Contemporary Music in Evolution; 2; 1908

Last week we had crept chronologically up to the year one thousand nine hundred eight. And I pointed out what I creatively prolific here this was having played and I've bought up and I've said it last week. We forge ahead no tonight with the first so called Actonel works of Schoenberg. And if we have time a few more early songs have I been back. I have been careful on this series to document these early years of a century as thoroughly as possible especially as regards the music of Schoenberg which seems to be such a source of bewilderment and or outright annoyance to many people. I feel that a step by step perusal of the works that led to the break with tonality and later led to the adoption of the so-called 12 tone method of composing is one possible way in which a lay listener can comprehend the inevitability of this musical development. Those of you who have listened to the series every week have perhaps had a chance to hear and

feel this development from the early for the not through the girl leader on the first string quartet to the Chamber Symphony. You may have noticed that dissonant harmonies which in the first works were of a transitional nature which were immediately resolved into consonants as became independent self-sufficient entities in the latter two works and were no longer necessarily resolved and were treated more and more like consonants themselves. Similarly melodic lines that included a dissonant tone not usually found in the accompanying chord and use therefore only as a passing tone soon included. These same tones as independent notes of equal importance to the more consonant pitches in that first decade of a century. The dissonances of the 1880s and 1890s came to be treated as consonances and composers began to find expressive possibilities

in these new sounds corresponding to other artistic and material changes in the world around them. Perhaps I should give a simple and brief example of what I'm talking about to clarify this point for non-musicians in my audience. Take this simple melodic and harmonic motive which is found in hundreds of variations and guises in the works of Brahms Wagner and Schumann and yes even Mozart. The basic progression reduced to its simplest form goes something like this. When Mozart used it in his grade fantasy number two for piano listing 396 it sounded like this. By the time the 20th century rolled around composers had gotten so used to this

dissonance. That they began to think of it in terms of consonants of a chord to be used as freely as let's say the major triad or the diminished seventh chord. Thus this three part chord it developed. I picked this particular tonal aggregate because it became the most widely used no harmonic element at that time. And it is in fact still very much in use today. But just before and around the time of World War One you find this chord like a common denominator in the works of not only Schoenberg and Derek but scree I've been she man of ski pre-coffee of Ravel and many others. In fact within very few years composers like Schoenberg began to take this chord. And let's say hypothetically a transposition thereof for instance this.

And then put the two together into a six note chord. Thus we have what people would refer to as modern harmony. You can see in even this brief demonstration how logically the so-called dissonances of modern music developed out of extensions of diatonic or chromatic writing going as far back as Mozart and even Sebastian Bach. I have taken only one typical harmonic aggregate and use that as an example. I could have used of course any one of a dozen others. In any case once this state of new harmonic freedom based on and derived from chromatic extensions had arrived it was only a matter of time before total chromaticism developed and with that the suspension of tonality itself

the work that is first on my program tonight is the work in except I should add parenthetically for certain pieces by Charles Ives. And this work that I'm referring to is train bags second string quartet. This work is particularly interesting for the listener who is seeking a clue as to how to listen to and tonal music because it is a work which starts out in the tonality of F sharp. But by the last movement has entered fully into the realm of at a now at d much of the work in fact hovers on the borderline between tonality and at anality it will give the attentive listener a chance to hear quite conventional and acceptable harmonic and melodic ideas side by side with phrases which although on the other side of the fence as in the area of eternality are still close enough so that even the lay listener can hear the

relationship between the two areas. Schanberg second quote It is also one of the works that marks the beginning of expressionism in music following the lead of painters like condensed the many of which Franz my Kokoschka and others. This became the most easily recognizable expressive characteristic of the Schoenberg school and was until recently thought to be the only mode of expression for at tonal or 12 tone music. I know a generation of composers in the meantime has shown us that this is not necessarily so. But I mention this because I have found that it is this expressionistic tendency in early Anton music rather than its relative dissonance which many people find difficult to accept. That of course is a question of temperament and personality and not much can be done about it. Some people like highly emotionally charged music highly intense music. Some do not. Some Like It Hot some like it cool and the cool

