Some more Schoenberg

Back at the blogging after nearly a month away. A Happy New Year to all.

Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, op. 41 (1942) (voice, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, piano)
This work for reciter with piano qunitet seems to get a bad rap, primarily from those who see it as a tonal work where Schoenberg turned his back on his creation and returned to a more popular style. The Ode is a powerful work, uncompromising and adamant. Bristling moments abound - its striking opening - staccato chords in the piano with martial and regal rhythms in the strings creating an Ivesian bustle. Throughout Schoenebrg tailors his musical images to the text and sometimes is even funny - like the exagerated portamentos that accompany the talk of "Austria." This piece seems to be something timeless like the Byron poem it sets which looks at Napoleon fallen and desolate with little pity. Rich and engrossing.

Concerto, op. 42 (1942) (piano, orchestra)
Like the violin concerto, my memory of the piano concerto is of a work I found quite difficult to listen to, a work that was stodgy, full of those repeated rhythms and unpleasant. I recall feeling that it never got off its feet. That was ten years ago maybe, listening to it today, I hear it as a prototype of a number of angular pieces that I find attractive - I hear its repeated rhtyhms but just as often I'm surprised by a sudden shift of material, a new turn of phrase, a new rhythmic figure or a delightful object that appears and doesn't return, at least not in the same guise - like that lovely moment of high quartal-ish trills at 325 or the striking cadenza at 287 or the col legno battuto in the basses toward the end. This is chamber music with a lot of vibrato and massed sounds. But it has a romantic striving to it - it seems to be fighting against the walls. Harmonically it is twelve-tone but with a tonal core. Listening to it you can really hear how Schoenberg is using the twelve-tone language to justify the things he was writing about in the Harmonielehre here it is internalized - harmonies can go anywhere - and they need to be tamed. A bold, visionary work.

Theme and variations, op. 43a (1943) (band)
This, another example of Schoenberg having a go at neoclassicism, is a deep text. There are abundant cross references throughout its twelve-minutes that one could spend a good deal of time teasing out, but would it be worth it for the few minutes of genius? The theme itself is unmemorable, an oddly harmonized - though oddly only in the sense of the norm: Schoenberg is following the precepts he lays out in the Harmonielehre - melody that undergoes a number of transformations, a waltz, a fughetta, for instance, before apotheozing in the end into a broad expansive restatement, but still the melody is unmemorable. You see Schoenberg trying to get his point across, there is a new expression marking, joining the haupt and nebbenstimme, this is an arrow pointing forward at the beginning of a phrase and an arrow pointing backward at the end, to bring out the phrases in the dense polyphony of Variation V. Variation 5, like Variation 1 is quite nice. In Variation 1 the harmonic structure of the original is buried under triplet mud obscuring its contours. Otherwise an odd curiosity. Originally commissioned by the president of G. Schirmer, Carl Engel. According to Schoenberg: "It is the kind of piece one writes in order to enjoy one's own virtuosity."

Bartok

Catching up on my Bartok notes. Many of the early works are not availble in score or recording and so I can only comment on the fragments presented in the Dille catalog.

1897
Scherzo or Fantasie for Piano (Scherzo oder Fantasie für das Pianoforte), Op. 18, DD 50
A grand scherzo in ABA form. It sounds like Brahms, but with a regularity born of Strauss. Satisfying for the player and for the listener, though not particularly adventurous harmonically. Incidentally, a sketch appears in Bartok's Greek textbook of the Odyssey.

1898
Sonata for Piano, Op. 19, DD 51
This is a big four movement sonata in the 19th century large scale format. Orchestral sonorities, almost like something MacDowell would do. It is firmly accomplished and would no doubt whet the appetities of many listeners. Demonstrates the Bartok is not coming out of nowhere, but is firmly within the tradition.

1898
Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 20, DD 52
The whole thing apparently exists down to the individual parts. It's in four movements in a prevailing C minor tonality, though the Scherzo is Eb and the the Adagio also outside the key. Again Brahmsian with orchestral texture in the piano.

1898
Three Piano Pieces (Drei Klavierstücke), Op. 21, DD 53 Adagio-Presto; (untitled); Adagio, sehr düster
#2 and 3 are published in "Der Junge Bartok" they are quite lovely, convential late Romantic works in the style of Brahms and Grieg. The Intermezzo has some elegant arch form, while the Adagio features a song-like feel and modal mixture.

1898
Three Songs (Drei Lieder), DD 54
In Eb flat opens with a gentle melody - why did they make these people write these songs when Schumann had created such a masterpiece?

1898
Scherzo in B Minor for Piano, DD 55
Nothing special scherzo and trio opens with a simple period. The trio is in nine eight with a pastoral opening.

1898
String Quartet in F Major, DD 56
In four or five movements, the Adagio opens with fugal entries, the Trio also seems quite nice in F# minor.

1899
Piano Quintet Fragments, DD B10 & B12
Very rich strong powerful fragments for piano quintet.

1899
Tiefblaue Veilchen for Soprano and Orchestra, DD 57
A rich beginning in D minor.

1899
Scherzo in Sonata Form for String Quartet, DD 58
A scherzo and trio seemingly it is in sonata form, the Trio seems like it might be more harmonically interesting.

1900?
Scherzo in B Flat Minor for Piano, DD 59
Very standard opening, again a scherzo and trio.

