In
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
, a pensato () is a
composed imaginary
note
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...
, a written note which is neither
played nor
heard. "This meant that a note had to be so indescribably tender and soft that it was only allowed to be thought of." (Score 1958)
Anton Webern
Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...
is credited by some with the first use of pensatos, while others argue he did not use them at all. As
Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book creator, comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which ...
(2007: 69, quoted in Toop 2016: 158) puts it: "The Joke went around that Webern had introduced the marking ''pensato'': Don't play the note, only think it."
George Perle
George Perle (6 May 1915 – 23 January 2009) was an American composer and music theory, music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonality, atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. Th ...
(1990: ), noting that "no composer has ever been more concrete, explicit, detailed, and subtle in his
notation
In linguistics and semiotics, a notation system is a system of graphics or symbols, Character_(symbol), characters and abbreviated Expression (language), expressions, used (for example) in Artistic disciplines, artistic and scientific disciplines ...
," argues that if Webern did use a pensato, it would have been a pitch "with all the attributes that give a note actuality:
pitch,
duration, mode of attack and release,
timbre
In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...
,
intensity
Intensity may refer to:
In colloquial use
* Strength (disambiguation)
*Amplitude
* Level (disambiguation)
* Magnitude (disambiguation)
In physical sciences
Physics
*Intensity (physics), power per unit area (W/m2)
*Field strength of electric, m ...
," and not a
pitch class
In music, a pitch class (p.c. or pc) is a set of all pitches that are a whole number of octaves apart; for example, the pitch class C consists of the Cs in all octaves. "The pitch class C stands for all possible Cs, in whatever octave positio ...
. He also points to a "verifiable ''pensato''" in the last bar of
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( ; ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...
's ''
Lyric Suite'': "The instruments drop out one by one, the four parts converging into a single line that continues into an ''
ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from the Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces inc ...
'' on the last two notes of the derived series and becomes inaudible on the penultimate note of the series, seemingly continuing into the silence beyond." (Perle, 1985: 14) The last measure of the score is marked "
dimin.", then "
morendo...*", then the asterisk reads: "*)bis zum völligen Verlöschen, daher die letzte Terz ''Des—F'' eventuell noch ein-, zweimal wiederholen. Keinesfalls aber auf ''Des'' schließen!" ("until completely extinguished, repeat the last third of Des — F once or twice. In no case, however, conclude to Des!") Presumably an expression of unrequited love (Santos 2014: 35).
See also
*
Ghost note
In music, notably in jazz, a ghost note (or a dead, muted, silenced or false note) is a musical note with a rhythmic value, but no discernible pitch when played. In musical notation, this is represented by an "X" for a note head instead of ...
*
Melodic expectation
*
Niente (musical dynamic)
Sources
*
* Perle, George (1990). ''The Listening Composer'' California: University of California Press. .
* Perle, George (1985). ''The Operas of Alban Berg. Vol. 2: Lulu''. California: University of California Press.
* Ross, Alex (2007). ''The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century''. Macmillan. .
* Santos, Silvio dos (2014). ''Narratives of Identity in Alban Berg's 'Lulu. Boydell & Brewer. .
*
Toop, David (2016). ''Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970''. Bloomsbury. .
* (1958).
The Score', Issues 22-28.
Italian words and phrases
Musical notes
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