Webern and the lyric impulse : songs and fragments on poems of Georg Trakl / Anne C. Shreffler.
| Author/creator | Shreffler, Anne Chatoney |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1994. |
| Description | xvi, 256 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Studies in musical genesis and structure Studies in musical genesis and structure. ^A181095 |
| Contents | Part I: Webern and Trakl. Introduction: Webern and lyric expression -- Webern and Trakl: historical and aesthetic connections -- Part II: Webern's compositional process. Compositional process -- Evolution of the completed Trakl songs (Op. 13 No. 4 and Six songs, op. 14) -- Part III: The Trakl fragments. Proportion and motive in Webern's earliest Trakl fragments -- The ostinato fragments -- Different readings of the same text: sketches for "Verklärung", "Nachtergebung", and "Offenbarung und Untergang" -- Part IV: The completed works: aspects of music and test in Webern's Sechs Lieder, op. 14. "Abendland" III (op. 14 no. 4): multiple references in music and text -- "Abendland" II and I: new variant of formal models -- "Gesang einer gefangenen Amsel" (op. 14 no. 6): a two-year preoccupation -- "Nachts" and "Sonne" -- Afterword: Webern's op. 14 as modernist work. |
| Abstract | This study provides a new view of a composer long considered to be one of the century's most rigorously intellectual creators, Anton Webern. By examining a central pre-twelve-tone work, the Trakl cycle, Op. 14, in the context of the Viennese intellectual and artistic climate, the author shows how Webern's responses to Trakl's complex verse enabled him to expand his musical vocabulary. The author's emphasis on Webern's compositional process is of particular importance: whether because of the anxiety of creating a new musical language, or because of an innate hyper-perfectionism (or both), Webern rejected most of what he composed. A close examination of the manuscript sources--fragments, sketches, and fair copies--of Webern's comparatively neglected middle-period lieder enables her to shed light on Webern's musical language and his working methods. A focus on the sources also helps to modify the view that his music progressed steadily in the direction of the twelve-tone technique. The works reveal instead a concern with expressing the essence of the text; this lyricism, rather than articulating a substantially different aesthetic from the later works, provides a better understanding of the consummate lyricism of all his music, however compressed or fragmented its utterance in the 'classic' twelve-tone works. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-252) and index. |
| LCCN | 93045941 |
| ISBN | 0198162243 : |