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Octaves in Webern's Bagatelles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Regina Busch
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Extract

Before Schoenberg's Harmonielehre was published in December 1911 by Universal Edition, Vienna, extracts from it were printed in various periodicals, among them the final chapter, ‘Aesthetic Evaluation of Chords with six or more Tones’ in the second June issue of Merker. Besides examples from works by Schoenberg, Schreker, Bartók and Berg, the chapter quotes a passage from ‘a string quartet by my pupil, Anton von Webern’: bar 5 of the first movement of op. 5, composed in 1909 and first performed in February 1910. There are some pointers as to how this quotation came about.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 178 , September 1991 , pp. 12 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 Schoenberg, Arnold, ‘Aus meiner Harmonielehre: Ästhelische Bewertung sechs- und mehrtöniger Klänge’ (From my Harmonielehre: Aesthetic Evaluation of Chords with six or more Tones'), Der Merker. Österreichische Zeitschrijt für Musik und Theater, Vol.2, No.17, pp.701–709Google Scholar.

2 Loc. cit., p.707, Ex. 333; Harmonielehre, 3rd enlarged and revised edition (Vienna, 1922), p. 503; 7th ed. (Vienna, 1949), p. 500, Ex. 343, translated by Carter, Roy E. as Theory of Harmony (London: Faber & Faber, 1978), p. 419Google Scholar – the provenance of the example isnot stated, except in the English translation.

3 Paul Sacher Stiftung, Anton Webern Collection, File 13. Hitherto listed as ‘Sketch’.

4 This and the following quotations from Merker; but compare with the various editions of Harmonielehre!.

5 In 1922, after the first experiences of 12–note composition, this sentence reads: ‘The chord progression seems to be regulated by the tendency to include in the second chord tones that were missing in the first, generally those ahalf step higher or lower’ (Harmonielehre, p. 505 or p.502 respectively [English version, p.420]).

6 1922: ‘as soon as a tone is misplaced the meaning changes, the logic and utility is lost, coherence seems destroyed’. (Harmonielehre, p. 505 or p.502 respectively [English version, p. 421]).

7 Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. I could only examine microfilmprints at Universal Edition, Vienna. The error in the metronome indication for the fourth Bagatelle, =60 instead of =60, apparently only occurs in more recent Philharmonia Editions; the older pocket scores and parts are correct.

8 Paul Sacher Stiftung, Anton Webem Collection, File 28. My thanks are due to Felix Meyer for his help in checking some details of the manuscripts.

9 The earlier version of the bars 7 to 9, which had been obliterated by heavy crossing–out in blackish–violet, has not yet been deciphered; what is legible so far does not contribute to the question of the octave in bar 8 (see Fig.2).