Home | Archive | In memoriam

Anton Webern 1885–1945

by Erwin Stein

The death of Anton Webern has deprived the musical world of a rare personality. He was an uncompromising character, tenaciously pursuing his musical ideals. Ecstasy was his natural state of mind; his compositions should be understood as musical visions. Webern imagined a music of ethereal sounds. In order to achieve it, he stressed such of its qualities as are apt to loosen and lighten the texture, intentionally neglecting devices which would make the form more compact. He went to extremes in realizing his conception, as every aspect of his music shows. No composer has written shorter pieces. No one has created subtler shades or softer sounds. No more elusive rhythmical designs have been invented than Webern’s. The single phrases have distinct character, but no metrical schemes are apparent. The avoidance of strong beats and of symmetrical groupings often imparts the feeling of hovering suspension rather than of rhythmical progress.

Webern’s melodies almost invariably embrace the entire compass of the voice or the instruments he employs. They move in wide intervals, and the frequent use of the extreme ranges increases the intensity of the exalted expression. Strange melodies cause strange harmonies; practically all chords appear to be dissonances, as the term goes. The term, however, has lost its significance where there are no common chords as counterpart. Webern’s harmonies have no functional relation to any key. They are simply chords of varying colour and of graded tension.

Webern’s scoring is perhaps the most personal among the features of his style. A few voices, neatly placed and spaced, keep the sound transparent. The timbre changes perpetually, like colours and shapes in a kaleidoscope. Each phrase, and sometimes even every note, comes from a different instrument; and the instrument illuminates them according to its weight and expression. An example from the arrangement of Bach’s Fuga Ricercata (from ‘Das musikalische Opfer’), in which Webern employs the same method, may serve as illustration. It provides a clue to his musical imagination.

The setting seems bold, but a realistic musical mind will be aware how well the neutral timbre of the muted brass suits the ‘abstract’ conception of this fugue. The sharing out of the sections of the theme between the instruments is plain; the phrasing and the intended expression of the music are thus more defined. At every entry, except the last, the theme and its counterpoints are similarly distributed. Webern’s treatment loosens the rigid texture of the six real voices, without altering a single note. Yet this interpretation introduces into Bach’s music some personal lyric touches. For Webern was primarily a lyricist in the same sense as Schubert and Debussy were.

The lyric quality of his music distinguishes Webern from Schönberg whose faithful disciple he was. Schönberg covers a far wider field, while Webern thoroughly explores a corner of it. Webern was Schönberg’s pupil and was, so to speak, in his study when the master abandoned the traditional key system. The new ideas were very much in the young musician’s vein, as they allowed him to pursue and realize his visions, which were those of a musical poet and painter.

The number of Webern’s compositions is small. He worked slow and hard in order to shape his ideas into such accomplished form as satisfied his scrupulous conscience. Up to 1939 his output comprised twenty-eight opus numbers, the last of which, a string quartet, was published in this country. About half of the works are vocal, most of them songs with a variety of accompanying instruments. Among the choral works is the cantata ‘Das Augenlicht’ (The Light of the Eyes) which deeply impressed listeners at the 1938 festival of the I.S.C.M. in London. The only works of Webern bearing key signatures are the fine Passacaglia, op. 1, and an unaccompanied chorus, op. 2, both written while he was still Schönberg’s pupil. In the subsequent works the structure becomes looser, the form shorter. The period includes two series of orchestral pieces, op. 6 and 10, and two series of movements for string quartet, op. 5 and 9. The fourth piece of op. 10 is only six bars long. It is significant that a number of vocal pieces followed (op. 12 to 19) in which the poems themselves necessitated some expansion of form. Other means of developing the structure were provided by Schönberg’s technique of composition with twelve notes, which Webern employed for the first time in his five Spiritual Songs, op. 17. Here a new constructive device was introduced which not only allowed for, but demanded an extension of form. The series of twelve notes, considered as raw material of a composition, yields too many combinations to be relinquished after a few bars. The new system marked a new period in Webern’s compositions. Not only are the movements longer than before; the rhythmical designs are more defined. But Webern does not use the twelve-note series to build hard-and-fast structures as were the symphonies of the past. Webern remains the lyricist. His phrases are fitted together like coloured patterns into a mosaic.

Here are some bars from his string quartet.

If one likes to, one may follow the line of the series which runs in imitations through the instruments; there are several tracks to be traced; but it is more important to recognize the character of the theme in the first violin. Typical of Webern is the way its motifs develop, how they are varied by the other instruments, and how the one pizzicato of the fourth note is part of the theme’s significance.

A short symphony, a string trio, a concerto for nine instruments and a piano sonata belong to the same period. The string quartet and the cantata ‘Das Augenlicht’ in particular show a consolidation of Webern’s style. Later works have not reached this country, but one has heard of a new orchestral composition which was performed in Switzerland during the war, and of a second cantata, bearing the opus number 31. This was presumably his last work.

Anton von Webern, as his name originally was, came from a family of Austrian civil servants. He was born in Vienna on December 3, 1885, and spent his youth at his father’s house in Carinthia. An intense love of the Austrian mountains remained throughout his life. Later, during his apprenticeship with Schönberg, he studied at the University of Vienna and graduated as doctor of musical science. It was customary for a young composer to start his career as ‘Kapellmeister’ at one of the many provincial opera houses in old Austria or Germany. Webern took the same course; but the theatre life was little to his liking. After the first World War, during which he had to waste his time drilling soldiers, he settled down and lived for the rest of his life in Maria Enzerdorf, near Vienna.

Webern had a deep insight into music, old and new. He was an admirable teacher, although he never held an official position. Young musicians from all over the world came to receive his instruction. As a conductor he achieved perfect performances, provided he was given sufficient time for preparation. He was an indefatigable rehearser and the results which he obtained from his choirs of Viennese workmen were astounding.

During the last few years his music was banned in Austria and Germany, and he was not allowed to take part in any musical activity. Yet it is known that he continued teaching in secret. The circumstances of his death have so far not been revealed. Some tragic accident seems to have ended the life of one of our finest musicians.

Musical Times, January 1946