The Austrian-Jewish composer Arnold Schoenberg was born today in 1874. Known as the "emancipator of dissonance", Schoenberg started out as a continuation of the romantic tradition of Brahms, Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Mahler, but in the early 1900's, he moved into atonality. His twelve-tone-row technique was a method that gave equal treatment to all 12 half-steps in the chromatic scale, leaving his compositions without a key signature.
His earliest important work is called "Transfigured Night", still written in a late-romantic tradition with heavy use of chromaticism (such as Wagner's Tristan and Isolde). Here is an excerpt.
A few years later, Schoenberg was to come up with his revolutionary ideas. Here is a short film documenting his ideas. Here is a short piano solo piece illustrating the result of his compositional style.
Perhaps to most of us, it is more enjoyable to listen to people talk about Schoenberg's music than to listen to the music itself. :) Furthermore, listening to people describe Schoenberg who love his music really helps one understand it better. Here's a really fascinating discussion and excerpts of a rehearsal of his piano concerto by Mitsuko Uchida, who describes the music and her love for it with great eloquence. Also, Glenn Gould and Yehudi Menuhin discuss Schoenberg and then play a piece together.
I consider myself somewhat musically educated. I can appreciate a wide variety of music, even very modern sounding stuff. I have a hard time getting excited by Schoenberg, however. Oh sure, I find some of it interesting and even fascinating (see excerpt of Uchida above). But it seems that when tonality is lost, the emotional range of the music is severely limited. Can atonal pieces express anger, rage, despair, depression, fear? Absolutely - maybe they are the best for these emotions. They may even be able to evoke a spirit of lightheartedness or humor. But can atonal music express joy, peace, contentedness, fulfillment, beauty? I am inclined to think not. I'm not saying this music has no place. Under the right conditions and at the right time, this music is appropriate (certainly would help in certain movies!). But I think going atonal has lost a large depth of what music can express...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I really enjoyed the videos in this post, especially the recommendations from such obviously brilliant people as Uchida and Gould.
The best atonal music I can recommend for real emotional power is the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen, which is a vision of the book of Revelation that the composer (a devout Catholic) wrote while in a WWII prison camp. But even that I can't listen to very often.
The idea I had last night while listening to this music is that atonal music is only able to represent tension. Tonal music has the capability of consonance, in which all tension is removed and what remains is pure joy, but atonal music is incapable of that.
Thanks for the Messiaen recommendation - I've heard some piano pieces by him that are really interesting, too. I should do a post on him sometime...
Great insights on atonality and tension. I think that sums it up pretty well.
Post a Comment