Modernism and the Classical Tradition
Composer Biographies
Arnold Schoenberg
Born: September 13, 1874, Vienna
Died: July 13, 1951, Los Angeles, California
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In his own words....
"Whether one calls oneself conservative or revolutionary, whether one composes in a conventional or progressive manner, whether one tries to imitate old styles or is destined to express new ideas— one must be convinced of the infallibility of one's own fantasy and one must believe in one's own inspiration. The desire for a conscious control of the new means and forms will arise in every artist's mind; and he will wish to follow consciously the laws and rules that govern the forms he has conceived "as in a dream."
Austrian composer. Schoenberg's development of the twelve-tone method of composition was a turning point in twentieth-century music.
Few composers have presented as radically new an idea as Schoenberg did with what he called his "Method of Composing with Twelve Tones Related Only to Each Other." In it, he broke with a system of tonal organization that had developed over hundreds of years and had become a hallmark of Western music.
Schoenberg began his musical studies on violin at age 8. Although he had no compositional training, he began composing his own music. In 1895, he began lessons with Alexander von Zemlinsky, only three years his elder. From 1901 to 1903 he held various conducting posts in Berlin. In 1904 he moved to Vienna, and there began teaching (Alban Berg and Anton Webern were early pupils). In 1919 he founded a society for performance of new music, and in 1925 returned to Berlin to teach. In 1933 he was forced, as a Jew, to leave Berlin. Ironically, he had converted to Lutheranism in 1898, but after fleeing to Paris he renounced the Christian faith and returned to Judaism. In 1934 he emigrated to the United States and in 1936 began teaching at UCLA. He remained in Los Angeles until his death in 1951.
Schoenberg's early music was clearly marked by the style of the late nineteenth century, and influences of Brahms, Mahler, and others can be seen in pieces such as his Verklärte Nacht . But as his compositional style developed, it became more concise and contrapuntally intricate. At the same time, Schoenberg's chromaticism intensified to the point that any strong tonal focus disappeared. Such works as Pierrot lunaire (1913) are in a fully atonal style. The music of this period is also marked by a style that is referred to as expressionist, and Schoenberg had contact with, and a great deal of admiration for, the expressionist painters and writers (Schoenberg himself painted in an Expressionist style). These ideals can be seen in the dark and dreamlike atmosphere conveyed in Pierrot lunaire , based on the expressionist poetry of Albert Giraud. The kinds of internal conflicts we associate with Freud and his school of psychoanalysis are played out in exquisite musical detail.
From 1915 to 1923, Schoenberg produced relatively few works, in part due to wartime service. At the same time, he was working on his theoretical ideas of twelve-tone writing. Starting in 1923, with his Suite for Piano, he began writing in a fully twelve-tone musical language. Along with this came a return to more classical means of formal organization and larger works such as his Variations for Orchestra (1928). Although he never abandoned these principles, he never extended them to other elements as his student Webern had. And after his move to the United States, he more freely blended tonal elements within his twelve-tone writing.
Works
- Orchestral music, including Five Pieces for Orchestra (1909), Variations for Orchestra (1928), and concertos for violin (1936) and piano (1942)
- Operas, including Die glückliche Hand ( The Blessed Hand , 1913) and Moses und Aron (incomplete, 1932)
- Choral music, including Gurrelieder (1911), Jakobsleiter ( Jacob's
Ladder , 1922), and A Survivor from Warsaw (1947); smaller choral works, including Friede auf Erden ( Peace on Earth , 1907)
- Chamber music, including 4 string quartets, serenade, wind quintet, string trio, and string sextet Verklärte Nacht
( Transfigured Night , 1899)
- Vocal music, including Pierrot lunaire ( Moonstruck Peter , 1912)
- Piano music, including Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11 (1909)
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Musical Examples
- Pierrot lunaire, No. 18 00:51
- Pierrot lunaire, No. 21 02:01
- Excerpt from Chamber Symphony, 2nd mvmt 00:30
- Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21, excerpts No. 8, Nacht 02:06
- Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21, excerpts No. 13, Enthauptung 02:02
- Piano Suite, Op. 25, excerpts (a) Prelude 01:03
- Piano Suite, Op. 25, excerpts (b) Minuet and Trio 02:02
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Links
- A Basic Biography
This site, from the Classical Music Pages, provides a biographical essay taken from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music . It also includes a picture gallery, a works list, and a bibliography.
