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Schoenberg's Concept of Variation Form: A Paradigmatic Analysis of Litanei from the Second String Quartet, Op. 10

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Catherine Dale
Catherine Dale*
Affiliation:
University of Hull
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Extract

Liztanei, the third movement of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet, op. 10, and the first of its two vocal movements, is cast in the instrumental form of theme and variations. Schoenberg's analysis of the movement in ‘An Introduction to My Four Quartets’ identifies ‘a total of five variations, a coda … [and] a short instrumental postlude’. His conception of variation form as ‘a very strict form’ in which freedom is ‘absolutely to be forbidden‘ underlay Schoenberg's decision to construct the movement as a series of interlocking variations, for this decision was motivated to a large extent by his concern to curb the expressionistic tendencies of Stefan George's text. In the same essay the composer writes:

In a perfect amalgamation of music with a poem, the form will follow the outline of the text. The Leitmotif technique of Wagner has taught us how to vary such motifs and other phrases, so as to express every change of mood and character in a poem. Thematic unity and logic thus sustained, the finished product will not fail to satisfy a formalist's requirements.

Variations, because of the recurrence of one structural unit, offer such advantages. But I must confess, it was another reason which suggested this form. I was afraid the great dramatic emotionality of the poem might cause me to surpass the borderline of what should be admitted in chamber music. I expected the serious elaboration required by variation would keep me from becoming too dramatic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 118 , Issue 1 , 1993 , pp. 94 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 Schoenberg, , Webern, Berg, The String Quartets A Documentary Study, ed von Rauchhaupt, Ursula, trans Eugene Hartzel (Hamburg, 1971), 35–64 (p. 49).Google Scholar

2 Nelson, Robert U, ‘Schoenberg's Variation Seminar’, The Musical Quarterly, 50 (1964), 141–64 (p 142)Google Scholar

3 Schoenberg, , Webern, Berg, ed Rauchhaupt, 48Google Scholar

4 Schoenberg, Arnold, Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein (London, 1975), 141–5 (p. 144)Google Scholar

5 Schoenberg, Arnold, Fundamentals of Musical Composition (London, 1970), 168–9Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 168–77Google Scholar

7 Schoenberg, , Webern, Berg, ed Rauchhaupt. 48Google Scholar

8 Nelson, , ‘Schoenberg's Variation Seminar’, 143Google Scholar

9 See Schoenberg, Arnold, ‘Analysis of the Four Orchestral Songs Opus 22’, trans Claudio Spies, Perspectives of New Music, 3 (1965), 1–21, Réti, Rudolph, The Thematic Process in Music (New York, 1962), Ratz, Erwin, Einfuhrung in die musikalische Formenlehre (Vienna, 1951), Rufer, Josef, Composition with Twelve Notes (London, 1961), David, Epstein, Beyond Orpheus Studies in Musical Structure (Cambridge, Mass, 1979), Walter, Frisch, Brahms and the Principle of Developing Variation (Berkeley, 1984)Google Scholar

10 Many of the problematic issues associated with motivic analysis are discussed more fully in the review literature See, in particular, Agawu, V. Kofi, review of Frisch, Brahms, Music Analysis, 7 (1988), 99–102, Dunsby, Jonathan, review of Epstein, Beyond Orpheus, Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, S (1979), 194–202, John Rothgeb, review of Frisch, Brahms, Music Theory Spectrum, 9 (1987), 204–15, Rothstein, William, review of Epstein, Beyond Orpheus, Theory and Practice, 6 (1981), 47–53, and review of Frisch, Brahms, Journal of Music Theory, 30 (1986), 284–95, and Arnold Whittall, review of Epstein, Beyond Orpheus, Journal of Music Theory, 25 (1981), 319–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 This concept of middleground motivic parallelism is discussed in Charles Burkhart, ‘Schenker's “Motivic Parallelisms”’ Journal of Music Theory, 22 (1978), 145–75, Forte, Allen, ‘Motivic Design and Structural Levels in the First Movement of Brahms's String Quartet in C minor’, The Musical Quarterly, 69 (1983), 471–502, and ‘Middleground Motives in the Adagietto of Mahler's Fifth Symphony’, 19th Century Music, 8 (1984), 153–63, Salzer, Felix, Structural Hearing Tonal Coherence in Music (New York, 1962), i, 188, 202, and Heinrich Schenker, Free Composition (Der freie Satz), trans and ed Ernst Oster (New York, 1979), 99–100Google Scholar

