Le 1er juillet 2017
de 11h30 à 12h00
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 4
Séance - Formenlehre, Old and New
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Áine Heneghan
For Schoenberg and the Viennese School, Formenlehre and Kompositionslehre were inextricably intertwined: the analysis of the music of the past was the key to the music of the future. This paper focuses on Hanns Eisler’s Klavierstücke für Kinder, Op. 31 (1932), a work comprised of (I) Thema mit Variationen and (II) Sieben Klavierstücke. The published score includes a one-page appendix, “Anmerkungen zu den sieben Klavierstücken,” distilled from a typescript found in the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), in which Eisler addresses the Theme and Variations as well as the Klavierstücke. Entitled Kleine Kompositionslehre für Kinder(In praktischen Beispielen), Eisler begins by establishing the purpose of the composition: to replace the conventional études with pieces of a more progressive character; to develop a new feeling for style; and to teach the “ABC” of counterpoint and Formenlehre.
This paper assesses Eisler’s contribution: what can we learn from his analytical commentary, and (how) does it enrich our understanding of Schoenbergian Formenlehre? Although the title (“children”) suggests simplicity, Eisler’s observations are sophisticated. While he attends to the work’s contrapuntal aspects, it is his comments on form that are most striking, especially his discussion of Auflösung in the middle section of his Andantino: Eisler captures in concrete terms the process of “dissolution” which Schoenberg states without illustration or explanation in his Formenlehre outline of 1917. Eisler’s Kleine Kompositionslehre is thus a succinct but important document that elucidates some of the central tenets of the Viennese Formenlehre project.