1900
Six Dances, DD 60
Six, seemingly fun, dances for piano. One was published in facsimile in the Pressburger Zeitung on Christmas 1913. The first and second were orchestrated as DD 60b.

1900
Valcer for Orchestra, DD 60b -- orchestrations of nos. 1 and 2 of DD 60
Orchestrations of numbers 1 and 2 of the above.

1900
Drei gemischte Chore DD 61a
Three mixed choirs for four and then six and six voices. Can't get muxh sense from the opening, thogh there is nothing harmonically special about these brief snippets.

1900
Was streift vorbei im Dammerlicht DD 61b
For men's choir, cannot tell much from this simple opening.

1900
Liebeslieder, DD 62 -- Diese Rose pflück ich hier (I pluck this rose), Ich fühle deinen Odem (I feel your breath)
Tho of the six of these are published in Der Junge Bartok. The first is a dramatic and rangy song in Eb minor its works its way up and up and then throws in a high Bb for good measure, a little bit much in what is otherwise a folksy-ish setting, kind of Brahms mets Mahler. The second is again somewhat over the top with as many as three contrapuntal lines against an unsupported melody, which while retaining standard late Romantic accented dissonances just is a bit too sweet. The remainders are in a similar vein. There is a sort of reuse of materials throughout - for instance, number 5 a nature-love song full of horn calls is refreshed in number six.

1900
Scherzo in B Flat Minor for Piano, DD 63
A quick and commonplace opening, the trio makes use of an interesting two against three beginning.

1901
Variations on a Theme by F.F. (Változatok F.F. egy témája fölött) for Piano, DD 64
Published in "Der Junge Bartok" this is a massive set of variations on a theme. It is full, strong, accomplished in the style of late Romantic rhetoric. Fit for a strong full piano and texutred as an orchestra. It sounds somehwat like early Brahms. Demonstrates Bartok's consumater skill of construction and sense of the instrument. Perhaps a bit overlong.

1901
Scherzo for Orchestra, DD 65
A two against three opening, the trio in the nasty F# Major.

1901
Tempo di minuetto for Piano, DD 66
Very closely related to one of the six dances DD60, nearly the same beginning.

1902
Four Songs, DD 67
These are four somewhat folksy sounding works, though there is tied up with them a good deal of late Romanticism. He seems caught in two worlds, but such a comment as that I just made is silly.

1902
Symphony, DD 68
The scherzo is recorded in the Hungaraton complete edition. It is a well orchestrated quick scherzo in a Dvorak manner - it almost sounds like one of the Slavonic Dances. This was the only movement of the symphony orchestrated by Bartok.

1902
Duo for Two Violins, DD 69
A small two voice contrapuntal study, short, only forty seconds in G major.

1902
Albumblatt in A Major for Violin and Piano, DD 70
A rather lovely work in the late Romantic style for violin and piano. It has some curious modulations (almost from nowhere, but they work). The center is a strong development of the opening and it ends in quiet. Bartok really has worked a strong sense of hamronic motion in his music.

1903
Four Piano Pieces (Négy zongoradarab), DD 71
These are four works for piano that are the sort of late romantic things that pass by on the radio and your mind wanders, you hear them but you don't listen and then they are over and you think, well that was fine, like Dvorak. Unobtrusive in a virtuosic way. Nothing special.

1903?
Andante in F Sharp Major for Violin and Piano, DD B14
What a lovely beginning, big rolled chords from which the violin emerges.

1903
Violin Sonata in E Minor, DD 72
Three movements and published in Documenta Bartokiana volume 1. The first movement is a solidly accomplished sonata with a fugue in the development. The second is darker, a slow movement in variaiton style. It begins rhapsodic and then takes the players through various "gypsy" styles - must be incredibly rewarding, it takes some risks that pay off. The third movment (not published in the volume) is a several times interrupted rushing and angular national, perhaps Slavis, that A minor-y feeling sort of thing that emphasizes the tonic on strong beats. In the end I'm torn about this music, it's immensely accomplished and sounds great, it must be a joy to play (though the piano part, like many of Bartok's early works, is quite difficult). With the exception of the second movement, it doesn't seem like Bartok is really doing anything special, nothing beyond Dvorak, Tchaik, or late Strauss, themselves all excellent composers. It has nothing to distinguish itself beyond simply being good. That said, still worth a listen.

1903
Est (Evening) for Voice and Piano -- lyrics by Kálmán Harsányi;
Published in Der Junge Bartok, this is a mass of augmented seconds and enharmonic spellings. It gets big in the center with quick chord arpeggiaitons in the piano and higher notes. It seems to want to be more than it is.

1903
Est (Evening) for Male Chorus, DD 74 -- text identical to the above, music entirely different
Completely different than the melodramatic song for voice and piano on the same text. Here this is a gentle work for male choir, almost in the mold of the much later Janacek male choir works, there isn't a sense of hard-core late romanticism, but rather a simple folksiness, without naiveté.

1903
Kossuth, Symphonic Poem in Ten Tableaux, DD 75a
A rather strong if studied tone poem. The overall sound world is like Richard Strauss and it has several strong moments, there is nothing really special in it, although the reused melody is solid and the orchestration is totally competant if in a seemingly studied way that may not be the best for the music. It tells the story of Lajos Kossuth a Hungarian revolutionary in the revolutionary year of 1848. The work was a big hit in Hungary in that it tied in with a sort of nationalist independence, which allowed the audience to look beyond things that we laughed at when it was premiered in England. Makes use of many Hungairan style figures as well. A rather important piece in understanding the development of Bartok.

