Anton Webern

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Anton Webern (born December 3, 1883 in Vienna , † September 15, 1945 in Mittersill , Salzburg , Austria ; full name: Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern ; he had to discard the "from" in 1919 due to the Nobility Repeal Act of April 3, 1919) an Austrian composer and conductor. As one of Arnold Schönberg's first students , he belonged to the inner circle of the Vienna School .

Anton Webern, Stettin 1912

Life

Bust in Anton-Webern-Park in Mittersill
Grave in the Mittersill cemetery

Webern, son of Karl Freiherr von Webern, a successful mining engineer, grew up in Graz and Klagenfurt . The family had been raised to the nobility in 1574. Anton Webern received piano lessons from his mother at an early age, later Edwin Komauer gave him private lessons in music theory , and Webern also learned to play the cello . From autumn 1902 to 1906 he studied musicology at the University of Vienna . He received his doctorate there with an edition of the Choralis Constantinus II by Heinrich Isaac , which was published in 1909 as Volume 32 of the Monuments of Music in Austria .

From 1904 to 1908 Webern received composition lessons from Arnold Schönberg .

In the following years Webern worked temporarily as a bandmaster in Bad Ischl , Teplitz , Danzig , Stettin and Prague - an activity about which he complained in many letters.

After the First World War , Webern u. a. Head of the Wiener Schubertbund (until 1922), the Vienna Workers' Symphony Concerts and choirmaster of the Wiener Arbeiter-Singverein . In 1927 he became a permanent conductor for Austrian radio. He has made guest appearances in Switzerland, England, Spain and Germany.

Webern's relationship to Nazi ideology and the Nazi state is controversial in research. "Regardless of partial correspondences with ' National Socialism ', he had (and wanted) no chance in official musical life after the ' Anschluss of Austria ' in 1938 as a ' cultural Bolshevik '", writes the Lexicon of Contemporary Composers . From 1939 he produced piano reductions for the Universal Edition and increasingly withdrew from the public. The memories of Karl Amadeus Hartmann , who visited Webern in November 1942 in Maria Enzersdorf near Vienna to take lessons, provide an authentic view of the composer at this time .

On September 15, 1945, Anton Webern was accidentally shot by a US Army soldier in Mittersill near Zell am See . During a raid on Webern's house - his son-in-law was suspected of black market trafficking - Webern stepped outside the door to smoke a cigar and collided with one of the soldiers who had surrounded the house, whereupon the fatal shots rang out. Webern was laid out in the Anna Church in Mittersill and buried in the local cemetery. The circumstances of Anton Webern's death are the subject of René Staars op. 9 Just an Accident? A Requiem for Anton Webern and Other Victims of the Absurd from 1986.

Today (as of 2018) he is buried together with his wife Wilhelmine and daughter Maria Halbich († 2000) in a grave of honor in the Mittersill community. On the back of the gravestone is a poem by Hildegard Jones , which Webern set to music in 1935.

Work and effect

Two pieces for cello and piano from Webern's hand are already known from the “Klagenfurt Period” (1899). Webern's early pieces that were not performed during his lifetime ( Im Sommerwind , 1904; Langsamer Satz , 1905) are still clearly in the tradition of late Romanticism. This was followed by a long atonal phase , beginning in 1908/1909 with the songs by Stefan George , which established Webern's reputation as a representative of musical expressionism . Pieces of aphoristic brevity were created by 1914. In 1924/1925 Webern then used Schönberg's twelve-tone technique for the first time . While Schönberg and Alban Berg used this technique for large forms, Webern's art was completed in the small, highly concentrated form and he began "to grind his diamonds, his sparkling diamonds, of the mines of which he was so perfectly aware" - like Igor Stravinsky put it once.

From then on, Webern concentrated on the organization of the structure - in addition to the order of the pitches, that of the durations and dynamics. György Ligeti has shown their complex symmetries in lectures in Salzburg, in which he analyzed the Bagatelles for String Quartet op. 9, and coined the expression “principle of disturbed order”. After the Second World War, the composers of the Darmstadt School , above all Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen , who were the first to adopt Webern's method and develop it into compositional techniques of serial music , applied consistent, strict regularity in determining the musical parameters .

