Concerto For Nine Instruments (Webern)

Anton Webern's Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24 (German: Konzert für neun Instrumente), written in 1934, is a twelve-tone concerto for nine instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, and piano. It consists of three movements:

The concerto is based on a derived row, "often cited uch as by Milton Babbitt (1972)">Milton_Babbitt.html" ;"title="uch as by uch as by symmetrical construction".Bailey (1996), p.246. The tone row">Milton Babbitt">uch as by Milton Babbitt (1972)as a paragon of symmetry">symmetrical construction".Bailey (1996), p.246. The tone row is shown below.Arnold Whittall">Whittall, Arnold. 2008. ''The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism. Cambridge Introductions to Music'', p. 97. New York: Cambridge University Press. (pbk).

:

In the words of Luigi Dallapiccola, the concerto is "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. rague, September 5, 1935.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.

The second movement "limits quite severely the values of many domains," for example featuring "only two durational values ( quarter and half note ," and, partly as a result, "features great uniformity in texture and gesture".Hasty, Christopher (1981). "Segmentation and Process in Post-Tonal Music", pp. 63–64, ''Music Theory Spectrum'', vol. 3, (Spring), pp. 54–73.

The tone row may be interpreted as: 019, 2te, 367, 458.

:

The opening displays " he Concerto'sdistinctive trichordal structuring," four of which "comprise an aggregate," or partition.Alegant (2001), pp. 2–3. "The six combinations of he partition'strichords generate three pairs of complementary hexachords".Alegant (2001), p. 4. "Webern takes full advantage of this property degree of symmetry">Derived row#Degree of symmetry">degree of symmetryin the Concerto," that under four appropriate transformations (T₀T₆I₅I_B), 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).Van den Toorn, Pieter C. (1996). ''Music, Politics, and the Academy'', pp. 128–129. .

According to Brian Alegant, " e Latin square... clearly shows the built in redundancy of hepartition," four, and, "needless to say, Webern takes full advantage of this property in the Concerto":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.

:

For example, I₅ = 548, 376, 2et, 109.

Sources

Further reading

* Gauldin, Robert (1977). "Pitch Structure in the Second Movement of Webern's Concerto Op. 24.", ''In Theory Only'' 2, no. 10: 8–22. Cited on p. 38 of Brian Alegant, "Cross-Partitions as Harmony and Voice Leading in Twelve-Tone Music", ''Music Theory Spectrum'' 23, no. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 1–40.
*Gauldin, Robert (1977). "The Magic Squares of the Third Movement of Webern's Concerto Op. 24." ''In Theory Only'' 2, nos. 11–12:32–42. Cited on p, 38 of Alegant 2001.
*Hartwell, Robin (1979). "Rhythmic Organisation in the Serial Music of Anton Webern". PhD diss. Brighton: University of Sussex.
* Rahn, John (1980). ''Basic Atonal Theory''. New York: Longman, Inc. .
* Stockhausen, Karlheinz (1963 953. "Weberns Konzert für neun Instrumente op. 24". In his ''Texte zur Musik'' 1, edited by Dieter Schnebel, 24–31. DuMont Dokumente. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg. irst published in ''Melos'', no. 20 (1953), 343–348.*Straus, Joseph N. (2011). "Contextual-Inversion Spaces". ''Journal of Music Theory'' 55, no. 1 (Spring): 43–88.
*Wintle, Christopher (1982). "Analysis and Performance: Webern's Concerto Op. 24/ii.", '' Music Analysis'' 1:73–100. Cited on p. 39 of Alegant 2001; on p. 19 of Jonathan Dunsby, "Guest Editorial: Performance and Analysis of Music", ''Music Analysis'' 8, nos. 1–2 (March–July 1989): 5–20; on pp. 74–75 of Catherine Nolan, "Structural Levels and Twelve-Tone Music: A Revisionist Analysis of the Second Movement of Webern's 'Piano Variations' Op. 27", ''Journal of Music Theory'' 39, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 47–76; on pp. 324, 328, and 339 of John Rink, "''Musical Structure and Performance'' by Wallace Berry" (review), ''Music Analysis'' 9, no. 3 (October 1990), 319–339; on pp. 57 and 88 of Straus 2011; and on pp. 337 and 353 of Whittall 1987.
* Whittall, Arnold (1987). "Webern and Multiple Meaning". ''Music Analysis'' 6, no. 3 (October): 333–353.

External links

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Compositions by Anton Webern
Webern
Twelve-tone compositions
1934 compositions