Concerto for Nine Instruments (Webern)

Anton Webern's Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24 (German, Konzert für neun Instrumente, op. 24, 1934) is a twelve-tone concerto for nine instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, and piano; containing three movements: I. Etwas lebhaft, II. Sehr langsam, and III. Sehr rasch; and composed with a derived row, "often cited [such as by Milton Babbitt (1972)] as a paragon of symmetrical construction":[1]

Webern's Concerto Op. 24 tone row,[2] composed of four trichords: P RI R I

In the words of Luigi Dallapiccola: "a work of incredible conciseness . . . and of unique concentration . . . . Although I did not understand the work completely, I had the feeling of finding an aesthetic and stylistic unity as great as I could wish for. [Prague, September 5, 1935]".[3]

The second movement "limits quite severely the values of many domains," for example featuring "only two durational values (quarter and half note[s])," and, partly as a result, "features great uniformity in texture and gesture".[4]

The tone row may be interpreted as:

019, 2te, 367, 458[5]
 { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative c''' { \clef treble \time 2/4 \tempo "Etwas lebhaft" 4 = 80 << { r4 ees8->-.[ g!->-. | fis,->-.] s4. } \\ { r8 b!16\f[ bes, d!] r r8 | s2 } >> } \new Staff \relative c' { \clef treble \time 2/4 R2 << { \times 2/3 { r4 c'!-- cis'-- } | \times 2/3 { a!-- r r } } \\ { \times 2/3 { gis,8\f e! f'! } r4 } >> } >> }

The opening displays "[the Concerto's] distinctive trichordal structuring," four of which "comprise an aggregate," or partition.[6] "The six combinations of [the partition's] trichords generate three pairs of complementary hexachords".[7] "Webern takes full advantage of this property [its fourfold degree of symmetry] in the Concerto," that under four appropriate transformations (T0T6I5IB), the tone row maintains its unordered trichords (j=019,091,etc., k=2te, l=367, and m=458). The hexachord featured is sometimes called the 'Ode-to-Napoleon' hexachord (014589).[8]

"The Latin square...clearly shows the built in redundancy of [the] partition," four, and, "needless to say, Webern takes full advantage of this property in the Concerto":[5]

j k l m
l m j k
m l k j
k j m l

For example, I5 =

548, 376, 2et, 109

Sources

  1. Bailey (1996), p.246.
  2. Whittall, Arnold. 2008. The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism. Cambridge Introductions to Music, p. 97. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68200-8 (pbk).
  3. Bailey, Kathryn (1996). "Symmetry as Nemesis-Webern and the First Movement of the Concerto, Opus 24", p. 245, Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Autumn), pp. 245-310.
  4. Hasty, Christopher (1981). "Segmentation and Process in Post-Tonal Music", pp. 63-64, Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 3, (Spring), pp. 54-73.
  5. 1 2 Brian Alegant, "Cross-Partitions as Harmony and Voice Leading in Twelve-Tone Music", Music Theory Spectrum 23, no. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 1–40, citation on p. 5.
  6. Alegant (2001), pp. 2–3.
  7. Alegant (2001), p. 4.
  8. Van den Toorn, Pieter C. (1996). Music, Politics, and the Academy, pp. 128-29. ISBN 0-520-20116-7.

Further reading

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