- Life and Works
This Austrian site is part of a larger one dealing with the composers of the Second Viennese School. Includes a more detailed biography with discussions of Schoenberg's most important works, as well as a discussion of the twelve-tone method of composition.
- The Arnold Schoenberg Center
Located in Vienna, the Arnold Schoenberg Center is dedicated to the study of the composer's music. Included in this site are a detailed biography, works list, an extensive photo gallery, and a good essay on his music and its influence on the twentieth century.
- Expressionism
The Expressionist movement in Germany had a strong influence on the composers of the Second Viennese School. This site provides an excellent introduction to Expressionism with detailed discussion of the major artists, many examples of their works, and links to many museums and exhibits.
- The Arnold Schoenberg Center
Located in Vienna, the Arnold Schoenberg Center is dedicated to the study of the composer's music. Included in this site are a detailed biography, works list, an extensive photo gallery, and a good essay on his music and its influence on the twentieth century.
- Expressionism 101
The Expressionist movement in Germany had a strong influence on the composers of the Second Viennese School. This site provides an excellent introduction to Expressionism with detailed discussion of the major artists and many examples of their works.
Alban Berg
Born: February 9, 1885, Vienna
Died: December 24, 1935, Vienna
Return to Just Listen: Era : Composer
In his own words....
"I never entertained the idea of reforming the artistic structure of the opera with Wozzeck...I wanted to compose good music, to develop musically the contents of Büchner's immortal drama, to translate his poetic language into music; but other than that, when I decided to write an opera, my only intentions, including the technique of composition, were to give the theater what belongs to the theater. In other words, the music was to be so formed as consciously to fulfill its duty of serving the action at every moment."
Austrian composer. Along with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, a member of what is known as the Second Viennese School.
Alban Berg's music demonstrates better than any other the individual expressive qualities possible within the highly structured style developed by the composers of the Second Viennese School. Even when writing in a pure twelve-tone style, Berg employs a lyrical and harmonic language that hearkens back to the late romantic style of Mahler. For this reason, he is the most easily approached composer of this style.
Berg was born into a well-to-do family in Vienna and was encouraged in his intellectual pursuits. But despite an aptitude for music, he never received strong formal training until he began his studies with Arnold Schoenberg in 1904. Under Schoenberg's guidance, Berg moved from a rather tonal approach to a purely atonal style over the course of his first three works. He continued in this path, writing mostly smaller works. A decisive moment came in 1914, when he saw a production of George Büchner's play Woyzeck. The play had a great impact on Berg, and he began immediately to transform the work into an opera (Wozzeck). He continued this project while serving in the army in World War I, finishing the work in 1922. It was premiered in 1925 in Berlin and proved a critical and financial success.
In Wozzeck Berg created a rich mix of styles and approaches. On the surface, the language ranges from post-romantic to purely atonal, freely mixing popular and folk elements. Underlying this is an exacting approach to form: the first act is a suite of five character pieces, the second is a symphony in five movements, and the third is a series of five variations set on different ostinatos. None of this, however, is merely intellectual diversion. Instead, each idea is developed to support the dramatic action on the stage.
Through his next works, Berg embraced the twelve-tone procedure more fully. This can be seen in his Lyric Suite (1926), his Violin Concerto (1935) and Lulu, his second opera, left incomplete at his death. In the concerto, especially, we can see how the twelve-tone approach becomes a transparent technique. Berg devised his pitch materials in such a way as to allow for rich, and surprisingly consonant, harmonies. From the opening, which comprises a series of open fifths in the violin and harp, to the final movement, which incorporates a quotation from a chorale setting by Bach, the work is both technically masterful and musically satisfying.
Berg's life came to an early end. The tensions of the Nazi rise to power and the effects of generally ill health began to take their toll. In the fall of 1935 a simple insect bite turned into fatal blood poisoning. He died on Christmas Eve.
Works
- 2 operas: Wozzeck (1917–1922) and Lulu (unfinished, 1935)
- Orchestral music, including Three Orchestral Pieces, Op. 6 (1915), Chamber Concerto (1925), Three Pieces from Lyric Suite (1928), and Violin Concerto (1935)
- Chamber music, including String Quartet (1910) and Lyric Suite (1926)
- Piano music, including Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (1908)
- Songs, including Four Songs, Op. 2 (1910)
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Musical Examples
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Links
- A Basic Biography
This site, from the Classical Music Pages, provides a biographical essay taken from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. It also includes a picture gallery and works list.
