Im Digitalisierungsprojekt „Ernst Krenek lectures online: die musiktheoretischen Vorträge eines Exil-Österreichers“ wurden die im Archiv der Ernst-Krenek-Institut-Privatstiftung aufbewahrten Manuskripte und Typoskripte zu Kreneks Lehrveranstaltungen, Vorträgen und Radiosendungen in einer kuratierten Auswahl online verfügbar und durchsuchbar gemacht, sowie mit begleitenden historischen und biographischen Informationen kontextualisiert.
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Für den kanadischen Radiosender CBC analysierte Ernst Krenek 1957 die Symphonie op. 21 von Anton Webern. Die Kürze des Werks erlaubt ihm dabei mehrere komplette Durchläufe sowie ein mehrfaches Wiederholen einzelner Passagen um den Zuhörenden auch kleinste Details an Weberns Komposition zugänglich zu machen. Am Ende der Radiosendung demonstriert Krenek, dass die verdichtete Kürze von Weberns Musik keine technische Konsequenz aus der Anwendung der Zwölftontechnik ist, sondern vielmehr eine Fortsetzung von Weberns auf Intensivierung emotionalen Ausdrucks abzielender expressionistischer Schaffensphase ist. Außerdem verortete Krenek die Symphonie Weberns als Schlüsselwerk in der Weiterentwicklung der Zwölftontechnik zum Serialismus.
When I appeared on one of these programs earlier this year,
I
The
play. Today I should like to discuss one of the shortest specimens
of the kind.
The term symphony does not of itself require any specific
dimensions of a composition so designated. Originally, that is
in the siteenth and seventeenth centuries, any kind of piece written
for an ensemble of instruments might be called "Sinfonia", even if it
was perhaps only an interlude of a few bars between the stanzas of
an operatic aria.
Antiromantic tendencies in our own time which have led to a
revival of preclassical and Baroque concepts also prompted using the
term "Symphony" in this ancient, non-descript way. The Five Sympho-
nies by
shorter than the
order to contradict the solemnity traditionally attached to this
title.
masquerades undoubtedly would not have used the title "Symphony" had
he not been convinced that his piece in spite of its miniature size
had the characteristics which we associate with the idea of the
symphonic form ever since the
fic definition. One of the objectives of our study will be finding
out to what extent and in which sense
definition.
The
consists make it advisable to hear the piece more than once. Its
brevity makes this happily possible. I therefore propose at this point
listening to the piece in its entirety without any comment so that we
may form some mental picture of the object we want to study. I will
then analyse the work and repeat its integral performance at the end
of this period. You will now hear the
as played by an ensemble of musicians of Los Angeles conducted by
two movements, and that it was written in ( play the whole symphony )
Our first impression is that this work is not only much shorter
than most symphonies, but also smaller in volume of sound. Instead of
the imposing array of intrumental choirs which in the 19th century
were held indispensable in the symphonic style,
scored for Clarinet, Bass clarinet, two French Horns, Harp and a limited
group of strings, without double Basses. The term "Chamber-Symphony"
would be quite
Although definitions and descriptions of musical forms are by
necessity flexible and open to interpretation by both composer and
critics, we agree in general
rized by the presence of at least two contrasting themes which are
subjected to the processes of development before being more or less
completely restated. If we understand this statement to mean rather
a general principle than a rigid precept, it will indeed cover
nearly all items of the symphonic literature. Ever since
expanded the symphonic form to that monumental dimension which has
become its most prominent landmark, we know that frequently the
contrasting themes are actually compound blocks of musical ideas,
richly articulated and full of local contrast. We also know that
especially in the more recent phases of symphonic writing, as for
instance in
not confined to a specified area of the composition, nearly separated
from the areas of statement and recapitulation, but invades the
thematic statement as soon as its made. Whatever such special
conditions may be, we can nearly always observe at work the idea of
contrasting subject matters and development thereof.
Let us now see how this principle applies to
Looking at the score we notice that the first movement has in bar 25
a double-bar line with a repetition sign, such as is always found in
the classical symphonies up to the early Romantics. Tradition required
that the
literally before going on to the development. In modern symphonies,
this never
classics this repetition is nowadays frequently left out. Since this
section in
could indeed be an exposition, the other two third possibly being
assigned to development and recapitulation. Let us then hear these
first 25 bars to find out whether we can discover anything like
contrasting thematical material.
