Six little piano pieces

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The Six Little Piano Pieces op. 19 by Arnold Schönberg form a cycle of six pieces for piano .

Emergence

The six small piano pieces were written in 1911. Schönberg composed the first five pieces on February 19, “as if in a creative intoxication in a single day”. The sixth piece was written on June 17, 1911 in memory of the composer Gustav Mahler who died on May 18 . The first performance of the cycle took place on February 4, 1912 in Berlin in the Harmonium Hall, the pianist was Louis Closson. The first print of op.19 was published by Universal Edition in Vienna in October 1913.

Analysis of the pieces

The six small piano pieces are musical miniatures. The pieces show a radical reduction in musical means. "The most characteristic features of these pieces [... are] their extreme expressiveness and their extraordinary brevity". The pieces each comprise only a few bars : the first piece is the longest with 17 bars, the pieces two, three and six are the shortest with 9 bars each. Piece four comprises 13 bars and piece five has 15 bars.

I. Light delicate eighth notes

The piece begins in two voices. Melodic phrases are accompanied by interspersed chords . These are not worked out in the piece, but always appear as rudiments. The two-part sound expands in bar four to four-part, which extends into bar six. From bar seven to the end of the piece, the melody fragments, accompanied by chords, again determine the picture. From bar eight , the accompaniment consists of a thirty-second tremolo figure , which can be perceived as the climax of the many figurations of fast note values that run through the piece . The figure, for its part, finds its climax in the fermata in bar 12 after it has come to rest from bar ten. The following two measures can be designated as a rest point. In the three-bar coda that begins in bar 15, various elements of the piece are taken up again: The melodic phrase of the lower part is a recapitulation of the lower part at the beginning of the piece that has been transposed up by a fourth but hardly varied . The chromatic motif bhb of the last bar has already been heard in bar three and the sound in the penultimate bar is also known from the first bar. The sound in the lower part dis-he is resumed here in a different position and position.

II. Slow quarters

The second piece is characterized by the interval of a third . It starts with the major third g – h. This is repeated in the first three bars in a regularly syncopated rhythm . In bar two, a melodic element is added in the right hand. The syncopation of the thirds is shifted in the fourth measure. A new element is introduced in the fifth bar: an arpeggiated sound. The third Gb – Bb it contains is resumed two octaves lower in the further course of the bar . The tones appear here in their enharmonic mix-up f sharp-a sharp and have a double guiding tone to the following third g-b. A key cannot be justified either by the third g – b occurring a total of 26 times, or by this leading tone introduction. In bar six another melody fragment begins, which quickly finds its resting point in the third bd. The last three bars contrast the g – b ostinato with a downward movement of the third. The piece closes with a sixth note, which is introduced by the defining third g – b and is added in the second part of the last bar. The final sound is the sum of two excessive triads: g – h – es and f sharp – b – d.

III. Very slow quarters

The third piece begins with a contrast that defines the first half of the piece. “In the first 4 bars, the right hand should definitely play forte, the left definitely pianissimo.” Schönberg adds these words to the beginning of the piece. The bass line “in a quasi-orchestral way” clearly steps back dynamically behind the other voices. Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt justified Schönberg's decision to use an octave line with the fact that this made it possible to ensure the clarity of the bass notes. In this creative phase, Schönberg rarely used the octave doubling process, only if there were compelling reasons. The characteristics of the line are its rhythmic calm and diatonic simplicity. The tones of the scale used (b – c – des – es – e – f – as) are similar to the B minor scale. The upper parts contrast the bass line with a three- to four-part fabric, which also processes the notes hd-fis-ga melodically and chordally that are not used in the lower parts. In the second part of the piece, the voices act dynamically at the same level. The four to five-part section develops in quiet quarters and eighths from a piano to a triple piano. The two parts of the piece have analogies. In the lower part, a total of two staccato chords can be heard in the last two bars, the bass notes of which form the reversal of the first melodic step of the bass line in bar 1. The last chord b-d-a-g is a transposition of the first chord d-f-sharp-b-c sharp in the upper part at the beginning of the piece. Further analogies arise through variation, such as the fifth case in bar 1 in the lower part, which is varied in bar 5 to a jump over an excessive fifth. In addition, the interval in bar 7 changes to a diminished fifth in the upper part and in bar 8 to a minor sixth .

