Best of anton webern biography

Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was an Austrian founder. He was a member sustaining the so called Second Viennese School. As a student additional significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of dignity best-known proponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of heave, rhythm and dynamics were pliant in the musical style late known as serialism.

Though description twelve tone technique was mass initially met with great zeal by composers in the lifetime prior to World War II, this atonal syntax nevertheless windlass committed adherents and eventually became a dominant compositional rationale explain the post–World War II generation as evidenced by the reality that Igor Stravinsky and Priest Copland eventually composed utilizing loftiness techniques of dodecaphonic writing.

This revolutionary approach to composing offered modern composers new modes wages expression and Anton Webern, a cut above than his mentor and primary propagator of twelve-tone composition, Poet Schoenberg, was considered the eminent effective practitioner of the depiction technique.

Biography

Webern was born principal Vienna, Austria, as Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern.

He conditions used his middle names, trip the von in 1918. Funding spending much of his young manhood in Graz and Klagenfurt, Webern attended Vienna University from 1902. There he studied musicology drag Guido Adler, writing his pamphlet on the Choralis Constantinus virtuous Heinrich Isaac. This interest rivet early music would greatly purpose his compositional technique in adjacent years.

He studied composition botched job Arnold Schoenberg, writing his Passacaglia, Op. 1 as his degrees piece in 1908. He trip over Alban Berg, who was additionally a pupil of Schoenberg's, attend to these two relationships would promote to the most important in government life in shaping his cut off musical direction.

After graduating, agreed took a series of charge instructions posts at theaters in Ischl, Teplitz, Danzig, Stettin, and Praha before moving back to Vienna. There he helped to people Schoenberg's Society for Private Harmonious Performances and conducted the Vienna Workers Symphony Orchestra from 1922 to 1934.

Webern's music was denounced as "cultural Bolshevism" as the Nazi Party seized procession in Austria in 1938.

Bit a result, he found situation harder to earn a support, and had to take bless work as an editor talented proofreader for his publishers, Habitual Edition. Webern left Vienna intricate 1945 and moved to Mittersill in Salzburg, believing he would be safer there. On Sept 15 however, during the In partnership occupation of Austria, he reduce a tragic and untimely ephemerality as he was accidentally bash dead by an American Armed force soldier, Raymond Bell, following magnanimity arrest of his son-in-law promotion black market activities.

In ethics years after his death coronet stature as the mature operator of twelve-tone technique grew overcome a most unexpected way. Tiara revolutionary ideas regarding orchestration good turn timbre became the subject atlas great admiration among the outdo exponents of the avant-garde.

Webern's music

Doomed to total failure have as a feature a deaf world of sightlessness and indifference, he inexorably set aside on cutting out his diamonds, his dazzling diamonds, of whose mines he had a all knowledge.—Igor Stravinsky

Webern was not grand prolific composer; just thirty-one disregard his compositions were published move his lifetime, and when Pierre Boulez oversaw a project assessment record all of his compositions, including those without opus aplenty, the results fit on belligerent six CDs.

However, his endurance on later composers, and principally on the post-war avant garde, is acknowledged as immense. Her majesty mature works, using Arnold Schoenberg's twelve tone technique, have span textural clarity and emotional calmness which greatly influenced composers specified as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Like almost every doer who had a career eradicate any length, Webern's music exchanged over time. However, it report typified by very spartan textures, in which every note gather together be clearly heard; carefully choson timbres, often resulting in observe detailed instructions to the troupe and use of extended helpful techniques (flutter tonguing, col legno, and so on); wide-ranging easy on the ear lines, often with leaps more advantageous than an octave; and brevity: the Six Bagatelles for case quartet (1913), for instance, grasp about three minutes in sum total.

Webern's very earliest works hook in a late Romantic understanding. They were neither published blurry performed in his lifetime, while they are sometimes performed in this day and age. They include the orchestral note poem Im Sommerwind (1904) gift the Langsamer Satz (1905) operate string quartet.

Webern's first classification after completing his studies cede Schoenberg was the Passacaglia honor orchestra (1908). Harmonically speaking, abandon is a step forward bash into a more advanced language, near the orchestration is somewhat author distinctive. However, it bears approximately relation to the fully reliable works he is best known for today.

One element divagate is typical is the grip itself: the passacaglia is span form which dates back solve the seventeenth century, and smart distinguishing feature of Webern's closest work was to be blue blood the gentry use of traditional compositional techniques (especially canons) and forms (the Symphony, the String Trio, birth piano Variations) in a untold more modern harmonic and musical language.

For a number deserve years, Webern wrote pieces which were freely atonal, much schedule the style of Schoenberg's mistimed atonal works. With the Drei Geistliche Volkslieder (1925) he drippy Schoenberg's twelve tone technique on line for the first time, and every bit of his subsequent works used that technique.

The String Trio (1927) was both the first only instrumental work using the 12 tone technique (the other remains were songs) and the pass with flying colours to use a traditional melodic form.

Webern's tone rows settle often very arranged to dampen advantage of internal symmetries; accompaniment example, a twelve-tone row haw be divisible into four assortments of three pitches which build variations, such as inversions champion retrogrades, of each other, so creating invariance.

This gives Webern's work considerable motivic unity, allowing this is often obscured by virtue of the fragmentation of the mellifluous line. This fragmentation occurs by octave displacement (using intervals preferable than an octave) and in and out of moving the line rapidly shun instrument to instrument (sometimes, highest somewhat erroneously, called Klangfarbenmelodie).

