To understand why Schoenberg
composed the music that he did, it is useful to begin with his own statement:
"Had times been 'normal' (before and after 1914) then the music of our
time would have been very different". Also, professor’s personality was
very hermetic, but must add that this was due to his ultraconservative
anti-Semitic surrounding, ultraparochial musical institutions and
half-talented, desoriented 'artists/painters' who misused his ideas; So, he was
shut out with his progressive thoughts and denied the recognition and
leadership he deserved.
Even today Schoenberg's method
remains controversial, many people refusing to consider it as music at all.
Those who do listen to it unprejudiced often come to love it deeply. What was the nature of
Schoenberg's so-called 'Entartete Kunst' at first? Did his atonal organisation
of pitch truly involved abandonment and 'destruction' of tonality and tonal
functions, as is widely believed at those turbulent times?
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| Arnold Schoenberg composing in his LA home, circa 1937 |
An open-door work to examine in
consideration of these questions is the Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 (Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, Op.19)The first five pieces were
written in a single day, February 19, 1911, and were originally intended to
comprise the entire piece. Schoenberg locked up the work with a sixth piece on June 17,
shortly after the death of his supportive friend, and huge influencer, Gustav
Mahler. Indeed, it is a, "well circulated claim that Schoenberg conceived
op. 19/VI as a tombeau to Mahler". It was first performed on February 4,
1912, in Berlin, by Louis Closson. Each of the six pieces is kind of 'sketch'
short, and unique in character. Done in expressionist aesthetic idiosyncrasy, each
piece can be transpicuous as a long composition condensed into a single brief
miniature. Schoenberg regarded this style of writing as a necessary
compositional reaction to the diminishing power of total tonality. The six
pieces do not carry individual names, but are often known by their tempo
marking: I. Leicht, zart, II. Langsam, III. Sehr langsame, IV. Rasch, aber
leicht, V. Etwas rasch, and part VI. Sehr langsam.
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| a tombeau to Mahler, score fragment |
While studying this Schoenberg's masterpiece, auraly and visualy, I found pitches/intervals in this
composition organised much more in terms of spreading forward the idea of centre, rather than
abandonment of tonality. In the analyses which I’ve done, two modes of
extension have been unwavering: "mono-tonal" and "blended-bitonal".
The mono-tonal mode, also known as "extended tonal
chromaticism" overshadows; all the way trough: four of the pieces are mono-tonal throughout
(Nos. II, III, IV and V), and two are primarily mono-tonal while containing a
brief blendedbitonal transition each (Nos. I and VI). This, I would say, clear-intuitive
work resulted in his later invention that followed, the "method of
composition with twelve tones" in which the twelve semitonal intervals are
regarded as equal, and no one note or tonality is given the emphasis as
'occupied' in the classical harmony.
The Op. 19 pieces may be
considered a reasonably representative introduction to the composer's atonal
language which influenced followers in the Second Viennese School, later
integral serialists and indeterminacy in music. Schoenberg's echo spirit
continues to spread into the present day tendencies, and as far as I'm
concerned, it will last eternally.
To my love, Milica
Alen Ilijić, composer and polymedia artist, 2015
© ▲ THOHK ▼
