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.
Digitalisiert wurden rund 90 Schriftgutobjekte mit einem Gesamtseitenumfang von rund 800 Seiten. 75% dieser Objekte sind Manuskripte, die restlichen 25% sind Typoskripte, wobei die Hälfte der Dokumente in deutscher, die andere Hälfte in englischer Sprache verfasst sind. Diese Dokumente stammen aus dem Nachlass Ernst Kreneks und stehen im Zusammenhang mit seiner Lehr- und Vortragstätigkeit sowohl in akademischen Institutionen als auch in Rundfunksendungen.
Textfehler und Schreibfehler wurden übernommen.
Fehlende i-Punkte, Umlautzeichen etc. werden stillschweigend ergänzt. Geminationsstriche werden aufgelöst. Leerzeichen und Abteilungszeichen werden standardisiert.
Fehlende Interpunktion wird nicht ergänzt. In Zweifelsfällen wird das den Rechtschreibregeln entsprechende Interpunktionszeichen erfasst. Striche werden immer als Bindestriche erfasst.
Es werden ausschließlich englisch Anführungszeichen verwendet. Es wird vorlagegemäß zwischen einfachen und doppelten Anführungszeichen unterschieden.
Die Silbentrennung wird vorlagegemäß übernommen.
Der Text wird in Seiten, Textfelder (Paragraphen, Überschriften, Seitenzahlen, Notizen) und Zeilen segmentiert.
Als Krenek 1947 seine Stelle an der Hamline University aufgab und seinen Wohnsitz nach Kalifornien verlegte, nahm er Lehraufträge an Institutionen in Los Angeles an, darunter das LA City College und das LA State College, wo er zwischen 1947 und 1949 unterschiedliche Kurse für Neue Musik, und Musikgeschichte hielt.
In diesem Kontext entstand dieser Vortrag, der historische Parallelen zwischen den jeweils unterschiedlichen aber zeitgleichen kompositorischen Ausprägungen von J S Bachs Spätwerk und dem „stile galante“ der Mannheimer Schule, bzw. von A Schönbergs Zwölftonkomposition und dem Neoklassizismus. Krenek argumentiert für die Langlebig- und Entwicklungsfähigkeit der Zwölftontechnik, die potentiell zu einem neuen Klassizismus führen kann, im Gegensatz zum Neoklassizismus, dem Krenek trotz seiner damals aktuellen Popularität nur als Modetrend einschätzt.
Der Text wurde von René Leibowitz 1949 für die Zeitschrift „Polyphonie Paris“ auf Französisch übersetzt.
If historical parallels are allowed, it would seem that
has much in common with that of
music, but rather as a composer who tenaciously vlung to the aesthetic and technical ideals
of the past and spent his uncontested mastery in perfecting a style that had become obso-
lete. There are more than a few observers and commentators in our day who think very much
the same about
the notion that the ideas of atonality and twelve-tone technique had a certain, though
limited character of progressiveness in
world since had moved on to the newer and simpler tenets of neo-classicism, which supposed-
ly represented a more advanced phase in the development of the art.
In terms of our historical comparison these commentators would ply the part of the
promotors of the stile galant, as it was expressed in the Mannheim School and other similar
movements of the mid-eighteenth century. These artists too advocated a drastic simplifica-
tion of the style of composition, over against the tremendous complexity of
phony. The parallel may be carried still a little further. The representatives of the
rococo ideal of simplicity and playfulness rejected
only the contrapuntal texture of his work, which to them seemed to prove his devotion to
the values of the past. They were not able to perceive in the boldness of his harmonic
procedure that was to become the main vehicle of progress in the tonal music of the follo-
wing hundredandfifty years. It was only when
and
ting became adapted to something more significant than "galant" daintiness.
Similarly those who nowadays criticize
seem to consider only the romantic flavor of that music while they have no appreciation
of the newness of the constructive ideas which are expressed in the twelve tone technique.
To be sure, the neo-classicists do not overlook the intellectual quality of that contribu¬
tion, but they see in it a decadent, purely cerebral aftermath of romantic exuberance,
while they believe to have discovered in their neo-classical methods a new principle of
vitality.