1903
Marcia Funèbre for Piano, DD 75b -- arrangement of two sections of Kossuth (DD 75a)
Rich and elegant this works very well as a piano piece, requires a strong but not prodigious technique with the need for good separation of the hands. Makes use of the ornamenting of important notes school of folksiness.(A - G#-E-F-D-E-F for instance toward the end) A Schenkerian's dream!

1903
Four Songs, DD 76
Lost

1903
Piano Quintet, DD 77
A massive, repeat massive orchestral work for Piano Quintet in four movements each played attacca. It is vibrant and large with a strong opening gesture that begins a journey - this opening figure will emerge triumphant at the end and perhaps is found throughout the piece. The scherzo is a brash hemiola of an affair with true joke rhythms while the slow movement is a meditation on the whole-tone scale, its opening gesture is F#-C-D-E which he works with in a lovely way eventually teasing some E minorness out of it. Finally the final movement is a bold Gypsy dance that culminates, after a fugetta that appears at about the golden section of the piece, in the return of the opening material. It is said that Bartok got very angry and wanted to distance himself from this music, when some people told him they liked this better than what he had done since, he threw the score into a corner. The piano part is shockingly virtuosic and the string parts no less challenging, the type of thing that warrants an enormous applause and lots of sweat raking. Scholars tend to see in this the late version of Bartok's searching for a folk idiom, he had, like Liszt and Brahms before him (two clear forebears in this music) thought that the gypsy bands of Vienna were the true folk music of Hungary; he would soon start an investigation into this in Transylvania.


1904
Rhapsody for Piano, Op. 1, Sz 26
In the style of some of Bartok's other Hungarian works it begins with a rhapsodic improvisatory opening that evokes the violinist warming up the crowd and eventually erupts into a couple of bold dances before apotheosizing into a wooly pianistic rhapsody. This becomes pianisitc writing at its best with long lines, the full range of the instrument exploited and remarkably chordal figuration. It's a real crowd pleaser in a Lisztian sense. Once again, Bartok displays his powerful use of tonality and consumate mastery of late Romantic harmonic practice.

1904
Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 1, Sz 27 -- arrangement of Sz 26
I'll admit I was never all that fond of this piece as a piano piece it is accomplished and the like, but it is also that sort of flashy thing that I find annoying. As a piano concerto it works better, the flashiness is more justified. Consequently, we have basically the framework of the earlier rhapsody, some things have simply been orchestrated (and I don't like what he's done to the tranquillo at page 16 of the score) other parts have added virtuoso flourishes within and between sections of the original. Nonetheless, I imagine it is still a crowd pleaser. I was unable to get a score and followed in the piano version.

1904
Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 2, Sz 28 ; also known as Burlesque
I couldn't see a score for this. It begins with a slow minor entrance and ventually moves into various somewhat programmatic sounding dances. If Bartok had continued along in this vein he would have become a pretty good Dvorak. For our sakes it is good that he didn't. A nice moment toward the end when the piano becomes introspective.

1904
Hungarian Folksongs (Magyar népdalok), Sz 29 --
#1 is published in Der Junge Bartok

1904
Székely Folksongs (Piros alma), Sz 30
Said to be the song that kicked off Bartok's passion for folk music when he heard a peasant singing it in the Slovakian countryside. Bartok sets the modal melody with a relatively staid Romantic-ish accompaniment. I don't have strong feelings about it.

1905
Petits morceaux for Piano, (DD 67/1)
Published in Der Junge Bartok

1905
Suite No. 1 for Orchestra, Op. 3, Sz 31
A long and very ambitious work for orchestra that shows the young Bartok trying to reach beyond a superficial folksiness. It is said that the folksiness of the early Bartok was the urban gypsy music that which he heard in the cafes, after hearing some non-urban folk he made his way to the coutnry to discover that the real was different than the urban. It's kind of like Chinese food, you can only - with rare exceptions - get the true Chinese food in China. This is definately a student work with great hopes - notice how he studiously combines the themes of the various movements in the finale. The themes are rough with a mix between gypsy improvisations - such as in the second movement and more off accented bits like in the third and fourth movement. Yet at the same time, there is still a good deal of Dvorak in the rhythms and Strauss in the overall sound and orchestration. As a whole it could be a crowd pleaser, but it remains rambunctious just a tad too much and could stand some editing - as noticed by the fact that in the revision of 1920 Bartok suggested eliminating certain portions.

1905
To the Little 'Tot' (A kicsi 'tot'-nak), Five Songs for Voice and Piano, Sz 32
No information

1906
Hungarian Folksongs (Magyar népdalok), Ten Songs for Voice and Piano, Sz 33 (BB 43/2?)
Bartok's first go at many of the Hungarian songs that he would return to several times over the course of his life. The settings of these ten are a big step from what he was doing before - it is almost like day and night. Wherea before, Bartok's harmonies tended toward the Straussian with a clear contrapuntal motion between chords, herehis harmonies are more blocky, there is less direct motion from one chord to the next. My guess is that the melodies of these chords could allow for multiple harmonizations, but tended to work best with simpler. Bartok tired of this, he was after all no longer writing the early works that he wrote while a young teenager, and sought new ways to bring out the modality of the meloies, the lack of leading tone, the gapped scales and the like. Also the rhythmic interest is there with the front accented rhythms. these would be very good recital fodder for a mezzo, and with an easy piano part.#4,5,6,8 are published in Der Junge Bartok. It is very difficult to determine which of these is Sz 33, which Sz 33a, which BB42 and which BB43 - suffice it to say these are the ones with the more full piano accompaniment.