- Life and Works
This Austrian site is part of a larger one dealing with the composers of the Second Viennese School. Includes a more detailed biography with discussions of Berg's most important works.
- Berg's Violin Concerto
Berg's Violin Concerto is one of his most poignant and lyrical works. Orrin Howard, who wrote program notes for the Los Angeles Philharmonic for twenty years, provides a good overview of the work.
- A Medical Look at Wozzeck
The sadistic doctor is a central element of the drama of Wozzeck. In this site, part of a large database dealing with medicine and the humanities, this conflict—as presented in George Büchner's play—is briefly examined.
Anton Webern
Born: December 3, 1883, Vienna
Died: September 15, 1945, Mittersill, Austria
Return to Just Listen: Era : Composer
Austrian composer and conductor. With Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, a leading exponent of twelve-tone composition.
With their self-defined position as the musical heirs to Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, the composers of the Second Viennese School were firmly grounded in the music of the past. This is perhaps truest of Anton Webern, who began his musical career as a doctoral student in musicology, writing a dissertation on the music of Heinrich Isaac (c. 1470–1517). At the same time, Webern's music represents the most extreme statement of the ideals of the twelve-tone method of composition and is the most fundamentally radical of the three composers' works.
Webern began his studies with Schoenberg at the same time he was completing his studies in musicology (1904–1908). He also conducted various regional orchestras, and from 1922 to 1934 he conducted the Vienna Workers' Symphony. Hitler's rise to power in the Thirties and the eventual forceful annexation of Austria brought great personal hardship to the composer. In 1933 his mentor, Schoenberg, emigrated to America. Webern's modernist music was banned, and his works burned. He had to work as a proofreader in Vienna to avoid forced labor for the Nazis. He died soon after the war's end, mistakenly shot by an American soldier while smoking a cigar on the porch of his home.
Like his fellow student, Alban Berg, Webern quickly transformed his style from the rich language of postromanticism to the more sparing world of atonality and twelve-tone writing. Webern took two principal elements of the style, brevity and the focus on individual sounds, to their extremes. All of his works are short (his entire output, some thirty pieces, totals only about three hours' worth of music). His Symphony, for example, is only ten minutes long, and some of the movements of his pieces last less than thirty seconds. Because of this, each individual note, articulation, dynamic, and timbre takes on new significance. Ultimately, Webern took these other elements and applied the principles of twelve-tone procedure to them, creating a technique known as serialism (later composers, such as Pierre Boulez, would extend these ideas even further).
Like Berg and Schoenberg, Webern found his individual voice in the twelve-tone technique. For Webern, this meant a concentrated contrapuntal style in which all the elements formed complex relationships. This interest in the virtuosic possibilities of counterpoint is fully in line with his scholarly interest in the intensely contrapuntal style of Isaac's sacred music. Of the three composers' works, Webern's is the most difficult to approach. However, underneath the spare, seemingly fragile texture is a language of rich and elegant gesture. His Passacaglia, Op. 1, is a good example, and more recognizably "Viennese." But even in his later works, there is a sparse and concentrated lyricism that makes this music rewarding for the listener who is willing to take the time to hear it.
Works
- Orchestral music, including Passacaglia, Op. 1 (1908); Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10 (1913); Symphony, Op. 21 (1928); and Variations, Op. 30 (1940)
- Chamber Music, including Five Movements for String Quartet (1909) and other string quartets
- Choral music, including cantatas; many songs
- Piano music, including Variations, Op. 27 (1936)
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Musical Examples
To download an MP3, right click on the "Download MP3" link. You must have proper subscription access to download the MP3.
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Links
- A Basic Biography
This site, from the Classical Music Pages, provides a biographical essay taken from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. It also includes a picture gallery and works list.
- Life and Works
This Austrian site is part of a larger one dealing with the composers of the Second Viennese School. Includes a more detailed biography with discussions of Webern's most important works.
- Webern's Symphony, Op. 21
This is part of the Austrian Project AEIOU, dedicated to documenting Austrian culture. The page has a brief discussion of the work, with an audio example from the first movement. Links are available to other parts of the site.
- An Anton Webern Page
A well-designed page with biographical information, photos, and links to other sites.
Igor Stravinsky
Born: June 17, 1882, Oranienbaum, Russia
Died: April 6, 1971, New York
Return to Just Listen: Era : Composer
In his own words....
