Introduction A. Ten year span 1899-1909 initiated Schoenberg’s musical evolution 1. Schoenberg had the quasi-religious idea of constant improvement and perfection for his musical compositions a. Not based on the idea of how to make the most expressive music, but to ultimately realize what form that expression takes b. “I cannot caution often enough that this kind of analysis because it leads only to what I have always how something is made, whereas I have always helped people to realize what something is.” c. Schoenberg saw what he wanted as a musical evolution, not revolution d. “Like his contemporary, the religious teacher, Martin Buber, he recognized that tradition required renewal. What was destroyed in
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“If compositions as diverse as Stravinksy’s Rite of Spring, Lasso’s Prophetiae Sibyllarum, and Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Op. 17 are all ‘atonal,’ then this definition has little value…”
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A. Tonality vs. Atonality 1. Because atonality is a negative term, one must seek out the definition for what tonality is in order to define it a. In “Schoenberg and Atonality,” Charles Rosen defines tonality i. “Tonality is not, as is sometimes claimed, a system with a central note but one with a central perfect triad: all the other triads, major and minor, are arranged around the central one in a hierarchical order.” 301 ii. “A tonal work must begin by implying the central position of the tonic, and it must end with it; therefore everything that follows the opening and precedes the final tonic may be conceived as dissonant in relation to the tonic triad, the only perfect consonance.” b. Rosen uses the terms consonance and dissonance to assist his definition of tonality, these will be defined in the following section c. Schoenberg’s early music has a lot of examples of tonality which relate to the time in which he composed. i. Example 1: From Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht, mm. 7-12
“If compositions as diverse as Stravinksy’s Rite of Spring, Lasso’s Prophetiae Sibyllarum, and Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Op. 17 are all ‘atonal,’ then this definition has little value…”
Body
A. Tonality vs. Atonality 1. Because atonality is a negative term, one must seek out the definition for what tonality is in order to define it a. In “Schoenberg and Atonality,” Charles Rosen defines tonality i. “Tonality is not, as is sometimes claimed, a system with a central note but one with a central perfect triad: all the other triads, major and minor, are arranged around the central one in a hierarchical order.” 301 ii. “A tonal work must begin by implying the central position of the tonic, and it must end with it; therefore everything that follows the opening and precedes the final tonic may be conceived as dissonant in relation to the tonic triad, the only perfect consonance.” b. Rosen uses the terms consonance and dissonance to assist his definition of tonality, these will be defined in the following section c. Schoenberg’s early music has a lot of examples of tonality which relate to the time in which he composed. i. Example 1: From Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht, mm. 7-12