supporters in the general public.’
Lecture 2: 2 June 1955
[…] without me too, you do not need me for that; rather, I simply mean to show you a few things that I assume will not be entirely familiar to all of you, and aspects in which especially the connection between this early Schoenberg and the later becomes apparent, and in which you can learn something – and that is the intention of all my attempts here – something about the origins of the sense, the formal sense, the formal function, about several things that appear in a concretized form only in the mature works. Here you can trace the impulses, as it were, that are later present in an objectified form in the mature works. Because one needs to have these impulses before one can objectify them, I think it is very important for you to gain an understanding of precisely these impulses here.
Now, I would like to begin by reminding you of something of which more or less all of you will be aware, namely Schoenberg’s famous metric irregularity, the fact that the eight-bar period was truly, finally and radically dethroned for the first time by Schoenberg, whereas deviations from the eight-bar schema in traditional music such as Schubert or Mendelssohn, to name only two, always had the character of an exception rather than anything decisive. You now find this metric abundance – that is, a constant change between even- and odd-numbered periods and between short and long models – you already find that very clearly in Verklärte Nacht. And this is once again connected to a thematic character, namely the fact that Schoenberg often lays out the themes by developing them from elements that keep appearing and growing more explicit, so that the themes almost come about of their own accord. So you can find this theme at the start of the allegro, for example [plays Verklärte Nacht, op. 4]. And then it is taken up again, the real main theme of the piece [plays]. So you see how this theme is fashioned bit by bit. First like this [plays]. Here you have two one-bar units that are repeated. Then you have a three-bar period that elaborates on it [plays], and only after that does it reach its form as a four-bar period [plays]. Then this is repeated as a three-bar unit and shortened [plays]. And then the cadence [plays]. You can see in this section, incidentally, how Schoenberg’s ability to shape a theme is already developed. These are precisely the things that are really so neglected today, and of which I cannot remind you – especially the composers among you – emphatically enough. Have a look at these few bars: how three motivic attempts finally lead to a full theme, where the theme is the fulfilment or the result of these thematic attempts, and then compare that to a mature dodecaphonic work such as the exceptionally fine main theme of the Violin Concerto, which in a sense came about through a similar principle, and then you will see how this inner vitality of the theme, or this inner shaping of a theme, has musical sense, and how the theme finally leads very logically into this cadence that I played for you, which now brings the result and should really be followed by a symphonic continuation, but he did not yet allow himself to take that step. So you see here [plays]. Incidentally, as you no doubt all noticed, this theme is already a nascent form of the one from the D minor quartet, except that in the D minor quartet it is presented directly as the result, you might say, but in the intervals, and most of all in its whole character, it is part of exactly the same layer. And it is this layer that is then brought out again in Schoenberg’s Fourth Quartet. That, I would say, is really the symphonic type of theme that keeps returning in Schoenberg. And here you essentially have this specifically Schoenbergian theme in its pure form for the first time, and with all the beauty that is possible in this way only when it is the first time. Take a look at this again [plays], the one-bar unit [plays]. Now it initially stays there, then goes higher, then he sequences it [plays]. You can tell that, once this attempt has exhausted itself and things continue beyond that point, it is not in the way a poor composer would do it, having it go on here and again here [plays], but instead, after reaching that point, it continues quite differently [plays]. And only now, once it has run its course, does he return to the form attempted at the start, and here it is already very cadential [plays].
So this way of developing a theme while also being aware that the repetition of a motif is justified only if it has this sense of gradually building up, that one cannot first construct a theme and let it develop, then suddenly repeat one motif in the middle, for the relationship between repetition and novelty in such a theme must be balanced extremely carefully – that is really what I wanted to show you here, and also that you already have the form here: a one-bar phrase, a one-bar phrase, then a three-bar phrase, then a four-bar phrase that constitutes the symphonic middle, as it were, the symphonic centre of the whole thing; and then a sort of dissolution field where the opening elements are brought back, again just three bars, and then a shortened model leading into the cadence, so that there is a meaningful relationship between the lengths of the individual sections. So when the theme is given all the space it needs, the units are the longest – a whole four bars – which you must hear in one go, as it were; and once the strength of the theme is exhausted and it collapses, in a sense, then the music returns to three-bar units, such that the theme is no longer given the same space. So you see how – and I would like to draw your attention to this too – such things, which seemingly have no connection in the usual terms of compositional forms, how their metric shape on the one hand, and their thematic development on the other, how these aspects are interdependent in a meaningful functional manner here, just as the short and long syllables in poetic metre are a function of the formal sense in the respective parts of the form. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I would say that being capable of these things, and capable of shaping these things – that is really what composition is. And I would say that only this can be called composition. And if everything I am waffling on about to you here is to have any use, it can only be to give you some small awareness that this, and only this, is composition.
Now, a second idea follows on from this. The second idea creates a duet. If you know the poem,1 you know that it deals with two people, a man and a woman, and this thought was a very impulse for Schoenberg in his overall approach. So you have this tremolo on the F [plays]. Let me point out a formal aspect. This duet idea runs through the entire piece and appears at many different points, and it is applied to a wide range of thematic components. So one keeps finding sections that take this duet approach, but use quite different material. You can tell from this that the means of musical cohesion are extremely varied, that musical cohesion cannot be brought about simply by what one usually calls ‘thematic work’, of which God knows there is plenty in this piece, but also through different approaches to texture. So if in a sextet – that is, a relatively expansive, sonically expansive piece – if at various points in this piece there are two instruments, say the cello and viola, playing duets and answering each other, then you will simply identify a certain equivalence, a certain unity of formal development in this duet idea. An element of unity will be established, even if the purely thematic components in these passages are organized very differently. Now, Schoenberg’s sense of form is already so advanced here, in this very early phase, that he does not present this second idea – which one could see as a hinted second subject from the exposition of Verklärte Nacht – in as elaborated a form as the symphonic first subject but instead builds it from this short model [plays]. However, I would say that this way of first repeating the one-bar phrase twice and then forming a three-bar unit, this is precisely analogous to the approach I showed you with the first theme, even down to the number of bars: two one-bar phrases followed by a three-bar group. He continues with one-bar units, however. Now that is something the mature Schoenberg would no longer have done in the same way, as he would also have varied the metric-thematic aspects. But that, I should add, obviously makes it harder for the listener to perceive, because here the fact that the character of this second subject-like idea is formally similar to that of the first naturally makes it much easier to follow; but the mature Schoenberg would no longer have contented himself with this and would have given the principle of variation its due. Then a quintuplet motif that will play a very important part appears, it is introduced here [plays], and so on. And then it is combined with this second subject-like motif. This is followed by – at the marking Etwas belebter [Slightly more lively] on page 10 a new motif appears, an entirely new one, but it is related to the first main theme I showed you, with this one [plays]. Or perhaps you can see it better here [plays]. And now you have it here [plays]. So here you have the interval of a second, then a diminished fifth