Works (selection)

Works with opus number

Works published during his lifetime:

  • Op. 1, Passacaglia for orchestra (1908)
  • Op. 2, Escape on light boats (1908), mixed choir (A Cappella), text: Stefan George
  • Op. 3, Five songs from The Seventh Ring (1908–1909), voice and piano, text: Stefan George
    1. "This is a song", 2. "Im Windesweben", 3. "At the edge of the stream", 4. "Im Morgentaun", 5. "Kahl Reckt der Baum"
  • Op. 4, Five songs to poems by Stefan George (1908–1909)
    1. Entrance (“Welt der Gestalten”), 2. “Faithfulness still compels me”, 3. “Yes, hail and thanks to you”, 4. “When I am sad”, 5. “You came to the flock”
  • Op. 5, five movements for string quartet (1909)
  • Op. 6, six pieces for large orchestra (1909)
  • Op. 7, four pieces for violin and piano (1910)
  • Op. 8, two songs based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke (1910)
    1. "You who I won't tell", 2. "You make me alone"
  • Op. 9, Six Bagatelles for String Quartet (1911)
  • Op. 10, five pieces for orchestra (1911)
  • Op. 11, three little pieces for violoncello and piano (1914)
  • Op. 12, four songs for voice and piano (1915-17)
    1. “The day has passed” (1915), 2. “The mysterious flute” (“In an evening”) (1917), 3. “It seemed to me when I saw the sun” (from August Strindberg's “ Ghost Sonata ”; 1915), 4. "Equal and equal" ("A flower bell") (1917)
  • Op. 13, four songs for voice and orchestra (1914-18)
    1. "Wiese im Park" ("How timeless for me") (1917), 2. "Die Einsame" ("In a dark blue sky") (1914), 3. "In der Fremde" ("In a foreign land") (1917), 4. "A winter evening" ("When the snow") (1918)
  • Op. 14, six songs based on poems by Georg Trakl (1917–21), singing and chamber ensemble
    1. "The Sun", 2. "Abendland I", 3. "Abendland II", 4. "Abendland III", 5. "At night", 6. "Song of a captured blackbird"
  • Op. 15, five sacred songs (1917–22), singing and chamber ensemble
    1. “The cross he has to carry”, 2. Morning song “get up, you dear little children”, 3. “Get up in God's name”, 4. “My path will now pass”, 5. “Go there, O Seel '"
  • Op. 16, Five Canons from Latin Texts (1924), singing and chamber ensemble
    1. “Christ factus est” (1924), 2. “Dormi Jesu” (1923), 3. “Crux fidelis” (1923), 4. “Asperges me” (1923), 5. “Crucem tuam adoramus” (1924 )
  • Op. 17, Drei Volkstexte (1924), singing and chamber ensemble
    1. "Poor sinner, you" (1924), 2. "Dearest virgin" (1925), 3. "Savior, our misdeeds" (1925)
  • Op. 18, Drei Lieder (1925), singing and chamber ensemble
    1. "Little darling", 2. Redemption "My child, look at", 3. "Ave, Regina Coelorum"
  • Op. 19, two songs (1926), mixed choir and chamber ensemble, text: (“Chinese-German seasons and times of day”), cycle - JW v. Goethe
    1. "White as lilies", 2. "Draw the sheep"
  • Op. 20, string trio (1926–1927), in two movements
  • Op. 21, Symphony (1927–1928), in two movements
  • Op. 22, quartet (1928–1930), violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone, piano, in two movements
  • Op. 23, three songs from "viae inviae" (1934), voice and piano
1. "The Dark Heart" (1934), 2. "Freshness falls from heights" (1933), 3. "Lord Jesus my" (1933)
  • Op. 24, concert (1931–1934), chamber ensemble, in three movements
  • Op. 25, three songs based on poems by Hildegard Jone (1934), voice and piano, text: “The Friends” cycle - Hildegard Jone
    1. "How happy I am!", 2. "The purple bird of the heart", 3. "Stars, you silver bees"
  • Op. 26, Das Augenlicht (“Durch unsre opennen Augen”) (1935), mixed choir and orchestra, text: “viae inviae” - Hildegard Jone
  • Op. 27, Variations for piano (1935–1936), in three movements
  • Op. 28, string quartet (1936–1938), in three movements
  • Op. 29, First Cantata (1938–1940), soprano solo, mixed choir and orchestra
    1. "Igniting flash of light", 2. "Small wing", 3. "Tone the blessed strings of Apollo"
  • Op. 30, Variations for Orchestra (1940), in one movement
  • Op. 31, Second Cantata (1943), soprano solo, bass solo, mixed choir and orchestra
    1. “The world is silent too”, 2. “Be very deeply restrained”, 3. “Draw from wells”, 4. “Lightest burdens”, 5. “The word is friendly”, 6. “Loosened up from the lap”

