Early music?
Now that we are living in the twenty-first century, our attitude toward the twentieth
century is identical to the one that, until recently, we held in relation to the
nineteenth century. Just as a concert of works by Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven
would have been considered the most natural thing in the world during the last
one hundred years, it would stand to reason that this should also be the case
today with a programme such as this one. Schoenberg, Webern and Berg are, after
all, classical if not "early" composers by now, certainly if one bears
in mind that, throughout the centuries, the notion of "early music"
has been interpreted in different ways. Consider, for instance, the society "Concerts
of ancient music," which came into being in eighteenth-century England. All
music written more than twenty years prior was invariably considered early music.
According to this standard, key works such as Boulez's Le marteau sans maître
and Berio's Sinfonia, as well as the complete works of Bernd Alois Zimmermann
would fall into this category as a matter of course, while the resounding legacies
of the four Viennese masters (including Zemlinsky) would be laid to rest in the
mausoleum of "prehistoric music"! Consequently, one could safely characterise
the fifth programme as quite classic and furthermore, unequivocally Romantic.
At this juncture, we should point out that a composer's use of a particular compositional
technique-in the case of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, the dodecaphonic or twelve-tone
technique-says nothing about the intrinsic emotional value of the music. If a
composition must be legitimised beforehand through analysis, then something is
seriously wrong. In the case of a masterwork, however, the listener might have
questions regarding the whys and wherefores of the piece. More important, though,
is the understanding that, regardless of their mutual similarities and differences,
Schoenberg and his disciples availed themselves of the same vocabulary as their
Viennese predecessors-be it Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Johann Strauss or Mahler.
The three masters did everything within their power to underscore their deep devotion
to tradition. Ultimately in fact, tradition constituted such a substantial factor
in their work that one would be perfectly justified in interpreting their collective
uvre as a set of dialogues with tradition.
Raindrop
Any listener who can approach Webern's Sechs Bagatellen, for instance,
in this way will suddenly observe unexpected commonalities with the fragility
heard in some of Schubert's songs and quartets or with the vulnerable lyricism
witnessed in Schumann's Kinderszenen, which Berg highly admired. Webern's
conception of time is, of course, completely different, although the composer
himself did not at all experience his so-called aphoristic pieces as such. With
regard to the Bagatellen, Schoenberg aptly observed: "Jeder Seufzer
lässt sich zu einem Roman ausdehnen." One might think in terms of
a raindrop that mirrors the entire surrounding landscape, bearing in mind the
alchemic credo of the macrocosm which is fully reflected in the microcosm ("As
above, so below."). The German mystic Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), held this
same view and his words (see the motto above) served as the inspiration for one
of Webern's longest compositions, the one-movement String Quartet, written in
1905 and lasting approximately fifteen minutes. The core of this piece consists
of three notes (which can be interpreted as representing the Holy Trinity). An
extraordinarily rich and contrapuntal development emanates from these, finally
culminating in a sober and resigned E major. In the String Quartet, the listener
is struck by the way material is compressed into a complex fabric of voices; this
process anticipates Webern's Passacaglia, Opus 1 for large orchestra, which
he completed in 1908.
Second nature
A characteristic typical of Romanticism is the incorporation of the autobiographical
in music. This is the case in Schoenberg's String Trio, as well as in Berg's Lyric
Suite. In the String Trio, the musical embodiment of a near-death experience
that the composer underwent serves as the creative stimulus, while in the Lyric
Suite, it is Berg's love affair with Franz Werfel's sister, Hanna Fuchs-Robbetin.
No matter how interesting this knowledge may be in itself, neither the inspiration
for a particular piece of music nor the programme on which it is based makes that
piece, by definition, a masterwork. It goes without saying, however, that both
the String Trio and the Lyric Suite belong to this category. Both these
works prove that music written in accordance with the rules of the twelve-tone
technique can be just as spontaneous and dramatic as music written in C major,
as the technique had completely become second nature to the composers employing
it. The Lyric Suite consists of six movements, three of which are freely
atonal and three that are strictly twelve-tone. A listener unaware of this fact
will not notice this, however. "Strictly twelve-tone" is, perhaps, an
overstatement, since Berg's employment of the twelve-tone system is so versatile
that he succeeds effortlessly in incorporating quotes from tonal compositions,
such as Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony ("Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen")
and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, as is witnessed in the both literally
and figuratively desolate last movement. Although it is, strictly speaking, a
twelve-tone composition, Schoenberg's String Trio also teems with tonal references,
though in contrast to the Berg, these are not literal quotes. It might be better
at this point to speak of archetypes. This hallucinatory work possesses a highly
Erlkönig-like quality and the listener is often reminded of Schubert's
deserted and etherealised expressivity in other ways as well. The balance that
Schoenberg achieves between a strict employment of the twelve-tone technique and
an unmistakably Romantic language of expressive gestures has captured Jan van
Vlijmen's imagination, the only composer in the Netherlands besides Kees van Baaren
in whose music the legacy established by Schoenberg and his followers can be witnessed.
Finally, Van Baaren, Van Vlijmen and Schoenberg are all deeply rooted in the Western
art-music tradition.
In closing, a word about the audience-request concerts, which enjoyed great success
in the 70s (the decade in which, incidentally, the Schoenberg Quartet was founded);
up until now, the Quartet has never put the "audience-request principle"
into practice. Now, however, audiences in Amsterdam and The Hague can choose to
hear their favourite pieces by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern or Zemlinsky.
Maarten Brandt
Translations: Josh Dillon |