ones think the other camper all know Radek and of course vice versa. And never the twain shall meet. However all that I should like to establish on this series at this time is the purely musical logic and inevitability of the various innovations of composers like Schoenberg who among others shaped the musical language of our time. Part and parcel of the expressionistic aspect of Schoenberg's second quartet is the use of the voice set to expressionistic poems by Heinlein. It is interesting to note that the beginnings of real at anality as well as a new sense of instrumental color occurs in the last movement precisely at the point where the soprano sings. I know a lot of fun on the planet and that is I feel the breath of other planets. In other words of other worlds and insurance regs mind of the other

worlds of the text became symbolized hardly by mere haphazard coincidence by other harmonic and melodic worlds. I said a moment ago that the expressionistic language of Schoenberg's music and tonal or 12 tone is that element which many people find impossible to accept in his music. But this is by no means the entire problem in listening to Schoenberg's music. There are two other qualities and characteristics that make sure invokes music hard to listen to. For some people in the first place this expressionistic language is couched in a musical syntax which is almost entirely contrapuntal or polyphonic. In fact Schoenberg was one of the most influential composers in real orientating the musical thinking of his time in the direction of polyphony and this at a time when through almost a century of neglect namely the 19th century homophonic how monic thinking had to all intents and purposes

replaced polyphony. Still today the bulk of the popular symphonic literature that is the music of Tchaikovsky Brown's Schumann to list early Debbie C.. Yes even Beethoven and Mozart consists predominantly a vertically conceived music which means usually that there is a melody and the supporting harmony. I am simplifying of course but in one way or another this is true. Ensuring even in the earliest works there is a much greater awareness and use of polyphonic structuring. That's one point. The other is that this use of polyphony is coupled with a much more complex and denser. Musical continuity. Musical events their melodies or chords or contrasting ideas do not occur at the rate of one a measure or one every three or four measures. But perhaps one or two sometimes even contrast in musical ideas one or two per measure. In other words Schoenberg is

harder to listen to and then let's say Tchaikovsky because there is much greater independence of the individual melodic lines and these lines are presented in a much more condensed and intensified structure and intensified continuity. Naturally this requires much more concentrated attentive listening and audiences rendered insensitive by the content of our symphonic programmes generally speaking to listening on a more complex level. I cannot cope with these newer forms of musical structure and musical continuity. They aren't trained to listen that attentively. There are two other points to be made in respect to showing by the second quartet. One is that on top of all the other problems it is a relatively long work. Which means again that the listener must not only listen with concentrated attention but for a relatively long span of time. Since most people wish to be amused or entertained by music at the most superficial level

the kind of involvement a piece like Schoenberg second quartet requires falls quite outside most people's listening habits. The other problem is specific to all works that hover on this borderline of tonality by being partly tonal. They often lower the listener into expecting the traditional solutions the traditional phrase patterns only to find that the composer has other ideas has instead turned to a completely unexpected solution. It is possible to argue that such pieces are in a way the hardest to follow because the solutions do not follow the original musical postulates and by inference it is easier to listen to an entirely tonal piece or an entirely Actonel one. The in-between category is in a way the hardest to cope with. I think there is a lot of truth in this although I'm not sure that one can expand this into a grand musical credo philosophy. I mean that it perhaps tells us more about our severely

preconditioned listening habits then the positive or negative qualities of a given work. In any event let us now listen to Schoenberg's second string quartet composed in one thousand eight and performed by the Juilliard Quartet and in the last movement the soprano Graf. A.

Oh.

Yeah.

No no. Oh.

Whoa. Oh.

You.

Know. Were.

You. Him. You're.

A. Ooh.

Ooh. Ooh. Oh.

Sure.

Why. Why.

