation’ in preference to the usual ‘fundamental’ because the latter word has (at least in common usage) lost the literal connotations ‘ground’, ‘earth’(underfoot) and the derived connotations ‘cause’, ‘reason (for)’ of the German ‘Grund’ —M.G.

15 ‘Suspended tonality’ is Schoenberg's English phrase for ‘schwebende Tonalitat’. ‘Hovering’ or ‘floating’ is more exact: ‘…floating in space…’.—M.G.

16 ‘Wir schliessen im gleichem Ton’.

17 Stein, Erwin, ‘Neue Formprinzipien’ (New Principles of Form) in Musikblälter des Anbruch 6. Sonierheft: Arnold Schönberg zum 50. Geburtsmge, 13. September 1924, pp.286–303 Google Scholar, quotations from pp. 291 and 295.

18 ‘Vortrags-Anweisung’: Regina Busch's pun is untranslateable. The phrase means ‘mark of interpretation’ in the musical sense (dynamics, tempo, etc) but ‘Vortrag’ also means ‘lecture’.—M.G.

19 Perspectives, Fall-Winter 1974, pp. 84–85.

20 Greissle, Felix, ‘Die formalen Grundlagen des Bläserquintetts von Arnold Schönberg’ (The formal foundations of the Wind Quintet of Arnold Schoenberg), in Musikbläiter des Anbruch 7 (1925), pp. 63–68 Google Scholar; especially pp. 65–66.

21 German ‘auskomponiert’ —M.G.

22 Style and Idea (1975), p. 223.

23 See, for instance, Abel, Angelika, Die Zwölftontechnik Webems und Goethes Methodik der Farbenlehre. Zur Kompositionstheorie und Ästhetik der Neuen Wiener Schule (Webem's twelve-note technique and Goethe's methodology of colour-theory. On the compositional theory and aesthetics of the new Viennese school) (Wiesbaden, 1982)Google Scholar.

24 Translated by the present translator from the German translation by Schering, E., Inferno. Legenden (Munich, 1920)—M.GGoogle Scholar.

25 German ‘Erkenntnis; erkennen’: recognition, recognize; cognition, cognize; apprehension, apprehend; knowledge, know—M.G.

26 The German ‘einstimmig’ (lit. ‘one-voiced’) means ‘monophonic’ (or even ‘for one voice’) in the musical sense, but also carries implications of ‘joining in together’, ‘being of one voice (unanimous)’, etc.—M.G.

27 Texte (Vienna, 1926) p.25 (shortened)—M.G. translationGoogle ScholarPubMed.

28 ‘Gestalten’.

29 My translation—M.G.; see also leaflet in record-set The Music of Arnold Schoenberg, Vol.III (CBS): notes by Claudio Spies.

30 In Newlin, Dika, Schoenberg Remembered. Diaries and Recollections 1938–1976 (New York, 1980), p. 133 (diary entry of 3 November 1939)Google Scholar.