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7 Expressionism&Serialism
7 Expressionism&Serialism
Instructor:
Dr. Frank T. Restesan
Key Terms
Expressionism
Second Viennese School
Serialism
Twelve-tone system
Twelve-tone series (row)
Sprechstimme
Hauptstimme
Nebenstimme
Expressionists & Fauves I.
Sought to express and communicate direct,
extreme & disturbing emotions
Used abstract images
The French Les Fauves = wild beasts
experimented with distortion, the grotesque
employed primitive motifs
seemingly wild brush work and strident colors,
while their subject matter had a high degree of
simplification and abstraction
Music and art had threatening, violent quality
Expressionism in Music II.
Music of increasing emotionality
Exploited extreme psychological states
hysteria, nightmare, insanity
reflected fascination with Freuds work
subjective expression of inner turmoil
distorted, exaggerated melody and
harmony
fascination with tone color and color
theory
Expressionism in Music II.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Georges Enesco (1881-1955)
Bla Bartk (1881-1945)
A. Schoenberg(1874-1951)
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893);
inspired 20th century Expressionists
The Emancipation
of Dissonance
Concept sett forth by Schoenberg:
freedom from the need to resolve
Melody - more complex, harmonies
more dissonant
Tonality - grew more indistinct
Final result Atonalism (no tonal
center at all)
Arnold Schoenberg
(18741951)
Radical expressionist composer
Leader of the Second Viennese School
Born in Vienna - Son of a Jewish shopkeeper
1882 - started violin lessons at age 8
1891 worked as a bank clerk
1898 Converted to Lutheranism to avoid
Anti-Semitism
Largely self-taught in music
Took composition with Alexander Zemlinsky
1901 married Zemlinskys sister, Mathilde
Cont. Arnold Schoenberg (2)
Moved to Berlin wrote music for cabaret &
taught at Stern Conservatory (with the help of
Strauss)
1903 retuned to Vienna and taught privately
(Anton Webern and Alban Berg)
Alsotalented expressionist painter
G. Mahler soon became supporter of his work
After WW1 founded the Society of Private
Musical Performances performed his music
& other radical composers
Cont. Arnold Schoenberg (3)
1907 - Began writing atonal works
Early 1920s - Developed Twelve-tone
System
1923 his wife Mathilde died
1924 Schoenberg married Gertrud Kolisch
and moved back to Berlin
1933 - Flee the Nazis moved briefly to
France & converted back to Judaism
1934 arrived to the U.S. (Los Angeles)
Taught at UCLA until 1944
Cont. Schoenberg-OUTPUT(4)
2 Operas and 2 Dramas w/ music:
Moses and Aaron (1932)
4 Orchestral Pieces:
5 Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 (1909)
4 Instrumental Concertos:
Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra
(1933)
10 Choral Works:
Psalm 130 De Profundis, Op. 50b (1950)
Cont. Schoenberg-OUTPUT(5)
21 Chamber Music Pieces:
String Quartet No. 2, F-sharp minor (with
Soprano), Op. 10 (1908) First step to Atonality!
21 Keyboard Pieces:
Suite for Piano, Op. 25 (1923)
30 Songs:
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912)
Transcriptions, Arrangements of works by
Bach, Schubert and Mahler
Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire ,
Op.21 ( 1912)
Genre: Song cycle for speaker & instr.
Pierrot: is the eternal sad clown
Lunaire: refers to the moon,
lunacy/insanity
Written in expressionist idiom:
kaleidoscopic scoringeach song
uses different combination of
instruments
texts magnified and distorted by use of
Sprechstimme : (Ger.,
Speaking Voice)
Sprechstimme (b)
Def: German melodramatic singing
technique re-invented by Schoenberg
/ Speech-song - in between song and
speech
Approximate pitches are notated (X)
Singer speaks in exaggerated, quasi-
melodic style but strictly following the
rhythm
Cont. Pierrot Lunaire (c)
Text: Based on 21 poems by Albert
Giraud (Belgian symbolist poet)
- unrhymed poems with strict form
(13 lines long: 2 Quatrains + 1 Quintain)
Melody: Atonal no pitch serves as
tonal center
Form: Motivic Development
(Developing Variations Brahms)
Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21
No. 8: Night - (1)
Setting/Orchestration: voice, piano, bass
clarinet, cello
Form: Passacaglia (set of variation over
repeated bass)
3-note ostinato (recurring figure or motive)
overlapping versions, freely transposed
dense polyphonic texture
soprano sings the motive at verschwiegen
Cont. Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21
No. 8: Night - (2)
R-0:
I-0:
RI-0:
Listening: Schoenberg
Piano Suite Op.25 (1923)
Genre: Dance Suite
Music Organization: Twelve-Tone Row
(8 types of rows used)
Form: Free form
Use of Tetrachords with connotations
(segments of 4 notes) :
B-A-C-H Motive (first 4 notes of R-0)
Used only 2 Transposition of each row
Cont. Piano Suite Op.25
Other composers who used the Motive:
B A C H
Webern's
arrangement
of Bach's
Ricercar
from Musical
Offering
(BWV 1079)
Cont. Webern,
Ex: Five Orchestral Pieces (4.6)
IV Movement: a short time segment of
very high intensity
6 measures (30 seconds)
Disconnected registers, colors, rhythms