Schoenberg chamber music

by Arnold Whittall

works discussed First Chamber Symphony, Herzbewaechse, Ode to Napoleon, Phantasy, Pierrot Lunaire, Serenade, STring Quartet in D Maj. No. 1, String Quartet No 2, 3, 4, STring Trio, Suite, Verklaerte Nacht, Wind Quintet.

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Bill FromPA · Rating 3 out of 5]

To it's detriment, this guide strays from the stricter "program notes" format of the other BBC Music Guides I've read. Whitall attempts to discuss the works, which encompass a wide variety of styles, in the context of Schoenberg's overall lifetime development and ends up bringing other compositions into the discussion, shortchanging the pieces that are his nominal subject. At the prescribed length, it might have been better to look at works in several genres while concentrating on a specific period in the composer's life.

Though Whitall quotes Schoenberg's objection to analyses which are primarily explications of the use of the 12 tone series

I can't utter too many warnings against overrating these analyses, since after all they only lead to what I have always been dead against: seeing how it is done; whereas I have always helped people to see what it is! ... I can't say it often enough: my works are twelve tone compositions, not twelve-tone compositions ... The only sort of analysis there can be any question of for me is one that throws the idea into relief and shows how it is presented and worked out. It goes without saying that in doing this one musn't overlook artistic subtleties.

he nevertheless falls back on such analyses, unable to find any other way of proceeding with works like the Wind Quintet, Suite, and Third Quartet. He does, however, have some useful, if often too brief, commentary for listeners on the early (up to Op. 21) and late works (Op. 37 and later) covered.

Of the first movement of the second quartet:

Schoenberg's exposition is built on cunningly contrived ambiguities, so skillful that one forgets that this is a master manipulating a form which in lesser hands had already outlived its meaningfulness; it is almost possible to believe that one is witnessing the birth of a new, still flexible concept of musical form.

And of the work as a whole:

... this is not music in which Schoenberg was struggling against atonality, or fighting to save some vestige of key; it is that rarest of achievements, a transitional masterpiece, which does not demand to be heard in terms of its historical context but only in terms of its own beauty and strength.

Schoenberg, in a 1932 letter to Rudolf Kolisch:

...musical logic does not answer to 'if -,then -', but enjoys making use of the possibilities excluded by 'if -, then -'.