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.
