Neoclassicism and 12-Tone Music
Neoclassicism
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Igor Stravinsky, Octet (1923)
“Objectivity”
Adoption of a preromantic stance
Classicism of Haydn and Mozart
Influence of Baroque music
Influence of jazz and popular music
Stravinsky’s Neoclassical Path
• Histoire du soldat (1918)
– theatrical piece
– seven players and narrator
– influence of jazz and popular
music
• Pulcinella (1920)
– ballet score
– based on eighteenth-century
melodies
The Music of Stravinsky’s Octet
• [Anthology 3-24]
– 1. Sinfonia
• sonata form
• octatonic melodies
– 2. Tema con variazioni
– 3. Finale
• walking bass
• contrapuntal
• reference to Bach
Some Ideas About the Octet
• “Some Ideas about My Octuor”
– “My Octuor is not an ‘emotive’ work”
– “I admit the commercial exploitation of a musical
composition”
– “This sort of music has no other aim than to be
sufficient in itself”
Stravinsky and Neoclassicism
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Symphony of Psalms (1930)
Symphony in C (1938–40)
Symphony in Three Movements (1945)
Violin Concerto (1931)
The Rake’s Progress (1951)
The Ivory Tower
• Society for Private Musical Performance
– 117 concerts between 1918 and 1921
– compositions by German modernists and works by
Debussy, Bartók, Stravinsky, and others
In Search of Utopia:
Schoenberg and Twelve-Tone
Technique
• “Aggregate compositions”
• Theories of Josef Mattias Hauer (1883–1959)
– Nomos
• Means by which they could create extended
instrumental works
Giving Music New Rules
• Tonreihe “tone row”
– ordering of all 12 pitches from which motivic and
harmonic content will be derived
– row may be transposed, in inversion, retrograde,
or retrograde inversion
– rows subdivided into segments
• Serialism
• “Twelve-tone technique”; “dodecaphony”
Giving Music New Rules
• Suite for Piano, Op. 25 [Anthology 3-25]
– Präludium
– Gavotte and Musette
– Intermezzo
– Menuett
– Gigue
Back Again to Bach
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BACH (B♭ACB) inserted into Op. 25 tone row
Schoenberg, “National Music” (1931)
Contrapuntal art
Variations for Orchestra (1931)
– BACH allusions
Berg’s Twelve-Tone Romanticism
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Alban Berg (1885–1935)
Studies with Schoenberg
Influence of Mahler
Wozzeck (1922)
Berg’s Twelve-Tone Romanticism
• Chamber Concerto for violin, piano, and a wind
ensemble of thirteen instruments (1925)
– ArnolD SCHönBErG = A – D – E♭- C – B – B♭ – E – G
– Anton wEBErn = A – E – B♭ – E
– AlBAn BErG = A – B♭ – A – B♭ – E – G
Berg’s Twelve-Tone Romanticism
• Lyric Suite for string quartet (1926) [Anthology 326]
– symmetrical “all-interval” row
– Hanna Fuchs-Robettin/ Alban Berg (HF/AB = BF/AB♭)
– numerous extramusical references
Epitome: Anton Webern
• Anton Webern (1883–1945)
• Symphony, Op. 21 (1928) [Anthology 3-27]
– A-F#-G-A♭-E-F B-B♭-D-C#-C-E♭
• intervallic palindrome