Why. Why. And that was Schoenberg's Second String Quartet played by the Juilliard Quartet with the soprano with a graph a remarkable expressive work I think especially in the last movement with its tender and new kind of lyricism. Later that same year Schoenberg who was in one of his most productive periods composed one of his

most important and in retrospect most enduring works. The three piano pieces Opus 11 played immediately after the string quartet you will see how rapid was friend Beggs development Schoenberg's advance into Act anality. By the way for the semantic purists in the audience I am fully aware of the fact that tonal and at anality are considered misnomers and that pan tonal or contextual are much more appropriate terms. However the word tunnel has come to be used so widely. I feel I would create more confusion by switching to another term without going into cumbersome semantic explanations every time I use the word. The second of the three piano pieces was the first to be composed and it we can hear not only the new innovations of Schoenberg but we can hear how many of these relate back to earlier music especially that of Schumann and Brahms. Another example of what I've been saying for some time on this series that

John Beggs music is not merely post Wagnerian as the favorite phrase goes the late piano works of Brahms seem to have been the primary inspiration for Schoenberg's piano music. I think I can demonstrate this easily by playing a few bars from several of these late Brahms piano works the intimate C and Caprice shows and then follow it with with Schoenberg example you will notice both composers strive for the same expansive loosely flowing lines and shapes and the same intense expression. The only difference being that Schanberg in keeping with his time speaks of more advanced harmonic language. The first three excerpts are by Brahms way. And now the corresponding example in Schoenberg's piece.

When it comes to advanced harmonic relationships Schoenberg did not have to reach back too far to find passages almost as damning as his own. As for example in this remarkable intimate so part of Opus 116 of Brahms. Or take this remarkable passage also from the second of the Opus 11 piano pieces of

Schoenberg. With its high sustained through and its sequential treatment and gradual heightening of tension. Isn't it closely related to this inspired passage from Schumann's Second Symphony the high trill is now in the first violins. Many other such analogies and comparisons could be made of course. I have given these

few examples to show that in essence Schoenberg's music developed out of the most worthy of predecessors and that above all he attempted to express much the same feelings emotions and ideas as did the earlier composers only. As I say with a more advanced idiom and this is a point which so many people seem to refuse to accept. I think these examples demonstrate the point unequivocally. The first and third of the piano pieces are even more advanced than the second and also in terms of organization. Especially the radical last piece which attains a maximum of contrast and intensity of expression. The three piano pieces are played by a close friend of Schoenberg and the pianist in fact to whom all the piano music of Schoenberg is dedicated and who first performed these works. This is in my opinion the definitive performance of this work on records Schoenberg's three piano pieces opposite 11. Oh.

Oh oh. Oh oh

oh oh. Schoenberg's three piano pieces played in a remarkable recording by at lunchtime on on economy are healthy. We have time now only for two songs by Ivan bank also composed in 100 aid when Dad was still studying with Schoenberg. The first of these is called design Montalban summer days is somewhat eclectic synthesis of Wagner and Schumann influences the work of a sensitive composer in the process of finding his style of. Ooh ooh ooh.

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh. Ooh ooh. The second song by a man bag by the way from his seven songs of youth is the most interesting and advanced of the seven. It is called knot which means in German night. And except for its whole tone Passages is very easy and in character. Notice by the way that whereas the French impressionists used whole tone passages for coloristic effect there and for that matter many of the

other central European composers used whole tone patterns more for their strictly harmonic functions. Such is the case in this song where the opening whole tone chords have a semantic significance and the implications of these chords are developed to some extent during the song not by a man bag. Good. There's.

The THAT. That. Way way.

Too early songs by our band Bad sung by Bethany Beardsley with Jack Ma now at the piano. Next week we shall continue with the Opus ones of bad and they have been and sung works of Alexander including his poem of ecstasy. I trust you will join me at that time. And this is Gunther Schiller bidding you good night and wishing you good listening to.