( play m. 1- 25a )
It would seem far fetched to call any configuration in this
section a first or second theme, since no precise thematic shape is
clearly in evidence. The only change which can be identified is a
very subtle one. About two thirds through this section in bar 17 and
19, there is a slight slowing down of the speed. Approximately in this
region the movement of the music changes if ever so slightly in that
the longer tones which prevailed in the beginning now recede into the
background and give way to grouping of shorter tones. Let us hear this
section once more and focus our attention on that slight change in
texture which occurs at the point of the little slowdown.
( play same )
If such a minute change is of any significance, we may conclude
that in comparison to the effects prevailing in traditional styles
musical processes were reduced by
scale. In fact, much of his uniqueness as a composer may be understood
by realizing that he was bent upon reducing the substance of music to
that minimum of sound which would make the musical process just
audible to a very attentive ear.
Such extraordinary attention will be necessary if we now investi-
gate what actually goes on in this section which we tentatively have
equalled to the exposition of a symphonic form. Let us try to listen
carefully to the first 5 1/2 bars and focus our attention on the
sustained tones which are played by the two French Horns. The first
Horn has a phrase consisting of four tones, the second of which is
repeated. The second Horn enters after the first has played its third
tone which is reached by a skip of nearly two octaves down. When the
second Horn plays its last tone, the clarinet enters above it. This is
the beginning of a new phrase and we shall for the time being not pay
any attention to it. Here now is the opening phrase.
( play 1-5 1/2 )
You may have noticed that the second Horn begins its phrase on
the same tone on which the first Horn started the whole piece. But
instead of going up as the first did, the second Horn goes down
exactly as far as the first went up. It repeats this low tone just
as the first Horn did with its high second tone. Then the second Horn
skips just as far up nearly two octaves as the first went down. The
last interval between the third and fourth tones again is the same in
both Horns, the first going up, the second down. Let us hear this
except again.
(play 1-5 1/2)
What goes on here, is known as a canonic sinu
sion, that is to say,
but in opposite directions. What goes up in the first, goes down in
the second, and vice versa. The two statements are symmetrical in
relation to a horizontal line drawn through the pitch level which
they have in common namely their first tones.
Once we have realized this, we have grasped one of the essential
principles by which
music moves along and is held together. It is the principle of
symmetry. Of course, the term symmetry has been used in theoretical
discussions of musical design long before. In classical music we
speak of "symmetrical periods", and by that we mean structures of the
type which I shall illustrate with the wellknown
What is symmetrical about these phrases? They obviously
correspond in regard to their rhythmic organisation: six chort
units plus one long. But since these units follow each other always
in the same order, there is strictly speaking no symmetry if we
understand by symmetry an arrangement of elements on two sides of n
given axis whereby the corresponding elements are equidistant from
that axis.
parallel, like verses which have the same number of feet and end
in rhyming syllables.
have seen, since they are related to each other like the image of a
mountain to its mirror reflection in the horizontal surface of a lake.
This relationship, technically known as inversion, has been used a
great deal in polyphonic music, but rarely with such unique persisten-
ce, as in
structural devices.
We shall now take up the section following the repeat sign up to
which we have listened so far. If we have tentatively called it a
development section in analogy to that part of the symphonic form
which traditionally follows the exposition, we will now have to
revise this notion since the first section has hardly exposed any-
thing that could have been identified with the traditional concept of
a theme. Let us then see what the subsequent part is like.
( play 25b- 45 )
The first thing to be noticed here is another change in the
movement of the music, that is a different arrangement of time values.
The opening section of the work consisted of sustained tones which were
mainly half-notes, and shorter ones, which were quarter-notes, the
latter, as we have pointed out, accumulated toward the end of the
fragment. In the section which we have just heard we encounter for
the first time still shorter time values, namely eight-notes. These
appear always in pairs, usually attached to a relatively long
sustained note of the length of six quarters. Let us verify this by
listening to the first five bars of this section.
( play 25b-29 )
You could hear this characteristic grouping twice in the top
voice played by the clarinet, and twice in the bottom part, played by
cello and then by the Viola.