Works without opus number

  • Two pieces for cello and piano (1899)
  • Three poems, for voice and piano (1899–1902)
  • Eight early songs, for voice and piano (1901–1903)
  • Three songs, after Ferdinand Avenarius (1903–1904)
  • Im Sommerwind, idyll for large orchestra based on a poem by Bruno Wille (1904)
  • Slow movement for string quartet (1905)
  • String Quartet (1905)
  • Movement for piano (1906)
  • Sonata movement (Rondo) for piano (1906)
  • Rondo for string quartet (1906)
  • Five songs, based on poems by Richard Dehmel (1906–1908)
  • Piano quintet (1907)
  • Four songs, after Stefan George (1908–1909)
  • Five orchestral pieces (1913)
  • Three orchestral songs (1913-1914)
  • Cello Sonata (1914)
  • Children's piece, for piano (1924)
  • Piano piece, in the tempo of a minuet (1925)
  • Movement for string trio (1925)
  • Arrangements for orchestra:

Writings / lectures

  • Willi Reich (Ed.): The Path to New Music , two lecture cycles 1932-33. Universal Edition, Vienna 1960, 73 pp. Archive.org
    • The Way to Composition in Twelve Tones (1932) , 8 lectures January to March 1932
    • The Path to New Music (1933) , 8 lectures February to April 1933
  • Neil Boynton (Ed.): About musical forms , from the lecture notes [1934–1938] by Ludwig Zenk, Siegfried Oehlgiesser, Rudolf Schopf and Erna Apostel, = publications of the Paul Sacher Foundation Volume 8. Schott, Mainz 2002, 439 p .

estate

The largest part of Anton Webern's estate is now in the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.

Awards and honors

  • In 1924 and 1932 Anton Webern received the City of Vienna Music Prize
  • The Mittersill community donated an honorary grave for Webern.
  • In 1965 a memorial plaque was placed on the house in Mittersill in front of which he died. Next to Webern's name on it is the Sator Square (“SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS”), to which Webern referred in Opus 24.
  • In 1990 the asteroid (4529) Webern was named after him
  • In the Wiener Löwengasse 53 (3rd district), at the birthplace, the Austrian Society for Music has put up a memorial plaque.
  • In 1998 the extension of the Linke Bahngasse in front of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Vienna- Landstrasse (3rd district) was named Anton-von-Webern-Platz in his honor .

