Le 29 juin 2017
de 11h00 à 11h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 5
Séance - The Second Viennese School (II): Pairing Schoenberg and Webern
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Stephen Brown
Webern’s twelve-tone rows often feature a limited range of interval classes between their adjacent members. For example, the row of the String Trio, Op. 20 is confined to interval classes 1, 4, and 5, while those of the String Quartet, Op. 28 and the First Cantata, Op. 29 are restricted to interval classes 1, 3, and 4. Intervallic focusing culminates in the Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30, one of Webern’s crowning twelve-tone works. In the row of this piece, all the intervals between adjacent pitch classes belong to either interval class 1 or interval class 3: that is, the entire row is made up of half steps, minor thirds, and their inversions. Owing to this row, as well as Webern’s handling of it, the Variations comprise an extended study in the pairing of interval classes 1 and 3.
Though the piece has received significant attention from previous analysts, this fundamental aspect of the work has gone under-examined. In response, this paper uses a two-dimensional model of pitch space, or Tonnetz, to explore ic1/ic3 relationships in the piece. As the paper demonstrates, melodic motions in the piece can be illuminated by visualizing them as moves within the Tonnetz. Moreover, relationships between different chord types can be modeled by various transformations in the Tonnetz, such as flipping or rotating. In sum, the paper argues that a Tonnetz model can shed new light on a significant work of Webern along with an important facet of Webern’s compositional language.
