Symphony, Op. 21 | |
---|---|
Symphony (or chamber or miniature symphony) [1] by Anton Webern | |
Opus | 21 [2] |
Period | die Neue Musik ( 20th-century music) |
Language | German |
Composed | 1927–1928 |
Dedication | Webern's youngest daughter Christine Mattl (née Webern) [3] |
Duration | 10–15 minutes [4] |
Movements | Two (1 Mvmt. Ruhig schreitend; 2 Mvmt. Variationen: Thema, Sehr ruhig — 1 Var. lebhafter — 2 Var. sehr lebhaft — 3 Var. wieder mäßiger — 4 Var. äußert ruhig — 5 Var. sehr lebhaft — 6 Var. marschmäßig, nicht eilen — 7 Var. etwas breiter — Coda) [5] |
Scoring | Orchestra or chamber orchestra of 1 clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 2 horns, 1 harp, and strings senza bassi |
Premiere | |
Date | 18 December 1929[6] | (world premiere)
Location | Town Hall, New York [6] |
Conductor | Alexander Smallens [6] |
Performers | Orchestra of the League of Composers [6] |
Anton Webern's Symphony, Op. 21 (1927–1928), [7] noted for its symmetry, [8] abstraction, [9] and Alpine topics, [10] was his first twelve-tone orchestral work.
Op. 21 was part of Webern's turn to more economic orchestration compared to his early works. Its composition coincided with his 1928 revision of Op. 6 (1909, arr. 1920), [a] in which he substantially reduced the wind instrument section, hoping for performances. [12] Webern used only clarinet, bass clarinet, and horns, all featuring relatively wide ranges and each with some rustic, folk topicality. [13] [b] He wrote Claire Raphael Reis that the strings could be reduced to soloists for the world premiere (the League of Composers asked Webern for a chamber orchestra work after he finished the Symphony), but he wrote in his diary: "Better with multiple strings." [15]
It is in two movements.
The first movement is in a concise (quasi-) sonata form with superimposed elements [16] and a rounded binary appearance. [17] In a Classical manner, its exposition and development– recapitulation are repeated; it ends in a stretto (quasi-) coda. [18]
Through many successive iterations, Webern painstakingly sketched the first several bars, [19] which Michael Spitzer found "so evocative of natural expanse" in the timbres and rhythms of Webern's music for horn duet, harp, and "rumbling" lower strings. Thus the opening has often been compared to that of Mahler's Ninth. [20]
Demonstrating Webern's early music studies, the first movement consists of four lines in a double canon (by inversion) with frequent palindromes and fixed register. [21] Anne C. Shreffler noted Webern's reliance on linear, song-like writing, [22] an observation often made of Mahler. [23] [c]
One canon features Ländler-like lilting melodic repetition on legato strings and winds, representing an orderly pastoral topic.
The other canon is more percussive, even accompanimental in texture, qualities which Webern crafted after drafting the canon's melody. To this end, he used ornaments like acciaccature; articulations like staccati; instrumentation with the harp's plucked timbre; and musical techniques like double stops, mutes, pizzicati, string harmonics, and sul ponticello. [24]
The second movement comprises nine small sections replete with palindromes: [25] a theme, seven canonic variations, and a coda, [d] where the theme is fragmented into motives and the variation developmental. Bailey Puffett noted not only the use of dynamics, register, rhythm, tempi, texture, and timbre for Classical forms of surface-level variation, but also the use of more developmental devices like inversion and retrograde, augmentation and diminution, imitation, and some octave displacement. [e]
Danielle Hood described the fourth variation, identified by Webern as the midpoint, as a " waltz/Ländler double". [28] In the fifth variation's cowbell-like harp octaves and close, stomping string dissonances, Adorno heard the "soulful sound" of the Almabtrieb, delighting Webern. [29]
Goeyvaerts noted proto- serial schemes of articulations, dynamics, and register, not time ( meter, rhythm, or tempo). [30] Rochberg noted the "objectified, mensural" relation of pitch and time in Webern's later instrumental œuvre as a whole. [31]
Its chromatic hexachords [f] are inversionally related by tritone. [33]
Alexander Smallens and the Orchestra of the League of Composers gave the world premiere at New York's Town Hall in 1929, meeting jeers. [34]
At the Vienna Konzerthaus (1930), Webern himself conducted an ensemble including the Kolisch Quartet and members of the Wiener Staatsoper, flanking his Symphony with Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 2 ( Eduard Steuermann, piano) and Beethoven's Septet. In the Neue Freie Presse review, Josef Reitler wrote that "barbaric ... soullessness is foreign [to Webern]", contrasting him with Bartók, Stravinsky, and the Krenek of Jonny spielt auf. [35]
Listeners laughed in Berlin (Apr. 1931). [36] There Otto Klemperer had two weeks to prepare. [37] Heinz Tietjen was defunding the Krolloper ostensibly for its poorly attended modernist repertoire. [38] [g]
Hermann Scherchen conducted the London premiere at the summer 1931 International Society for Contemporary Music Festival. Prompted by Schoenberg, Edward Clark had invited Webern to conduct. Webern declined, citing travel fatigue and his desire to focus on composition. But there was also low remuneration, recent bad press, and as noted in his diary earlier that year: "Need for quiet and reflection." [46]
Klemperer programmed the Symphony again in 1936 Vienna, likely on Schoenberg's advice, but did not adhere to Webern's desired performance practice. [47]
Stockhausen applied its specific row in Klavierstücke VII (1954–1955), [48] IX (1954, rev. 1961), and X (1954, rev. 1961). [49]
Symphony, Op. 21 | |
---|---|
Symphony (or chamber or miniature symphony) [1] by Anton Webern | |
Opus | 21 [2] |
Period | die Neue Musik ( 20th-century music) |
Language | German |
Composed | 1927–1928 |
Dedication | Webern's youngest daughter Christine Mattl (née Webern) [3] |
Duration | 10–15 minutes [4] |
Movements | Two (1 Mvmt. Ruhig schreitend; 2 Mvmt. Variationen: Thema, Sehr ruhig — 1 Var. lebhafter — 2 Var. sehr lebhaft — 3 Var. wieder mäßiger — 4 Var. äußert ruhig — 5 Var. sehr lebhaft — 6 Var. marschmäßig, nicht eilen — 7 Var. etwas breiter — Coda) [5] |
Scoring | Orchestra or chamber orchestra of 1 clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 2 horns, 1 harp, and strings senza bassi |
Premiere | |
Date | 18 December 1929[6] | (world premiere)
Location | Town Hall, New York [6] |
Conductor | Alexander Smallens [6] |
Performers | Orchestra of the League of Composers [6] |
Anton Webern's Symphony, Op. 21 (1927–1928), [7] noted for its symmetry, [8] abstraction, [9] and Alpine topics, [10] was his first twelve-tone orchestral work.
