expressionism, pantonality& arnold schoenberg(1874 … · arnold schoenberg(1874 –1951)...
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Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• Austrian (later American) composer, theorist, mostly
associated with his innovations in modern music;
atonality & 12-tone composition
• 1874 Vienna – 1951 Los Angeles
• Self-taught; independentlty and intensely
studied the works of the masters
• Until he departed for America in 1934,
lived alternatively in Berlin and Vienna,
teaching as a professor of composition
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• 3 stylistic periods
• Extension of tonality (until around 1908)
• Atonality (1908-1921)
• 12-Tone Composition (1921 & on)
• Schoenberg’s early style of writing grew out
of the late German Romantic tradition of
Wagner, Mahler and Strauss.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• Listening (early Schoenberg);
• Verklarte Nacht Op.4 (‘Transfigured Night’) – 1899
• String Quartet No.1 in D minor, Op.7 - 1905
• Chamber Symphony No.1 – 1906
• ‘Developing Variation’ – (Eroica influence)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• Listening (early Schoenberg);
• Verklarte Nacht Op.4 (‘Transfigured Night’) (excerpt) – 1899
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• Expressionism in Arts & Music
• Expressionist art tries portraying strongnegative emotions such as fear, hatred andloneliness. In order to portrsy thesesubjective emotions artists and composerswould use highly experimentaltechniques.
• Depicting real objects in distortedrepresentations to reflect the inner feelingabout the world and themselves
• In the case of Schoenberg, this meantwriting music in a highly dissonant, rhythmically and melodicallyfragmentary, nonthematic style. Scream – Edward Munch
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• Schoenberg & Atonal Expressionism
• Atonal music is music without any tonal
center ( a central pitch) and without a
governing set of rules concerning the pitches
to each other in harmony and melody.
• Schoenberg considered breakdown of
tonality (he didin’t liked the term atonality)
a historical necessity; a product of the
evolution toward dissonant harmony;
abolishing the distinction between
consonance and dissonance.
• Other factors related to personal life
(Mathilde & Richard Gerstl)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• Listening (Schoenberg & Atonality)
• String Quartet No.2 Op.10 (last movement)
• «I feel wind from other planets» Stefan George
• Book of Hanging Gardens Op.15
• 15part song cycle based on poems by Stefan George
• Initiation to love, its consummation and destruction
• Five Orchestral Pieces Op.16
• Erwartung Op.17
• Pierrot Lunaire Op.21
• Nacht & Enthaptung
• Sprechstimme (speech-voice)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
Listening (Schoenberg & Atonality)
• String Quartet No.2 Op.10 – Movement IV ‘Entrückung’ (excerpt)
portrait by Richard Gerstl
Entrückung
Ich fühle luft von anderem planeten.
Mir blassen durch das dunkel die gesichter
Die freundlich eben noch sich zu mir drehten.
Und bäum und wege die ich liebte fahlen
Dass ich sie kaum mehr kenne und du lichter
Geliebter schatten—rufer meiner qualen--
Bist nun erloschen ganz in tiefern gluten
Um nach dem taumel streitenden getobes
Mit einem frommen schauer anzumuten.
Ich löse mich in tönen, kreisend, webend,
Ungründigen danks und unbenamten lobes
Dem grossen atem wunschlos mich ergebend.
.
Rapture
I feel wind from other planets.
I faintly through the darkness see faces
Friendly even now, turning toward me.
And trees and paths that I loved fade
So I can scarcely know them and you bright
Beloved shadow—summon my anguish--
Are only extinguish completely in a deep glowing
In the frenzy of the fight
With a pious show of reason.
I lose myself in tones, circling, weaving,
With unfathomable thanks and unnamed love
I happily surrender to the great breath.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
« The word ‘atonal’ could only signify something entirely inconsistent
with the nature of tone… to call any relation of tones atonal is just as
farfetched as it would be to designate a relation of colors aspectral or
acomplementary. There is no such antithesis.»
• Pantonality
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
• Listening (Schoenberg & Atonality)
• Five Orchestral Pieces Op.16 (excerpts)
• Listening (Schoenberg & Atonality)
• Pierrot Lunaire Op.21
• Nacht & Enthaptung
• Sprechstimme (speech-voice)
8) Night
Black gigantic butterflies
have blotted out the shining sun.
Like a sorcerer’s sealed book,
the horizon sleeps in silence.
From the murky depths forgotten
vapours rise, to murder memory_
Black gigantic butterflies
have blotted out the shining sun.
And from heaven toward the earth,
sinking down on heavy pinions,
all unseen descend the monsters
to the hearts of men below here...
Black gigantic butterflies.