1906
Hungarian Folksongs Sz 33a, BB 42/3
There are ten of these of which only four were published, all ten are included in the Hugaraton Complete Edition. These ten songs are harmonized in a much simpler vein - there are no piano preludes or postludes and often the accompaniment simply mirrorsthe vocal line or else add simple harmonies to it. It seems in a way to be th epolar opposite - artistically that is - of the Sz33 songs. The songs are left mainly to fare for themselves.

1906
Two Hungarian Folksongs for Voice and Piano, Sz 33b -- selection from Sz 33 made in 1906
Two small songs from the collection of Sz 33, perhaps? They are simpler in style but with a harmonic adventurousness, like those in Sz 33. #1 - Edesanyam Rozsafaja is published in Der Junge Bartok. #2 in Documenta Bartokiana 4 (1970)

1907
Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, Op. 4, Sz 34
This second suite of Bartok's is a curious bird. It was revised in the 1940s and I'm not entirely sure how much of a revision there was. If the first suite seemed to be a compilation of folksongs, this second suite seems to take the folk song as a realm of possibilities, its motives become a gamut from which Bartok can draw his musical language and we end up with this work which uses folksy fragments but freely moves about in pitch area. There is a fugue in the second movement, the first has a quirky rhythmic feel and the fourth reminds me a little of Mahler. That said, these ideas seem ill-fitted to the suits they are wearing, the developmental stratergies of the late nineteenth century, motivic transformations, a not entirely well-juxtaposed fugue. Beyond that, I got a real sense that this music is orchestrated although orchestrated beautifully. One notes the unison oboes and clarinets to yield a peasant flavor as well as the long bass clarinet solo in the third movement. Ultimately, it seems a step toward something else - this is something I appreciate about Bartok, he is flailing, flailing beautifully, but not entirely certain where he is going.

1907
Three Hungarian Folksongs from the Csik District (Három Csik megyei népdal) for Piano, Sz 35a
Fascinating little piece, three actualy, said to be trnscribed from a Sixty-year-old flute player of the Csik district. The idea being that this is the real-folk music. Bartok gives it a reliquary-like setting allowing it to shine with all its vagarities. The piano part is consistently in the upper registers and it is unlike anything Bartok had done before.

1907
From Gyergyo for Reed Pipe and Piano, Sz 35 -- arrangement of Sz 35a made in 1907
I love this version for reed pipe and piano - essentially the exact same as Sz 35 with the right hand assigned to the reed pipe.

1916
Four Slovak Folksongs for Voice and Piano, Sz 35b -- based on Sz 35, completed in 1916
Four settings of Slovak folksongs for mezzo and piano. Of the four the first is most effective. He treats the folksongs here quite dramatically and often provides long prologues and postludes. In the first, the postlude takes the form of a verse of the folksong missing the singer. Published in Der Junge Bartok.

1907
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1, Sz 36 -- begun in 1907, completed in 1908
Bartok wrote this in his early years and it was performed, but only published and performed again after Bartok's death. It is a two movement work with some charms. The opening movement is long ruminative slow taut and polyphonic. Beginning with a triad plus leading-tone figure - D-F#-A-C# he brings in parts of the orchestra with this melody, moving to B minor before returning to D. It's a tonal tour-de-force with somehow this odd counterpoint working togethe rin new ways. the second movement is not as successful, too much activity for the sake of activity that seems to episodic.

1907
Two Portraits (Két portré) for Orchestra, Op. 5, Sz 37
An oddly proportioned combination of two works that are found elsewhere. The first movement is the striking opening movement of the Violin Concerto Sz 36 while the second is the last of the Fourteen Bagatelles op. 6 orchestrated, which bears a certain resemblance to parts of one of the suite. While the firs tmovment is slow and stately and over ten minutes, the second is rustic and only two. What they share is the opening figure - an arpeggiated Dmaj7 chord.

1908
Fourteen Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 6
I feel like these fourteen miniatures are in a way akin to Schoenberg's Sechs Kleine Klavierstucke - they are part of a genre of evocative miniatures that I'm not altogether fond of. It's almost as if here Bartok is calling into the question many of the standard notions of what consittutes musical discourse, including notation and genre. The opening work is bitonal, others features changing and accelerating metronome markings, clusters, ostinato; the more successful make use of folk songs. He also seems to have his own harmonic system at play - are they octatonic? There are Ivesisms - the off kilter carousel in #14 and the doppler shifted clanging in #5. I find them overall important and worthy of study but uneven.

1908
Ten Easy Pieces for Piano, Sz 39 -- composed in 1908:
These ten works plus on ededication are much more fun to play than they are to listen to. Many have painfully slow tempos, likely because of the pedagogic need, and many are in the style of thebagatelles, that I'm not very fond of. Bartok again uses that Major-Seventh chord (D-F#-A-C#) opening as he does int he violin concerto, in the very beginning of the quite odd dedication.

