Theme 3.

The Second Vienna School was a group of composers from the first
mid-20th century led by Arnold Schönberg and his students in Vienna. They were the
the first to employ atonality and then dodecaphony in music
occidental. The main members of the School, besides Schoenberg, were
Alban Berg and Anton Webern (the Viennese Trinity). This school of composition...
it is linked to expressionist aesthetics.

SCHOENBERG:

He is educated in Romanticism but reaches his musical maturity in the early

years of the 20th century, defining the stylistic evolution of later generations:
Before the xx-1909- post-romantic music
-1909-1920: atonal/expressive
-1920-1933: twelve-tone technique

-1933-1951 dodecaphonism in the USA

INITIAL PERIOD

Among his first works, his String Quartet (1897) stands out, a tonal work.
composed under the influence of Brahms, showing a clear classical orientation.
His two later works are the String Sextet, Transfigured Night and the
Tonal poem for orchestra Pelleas and Melisande. In them we can clearly observe
the influence of Wagner. The programmatic use of music, the use of the leitmotif.
However, already in 'Peleas and Melisande' it begins to approach the limits of the
traditional tonality, with a use of chromaticism similar to that of Strauss.

There are two works that exemplify the culmination of this period of training.
in the style of Schoenberg. It is about the first string quartet 1905 and the symphony
from 1907. Endowed with extraordinary complexity, they represent the
definitive formulation of the fusion of Wagner's ethyl and Brahms'. Here appears
and concepts that would be crucial in its composition, and that I would later formulate
theoretically. It is about the ideas of 'developed variation' (continuous evolution
of thematic material,avoiding literal repetitions) and of "musical prose" (form
musical continua that lacks symmetrical balance). Thus, a unique design is created and
uninterrupted. Another feature that is presented to us is the abundance of whole tones.
and chords built on fourths, something that Debussy also did, but in the case of
Schoenberg directs these musical elements towards their resolution, instead of using them as
static form like French. Finally, the chamber symphony presents a hint of
the musical argument is radically reduced,
lasting half the time of the quartet.

PERIOD 1907-1909
Schoenberg experiences a period of enormous creative activity where
definitively breaks with the tonality moving towards free chromaticism. There are two
essential aspects at this stage.

Firstly, we have the so-called 'emancipation of dissonance', that is,

The dissonant harmonic sets are taken as 'free' elements, with entity.
own, which does not require resolution in a consonance. The triad is not considered
as the only harmonic reference around which the others orbit and are signified.

The second aspect is the abandonment of conventional tonal functions.

The hierarchy of the sounds of tonal functions no longer exists, but is created.
a chromatic space in which new organizational principles reign.

The second string quartet (1908) constitutes a kind of bridge between the
old methods and the new ones. The first movements are basically tonal, but
in the final movements the tonality dissolves. Another important characteristic is the
individuality of the voices in the polyphonic texture, which makes them rarely occur
harmonies derived from the triad.

This brings us to one of the key points of this distance from the tonality,
what is the fusion between harmony and melody since there is no harmonic norm with
References like the triad, harmony turns into a kind of vertical melody.
This makes the distinction between harmony and melody an ambiguous and diffuse matter.
This results in an enormously linear and contrapuntal writing.
 At the end of this period, his works become not only atonal, but
also mathematics, due to a neglect of conscious structural strategies,
such as the canon. It is the case of Erwartung (the wait). It is about a
constantly changing free development deployment, without structuring nor
a control of the musical flow.

Expressionism

The break with tonality is linked to expressionism. Schoenberg is related.

with German Expressionism, among other things through its paintings.

The Scream by Munch marks the definitive beginning of expressionism, which...

relates to subjectivity and the most intimate perception. It is a current that
prioritizes irrationality and subjectivity over rationality in a society that
prioritizes progress, advancement, industry... It investigates violence, in relation
with the crisis of the individual and society that occurs at the beginning of the century.

Another feature of expressionism is the break with figuration. The idea that the
paint does not have to represent concrete figures. Thus, for the painter Kandinsky not
It is not enough to copy reality; one must go beyond in the realm of expression. Kandinsky
and Schoenberg work together on some projects (the Blue Rider, a kind of
calendar with works by Kandinsky and works by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.

One of the most interesting ideas recovered by Kandinsky is the idea of the
imitation of nature, denying it as useful for the expression of the inner world:
it needs a language of its own, separate from the imitation of nature.

