Webern

Happy to finally release the results of this long-time research on the Webern's Variations. My goal was to observe how Webern's orchestration interacts with serialism. The paper  points to some usefull (I hope!) and unpreceded (I guess!) conclusions, and a lot of future work.

Abstract: Webern’s Variationen op. 30 constituted a well-known milestone in the consolidation of serialism as a compositional technique. It has been the target of a large number of investigations focused on the way the composer developed a broader concept. As could it not be otherwise, his orchestral design is also closely tied to his structural concerns. However, it appears to lack a systematization of the composer’s orchestration principles. Thus, to propose an analysis of Webern’s orchestration, one need to elaborate an ad hoc method, virtually starting from scratch. This paper aims to describe the main points of this method in its current experimental stage. At the same time, we point to some conclusions about Webern’s orchestration according to his aesthetics.

Direct link:
https://musmat.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/07-Didier.pdf

I tre brani pubblicati nel 1914 da Webern rispecchiano una mentalità e capacità musicale in grado di realizzare in un breve lasso di tempo delle immagini, dei timbri e dei gesti oltre la singola notazione, permettendo un sinuoso gioco dinamico e armonico. È qui brevemente analizzato il terzo brano dell'Op.11, tenendo conto del contesto(ovvero gli altri due brani) in cui è inserito.

This comprehensive volume offers a wide-ranging perspective on the stories that art music has told since the start of the 20th century. Contributors challenge the broadly held opinion that the loss of tonality in some music after 1900 also meant the loss of narrative in that music. To the contrary, the editors and essayists in this book demonstrate how experiments in approaching narrative in other media, such as fiction and cinema, suggested fresh possibilities for musical narrative, which composers were quick to exploit. The new conceptions of time, narrative voice, plot, and character that accompanied these experiments also had a significant impact on contemporary music. The repertoire explored in the collection ranges across a wide variety of genres and includes composers from Charles Ives and the Pet Shop Boys to Thomas Adès and Dmitri Shostakovich.

[Table of contents etc: http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?cPath=1037_5718_5753&products_id=806644 ]
[Sample chapter: http://www.academia.edu/749803/Agency_Determinism_Focal_Time_Frames_and_Narrative_in_Processive_Minimalist_Music ]

État des lieux de mon travail (en 2013) sur l'application de méthodes qui permettraient d'évaluer l'impact des stratégies d'orchestration sur la structure. Pour l'expérience, mon choix s'est porté sur les Variations op. 30 de Webern. La première étape de l'approche, exposée ici, prend sa source dans les informations consignées par le compositeur dans la partition. La méthode passe par la réalisation d'une pondération qualitative de toutes les configurations instrumentales, pour laquelle l'évaluation du taux d'indépendance des parties joue un rôle décisif.

В статье характеризуется индивидуально-авторский вариант петербургского мифа, созданный Стравинским на основе восприятия им родного города как современного мегаполиса. Особое вниманиe уделено психологизированной звукописи композитора, вызывающей устойчивые пространственно-двигательные ассоциации при слушании его музыки. Анализируется специфика образа времени в музыке Стравинского по сравнению с сходными по смыслу фрагментами из произведений Шенберга и Веберна.


Ключевые слова: Стравинский, Санкт-Петербург, миф, «Потоп», «Петрушка», «Весна священная», «Царь Эдип», пространство, время, хронос, онтологический, звукопись, Шенберг, Веберн


The article explores the individual author's version of the S. Petersburg myth, created on the basis of Stravinsky's perception of his native city as a modern megapolis. Special attention is paid to the psychologically enriched composer's tone-painting, which causes permanent spatial-motor associations in the hearing of his music. The unique nature of time image in Stravinsky's music is analyzed by being compared to related fragments from the works of Schoenberg and Webern.


Key words: Stravinsky, Saint-Petersburg, the myth, «The Flood», «Petrushka», « The Rite оf Spring», «Oedipus Rex», space, time, chronos, ontological, tone-painting, Schoenberg, Webern.

