History: The Second Viennese School

I.​ ​The Second Viennese School

● ​Younger generation of Austro-German modernists (born 1870s–1880s)
- All associated at some point with the city of Vienna
- (The First Viennese School was Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven)
● Like Mahler and Strauss, composers of the Second Viennese School were indebted to Wagner
● ​But these composers also admired Brahms’s classicism
- ​ ​Saw Brahms’s attention to purely musical elements (form, motivic development, counterpoint) as ​progressive
- ​Very different from the common 19h century view of Brahms as conservative and old-fashioned

II.​ ​Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)

● Born in Vienna
● Almost entirely self-taught
​First period (1895–1907)
● Late-Romantic style
● Programmatic, dense
textures, highly chromatic,
but still conceived ​within​ the
tonal system
Transfigured Night​ (1899)
1.​ ​Tone-poem (programmatic) for
string sextet
2.​ ​Note adaptation of the tone poem
(an orchestral genre) to chamber music
Second Period (1908-1921)
Free Atonality
● Intense chromaticism of the
style led Schoenberg to
abandon the need for the
music to be in a key
● It is “free” in the sense that it is
not governed by one
overarching theory, like
tonality
● Each piece was constructed
with its own internal logic,
depending primarily on motivic
unity
● Schoenberg emphasized that
his move into atonality was
evolutionary​ rather than
revolutionary
● It was a direct extension of
Wagnerian chromaticism and
Brahmsian motivic cohesion
Expressionism
● Movement stated in the visual
arts but extended to music and
literature
● Subjective, emotional, and
frightening, expression of the
inner recesses of human
consciousness
● Exploration of dream worlds,
the subconscious, the dark
side of human nature
● Can be understood as an
extension of the strong
emotional content of
Romanticism
● Links with Freud, Jung, and
psychoanalysis
Third Period (1921–1936)
Twelve-Tone Method (Serialism)
● Devised a “method for
composing with twelve-tones”
chromaticism of the style led
Schoenberg to abandon the
need for the music to be in a
key
● A compositional theory and
working method to govern
atonal composition
● Based on a fixed arrangement
of the twelve chromatic
pitches, which are to be
treated equally to avoid
conveying any sense of a tonic
Tone-row (series)
● Fixed order of the 12 pitches
each once
● Devised by the composer
according to whatever
qualities he/she desires
● In addition to its original form,
the row can be inverted
intervallically, presented in
retrograde (backwards), or
both
● And because the row’s unique
character is defined by its
intervals, it can also be
transposed to start on any of
the 12 pitches
● ​Yields a total of 48
permutations
● 48 pitch series are used to
construct melodies ​and
harmonies
Moving away from ​Expressionism
● Schoenberg’s twelve-tone
music is also characterized by
a more detached, almost
neoclassical approach to
genre and form
● The music is stripped of its
programmatic and emotional
content
III.​ ​Alban Berg (1885–1935)
● Student of Schoenberg
● Little musical training before
starting study with Schoenberg
in 1904
● Important expressionist
composer
● Most Romantic of the Second
Viennese Composers
IV.​ ​Anton Webern (1883–1945)
● A student of Schoenberg
● Much less Romantic in style
and aesthetic than Berg or
Schoenberg
- approach was more
objective, unemotional,
precise
- Pieces tend to be very brief
and sparse in texture
Webern’s Vocal Music
● Crucial part of his output
● Many song settings throughout
his career
● Tremendous sensitivity to
poetry from wide variety of
sources
● Goethe, folk poetry,
Wunderhorn,​ Chinese texts,
Georg Trakl (expressionist
poet)
● Hildegard Jone
- friend of Webern
- set only her poetry after 1926
(all twelve-tone music)
Links to Late-Romanticism
● Composed operas (Wagnerian
approach)
● Used Leitmotivs
● Programmaticism
● Lyricism
● Occasional return tonal,
chromatic, late-Romantic style
within works that were
otherwise atonal
● In his twelve-tone music, Berg
devised tone-rows with tonal
implications
● Rows with diatonic sections,
outlined triads, P4/P5 intervals
Counterpoint in Webern’s music
● Had Ph.D in musicology
● Dissertation focused on the
complex counterpoint of
Renaissance polyphony
● Canon (systematic imitation),
inversion, retrograde,
mensuration, etc.
● Adopted twelve-tone method
with eve more rigidity,
objectivity, mathematicism
than Schoenberg himself
Wozzeck​ (1917-1922)
● Berg’s operatic, expressionist
masterpiece
● Atonal, but not twelve-tone
● The plot involves a soldier,
abused by those positions of
authority and betrayed by his
lover
● He kills her out of rage and
desperation
● Then goes mad and kills
himself
Pointillism
● Rhythms, dynamics, timbres,
registers all carefully chosen
to reflect the symmetries,
canons, palindromes of the
Webern’s tone rows
● Each note appears
individually, as a point in
space
● Isolated sonic event with
defined by pitch, dynamics,
color, rhythmic placement
● Sparse works for limited forces
● Very short in duration detailed
V.​ ​Style Analysis of Atonal Music

Sound Harmony
Timbre ● Atonal & non-functional
● Use of extended techniques (non traditional and ● Based upon pitch and interval patterns, motives,
singing) tone rows
● Artificial harmonics on strings ● Structures related to melodic structures
● Sprechstimme​ (vocal style that lies between speech
and song)
● Multiphonics on Wind instruments
● Extreme and Untraditional Ranges
Texture
● Pointillism
● Uses rests and wide leaps that make sounds
into “points”
● Contrapuntal independence
Dynamics
● Extreme contrasts
● ​Not uncommon for works to be at extremely
soft levels

Melody Rhythm
● Atonal ● intentionally ambiguous
● Based upon pitch and interval patterns, motives, ● changing meters, but not aurally apparent –
tone rows purely for individual expression
● Structures related to harmonic structures
● Can be extremely disjunct