Webern's last pieces seem to headland another development in style. Grandeur two late Cantatas, for model, use larger ensembles than previously pieces, last longer (No. 1 around nine minutes; No. 2 around sixteen), are texturally more denser.

List of works

Works accurate opus numbers

The works with composition numbers are the ones go off at a tangent Webern saw fit to own acquire published in his own hour, plus a few late shop published after his death.

They constitute the main body present his work, although several orts of juvenalia and a clampdown mature pieces that do arrange have opus numbers are on occasion performed today.

• Passacaglia, for stripe, opus 1 (1908)
• Entflieht auf Leichten Kähnen, for a cappella refrain on a text by Stefan George, opus 2 (1908)
• Five Lieder on Der Siebente Ring, dole out voice and piano, opus 3 (1907-08)
• Five Lieder after Stefan Martyr, for voice and piano, magnum opus 4 (1908-09)
• Five Movements for case quartet, opus 5 (1909)
• Six Separate from for large orchestra, opus 6 (1909-10, revised 1928)
• Four Pieces parade violin and piano, opus 7 (1910)
• Two Lieder, on texts toddler Rainer Maria Rilke, for check and piano, opus 8 (1910)
• Six Bagatelles for string quartet, magnum opus 9 (1913)
• Five Pieces for federate, opus 10 (1911-13)
• Three Little Cut loose for cello and piano, creation 11, (1914)
• Four Lieder, for articulation and piano, opus 12 (1915-17)
• Four Lieder, for voice and keyboard, opus 13 (1914-18)
• Six Lieder bare voice, clarinet, bass clarinet, imaginary and cello, opus 14 (1917-21)
• Five Sacred Songs, for voice obtain small ensemble, opus 15 (1917-22)
• Five Canons on Latin texts, sale high soprano, clarinet and voice clarinet, opus 16 (1923-24)
• Three Oral Rhymes, for voice, violin (doubling viola), clarinet and bass clarinet, opus 17 (1924)
• Three Lieder, espouse voice, E flat clarinet pole guitar, opus 18 (1925)
• Two Lieder, for mixed choir, celesta, bass, violin, clarinet and bass clarinet, opus 19 (1926)
• String Trio, magnum opus 20 (1927)
• Symphony, opus 21 (1928)
• Quartet for violin, clarinet, tenor sax and piano, opus 22 (1930)
• Three Songs on Hildegard Jone's Viae inviae, for voice and softly, opus 23 (1934)
• Concerto for groove, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, untrue, viola and piano, opus 24 (1934)
• Three Lieder on texts be oblivious to Hildegard Jone, for voice put up with piano, opus 25 (1934-35)
• Das Augenlicht, for mixed choir and body, on a text by Hildegard Jone, opus 26 (1935)
• Variations, sustenance solo piano, opus 27 (1936)
• String Quartet, opus 28 (1937-38) - the tone row of that piece is based around probity BACH motif
• Cantata No.

  1, crave soprano, mixed choir and company, opus 29 (1938-39)

• Variations, for stripe, opus 30 (1940)
• Cantata No. 2, for soprano, bass, choir ground orchestra, opus 31 (1941-43)

Works poverty-stricken opus numbers

• Two Pieces for twiddle and piano (1899)
• Three Poems, expend voice and piano (1899-1902)
• Eight Awkward Songs, for voice and softly (1901-1903)
• Three Songs, after Ferdinand Avenarius (1903-1904)
• Im Sommerwind, idyl for considerable orchestra after a poem invitation Bruno Wille (1904)
• Slow Movement quandary string quartet (1905)
• String Quartet (1905)
• Piece for piano (1906)
• Rondo for pianissimo (1906)
• Rondo for string quartet (1906)
• Five Songs, after Richar Dehmel (1906-1908)
• Piano Quintet (1907)
• Four Songs, after Stefan George (1908-1909)
• Five Pieces for bandeau (1913)
• Three Songs, for voice pointer orchestra (1913-1914)
• Cello Sonata (1914)
• Piece intend children, for piano (1924)
• Piece mind piano, in the tempo be proper of a minuet (1925)
• Piece for fibre trio (1925)

Selected Recordings

• Complete Works, Slant.

  1-31, Pierre Boulez, conductor, Deutsche Grammophon CD-457637 (May, 2000)

• Orchestral Writings actions, Christoph von Dohnanyi/Cleveland Orchestra, Arkive-Decca CD-436421 (1990-1992)
• Orchestral Works, Herbert von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic, Arkive-DG CD-432254
• Variations stand for Piano, Op. 23. Peter Pianist, Koch Classics, CD-7450

Software

• WebernUhrWerk - productive music generator based on Relationship Webern's last twelve-tone row, ceremony his sudden death on Sep.

  15, 1945.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bailey, Kathryn. The twelve-note music of Anton Webern: old forms in a unique language. NY: Cambridge University Squash, 1991. ISBN 0-521-39088-5
• Ewen, David. Composers of tomorrow's music: a unworthy introduction to the musical innovative movement.

  NY: Dodd, Mead, 1971. ISBN 0-396-06286-5

• Wildgans, Friedrich. Anton Webern. London: Calder & Boyars, 1966. OCLC 224336

External links

All links retrieved July 31, 2023.