1908
Two Elegies (Két elégia) for Piano, Op. 8b, Sz 41 -- first version composed in 1908, completed in 1909
It is a shame that Suchoff's notes in the Dover edition are so right on because it makes my observations seem to be a rehash of his. First, Bartok as we've seen back in the piano accompaniments of even the earliest songs, tends to favoor the busy arpeggiated Romantic piano lines and in these works (which recieved a premiere nearly ten years after they wrre composed) Bartok returns to these roots, though mixed with the harmonic language he began exploring in depth only in the piano works of the previous few years. So there is a mix of Romantic technique and modernist language, which works here well. Second we have aother fixation on the Leitmotive from the violin concerto - what Suchoff calls the "Stefi Geyer" motive after the violin player with whom Bartok was in love. It with an added pitch becomes the chord of the second elegy - the chord that stays and returns as accompaniment tonic and activity - here A#-C#-E-G#-A. The remainder are long torridmelodies with lots of left hand: the left hand creates the activity that the right soars over.

Some more Schoenberg

Including some canons this time

Darf ich eintretern - Canon for Alban Berg (complete works XXIV) (9 february 1935)
An unending canon to signify the unending nature of the freindship of Berg and Schoenberg - short and chromatic and with a strange melancholy. Would work well for brass.

Man mag über Schönberg denken, wie man will (for Charlotte Dieterle) (Bärenreiter XXIII) (1935) (4 voices)
A hymn -like mirror canon with augmentation and an opening. It is somehwat odd harmonically but is a rich little exercise for a string quartet or viol consort. Not his finest canon. Makes use of a descending fifth (E-A) as a motive - this appears in octaves in the middle with the words "ach, ja" written above.

Kol nidre, op. 39 (1938) (voice, chorus, orchestra)
Schoenberg set this version of the Kol Nidre prayer for "Rabbi", chorus and orchestra for, I believe, synagogue use. It is a powerful and strong work, in a tonal system that is purely Schoenberg - we see actual use again here of the precepts that he lays out in the Harmonielehre. Also, frankly, the mannerisms that mar muc of his work are not a part of this. That said the counterpoint is dense, not Verklarte Nacht dense, but present dense. Choral parts are not too difficult. Effective, strong and enjoyable.

Double canon (Bärenreiter XXV) (1938) (4 voices)
An infinite double canon in which the canonic voice is proportionally related to the other rhythmically. It has the sound of something by Obrecht.

Mr. Saunders I owe you thanks (for Richard Drake Saunders) (Bärenreiter XXVI) (December 1939) (4 voices)
A sweet charming little canon, though also chromatic, written as a Christmas greeting in 1939 to a certain Mr. Saunders, who assisted the Schoenbergs in their transition to LA. Nice how it ends with a greeting to Mrs. Saunders as well - the words bear writing: "Mister Saunders, I owe you thanks for at least four years. Let me do it in four voices so that every one of the mcounts for one year. Merry Christmas four times, listen how they sing it! Also Merry Christmas to Mrs. Saunders." Reminds me of those Glenn Gould canons, which were no doubt influenced by these.

Catching up on Schoenberg

Here's some of my recent notes - continuing the chronicle of my dysfunctional relationship with Schoenberg:

Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene [Accompanying music to a film scene], op. 34 (1930) (orchestra)
Amazingly this seems to step away from many of the Schoenberg cliches to provide a potent, evocative work. The melodies are interesting, the tensions and climaxs are fresh in a nineteenth century way. Jokes circulate as to what Schoenberg's film music would be - apparently he asked for tons of money and way too much time.

6 Stücke [6 Pieces], op. 35 (1930) (male chorus)
Devasting, at least the fifth and sixth pieces. One to four sound overburdened by counterpoint, it becomes a texture. Five is split up between voices as drums and others in an almost narrative way enacting soldier life, it reminds me of Mahler's Revelge. Six is a beautiful D minor.

Quarter note = mm. 80 (Gesamtausgabe fragment 13) (February 1931) (piano)
A lot of activity but not overcrowded, almost always four-part texture. Large leaps.

Double Mirror Canon (Bärenreiter VIII) (April 1931) (4 voices)(complete works 6)
This is the Schoenberg of the Christmas Music, a lovely canon that would sound well for strings and with a charming and quirky ending. Recommended.

Sehr rasch; Adagio [Very fast; Slowly] (Gesamtausgabe fragment 14) (July 1931) (piano)
Not recorded on the Fragments CD. It is an alternation of whole step octave displaced octaves with some Adagio sections and then almost imitative sections. Feels like a cadenza of sorts.

Andante (Gesamtausgabe fragment 15) (10 October 1931) (piano)
Barely worked out, mainly a single melody with bare accompaniment at the beginning.

(Bärenreiter IX) (Dec 1931)(Complete Works 7) (4 voices)
Crowded, too busy, high in conception, but clumsy. Quirky ending. #7 in the complete works.

Concerto “after Monn’s Concerto in D major for harpsichord” (1932/33) (violoncello, orchestra)
Schoenberg seemed to have a blast with this concerto dedicated to Casals who, not surprisingly, never played it. The orchestration is elegant and the cello line fiendishly difficult. Often the cello is buried in the score, which has a feeling like Schumann's orchestra. I suppose this is Schoenbeg's attempt at neoclassicism.

Double Mirror Canon (Bärenreiter XII) (Dec 1932) (4 voices)(complete works 9)
Small, only seven measures, it has potential to be expressive.