Op. 21 was part of Webern's turn to more economic orchestration compared to his early works. Its composition coincided with his 1928 revision of Op. 6 (1909, arr. 1920), [a] in which he substantially reduced the wind instrument section, hoping for performances. [12] Webern used only clarinet, bass clarinet, and horns, all featuring relatively wide ranges and each with some rustic, folk topicality. [13] [b] He wrote Claire Raphael Reis that the strings could be reduced to soloists for the world premiere (the League of Composers asked Webern for a chamber orchestra work after he finished the Symphony), but he wrote in his diary: "Better with multiple strings." [15]
It is in two movements.
The first movement is in a concise (quasi-) sonata form with superimposed elements [16] and a rounded binary appearance. [17] In a Classical manner, its exposition and development– recapitulation are repeated; it ends in a stretto (quasi-) coda. [18]
Through many successive iterations, Webern painstakingly sketched the first several bars, [19] which Michael Spitzer found "so evocative of natural expanse" in the timbres and rhythms of Webern's music for horn duet, harp, and "rumbling" lower strings. Thus the opening has often been compared to that of Mahler's Ninth. [20]
Demonstrating Webern's early music studies, the first movement consists of four lines in a double canon (by inversion) with frequent palindromes and fixed register. [21] Anne C. Shreffler noted Webern's reliance on linear, song-like writing, [22] an observation often made of Mahler. [23] [c]
One canon features Ländler-like lilting melodic repetition on legato strings and winds, representing an orderly pastoral topic.
The other canon is more percussive, even accompanimental in texture, qualities which Webern crafted after drafting the canon's melody. To this end, he used ornaments like acciaccature; articulations like staccati; instrumentation with the harp's plucked timbre; and musical techniques like double stops, mutes, pizzicati, string harmonics, and sul ponticello. [24]
The second movement comprises nine small sections replete with palindromes: [25] a theme, seven canonic variations, and a coda, [d] where the theme is fragmented into motives and the variation developmental. Bailey Puffett noted not only the use of dynamics, register, rhythm, tempi, texture, and timbre for Classical forms of surface-level variation, but also the use of more developmental devices like inversion and retrograde, augmentation and diminution, imitation, and some octave displacement. [e]
Danielle Hood described the fourth variation, identified by Webern as the midpoint, as a " waltz/Ländler double". [28] In the fifth variation's cowbell-like harp octaves and close, stomping string dissonances, Adorno heard the "soulful sound" of the Almabtrieb, delighting Webern. [29]
Goeyvaerts noted proto- serial schemes of articulations, dynamics, and register, not time ( meter, rhythm, or tempo). [30] Rochberg noted the "objectified, mensural" relation of pitch and time in Webern's later instrumental œuvre as a whole. [31]
Its chromatic hexachords [f] are inversionally related by tritone. [33]
Alexander Smallens and the Orchestra of the League of Composers gave the world premiere at New York's Town Hall in 1929, meeting jeers. [34]
At the Vienna Konzerthaus (1930), Webern himself conducted an ensemble including the Kolisch Quartet and members of the Wiener Staatsoper, flanking his Symphony with Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 2 ( Eduard Steuermann, piano) and Beethoven's Septet. In the Neue Freie Presse review, Josef Reitler wrote that "barbaric ... soullessness is foreign [to Webern]", contrasting him with Bartók, Stravinsky, and the Krenek of Jonny spielt auf. [35]
Listeners laughed in Berlin (Apr. 1931). [36] There Otto Klemperer had two weeks to prepare. [37] Heinz Tietjen was defunding the Krolloper ostensibly for its poorly attended modernist repertoire. [38] [g]
Hermann Scherchen conducted the London premiere at the summer 1931 International Society for Contemporary Music Festival. Prompted by Schoenberg, Edward Clark had invited Webern to conduct. Webern declined, citing travel fatigue and his desire to focus on composition. But there was also low remuneration, recent bad press, and as noted in his diary earlier that year: "Need for quiet and reflection." [46]
Klemperer programmed the Symphony again in 1936 Vienna, likely on Schoenberg's advice, but did not adhere to Webern's desired performance practice. [47]
Stockhausen applied its specific row in Klavierstücke VII (1954–1955), [48] IX (1954, rev. 1961), and X (1954, rev. 1961). [49]