Voicing what? – Some reflections on Arnold Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet
Author
Summary, in English
The Second String Quartet by Arnold Schoenberg, written in 1907 and 1908, is breaking musical traditions at
least twice – (1) by leaving tonality, (2) by breaking the genre of string quartet, adding a voice who is
interpreting two poems by the German symbolist Stefan George in its third and forth movements. In this paper, I
want to raise the question about the reasons why Schoenberg might have added the voice: were they merely
aesthetical, aiming to renew musical traditions, or were they intrinsic and thus essential for the understanding of
this quartet?
As a matter of fact, we have quite a few evidences for the latter, for instance in his note on the third movement of
the quartet, Litanei: “Ich fürchtete, die grosse dramatische Gefühlsstärke des Gedichts könnte mich veranlassen,
die Grenze dessen, was in der Kammermusik zulässig ist, zu überschreiten. Ich erwartete, dass die bei
Variationen erforderliche Strenge mich davon abhalten würde, zu dramatisch zu werden.“ (Stil und Gedanke
1976, S. 419) This indicates that he never queried the aptness of the poem, but possibly the one of musical form!
So if we can agree on the fact that the poems were intrinsic to his Second String Quartet we have all reasons to
ask why and in which way.
In my paper, I want to suggest that Schoenberg added the poems in order to clearly articulate features in his
music that otherwise wouldn’t have been evident. A closer look on other text references within the quartet and its
neighbourhood direct our attention to features in Schoenberg’s private life. Seen in a diachronic and
interdisciplinary perspective, we realize that Schoenberg used his music, his writings and paintings as a means of
voicing his own feelings and beliefs.
least twice – (1) by leaving tonality, (2) by breaking the genre of string quartet, adding a voice who is
interpreting two poems by the German symbolist Stefan George in its third and forth movements. In this paper, I
want to raise the question about the reasons why Schoenberg might have added the voice: were they merely
aesthetical, aiming to renew musical traditions, or were they intrinsic and thus essential for the understanding of
this quartet?
As a matter of fact, we have quite a few evidences for the latter, for instance in his note on the third movement of
the quartet, Litanei: “Ich fürchtete, die grosse dramatische Gefühlsstärke des Gedichts könnte mich veranlassen,
die Grenze dessen, was in der Kammermusik zulässig ist, zu überschreiten. Ich erwartete, dass die bei
Variationen erforderliche Strenge mich davon abhalten würde, zu dramatisch zu werden.“ (Stil und Gedanke
1976, S. 419) This indicates that he never queried the aptness of the poem, but possibly the one of musical form!
So if we can agree on the fact that the poems were intrinsic to his Second String Quartet we have all reasons to
ask why and in which way.
In my paper, I want to suggest that Schoenberg added the poems in order to clearly articulate features in his
music that otherwise wouldn’t have been evident. A closer look on other text references within the quartet and its
neighbourhood direct our attention to features in Schoenberg’s private life. Seen in a diachronic and
interdisciplinary perspective, we realize that Schoenberg used his music, his writings and paintings as a means of
voicing his own feelings and beliefs.
Department/s
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Publication/Series
http://foreninger.uio.no/nmf/NMFL_aug08/Lamberth.pdf
Document type
Conference paper
Topic
- Musicology
Keywords
- Arnold Schoenberg Secand String Quartet
- Stefan George
- contextual analysis
- life and work
Conference name
15 th Nordic Musicological Congress
Conference date
0001-01-02
Status
Published