( repeat )
By this time you will have realized that this music requires a
sort of microscopic inspection if one wishes to penetrate its inner
workings. Therefore we must not lose our patience if we look at some
details again and again, each time focussing another aspect. If I let
you hear these five bars once more, I invite you now to watch only
the top voice, the clarinet. You will observe that it consists of two
phrases of three tones each - the long tone plus the two eighth-notes
previously discussed. Now if you watch the melodic motion of these
phrases, you will notice that they again are symmetrical. Again they
have the first, sustained tone in common. In the first phrase the
two eighth-notes move down, in the second they move up to the same
extent.
( repeat )
Now we must hear these bars once more, this time watching the
bottom voice, and we will again notice the same kind of symmetry.
( repeat )
But we are not through yet. When we now play these five bars
the section now under examination. Listen carefully:
( play 25b-29, 40-44 )
If you did listen carefully, you could observe that here a
different type of symmetry is represented. The second set of five bars
contains exactly the same musical process as the first, only in rever-
se order. The two eighth-notes now come before the sustained tone. If
in the case of inversion we could imagine the musical process being
reflected in a horizontal mirror, we would now have to assume the
existence of a vertical mirror in which what was going forward is
reflected as retracing its steps, running backwards. Let us hear this
once more.
( repeat )
One more detail, before we go on. You may remember that there
was a complete standstill in the middle of this section - a long
silence in the center of which a few hazy, shadowy tones could be
heard before the music took up its flow again. Let us inspect this
shadowy speck.
( play 34-35 )
The cello has one very short and a long tone, the harp has
four short notes, hardly distinguishable, and the cello returns
with a short and a long tone. Again the eighth tones are arranged
symmetrically in two groups of four, but here the retrograde mirror-
image follows the original immediately. The conspicuous place
assigned to this configuration in the center of dead silence suggests
that it has a special function. In fact, it is the turning point of
this whole section, and all that follows it is an exact retrogression
of everything that went before. If we had plenty of time and could
inspect the score while listening to the music, we could easily
verify that there are many more correspondences of this kind, that
many more elements of the whole composition are related to each other
in terms of inversion, or retrogression. It would become clear that
in
replace, the traditional ways of creating structural context. Before
pondering the implications of this state of affairs, let us become
acquainted with a few more details of our Symphony.
If the formal articulation of the first movement so far was
mainly carried out by changes of motion, we may see that
stuck to this idea to the very end of the movement. Here are the last
6 bars of it.
( play 61 - 66b )
For the first time the short eighth-notes now appear in groups
of more than two. Obviously the structural idea of the movement is
speeding up the musical process from one section to the other by
introducing shorter rhythmic values and increasing their number.
The most important feature of the constructive aspect of this
work is revealed in the first 11 measures of the second movement. This
movement is called Variations, and consists of a theme and seven
variations to which a brief concluding section is attached. The
articulation of the form is extremely clear in that the variations
are most ostensibly set off one against the other. Paradoxical as
it seems, we must say that
strange as they might imagine the music of the Martians to be, is much
clearer and simpler in its constructive aspect than most twelve-tone
music ever written.
By using the term twelve-tone music I have anticipated what I
shall now try to demonstrate analysing the Theme of the Variations,
which comprises the first 11 measures of the movement. Let us hear it
now.
( play II,1-11 )
This theme consists of a melodic line played by the Clarinet
which is very discretely accompanied by a few tones in the two French
Horns and Harp. If you try to count the different pitches played by
the Clarinet, you will realize that there are twelve. Some of the
tones are repeated, but the sum total of the different tones to be
heard is twelve. Let us hear it again.
( repeat )
Now, according to our microscopic procedure, we shall focus
another aspect of this sequence of tones. In terms of time values, it
consists of tones of nearly equal length, exept for two chort
which occur in the middle of this sequence. It is at this point that
the harp plays four short notes against the leading clarinet part. Let
us try to verify this.
( repeat )
Iffyyounow
realize that these two short notes again are a turning point such as
we have examined earlier. Everything that happens after it is a retro-
gression of what went before. This applies not only to the clarinet
part, but also to the accompaninent. Please listen to it once more.