"Consonance, says the dictionary, is the combination of several tones into a harmonic unit. Dissonance results from the deranging of this harmony by the addition of tones foreign to it. One must admit that all this is not clear. Ever since it appeared in our vocabulary, the word "dissonance" has carried with it a certain odor of sinfulness. Let us light our lantern: in textbook language, dissonance is an element of transition, a complex or interval of tones that is not complete in itself and that must be resolved to the ear's satisfaction into a perfect consonance."
Composer and conductor. Russian by birth, later a citizen of France and the United States.
Igor Stravinsky is often considered something of a revolutionary, in part based on the riotous reception of his ballet The Rite of Spring . Stravinsky's career, however, suggests more evolution than revolution. Perhaps no other composer in this century—or any—has written in such a variety of styles. And it is the unique genius of Stravinsky that his musical personality is detectable in each of these styles.
Stravinsky came from a musical family, although his training was limited, reflecting his family's desire that he pursue studies in law. As a student at the university in St. Petersburg, he made the acquaintance of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and studied with the older composer. His music quickly caught the attention of Serge Diaghilev, the director of the Ballets Russes in Paris. Stravinsky was commissioned to write a ballet for the theater, his Firebird (1910). This was quickly followed by Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913).
Stravinsky continued his association with Paris, but with the advent of World War I and the turmoil in Russia that would lead to the October Revolution, Stravinsky took refuge in Switzerland. After the war he returned to Paris, writing more ballets for Diaghilev, as well as a wide variety of other works, many (such as his Piano Concerto) serving as performance vehicles for the composer. In 1939, he emigrated to the United States, where he attempted unsuccessfully to write music for films. He continued composing late into his life, and when he was well into his eighties he embarked on a full schedule of performances as conductor, both in concert and on record. These recordings serve as valuable documentation of Stravinsky's ideas concerning his own music.
Along with his changing nationalities, Stravinsky's music underwent remarkable change over the course of his life. His early music (for example, the Symphony in E flat) show the influences of his Russian models. His ballets show a wider range of influences, including that of Claude Debussy. By The Rite of Spring , Stravinsky had broken new ground entirely, writing in a complex rhythmic style and a harmonic style that included the use of polytonality. This increasing complexity came to an abrupt end with his move to Switzerland, and he produced a seminal group of pieces in a pared-down instrumental style (often without strings), the most notable being the small dramatic work, Histoire du soldat for four speakers and a small instrumental ensemble. When he returned to Paris, he continued this more austere style, and added to it an interest in older forms and methods, beginning his well-known neoclassical period. The culmination of this can be seen in his opera The Rake's Progress , a modern adaptation of the classical style of Mozart's late comedies. Late in his life, Stravinsky once more changed styles, embracing the methods of twelve-tone and serial composition. What resulted is a remarkable series of works including his ballet Agon (1957) and a great deal of religious music.
In all these works, certain qualities remain constant. First and foremost is a clarity of sound, an almost transparent texture heightened by his masterful use of orchestration. Along with this is an approach to rhythm that articulates his melodies with a certain dryness, adding to the clarity of sound. Finally, there is a concise and economical approach to form. This has its roots in the simplified style of his music from the 1920s, but was a hallmark of his style throughout his career.
Works
- Orchestral music, including Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920), Concerto for Piano and Winds (1924), Dumbarton Oaks Concerto (1938), Symphony in C (1940), Symphony in Three Movements (1945) and Ebony Concerto (1945)
- Ballets, including L'oiseau de feu ( The Firebird , 1910), Petrushka (1911), Le sacre du printemps ( The Rite of Spring , 1913), Les noces ( The Wedding ), 1923, and Agon (1957)
- Operas, including The Rake's Progress (1951); opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex (1927); other dramatic works, including Histoire du soldat ( The Soldier's Tale , 1918)
- Choral music, including Symphony of Psalms (1930), Canticum sacrum (1955), Threni (1958), and Requiem Canticles (1966)
- Chamber music; piano music (solo and for two pianos); song
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Musical Examples
To download an MP3, right click on the "Download MP3" link. You must have proper subscription access to download the MP3.
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Links
- A Basic Biography
This site, from the Classical Music Pages, provides a biographical essay taken from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music . It also includes a works list, a picture gallery, a bibliography and an extensive essay on Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka .
- A More Extensive Biography
Along with a lengthy biography, this site includes separate essays on The Firebird and The Rite of Spring .
- A Large Stravinsky Site
A class project by a student at Cal Tech. Contains a great deal of well-presented information. There is also a discussion of Stravinsky's religious music, an area seldom explored.
- Stravinsky's Ballets
The English Classical CD On Line site includes a brief overview of three of Stravinsky's ballets, with sound clips.
Bela Bartok
Born: March 25, 1881, Sînnicolau Mare, Hungary
Died: September 26, 1945, New York
Return to Just Listen: Era : Composer
In his own words....
"Many people think it is a comparatively easy task to write a composition on found folk tunes...This way of thinking is completely erroneous. To handle folk tunes is one of the most difficult tasks; equally difficult, if not more so, than to write a major original composition. If we keep in mind that borrowing a tune means being bound by its individual peculiarity, we shall understand one part of the difficulty. Another is created by the special character of folk tune. We must penetrate it, feel it, and bring out its sharp contours by the appropriate setting...It must be a work of inspiration just as much as any other composition."
Hungarian composer and pianist. Bartók is best known for his use of Hungarian folk music to create a distinct individual style.
The folk music of Hungary was central to the music of Béla Bartók. He was not the first composer to make use of this music (we can see it as far back as Haydn), but he was one of the first to take it at face value, and to exploit its idiosyncrasies. More important, he integrated it fully into his own style, so much so that one of his biographers talks about Bartók's music as "imaginary folk music"—music that is wholly his own, yet of a piece with the folk music that was its inspiration.
Bartók was born into a musical family and received good pianistic training from his mother. He was something of a prodigy, and began composing at the age of ten. In 1898 he was accepted at the prestigious Vienna Conservatory, but chose instead to stay in Hungary at the Budapest Academy. His early work was influenced greatly by Strauss and Liszt, but his first major work, the symphonic Kossuth (1903), also stands out for its telling of a nationalist story.
In 1904 Bartók began collecting folk music by recording musicians on wax cylinders. This had a profound impact on his compositional style, for in these pieces he found elements that he began to incorporate into his own writing. The melodies of these folk tunes, removed from the traditional major/minor tonality of Western music, provided new melodic and harmonic resources, and the powerful and often asymmetrical rhythms (often freely mixing groupings of twos and threes) became a hallmark of Bartók's rhythmic style.
In 1907 Bartók was appointed professor of piano at the Budapest Academy and he continued his compositional activity, creating works of greater complexity. By the early 1920s his music was verging on an atonal style. He gained international success with a less challenging work, The Wooden Prince (1917), and by the late 1920s his music started to take on more of a neoclassical approach.
The crises leading up to World War II forced Bartók to flee Hungary and settle in the United States. The move caused both financial and personal difficulties, and failing health heightened these. Nonetheless, in his final few years he created a group of important pieces, including the Concerto for Orchestra .
Bartók's music is marked by its precision of execution. His forms (especially in his later works) are intensely symmetrical. Often they create an arch or palindrome (ABACABA, for example). He also exploited different sonorities and instrumental effects, including an antiphonal orchestra in Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936). His tonal language continued to be colored by his work with folk music, and in some cases he made use of quarter tones. Although Bartók wrote in all mediums, he may well be best remembered for his six string quartets. These works, a summation of his compositional style and development are often viewed as the logical successors to those of Beethoven.
Works
- Orchestral works, including Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936), Concerto for Orchestra (1943), 2 violin concertos (1908, 1938), and three piano concertos (1926, 1931, 1945)
- 1 opera, Bluebeard's Castle (1911)
- 2 ballets, T he Wooden Prince (1917) and The Miraculous Mandarin (1926)
- Chamber music, including 6 string quartets (1908–39); Contrasts (for violin, clarinet, and piano, 1938); sonatas, duos
- Piano music, including Allegro barbaro (1911) and Mikrokosmos (6 books, 1926–39)
- Choral music, including Cantata profana (1930); folk song arrangements
- Songs, including folk song arrangements
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Musical Examples
Click on the songs to listen:
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Links
- A Basic Biography
This site, from the Classical Music Pages, provides a biographical essay taken from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music . It also includes a picture gallery, a list of works, and a bibliography.
- Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra
The English Classical CD On Line site includes a brief biography and an overview (with audio clips) of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra .
- Works and Recommended Recordings
A list of works, sources, and recommended recordings from the Classical Net site.