1. Chapter 20: The Twentieth Century: Early Modernism
Expressionism

2. Key Terms Expressionism “Emancipation of dissonance” Sprechstimme
Passacaglia
Second Viennese School
Ragtime
“Master rhythm”

3. Expressionism A music of increasing emotionality
Debussy & Stravinsky rejected Romanticism
Expressionists took it to ultimate conclusion
Exploited extreme psychological states
Hysteria, nightmare, even insanity – reflected a fascination with Freud’s work
Similar to parallel movement in art
Subjective expression of inner turmoil
Distorted & exaggerated melody & harmony
Fascination with tone color & color theory

4. Second Viennese School (1)
Schoenberg attracted two star students
Alban Berg & Anton Webern
All three shared in many innovations
The “emancipation of dissonance”
The breakdown of tonality
Seeking solutions to the problem of coherence in an atonal, expressionist idiom
Three very different personalities
Schoenberg developed 12-tone music
But each one explored it in his own way

5. Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) The leading expressionist composer
Largely self-taught in music
But wrote important books on music theory
Gifted amateur expressionist painter
Early music tonal, à la Mahler & Brahms
Began writing atonal music in
Erwartung, 5 Orchestra Pieces, Pierrot lunaire
Developed 12-tone method in early 1920s
A Survivor from Warsaw, Piano Concerto
Taught at UCLA last 15 years of his life

6. Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire
Highly influential song cycle
21 poems by symbolist poet Albert Giraud
Pierrot is the eternal sad clown
Lunaire refers to the moon & the bizarre hallucinations & adventures it inspires
Written in an expressionist idiom
Kaleidoscopic scoring for voice & 5 players on 8 instruments
Flute (or piccolo), clarinet (or bass clarinet), violin (or viola), cello, & piano
Each song uses a different combination

7. Sprechstimme Voice uses Sprechstimme (“speech-song”)
The soprano does not really sing or speak
She does something in between the two
Schoenberg notated approximate pitches
Singer must speak in an exaggerated, quasi-melodic manner
Sprechstimme technique magnifies, distorts, parodies, & haunts these bizarre poems
The actress who commissioned Pierrot requested a set of melodramas – works for a speaking voice with instrumental accompaniment!

8. No. 8: “Night” Evokes expressionism’s nightmarish side
For voice, piano, bass clarinet, cello
Evokes expressionism’s nightmarish side
Uses low instruments in low register
Dense polyphonic texture
Schoenberg called this a passacaglia
Recurring 3-note ostinato used throughout
Many overlapping versions, freely transposed
The soprano even sings the motive at the word verschwiegen (secret silent)

9. No. 18: “The Moonfleck” Starts with piano introduction
For voice, piano, piccolo, clarinet, violin, cello
Starts with piano introduction
Dense, dissonant, & alarmingly intense
The song depicts Pierrot’s obsession & the flickering moonfleck on his jacket
High-pitched, quicksilver motives used throughout the ensemble
Schoenberg uses fugues & canons
We hear a fantastic lacework of atonal sounds

10. Second Viennese School (2)
Anton Webern ( )
His life revolved around his composition, though he held low-profile conducting posts
Avoided Romantic grandiosity – favored low dynamics, abstract, pointillistic textures, & brief but concentrated musical structures
Some expressionist works are very short
Composers of the second phase of modernism revered his vision of abstraction & the brilliant sophistication of his later serial works
Symphonie, Cantatas 1 & 2, String Quartet
Accidentally killed by an American soldier

11. Second Viennese School (3)
Alban Berg ( )
After Schoenberg, the most powerful exponent of expressionism in music
Looked back to Romantic tradition more than Schoenberg & Webern, especially to Mahler
Use tonal references in Wozzeck & his Violin Concerto
His expressionist opera Wozzeck was an immediate success
Later 12-tone opera Lulu now also a classic
Died of an infected insect bite

12. Berg, Wozzeck Based on an 1837 play by Georg Büchner
An almost paranoid vision of the helpless poor
Opera completed in 1923
Conceptually a Wagnerian work
Relies on orchestra for musical continuity
It uses leitmotivs & contains no arias
Influenced by earlier expressionist works
Sprechstimme borrowed from Pierrot lunaire
Berg pays much attention to musical form
Each scene uses a different, specific form

13. Story Wozzeck is a poor, downtrodden soldier
Troubled by visions
Tormented by his captain
Human guinea pig in bizarre experiments carried out by his regimental doctor
Beaten up by the drum major who is having an affair with Wozzeck’s lover, Marie
Wozzeck is finally pushed over the edge
He murders Marie, goes mad, & drowns himself
Their young child is left an orphan

14. Wozzeck Act III, Scene iii (1)
Invention on a rhythm
A “master rhythm” is used throughout in many different tempos
Wozzeck is in a tavern after killing Marie
The two opening chord crescendos happen immediately after the murder
Timpani are first to play the master rhythm – just after the first chord
Distorted ragtime piano introduction follows

15. Wozzeck Act III, Scene iii (2)
Ragtime introduction & Margret’s song make use of the master rhythm

16. Wozzeck Act III, Scene iii (3)
Margret sees blood on Wozzeck’s hand
So do the others – a crescendo of accusations (using master rhythm) chases Wozzeck away

17. Wozzeck Act III, Scene iv
Invention on a chord of six notes
B-flat, D-flat, E-flat, E, F, G-sharp
Stated throughout, both as chord & as melody
Wozzeck goes back to the murder scene
Orchestra creates eerie nighttime sounds
Wozzeck’s mind has finally cracked
Obsessed with blood, he looks for the knife
He drowns while trying to hide it in the pond
Vivid orchestral gurgles accompany his death
Doctor & Captain happen by – but do nothing

18. Wozzeck Act III, Orchestral Interlude
Invention on a tonality
Orchestral music for the blackout after Wozzeck’s drowning
Based on a D minor tonality, but loosely, in a late Romantic idiom influenced by Mahler
A mourning lament for Wozzeck, Marie, & humanity at large
D minor often used for serious, tragic subjects
Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor
Mozart’s Don Giovanni, final scene with statue
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony