Peripetie AoS 2

What genre?

Before Expressionism By late romantic, composers such as Brahms and Bruckner were creating longer and grander pieces of music. There was huge emphasis in changing key signatures, using chromaticism, playing around with textures to make structures more interesting than previous composers.

Turn of the century New composers of the 20th century had to react to what Brahms and Wagner achieved. They had to use classical forms and key relationships in their own way. Impressionism (Ravel, Debussy) uses recognisable chords/harmonies but in original ways (i.e. using a series of parallel dominant 7th chords).

Expressionism The movement (both in art and music) was strongest in Germany. It was straight after the 1st world war, people were disillusioned, living conditions were unsatisfactory by the restrictions imposed from the Treaty of Versailles. Composers and artists wanted to express their feelings and emotions in their work, however, their work can make their audience uncomfortable at times. They wanted people to react strongly to their work because they are trying to convey their intense inner emotions.

Features of expressionism Atonal (gives each of the 12 semi tones equal importance) Each piece usually expresses one intense emotion Uses the full pitch range of instruments, explores difference in instrumental colour at the extremes of pitches. Timbre is as important as melody Extremes of dynamics Pieces are short.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Born in Vienna. Began composing as a child but self taught. Started composing professionally at the end of the 19th Century, using the late romantic style. Also taught to make an income (pupils of his were Berg and Webern). He was a Jew but later adopted Protestant ideals. He left Germany in 1933 for Paris and later settled in California after the Nazis labelled his music ‘decadent’.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) He started using atonal music in 1908. It was a reaction to his wife leaving him for a friend who later committed suicide and he also was severely in debt. He thought that instrumental/tone colour was really important in music and invented the term KLANGFARBENMELODIE (tone colour melody). It describes the concept of how different instrumental colours can contribute to the melody as well as the pitches themselves.

Schoenberg and Serialism He found that composing pieces without key relationships and cadences (like with expressionism) meant they were short in length. He had to find a way to organise his ideas and came up with the twelve tone technique which is now known as serialism. It involves all 12 semi tones in the octave and makes rows by rearranging their order. Schoenberg hadn’t invented his twelve tone technique when he composed Peripetie.

Serialism – key points Once the semi tones have been rearranged, it is called the prime row (tone row). The prime row can be transformed in 3 ways: - retrograde (played backwards) - inversion (mirror image of prime row by inverting intervals) - retrograde inversion (played backwards and inverting intervals) The prime row and the different versions of the prime row can all be transposed on any of the 12 semi tones.

Serialism Composers using the serialist technique, ensure that all 12 notes of the row had to be used each time the row appeared. Any note could be repeated and any pitch/octave used but the entire row had to be in order. Chords were created using the notes of the row (in order). Again notes could be within the octave or across pitches. Due to the nature of the prime rows, chords were dissonant.

Serialism Due to the ‘mathematical’ way of composing, it is important to remember that Serialism is a natural extension of Expressionism as a way to extend pieces that relied on texture/dynamic contrasts/wide pitch ranges. The use of prime rows/retrogrades etc, help structure the music.

Five orchestral pieces Set of atonal pieces for full orchestra. Last between 1-5 minutes. Harmonies and pitches used for effect rather than their relationship. In 1908, Richard Strauss asked Schoenberg to send some short pieces to look at. Schoenberg had already been playing with atonality and sent the Five Orchestral Pieces to Strauss. This original way of composing was frowned upon by Strauss and other composers which pushed Schoenberg to make his original ideas succeed.

Five orchestral pieces The titles of the each of the orchestral pieces did not appear on printed scores until 13 years after he composed them. He thought the more intelligent/attentive listener would hear the deeper meanings in the music and attaching a title would take away some of of the meaning of the music.

Features in the music Hexachords – group of 6 notes from the 12 semi tones that are used to create a musical motif or chord. Complement - the 6 semitones not used in the hexachord Hauptstimme – Principal Voice Nebenstimme – Secondary Voice These were edited to his score in 1952 to show which instrument had the main melodic line.

Features in the music Structured in 5 sections, loosely in rondo form. The returning ‘A’ sections are hardly recognisable due to them being really developed. Section Bars Time A 1-18 0:00-0:31 B 18-34 0:31-1:00 A1 35-43 1:00-1:16 C 44-58 1:16-1:50 A2 59-66 1:50-2:09