Period 1909-1914

Due to these parallels, the years from 1909 to the First

World War is considered the author's expressionist period. The impact that
the music produced by Schoenberg during this period was huge. Although his influence on
the later composers were limited to those who were related to him, his
conception of music as a chromatic space, free from tonal hierarchy
redefined the musical composition of the 20th century.

After this two-year period, Schoenberg continued composing in a manner

continues but less prolific. Among the works that followed this period, Pierrot stands out.
Lunaire (1913), a set of 21 poems set to music by the poet Albert Giraud,
translated into German and composed for Sprechstimme (a mixture between singing and
recitation, literally 'spoken voice', and five instruments. These are poems
surrealists oscillating in environments of irony. For each one, look for a sound.
different. Imitative counterpoint procedures are observed. We also observe
a tension in crescendo: atonality, chromaticism, absence of repetition, contrasts
violent, rhythmic differentiation, dissonances... The texts also express that world
of tension and violence in the expressionist theatre of authors such as Beckett.

Little by little, Schoenberg begins to move in a different direction, due to

to the limitations of its approach: without tonal, motivic, and thematic ties. It is
It's difficult to maintain coherent musical structures of long duration, in fact, all the
Extensive atonal works are vocal, therefore they rest on a text as a medium.
of deconstruction. We can say that an idea that proposed the liberation of the
hierarchization of chromaticism and the acquisition of a new freedom (that Schoenberg
exploded with great mastery), ended up becoming an impossibility of development,
ended up neutralizing his own expressive bases. This problem led Schoenberg to
to be seven years after 1916 without composing anything, years in which he forged a new form
deconstruction of atonality: dodecaphony.

WEBERN.
Born in 1883, the year of Wagner's death, and dies in 1945, shortly after the
end of WWII. Studied by Pierre Boulez, this draws from Webern's music.

Webern was a son of late German Romanticism, heavily influenced by Wagner.

by Mahler. Despite their tonal ambiguity, his early works are far from
current German trend of the moment, including Schoenberg. Was recommended to Schoenberg
by Guido Alder, also a professor of Webern. Passacaglia for orchestra op.1,
completed in 1908 was one of the last compositions under the guidance of Schoenberg, and
indicates the direction of their future works. Of tonal character, it shows great influence of
Brahms.
Between 1909 and 1914, its composition was mainly instrumental (op. 5)
op.11), with works loaded with great lyricism. The intervallic sequences begin to
having no relationship with each other and a development towards the non-thematic is observed.
Five songs about texts by Stefan George, op.3, begins to abandon the
traditional tonality and to use a language very close to the expressionist style:
minor seconds, sevenths, ninths, wide interval jumps.

Unlike in Schoenberg, there are few sounds. Search for the sound by the
isolated sound, separate from those that precede or follow it, each sound has entity and
value by itself, a self-referential value, not in the context of a melody. There is
many special effects in the interpretation of the instruments and the use is crucial
of silence and the dynamic enpianissimo. It touches on the irrationalist currents,
independence of sound, setting aside the narrative concept of music.

Webern's music is usually referred to as aphorism, especially in the years

of expressionism, that is to say, the shortest way to express an idea. All the
vanguard of the second half of the 20th century, part of Webern, not Schoenberg.

ALBAN BERG
He was the youngest member of the Second School of Vienna. His seven lieder
early works already show the high degree of lyricism that characterized Berg, in addition to his

rich chromaticism.

The piano sonata op. 1 was his first mature composition. It unfolds in
a single movement and takes the tonality to its limits, combining the structure
traditional sonata with complex contrapuntal structures.

The string quartet op. 3 (1910) is one of the most significant works of the atonal period.
Viennese. Although there are tonal traces, here Berg explicitly flees from the triad. On the other hand
side, reveals his ability to work on large-scale musical forms and his great
passionate expressiveness.

From his last stage, the works 'Five Songs for Orchestra', 'Four' stand out.
pieces for clarinet and piano and three pieces for orchestra and one of the great operas
from XX, Wozzeck, marked by expressionist character, with a great deal of atonal drama,
with great rigor (three parts in five scenes, with a thoughtful formal logic).

One characteristic of Berg is his use of suggested tonal associations and

weakened. The opposite happens to Webern, he is considered the most related
with the tradition and the last romantic of the Vienna school. Understand all his works
from a very dramatic and expressive point of view (Romanticism). He dies in 1935,
ten years before Webern.