Concerto “freely adapted from Handel’s Concerto grosso in B-flat major, op.6, no.7” (1933)
If the concerto for cello is one crazy instrument with the ensemble then this concerto "freely adapted" from Handel is four crazy instruments with ensemble. Triple stops, double stops, eight parts in the strings, fast. Either this is Schoenberg's sense of humor or perhaps at the same time, his way of outdoing all the neoclassical works that were out there at this time.

Jedem geht es so [No man can escape] (for Carl Engel) (Bärenreiter XIII) (April 1933; text 1943) (3 voices)
This and it companion (Mir auch ist es so ergangen) form a birthday greeting to Schoenberg's friend Carl Engel, lamenting on how people say that at sixty you cannot do what you did before, but that once you are sixty this is nonsense, and ending with the English: "Life begins at 60" It's a rather straightforward D minor mensuration canon that becomes major in the final section. Quite charming. Ends with the musical realization of their two names. Of the canons I have heard this is the most succesful.

Mir auch ist es so ergangen [I, too, was not better off] (for Carl Engel) (Bärenreiter XIV) (April 1933; text 1943) (3 voices)
See above


Perpetual canon, A minor (Bärenreiter XV) (1933) (4 voices) (complete works x)
This canon (#15 in the Barenreiter collection and #10 in the complete works) a highly chromatic work that is elegiac in nature.

Mirror canon, A minor (Bärenreiter XVI) (1933) (4 voices) (complete works xi)
Stodgy and not particularly artful.

Piece (Gesamtausgabe fragment 16) (after October 1933) (piano)
A tiny twelve-tone fragment with a melody in the tenor and accompaniment in the bass. 3 measures only.

Moderato (Gesamtausgabe fragment 17) (April 1934?) (piano)
Weak, begins almost like a canonic exercise with all of Schoenberg's cliched figures prominent - the dotted rhythms, the slurred descending leaps. Never gets off its feet.

Es ist zu dumm [It is too dumb] (for Rudolph Ganz) (Bärenreiter XXII) (September 1934) (4 voices)
Schoenberg wrote this jaunty little canon as a response to an invitation to Chicago. The words that leap out are schade and Chicago which both are assigned a seufzer. Interesting.

Suite, G major (1934) (string orchestra)
It has been some time since I heard a full Schoenberg work and not a canon or fragment. This is the Schoenberg of the folk songs, and the Schoenberg of the Weihnachtsmusik. Coming to this sort of Schoenberg fun piece I hear the things I like about Schoenberg and the things I don't. So for instance, let's reflect on the way that Schoenberg beats a rhythmic fragment into the ground, usually a dotted figure (which here makes its entrance in its original guise - as a French overture figure). The reason these things become so tiresome is found in their chiseledness. Schoenberg will choose a figure that has a very strong profile, rhymically and often in the shape of the melody. These are then often broken up into small fragments which themselves are repeated and varied lending an overall sameness to the music. So in the final - otherwise quite enjoyable especially with its polyrhythmic divison of the 12/8 meter - Gigue we have a fragmetn reminiscent of Three Blind Mice (they all go under the mulberry bush, etc) the dum-da-dum, dum-dum-dum figure which is short and catchy and repeats over and over - if Arnie could shake things up more melodically we could enjoy it much more. In this light, look at the B section of the Gavotte which plays with the divisions, or the A section of the same which puts the listener in a constant state of losing the meter. The opening is lovely with a full diatonic complement that reminds me of Pulcinella mixed with Purcell in its moving back and forth from Adagio to Fugue. In this opening we see the beauty of Schoenberg's harmonies and the techniques he talks about in the Harmonielehre at play in the way that he views any harmony as able to move potentially to any other harmony and this in the very first phrase with its modulation from G major to B minor - following exactly as he does in his textbook (this was a piece for a student orcestra, so why not teach them something about harmony). We see this also at 165-169 of the otherwise tedious Adagio with its play of harmonies moving one into the other - the narrative at the point is simply harmonic motion and harmonic motion in a new and interesting way. The minuet is like an old man's bad joke - you feel like you have to laugh along. The polyphony is superdense which makes it almost impossible to bring out the proper melodies espcialy in the bluesy Gavotte.

Concerto, op. 36 (1934/36) (violin, orchestra)
It strikes me that this is the sort of work that one has to grow into. When I first heard it nearly ten years ago in the old Krasner recording I found it ponderous and annoying, with its overreliance on harmonics and squeaky high notes that didn't really sound well in the instrument. Hearing it now with the benefit of much of Schoenberg's catalogue in my ears I have a different appreciation for it, though not entirely a full appreciation. I recognize the remarkabe virtuosity of the part with its preponderance of triple and quadruple stops as well as harmonics as coming out of the Schoenberg string concerto school - one needs only think of what he did to that Monn cello concerto or the Handel concerto to see these as Schoenberg's playing around with virtuosity. Second, it seems to me that one of the most understudied aspects of Schoenberg's work is his use of rhythm - perhaps this is a result of a Boulez bias stemming from the infamous article and the fact that in taking serialism to the next level rhythm was what was addressed among other things. But Schoenberg's rhythms here, while in many cases strongly influenced by martial rhythms retain a sense of flexibility - I was struck by how often the meter goes against the notated meter, whether it is the constant syncopation that makes the accentuation fall off the beat or the fact that a good deal of it is in 4/4 when the sounding surface doesn't match with that. It seems to me that much could be gained from a study of Schoenberg's music from that level - it's similar to counterpoint study in the unmeasured period, the smaller rhtyhms may parse well but on a larger scale we have a constant interplay of mismatched meters. We saw somthing like that in the Suite for String Orchestra as well. Otherwise, I recognize now some of the great tension builds that Schoenberg does, the obsessive return to Ab in the second movement, the refrain-type formal scheme in the third movement, but this is not a warm piece, not a piece that is welcoming. I could care less about its twelve-tone construction, you don't hear that in the piece. I wonder if this is a music that we are still simply not ready for, or else what will make us ready for it is still to be revealed, rather one needs to open up the rhythmic possibilities in it to really allow it to shine.