In this paper I will show how the evolution of Anton Webern’s orchestration and composition style from his early atonal works through to his mature works is made possible largely through his inclusion of the guitar in Op. 18 which, in this light, becomes more of a pivotal work than previously considered and displays the composer moving towards the full realization of his aesthetic.
Webernʼs musical style evolves towards pointillist orchestration that features wide leaps, mixed rhythms and sharp attacks up to his early 12-tone works through to Op. 16. His use of guitar in Op. 18 and 19 is not only necessary to the development of his already emerging style, but it also enables Webern to take his style the next logical step by furthering the extremes of range and texture. The pointillist composition style that Webern develops through his early works, as well as a desire to connect his music to folk traditions as inspired by Gustav Mahler, leads him to the guitar, which in turn set him on the path to his mature composition style.
The scoring in Op. 17 is considerably lighter and the ensemble considerably less active than in the Op. 18 songs. In addition, the soprano is not required to navigate quite as many large leaps between registers in Op. 17 when compared to Op. 18. I argue that the addition of guitar, in both the Op. 18 songs of 1925 as well as the more fully scored Op. 19 from the following year, Webern finds himself liberated in terms of range and spacing. The guitar aids in supporting increasingly disjunct melodic lines traversed by the voice as well as the Eb clarinet that is used both as an extension and in support of the vocal line allowing for increased melodic abstraction. 
The guitar’s ability to perform music that is based principally on consistency of interval content rather than on specific, tonal, voice leading rules is advantageous to Webern. It is possible to play uniquely voiced chords that would be difficult, or impossible on any other instrument. Its folk characteristics were perhaps the impetus behind his selection of the guitar, but it also serves as the means to another end in that it provides the composer with an instrument that can support an ensemble not simply from a harmonic standpoint but also that of melodic support in the form of negotiating large leaps and extremes of range. Kathryn Bailey asserts that Webern’s Opp. 17-19 stand as his “pre-serial” work and most agree that the Op. 20 trio marks the beginning of Webern’s fully realized serial compositions. I feel that this observation places these underappreciated works in a position that should garner them further analysis.
Despite a new musical language, Webern suggests the natural evolution of Lieder through use of common texts, and folk instruments, with the guitar playing a pivotal and foundational role. The pieces that I aim to discuss do not simply indicate an evolution in Webern’s organizational ideas about pitch but also considerations of orchestration, and voicing of simultaneity.
It is with these considerations that I assert the importance of the guitar to Anton Webern’s compositional evolution. It is also with these considerations that I assert a higher degree of importance and attention should be placed upon these “pre-serial” works, Opp. 17-19.

The concept of 'professionalization' is commonly used to describe how occupations become recognized as 'professions', and how they go about consolidating this status and improving their services. Contemporary debate often glosses over the historical development of the professions. Indeed, professionalism is often discussed and debated in a way that treats professionalization as a recent and uniform phenomenon. Taking a comparative historical perspective this paper identifies the stages through which occupations in the UK and Germany developed into the recognized professions of today. In doing so, it demonstrates that the process of professionalization has been radically different in the two countries, in particular with regard to the role of the state in initiating and administering professional bodies. Overall the study demonstrates that the process of professionalization in the UK has been 'bottom up', in that professional bodies have resulted from spontaneous activities at the occupational level to secure professional status. By contrast, professionalization in Germany has been 'top down' in that the state has played an active interventionist role in the initiation and administration of the professions. In detailing these different patterns this paper aims to provide an empirical resource for researchers in the field, and to contribute to the understanding of the differences in the organization and administration of professional services in the UK and in Germany. Finally, the emerging role of the EU in the administration, training, and licensing of professionals is discussed. The point is made that while particular EU directives have changed the relationship between the professions and the state in both countries, large-scale intervention by the EU has resulted in a new form of Euro-professionalization, typified by the establishment of the new profession of 'eco-auditors'.