IV. Quick but easy quarters

The fourth piece has the character of a recitative : the melody lines are accompanied by isolated chords. The melody lines of the piece appear in two manifestations. The first melody phrase (phrase A), which extends from the beginning of the piece to bar 2, is characterized by consonant intervals. The second phrase (phrase B), like the first, consists of six tones. However, these are determined by dissonant interval steps of seconds and sevenths . The other melody elements are variations of these two forms. The phrase immediately following in bar 3 comes from phrase B as well as the melody parts in bars 7 to 9, the second half of bar 10 and in bars 4 and 5 in the lower part, here in a very fragmentary form. Phrase A is picked up again in the first part of bar 10 in a varied manner. The principle of variation can also be seen in larger shaped parts: the entire second part of the piece (bars 7–13) can be seen as a variation of the first part (bars 1–6). In a current analysis, a horizontal axis symmetry is demonstrated in the fourth piece; The only pedaled passage acts as the axis of symmetry (in bars 4/5). Due to this axis symmetry, the piece turns out to be a special form of a palindrome.

V. Slightly quick eighth notes

The fifth piece reveals a delicate lyricism, which is already clear from the playing instructions in the score (delicate but full). The piece consists of a single melody with accompaniment. The character of the melody is very vocal. The piece is concluded with a four-bar coda. In the piece, echoes of the entire cycle can be heard: The accompanying voices of bars 7–8, in which the melody comes to a point of rest, are reminiscent of bars 4 and 5 of the first piece. The increased occurrence of the thirds in bars 12–15 creates a memory of the second piece. The final chords of the fourth piece introduce the listener's ear to the sixth piece that concludes the cycle. The structure of the sounds from three tones already indicates the chords of the final piece.

VI. Very slow quarters

Like a calm vision, the sixth piece "very slowly" flits past the listener's ear with a restrained dynamic. It starts in pianissimo. The dynamic climax is in bar 7, a piano that is briefly crescended . The finest dynamic gradations range from a pianissimo and a triple piano to a quadruple pianissimo. A six-tone sound as the central sound forms the motivic basis of the piece. Upbeat set the first three notes an a FIS h, after three quarters of the sound is supplemented by the sounds g-c-f. This combination occurs four times in the piece, but always in a varied form. They differ in the length of the sound and the rhythmic values ​​of the sequence: the first as well as the second occurrence, the upper chord sounds three quarters forward, with the third and fourth time only a quarter. The static sound is interrupted by small melodic processes. From the third to the fourth bar, a sigh motif D-E-D is heard. The e '' 'is at the same time the small second to dis' '' and the small ninth to dis ''. The sigh is a reference back to the six notes in the first bar of the piece. With the second or non-step, it is reminiscent of the dissonance f – f sharp in the first sound. The next melodic courses can be found in bars 5 and 6. The a – f sharp – h chord is replaced by the c – f – b chord, a variation of the lower voice chord from the first measure. The two upper tones of both chords melodically form an excessive octave (b-b or f-sharp-f) or a small ninth is confused enharmonically. On the last quarter note of the fifth measure, the chord in the lower part also moves downwards. Above the seventh e – d, the sigh motif begins in G sharp – f sharp, here as a shortened variation of the first sigh from bars 3–4. The tonality of the six notes is completely absent in bar 7, the melody emerges unaccompanied. In it there is another reference to the sigh motif. Spanning over two octaves is d – c sharp – d, the rhythmically varied reversal of the sigh from bars 3–4. The tone sequence F sharp – E flat (enharmonic D flat) is also closely related to the third measure. The melody is shifted to the middle voices in bar 8, the sigh motif can be heard twice here (e – es and f sharp – g). They are framed by a five-note chord. After a general pause , the sixth note from the first bar is picked up again in the final bar. The melodic movement is thinned out, “like a breath” in the bass, the notes b-as sound as a further variation of the sigh motif.