Quartet no. 4, op. 37 (1936) (2 violins, viola, violoncello)
The famous fourth quartet evokes the same disease in me as the third. One detects that Schoenberg is on top of his game, he is working with his system in a way that demonstrates that it is his being, it has the same unifying rhythms that have plagued the composer for decades and the same difficult to pull off conflicting metrics - an almost poetic conceit - that I've noted in the violin concerto and the G Major suite. Nonetheless, It is, beyond a few stray moments, not really a pleasure to listen to and while it points the way toward new directions of expression - metric modulation for instance (I wonder if one some level this wasn't a strong model for Carter's First Quartet) - I can't help but feel that it does't warrant its reputation from a narrative, listening point of view; it may very well warrant the reputation from a serial point of view - indeed, the segmentation of the row would become a major factor in later serialism. I've tried to wrestle with what it is about the work that bothers me. One thing is the use of the registral space - the first violin so often stands out from the rest in an unpleasant way, we'll have the two lower strings in the octave below middle C, the second violin in the octave above and then the first violin way above that. In line with this consider the solo and accompaniment effect of much of the work, not only its famous opening. As contrast, often the exact opposite problem is found with the cello. I detect also a lot of sameness in the sound and perhaps its a question of performance (I'm talking about the Vienna Quartet performance) but the rhythms are stiff - I think Schoenberg wants a more flexible rhythm to allow the tensions to grow. I'm stuck with this piece again.

Kammersymphonie [Chamber symphony] no. 2, op. 38 (1906/39)
It's hard not to think of Schoenberg historically - that is, living in history - when we listen to this piece. It is in two movements, the opening an Adagio written in 1906 and reorchestrated in 1939 and the second more lighthearted, almost Copland sounding, neoclassical which reverts to the Adagio of the opening, which when it returns sounds more impassioned and clearheaded than it did in the opening movement. You get the sense that the cheery bubbling of the second movement hasbeen a foil for the deep-seated unease of the Adagio. This is what commentators have said and what one certainly hears in the work. On the other hand, if we think about it pureply from the perspective of the composer - he's got this old work, he wants to add another movement to it and then needs something to tie it together, so why not bring back the material from the opening. Similarly the Adagio material brought back - the brought back amounts only to the gestures, the overscored polyphony of the opening does not return, is more profound in this sense, if only becuase it has been stripped of the overworking. Another work I'm ambivalent - the ending is good and the second movement breezes along, but the first just doesn't work for me.

Composing Today

A full day of work on the guitar/mandolin piece. I was exploring more the concept of translation today – how can we make it work with a musical experience. Sure, with a physical experience I can take the essence of it and morph it into a structure or concept. With this piece, I want to reflect on the blind man of Urumqi playing his erhu down the street. The idea translates to the ensemble here in the concept of blindness – the surroundings may change but he will still remain walking the changing streets of China and playing the beggar’s fiddle, one of the oldest instruments in the country. To create the blindness, I retuned the guitar and mandolin to create an instrument that is the same physically (the alleys and anes that he walks) but that has a different existence – the pitches here are different though the streets are the same – to mix several metaphors simultaneously. Let’s go further and reflect on a musical experience, to translate the musical experience I can reflect on what works for me in the piece musically and then do something with those to create something new based on the musical parameters of something else. In this case, I’m not particularly interested in the musical parameters – he plays a relatively simple pentatonic song, with the addition of one grace note and a slide. It is his feeling that is what is interesting. Instead, I’ve decided to transcribe the gestures of the player – he has six positions on the instrument, plus the open string, that he moves between depending on the note he’s playing. I mapped this geography onto the instruments I’m writing for and from there chose little figures duplicating the rhythm – so the players here are playing his song on their new instruments, or at least the gestures of his song.
I’ve been playing around with the piece for a few hours today and have about a minute and a half of music – very rhythmic making full use of the open strings. I still don’t have much sense of the piece. The erhu player plays a song that is ABA, with the first and last phrases essentially duplicating each other. Perhaps I should simply map this structure onto the guitar/mandolin piece, which would mean that I have an A section and need to simply develop a B section and another A section and the piece is finished except for the crazy remapping of it back onto the guitar/mandolin. We’ll see where it goes.
In other news, I’ve found that the best way for me to hear it fully is to save it as a midi version on one track – this keeps similar sounds and the quarter-tones, which I’ve beenhaving a hell of a time getting on my nasty-looking four-staff finale version.