12 Schenkerian notation is employed in the graphic analyses except where certain adaptations have proved necessary in order to reflect the transitional tonal style of the movement The graphs are barred as in the musical score for ease of reference, and bar numbers are indicated above the stave A dotted barline signifies that, in the passage immediately following, the foreground progresses at a rate which cannot sustain regular barring practices The point at which regular barring returns is indicated by a bar number above the stave A dotted slur denotes the retention of a single pitch or its chromatic equivalent in one register or by octave transfer, whilst changes of register are indicated by an S-shaped slur A register transfer which involves chromatically equivalent pitches is denoted by a dotted S-shaped slur, and a flagged note is used to indicate an embellishment (usually an upper or lower auxiliary note) of a structurally significant note.Google Scholar

13 Schoenberg, Style and Idea, 268–87 (p 280)Google Scholar

14 Ibid., 79–92 (p 86)Google Scholar

15 Ibid., 258–64 (pp 258–9)Google Scholar

16 The lack of harmonic motion which results from the statement of material at specific pitch has caused Peter Odegard to note that this ‘may have been one of the circumstances which started Schönberg on the road to a new method of composing’ (Peter Odegard, ‘Schonberg's Variations An Addendum’, The Music Review, 27 (1966), 102–21 (p 106)) This is a rather simplistic analysis of Schoenberg's harmonic technique in the period 1907–8, however, since the relatively static harmonic progressions of Litanei are a direct result of Schoenberg's concept of variation form, and are by no means a general feature of his styleGoogle Scholar

17 Schoenberg, , Style and Idea, 263Google Scholar

18 Schenker, , Free Composition, 11Google Scholar

19 Ibid., 11Google Scholar

20 Within the context of the complete work, the prolongation of g♭' throughout the third movement represents the deliberate retention of the quartet's overall tonic, F#Google Scholar

21 Schenker, , Free Composition, 107Google Scholar

22 Edward, Laufer, review of Schenker, Free Composition, Music Theory Spectrum, 3 (1981), 158–84 (p 161)Google Scholar

23 Schoenberg, , Style and Idea, 279Google Scholar

24 Forte, Allen and Gilbert, Stephen, Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis (New York, 1982), 320Google Scholar

25 Drabkin, William, review of The Music Forum, 5, ed Felix Salzer (New York, 1982), Music Analysis, 1 (1982), 203–9 (p 206)Google Scholar

26 Schenker, Heinrich, Der Tonwille, 10 issues (Vienna, 1921–4), iv, 2/3 (1924), 3–46Google Scholar

27 Schenker, , Free Composition, 144Google Scholar

28 Ibid., 40–1, 70–1Google Scholar

29 Schoenberg also acknowledges that ‘from the standpoint of aesthetics, there is no reason why the whole set should be restricted to one tonic’ (Schoenberg, Fundamentals, 174), cuing Beethoven's Six Variations, op 34, as a ‘unique’ example This practice is exceptional in Schoenberg's own compositions, however.Google Scholar

30 Schenker, Heinrich, ‘Beethoven's dritte Symphonie zum ersten Mal in ihrem wahren Inhalt dargestellt’, Das Meisterwerk in der Musik (Hildesheim, 1974), iii, 25–101Google Scholar

31 Cited in Schoenberg, , Webern, Berg, ed. Rauchhaupt, 47 The translation is by Carl EngelGoogle Scholar

32 Nelson includes the eighth piece, ‘Nacht’, from Pierrot lunaire in his account of Schoenberg's variation forms (Nelson, ‘Schoenberg's Variation Seminar’, 143, 145–7) Although this movement bears the subtitle ‘Passacaglia’, its theme consists only of a three-note motive which is subjected to variation technique rather than to the regular periodic recurrences of variation form Odegard claims, moreover, that the Adagio of the String Quartet no 3, op 30 (1927), exemplifies variation form (Odegard, ‘Schönberg's Variations’, 102–21), whilst Erwin Stein classifies the movement as a combination of ‘variation and alternating form’ (Erwin Stein, ‘Analysis’, Foreword to Arnold Schoenberg, Streichquartett III, op 30. Philharmonie score, Vienna, 1927, 1–2) Schoenberg refutes both these claims in his ‘Program Notes’ (1949) in which he proposes the classification of the movement as a rondo formGoogle Scholar

33 Schoenberg described the Serenade variations as ‘runners-up to the twelve-tone manner of composition’ (Nelson, ‘Schoenberg's Variation Seminar’, 147)Google Scholar