( repeat )
Since we have realized that the entire melody of the clarinet
consists of twelve different tones, it follows that this sequence of
twelve tones was set up in such a way that its second half would be
identical with a retrogression of its first half, shifted of course
to a different pitch level so that none of the first six tones would
be repeated in the second half, or else we would not obtain a comple-
te twelve-tone row.
Here is revealed another principle, and one of the most impor-
tant of those which govern
employment of twelve-tone rows in the construction of musical
our Variation movement occurs not only at this place, but indeed the
whole Symphony consists exclusively of countless appearances of this
tone-row. There is not a single note in the whole work which could not
be
If we did not attempt to trace it in the excepts of the first
movement, it is due to the fact that there the tone-row is constantly
superimposed unto itself, appearing in canonic imitations at different
pitch levels at the same time, frequently combined with its own
inversion, as for instance in the passage for the two French Horns
at the very beginning of the work. It would not have been possible
there to detect the function of the tone-row without taking apart the
musical fabric and inspect the single threads of which it is made up,
a procedure which in these broadcasts is not available. Fortunately
the texture of the Theme of our Variations is so simple and clear that
the all-important twelve-tone row stands out in bold relief and may
be identified without difficulty. Let us now hear this theme again.
( repeat )
The ensuing variations do not require elaborate comment. They
are set off against each other with exemplary clarity, each of them
having its own characteristic tempo, rhythmic movement, and
orchestration. Each variation covers eleven bars exactly like the
theme, and in at least three of them the turning point at which the
musical process reverses itself is drastically brought out by a
complete standstill, much like the analogous detail which we have
examined in the first movement.
In spite of the fact that everything in
to utmost clarity of articulation and simplicity of texture, this
music was, during the composer's life time, considered the most
bewildering phenomenon within the realm of so-called new music, even
more inaccessible than
Superficially one might be inclined to ascribe this reaction to the
character of the sounds which prevail in
extremely dissonant, according to the traditional discrimination
between consonant, that is agreeable, sweet, harmonious, and dissonant,
namely unpleasant, harsh, disturbing sounds. However this is hardly
the true cause of the alarm that caused
beyond the uneasiness usually engendered by modern music,for the
dissonant combinations which he uses are not much different from
what we have been accustomed to hear ever since the beginning of the
century in
and
To us it seems that it was rather the unprecedented degree of
concentration so manifest in
public as well
is no composer known to us whose entire life's work can be heard in
less than three hours although it comprises the fruits of thirty-five
years of labor. Only one of
ten minutes to play, and even this is only thirty seconds longer than
ten minutes. Such brevity is the consequence of extraordinary
concentration. Even to me, who has been acquainted with
for many years, listening to a five minute composition of his seems
like having heard a half hour of music.
One of the tangible technical means by which musical
significance is crowded into a minimum of duration is reducing
continuous utterance of any musical thought to the smallest possible
number of tones. The Theme of the Variations which enabled us to
discover the twelve-tone row on which the whole work is constructed
is an exceptional case in that here one instrument is allowed to carry
a thematic statement for as much as eleven bars. Nearly everywhere
else the continuity of phrases is limited to sequences of less then
four tones. In many cases the individual instruments play only two
tones or even just one tone, before, after shorter or longer
silences, they enter the process again. The result is a seeming
absence of continuity apt to disturb and tire listeners conditioned
to the permanent roaring of late romantic music. The German composer
and critic
"Punktmusik", that is "point-music", since it condenses the musical
process so to speakinto disconnected points rather than stressing a
continuity which would carry the listener along over breaks and
Frequently one has heard the opinion that
broken-up style of writing was the effect of his embracing the twelve-
tone method of composition, in other words, that the compulsion of
which he submitted of using pre-set twelve-tone patterns as the basic
material of his work forced him into compositional procedures which
he otherwise would not have employed, and that he might have written
in a more fluent, more accessible style if he had not put on the
strait jacket of the twelve-tone technique. That this was not the case
can easily be seen if we take a brief look at one of his earlier works,
The look may, and must, be brief since this work -
written in ( play "Six Bagatelles" )
In these pieces we clearly observe the characteristic features
of "point-music": the jagged outline, the brief, disjointed phrases,
the sudden silences which seem to nip in the bud any feeling of
continuity. But in the string quartet pieces this manner of writing
may be interpreted as the result of the desire to express emotional
qualities with utmost intensity. If there is any formal organizing
principle at work, it certainly is not obvious. These pieces have many
of the characteristics of the recitative, that is, their phrases seem
to follow each other in the manner of an improvisation, dictated by
nothing but the swiftly changing sequence of emotional impulses which
we understand to
rhetorical element in this music is very strong, and we perceive the
sudden changes, interruptions, contrasts as outbursts of high-pitched
emotions, much as if we would listen to impassionate speech. In this
respect the string quartet pieces belong to that phase of new music
which was correctly associated with the idea of expressionism.