Listening to Bruckner

I have begun the perhaps foolhardy task of listening to Bruckner’s music. Foolhardy because much of it has not been recorded and the enormous difficulty that underscores the various versions of his works is also in play. That said there is the new Bruckner Complete Works edition and I have a piano. I have decided to take the listing compiled by the Nevada Bruckner Society as a chronological starting point making a few alterations ere and there. Any leads on recordings would be quite helpful and any choirs wishing to perform these works will find a willing conductor in me.

1835 Pange lingua in C for mixed chorus (WAB 31)
Touching hymn by the then twelve year-old Bruckner which he held on to, perhaps as an emblem of innocence into his old age, "restoring" it (according to Novak) in 1891. It is a simple exercise in four part harmony almost entirely in half notes, gentle and peaceful.



1835 Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina (WAB 136)
It is a sketch of 20+ measures for soprano voice and thought to not be Bruckner's work. I can't find it.

1837 Prelude for Organ (WAB 127)
This prelude originally believed to be by the 14 year old Bruckner is actually by his teacher Berger. It is a standard affair, the sort of things the organists imporivse al the time - chords moving one to another modlating followed by scalar passages over a similar harmonic framework.


c.1837 4 Preludes in E flat for Organ (WAB 128)
These four little organ prelude correspond to passages in the work of, perhaps, JB weis - the critical report says they match almost note for note parts of a collection. The first is a good exercise in enharmonic motion, while the other three are simple charming preludes that would work suitably in a litrugical setting. Worth seeking out if only for that reason.

c. 1842 Mass in C for Alto, mixed chorus and 2 horns "Windhaager Mass" (WAB 25)
Let's talk about this little mass for alto solo, organ and two horns. It is a real workman's mass, equivalent to the many things I have had to play for various churches, and which are still composed by organists. The intention is nothing special, simple melodies that are easily performable. Bruckner does just that - these are sight readable melodies and accompaniments and better than the Marty Haugen Mass of Creation that is the staple of Catholic masses in America. Of note is thelovely Benedictus in Eb (which is foreshadowed with a strange Eb harmony in the opening Christe). There are a few harmonic niceties but all in all very simple. Perhaps a good teaching piece.

1843 Tafellied (WAB 86)
Bruckner returned to this work in his old age. It is a lovely charming setting for male choir of a text by Knauer to be sung before going to the table. Lovely and warm. Recommended.

c. 1843 Libera me Domine, in F, for chorus & organ (kronsdorf?) (WAB 21)
It is absolutely lovely, this setting of the Libera me domine, totally honest and without the fire we come to expect from a requiem setting.

Composing Today

23 September 2008
A little history: about a year ago I received an email out of the blue from the Duo Ahlert and Schwab asking if I would write a piece for their mandolin guitar duo. It seems these folk are the foremost mandolin-guitar duo in Europe and like modern music and especially American composers. I wrote back and said I’d write something small by Christmas of this year. I’ve finally come to embrace the idea of writing this piece – on the one hand I have no performances scheduled and any performance is a good one especially if it gets me to write a new piece. I began to think about the instruments and realized that I could actually get some serious harmonies out of these two fretted instruments especially if I retuned the strings. So I began exploring the retuning possibilities of the instruments.
If we begin with the guitar, one problem I encountered was no matter how I tweaked the tuning I still ended up with that awful fourth-laden sonority that defines the guitar. I realize now that the problem was result of the fact that I was approaching the tuning from the wrong direction – I was trying to get the most quarter-tones I could get out of the combination of the instrument rather than rethinking the instrument completely. So today, I began trying to rethink the pitch continuum of the guitar. Guitars are normally tuned E-A-D-G-B-E which is a two octave span; 24 semitones or 48 quarter tones. I thought that what I should do to the guitar is divided this space up evenly. Thus the five intervals between pitches would be divided into the 48 quarter tones which obviously is uneven. So if I expand the space to 50 – I could tune in equal 10 quarter tones orfive semi-tones or P4 which sounds like the guitar. Instead I shrunk the space and tuned it in equal 9/4 tones: E – Aqb – C# - Fq – A# - Dq – this actually changes the sound of the instrument.
For the mandolin we usually tune in fifths like the violin: G-D-A-E. Instead I thought to again retune the space. My choices were equal 15/4 or 13/4 intervals. 13/4 intervals tend to sound a hell of a lot like tritones, but 15/4 intervals have their own special sound and that’s what I’ve currently chosen: Gqb – D – Aq – F. The other thought that comes to me now is to tune the mandolin like the guitar – thus with a smaller interval between strings 2 and 3, something like: G-Eb-Ab-E or something with quarter-tones, perhaps I’ll experiment with that as well.
I was talking with Carla about the poetic concept for the piece and the image that kept coming back to me was of a blind man we saw in Urumqi. He was being led around by his wife and was playing the erhu, she held a bucket to collect coins; most people gave. What is striking about this image in the context of the retuning of the guitar is that for this man, and for the blind, he could have been walking this path for fifty years playing his erhu. His path remained the same, but the environment around him changed – thus for the guitar and mandolin players we have a similar thing – they are strumming their strings but the instrument is different – the environment of sound is different though the fingerings and strummings are the same.
I realize also in retuning these instruments that we have then three separate pitch worlds possible: the tempered world; the quarter-tone world and the fusion of the two. Perhaps I can work something out whereby the environment moves from one to another. We’ll see.
Today I composed out some rhythmic sections that may make it into the final work – likely toward the end. We’ll see about that as well.