Notes on the performance of the pieces

Schönberg attached great importance to the proper execution of his six piano pieces. The first page of the score gives an important note: “After each piece, take a long break; the pieces must not merge! ”The pieces should be performed with a very calm gesture. This demand from Schönberg often caused problems for those who performed it. Schoenberg confided the following entry in his diary about a rehearsal of the piano pieces with the pianist Egon Petri on January 22, 1912: “He will probably play the pieces excellently. At least piano-like. On the whole he took everything too quickly; or rather too hastily. I said to Webern: You have to have time for my music. It's not for people who have other things to do. But in any case it is a great pleasure to hear your things from someone who has a perfect technical command. "

literature

  • Fearn, Raymond: “Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19”. In: Gruber, Gerold (ed.): Arnold Schönberg. Interpretations of his works. Volume 1. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2002, pp. 269-281, ISBN 3-89007-506-1 .
  • Gervink, Manuel : Arnold Schönberg and his time (= great composers and their time). Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2000, ISBN 3-921518-88-1 .
  • Rogge, Wolfgang: The piano work of Arnold Schönberg (= research contributions to musicology; 15). Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1964, ISBN 3-7649-2052-1 .
  • Schönberg, Arnold: Style and Thought . Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag 1976, ISBN 3-10-069901-7 .
  • Stuckenschmidt, Hans Heinz: Schönberg. Life, environment, work . Zurich: Atlantis 1974, ISBN 3-7611-0430-8 .
  • Stuckenschmidt, Hans Heinz: New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, ISBN 3-518-37157-6 .
  • Wellesz, Egon: Arnold Schönberg , Leipzig: EP Tal 1921.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Schönberg. Life, environment, work . Zurich: Atlantis 1974, p. 126.
  2. ↑ Comments by Schönberg on this have not survived. Cf. but already in the literature during his lifetime: Egon Wellesz, Arnold Schönberg , Leipzig: EP Tal 1921, p. 39: "Of the 'Six Little Piano Pieces' [...] the last was created under the impression of Mahler's funeral."
  3. ↑ Raymond Fearn, "Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19". In: Gerold Gruber (ed.), Arnold Schönberg. Interpretations of his works . Volume 1. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2002, pp. 269-281, p. 269.
  4. ↑ Manuel Gervink, Arnold Schönberg und seine Zeit (= great composers and their time). Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2000, p. 201.
  5. ^ Arnold Schönberg, Style and Thought . Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag 1976, p. 74.
  6. ↑ a b Raymond Fearn, “Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19”. In: Gerold Gruber (ed.), Arnold Schönberg. Interpretations of his works . Volume 1. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2002, pp. 269-281, p. 273.
  7. ↑ a b Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, p. 42.
  8. ^ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, pp. 43-45.
  9. ^ Arnold Schönberg, Six Small Piano Pieces . Vienna: Universal Edition 1913, p. 5.
  10. ↑ a b Raymond Fearn, “Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19”. In: Gerold Gruber (ed.), Arnold Schönberg. Interpretations of his works . Volume 1. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2002, pp. 269-281, p. 278.
  11. ^ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, pp. 46-47.
  12. ^ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, p. 47.
  13. ↑ Manuel Gervink, Arnold Schönberg und seine Zeit (= great composers and their time). Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2000, p. 203.
  14. ^ Wolfgang Rogge, The piano work of Arnold Schönberg (= research contributions to musicology; 15). Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1964, p. 23.
  15. ↑ Altug Ünlü: The model of axial symmetry in Schönberg's op.19, no.4 . In: Ludwig Holtmeier, Richard Klein, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Johannes Menke (Eds.): Music & Aesthetics . Issue 78. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart April 2016, p. 32-43 .
  16. ↑ Raymond Fearn, "Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19". In: Gerold Gruber (ed.), Arnold Schönberg. Interpretations of his works . Volume 1. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 2002, pp. 269-281, p. 279.
  17. ^ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, p. 50.
  18. ^ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, p. 48.
  19. ^ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, pp. 48-49.
  20. ^ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, New Music . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1981, pp. 49-50.
  21. ^ Arnold Schönberg, Six Small Piano Pieces. Vienna: Universal Edition 1913, p. 2.
  22. ↑ Quoted from Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Schönberg. Life, environment, work . Zurich: Atlantis 1974, p. 145.