While the Symphony retains the external characteristics of the
expressionistic style, they now appear to be the result of ruthless
geometrical properties of the chosen twelve-tone row, of the
internal correspondences of its various segments in terms of inversion
and retrogression, seems to overshadow any other motivation that
could be thought of as relevant in the process of the music's coming
into existence. Problems and projects of design are of paramount
significance everything else takes on the character of a byproduct,
analytical nature. A letter which he addressed to a Swiss music
critic in
from this letter concerning his last orchestral work, the
recorded edition of
you first see this score you want so say, 'well, what is in it?" -
nothing!' This is because you do not see the multitude of notes which
most music has accustomed you to see ... Everything in this piece
is derived from the two ideas stated in the first two measures....
The second form of the idea is in retrograde: the second two tones
are the retrograde movement of the first but are doubled in rhythmic
length... By changing the center of gravitation within the two row
forms by augmentation and diminution the character and meter of
the piece itself is constantly changing.... The entire development of
the piece is already present in the row of the first few bars: Pre-
e
miraculous influence exerted by
young generation of composers from
recesses of
know that... our age would be characterized by a majority of the
youngest Western European musicians as the age of
Certainly nothing in
development. t
family in
notice that before turning in earnest to composition he was trained
in musicology at the
degree for a thesis on medieval music. Undoubtedly this was a case
of selective affinity, for the most intricate aspects of
later music have much in common with the rhythmic and polyphonic
complexities of the music of the Middle Ages. The decisive event of
his life was his association with
and remained
his life. This life, uneventful as it was in terms of ostensible
crisis and drama, was full of frustration and disappointment. In his
homeland to which he was desperately attached he was given only
occasional jobs as conductor, proof-reader and the like at the frin-
ges of the so-called official musical life and as a composer he was
appreciated only by a small group of initiated friends that was
generally considered a bunch of lunatics. The Nazi regime deprived
him even of this limited acclaim as it suppressed his music and
annihilated his few followers or scattered them over the face of the
earth. A cruel fate prevented him from realizing that during those
frightful years of violence his fame had unbelievably spread under-
ground. A few months after the end of world War II
shot to death, presumably by accident, by an American sentry in the
mountain village of
not been fully explained to this day.
However, the age of
it turned out that young composers all over the world had made
their patron saint. That attracted them to him was this magic word
"pre-formed". They became possessed with the idea of extending the
principle of the strict organization of musical design through the
twelve-tone row to all aspects of the musical process. Not only the
sequence of tones and intervals, but also the duration of the various
elements, the dynamic volume and the sound qualities of the tones
should be preformed, predetermined by the series, that is by some
sequence of measurements and proportions set up in advance and gover-
ning every single detail of the musical process. Within a few years
after
opened up the new frontier of electronic music, a medium which gives
the composer unlimited control over all and any detail of the musical
process. So far we have only taken a few steps into this unexplored
territory, and the ultimate outcome of the adventure is beyond
anybody's guess. Tempting as it is to embark on a discussion of
electronic music we have to stop right here lest our discourse would
approacht the dimension of a
the concise brevity of today's subject.
It remains to answer our first question: Is
symphony? The answer is no, if we adhere to the traditional concept
of the symphonic form as a dramatic development of clearly stated
thematic characters. The answer is yes, if we accept a re-definition
of the term "Symphony" as a work written for instrumental ensemble
embodying the most demanding type of musical design and thereby
realizing the highest degree of significance. Let us now, in the spi-
rit of this new definition, hear once more the Symphony by ( play the whole Symphony again )