literature

  • Heinrich Deppert: Studies in composition technique in Anton Webern's late instrumental work (=  music books by Tonos . Band 3 ). Edition Tonos, Darmstadt 1972, DNB  730205096 (Dissertation University of Tübingen, Department of Classical and Cultural Studies, 1970, 227 pages).
  • Elmar Budde : Anton Webern's songs op. 3: Investigations into early atonality in Webern (= supplements to the archive for musicology 9). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1971, ISBN 978-3515002240 .
  • Walter Kolneder: Anton Webern. Genesis and metamorphosis of a style (=  Austrian composers of the 20th century . Volume 19 ). Lafite / Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-215-61006-X .
  • Hans Moldenhauer: The death of Anton von Webern. A drama in documents. With a preface by Igor Stravinsky . Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 1970, ISBN 3-7651-0001-3 (Original title: The death of Anton Webern . Translated by Gerd Sievers).
  • Hans and Rosaleen Moldenhauer: Anton von Webern. Chronicle of his life and work . Atlantis, Zurich / Freiburg im Breisgau 1980, ISBN 3-7611-0573-8 (Original title: Anton von Webern, a Chronicle of His Life and Work . Translated by Ken W. Bartlett).
  • Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Rainer Riehn (eds.): Anton Webern I (=  music concepts . Special volume). edition text + kritik, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-88377-151-1 .
  • Dieter Rexroth (Ed.): Opus Anton Webern . Quadriga, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-88679-101-7 .
  • Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Rainer Riehn (ed.): Anton Webern II (=  music concepts . Special volume). edition text + kritik, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-88377-187-2 .
  • Karlheinz Essl: The synthesis thinking in Anton Webern (=  Viennese publications on musicology . Volume 24 ). Hans Schneider, Tutzing 1991, ISBN 3-7952-0675-8 ( preface - musicological dissertation University of Vienna 1988, 256 pages).
  • Matthias Herrmann: Schönberg - Berg - Webern and Dresden . In: Matthias Herrmann, Hanns-Werner Heister (Ed.): Dresden and advanced music in the 20th century. Part I: 1900–1933 (=  Music in Dresden . Volume 4 ). Laaber, Laaber 1999, ISBN 3-89007-346-8 , pp. 297-348 .
  • Reinhard Kapp: Webern, Anton (von). In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 .
  • Alain Galliari: Anton von Webern . Fayard, [Paris] 2007, ISBN 978-2-213-63457-9 .
  • Dominik Schweiger, Nikolaus Urbanek (Ed.): Webern 21 (=  Viennese publications on music history . Volume 8 ). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2009, ISBN 3-205-77165-6 .
  • Simon Obert (Ed.): Changing appearance. Six perspectives on Anton Webern's sixth bagatelle (=  Webern studies. Supplements to the Anton Webern Complete Edition . Volume 1 ). Lafite, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-85151-080-5 .
  • Monika Kröpfl, Simon Obert (ed.): The young Webern. Artistic orientations in Vienna after 1900 (=  Webern studies. Supplements to the Anton Webern Complete Edition . Volume 2 a). Lafite, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-85151-082-9 .
  • Thomas Ahrend, Matthias Schmidt (ed.): The young Webern. Texts and contexts. (=  Webern Studies. Supplements to the Anton Webern Complete Edition . Volume 2 b). Lafite, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-85151-083-6 .
  • Thomas Ahrend, Matthias Schmidt (Ed.): Webern Philologies (=  Webern Studies. Supplements to the Anton Webern Complete Edition . Volume 3 ). Lafite, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-85151-084-3 .
  • Andreas Krause: Anton Webern and his time . 2nd, corrected and enlarged edition. Laaber, Laaber 2018, ISBN 978-3-89007-698-0 .
  • Pietro Cavallotti, Simon Obert, Rainer Schmusch (eds.): New perspectives. Anton Webern and composing in the 20th century (=  Webern Studies. Supplements to the Anton Webern Complete Edition . Volume 4 ). Lafite, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-85151-098-0 .

Web links

Commons : Anton Webern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dtoe.at
  2. ^ Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Lessons with Anton Webern, letters to my wife . In: Opus Anton Webern pp. 9–11, see bibliography
  3. ↑ printed as a music supplement in: Kandinsky, Franz Marc: Der Blaue Reiter . Piper, Munich 1912 (reprint of the 1912 edition. Piper Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-492-24121-2 )
  4. ^ Webern - Pierre Boulez - The Complete Works Op. 1-31
  5. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 16886 (PDF)
personal data
SURNAME Webern, Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Webern, Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1945
Place of death Mittersill , Salzburg, Austria