It is here that the historical parallel comes to an end. The question whether the
neo-classical camp will produce a
above that of busy indifference is futile. So far neo-classicism has not yet evolved any
new principle of musical organization that could be compared with that of the sonata, which
was the essential achievement of the post-Bachian simplifiers of music. They at least made
no attempts at restoring, for instance, the modal idiom of the sixteenth century, whereas
many of our present-day "modernists" concern themselves with a revival of past manners of
writing at least as far distant from our own time as that of
Since the admittedly arbitrary way of looking at history in terms of sections mar-
ked off by neat figures with two zeros at the end invites contemplating a century as a
unit, it is likely that some day our century will be considered in this light, and since
we have nearly reached the mid-century mark it is of some interest to speculate whether in
music it will be known as a predominantly classical or romantic century. Although neo-clas-
sicism and atonality seem to be separated by an unbridgeable gap, it may well be that the
general character of the century will be recognized as being classical rather than roman-
tic. Although atonality is usually regarded as the ultimate consummation of chaos, and
thus the completion of romantic disorganization, it may look different from a distance.
If we nowadays think of
ficial daintiness and rococo-like playfulness of some of his early works, but rather be-
cause of the universal significance of his entire oeuvre and because of the terrific con-
centration and constructive unification of the compositions of his late period, which to
his contemporaries and many conventional observers of a later time appeared to be a roman-
tic aberration, or perhaps a forward looking giving-in to the trend of the age.
In the development of our contemporary music a somewhat reverse movement may be
seen. While atonality doubtlessly has brought to a climax the anti-constructive, chaotic
tendencies of romanticism and impressionism, it has at the same time in the twelve-tone
technique generated the most severe discipline imposed upon music in a long while. Therein
lies an aspect of classicity, and if the basic ideas of that technique will be accepted by
many composers, it is likely that they will inform our century with a flavor of genuine,
new classicism, while the neo-classocosm so popular during the last twentyfive years will
rather be remembered assa flare-up of romantic inclinations, because it involves a revival
of the past, in spite of its apparently progressive anti-romantic striving for unemotional,
non-dramatic, streamlined matter-of-factness.
The fact that many young composers all over the world occupy themselves with the
methods of the twelve-tone technique indicates that it has the makings of a "common prac-
tice". In order to recommend itself as a basis for common practice, an artistic procedure
must be clear, easy to understand, all-inclusive and flexible. The first two criteria are
required so that the procedure in question may become a subject matter of instruction. In
order to be accepted by many, a procedure must be communicable and teachable, that is, the
average teacher must be able to understand and to explain in precise technical terms what
it consists of, and to control without hesitation whether the pupil has mastered the ele-
ments of the technique. The second pair of criteria is necessary in order to make its ma-
stery worth anybody's while. If the objective of a technique is limited and its methods
too rigid for being applied to the unpredictable requirements of the creative mind, it will
not attract many followers beyond those particularly interested in the special situations
covered by that technique.
The twelve-tone technique as formulated by the early commentators on the work of
the Schoenberg school answers the first two requirements. It is clear and easy to understand.
The notion that it is a sort of higher mathematics accessible only to Einsteinian minds
is utter nonsense. For being acceptable as a vehicle of common use, however, its early
formulation is perhaps too special and too rigid. This does not mean that its actual ap-
plication in the works of Schoenberg and his followers is so.
The rigidity of that formulation is mainly due to the principle that the twelve-tone
row has to be constantly used as
standing that the basic idea of the twelve-tone technique is the construction of a tightly
knit network of motivic relationships to be derived from any specific selection of tonal
patterns (so that the complete twelve-tone row is but one special case among many), we
shall achieve that flexibility of procedure which makes the technique a universally useful
instrument of musical expression. The way toward this goal is indicated, though perhaps
not explicitly expressed in some of the works of the composers mentioned above. So far, it
has not yet been sufficiently studies and theoretically discussed.
In my "Studies in Counterpoint (
mentary of the "special" (or "classical") twelve-tone technique, according to the earlier
theoretical interpretations of that method of composition. In an article in
"general" twelve-tone technique, such as I have applied in several composition completed
during the last few years. I hope to be able to work out in the near future a more syste-
matic presentation of this theory for teaching purposes.