Adame 1

Anton Webern: Drei Kleine Stucke Op. 11

movement 1

Renz Eulric Adame

Prof. Roxane Prevost

MUS4374

April 17, 2017

 Adame 2

Anton Webern was an Austrian conductor and composer. Himself, along with his

mentor Arnold Schoenberg, and Alban Berg, comprised the core circle of the Second

Viennese School. Weberns influence was so strong that he managed to inspire his

mentor Schoenberg. Weberns music was most notable for his usage of 12-tone

technique and his application of it in the concision and organization of symmetry, found

in his music both visually and tonally, but also mathematically. Innovations in his music,

contrapuntal technique, organization of pitch, rhythm, and melody greatly informed and

inspired Western European 20th century music. An example of the usage of his 12-tone

technique is his three little pieces for cello and piano opus 11.

Webern wrote this piece for his father whom asked him to write a piece for cello

in a letter. Webern began work on this piece, initially meant to be a sonata for cello, as

he told Schoenberg in a letter. The letter said that he was finally trying to write a piece

that is longer than the usual. However, as it turns out, he stopped work on the sonata to

instead, write his three little pieces for cello and piano. What came of it was this piece

composed of three movements, expertly woven in Webern is writing using his twelve-

tone technique. I will show this later in my analysis (See example). I will be analyzing

the first movement of the piece by translating the score into interval notation and

scanning each chords and pitch class sets in search of patterns and connections in the

piano part and cello part, both separately and together. Through intervallic analysis, I

will try to unfold Weberns web of connections through the melody and accompaniment

as well as showing each connection through transposition and inversion. I will also

explain his usage of Contextual inversion to help connect the numerous amounts of

tetrachords within the movement as well as how he takes fragments of certain pitch
 Adame 3

class sets and composes it out throughout the movement. Anton Webern creates links

throughout the whole movement through usage of SC(0145) and by extension, subsets

SC(014) and (015) in order to link every part of the piece through transposition,

inversion, contextual inversion, and composing out through the piano part and the cello

part.

In my analysis, I have found that the form determines the distribution of pitch

class sets and the density of PCS throughout the movement. In the attached score (See

example 1), we can see that the movement divides evenly into three separate sections.

The first part, from first measure to the end of the third measure, serves as a calm

section of this movement, clearly represented by the sparsity of texture and the quiet

dynamics in both instruments. The second section, the fourth measure until the end of

the fifth measure, is the more, agitated, with thick textures in both instruments. The thick

texture in this section creates a large concentration of notes and chords and is

emphasized by the loud dynamics, to which is the only part of the piece that reaches a

dynamic level higher than that of pianissimo. Finally, the third section of the piece,

beginning at bar six up until the final measure of the movement, represents the final

calm section in the movement. In this section, the piece begins to return to its calm and

quiet dynamics. The movement returns back down to pianissimo as the texture thins out

quietly into the piano in the end. Throughout the piece, this model serves as the form of

the whole piece that the first movement outlines. With the second movement being the

chaotic movement, and the third movement, returning back into the calm and quiet

ending similar to that of the first movements ending.

 Adame 4

The opening of the movement represents the first calm section of the movement

spanning from the first bar up until the first sixteenth note of the fourth bar. The cello

part starts by simply playing three notes in this section followed by sparse chords in the

piano part each time slightly outlining the SC(0145) (see example 2) whilst the cello

outlines its subset (015) (See example 1) within this section and the three notes that it

plays. Set Class (0145) plays quite an important part in Weberns music, as this tends to

be quite a predominant set class in most of his works (See examples). The first few

notes in the cello and piano part begins by clearly outlining the set classes that this

movement repeatedly uses. The piano begins by outlining SC(0145) with [4589] in the

left hand (See example 2). In addition, Webern makes a point in clearly outlining

SC(0145) by repeating PCS [4589] in the left hand of the piano as the lowest chord in

measure 2 (See example 2). This is followed by defining SC(015) in the cello (See

example 1) across three bars, PCS [6,10,11] and in the right hand of the piano (See

example 2) in the second bar as Pitch-class sets [801] and [780] (connected by I 8) (See

example 2-a). The pianos right hand connects to the cello through Transposition and

inversion ([6,10,11][801] by T2 and [6,10,11][780] by I6) (See example 2-a) and

finally showing SC(014) in the pianos right hand as PCS [625] (See example 2).

Furthermore, both the piano and cello help establish the predominating set classes in

the second and third bar with the tri-chords [3,0,11] and [6,10,11] (repeated from the

cello part) (See example 3) to which help connect the first and second section, and

tetrachord [7,6,10,11] (See example 3. Simply from the first section of the movement,

we can already see the density of Weberns writing, despite the fact of how simple it
 Adame 5

looks. This first three bars serve as the first calm section of this movement, to which

then continues on to measures 4-5 as the middle and chaotic section of the piece.

The middle section of the piece represents the chaotic section of the movement,

and foreshadows the character of the second movement by being dense, loud, and

agitated. It first starts to build in the cello as three sixteenth note triplets [478] (See

example 1) that connects into another tri-chord [347] through I 11 followed by [3,0,11]

linked together through T8 (See example 1-a). In addition, these three tri-chords connect

together to form two tetrachords ( [3478] and [11,0,3,4] ) joined together through

transposition (T8) (See example 1 and 1-a). At this point, we see both the piano and

cello part increase in note density and texture. In the fourth bar, Webern writes a fairly

large chord in the piano that represents not only the loudest section of the movement,

but also outlines all three set classes (SC(0415) and subsets (014) and (015)) (See

example 2). When pulled apart, we see that at the top section of the chord, we have

PCS [891], which represents SC(015) and followed by PCS (10,11, and 2) that shows

SC(014) (See example 2). In the end of this section, we see the tetrachord [9,10,1,2]

connected to PCS [4589] through T5 as the texture begins to thin out (See example 2

and 2-a). Finally, we find SC (0145) interweaved into this chord in the form, repeated for

the third time from the beginning, of [4589]. As I analyzed both the cello and the piano

part together, I found a Tetrachord in the fourth bar that is connected together from the

cello E and the big chord in the end of the fourth bar in the piano (PCS [10,11,2,3] that

connects to PCS [4589] through T6 (See example 3 and 3-a). As well, I found 3 tri-

chords in the fifth bar (PCS [890], [7,11,10] and [7,11,0]) with the first two chords joined

together through I7 (see example 3 and 3-a). The movement then begins to return to the
 Adame 6

calm of the first section as it goes into the third section, connected by a tetrachord in the

cello [11,0,4,3] that takes us into the final section of the movement (See example 1).

The third section of this movement (mm. 6-9) returns into the quiet pps and ppps

of the first section that points to the same characteristics that this section shares with

the third movement (See examples). In measure 6, the cello starts with a descending

statement of SC(014) (PCS [458]) (See example 1) that connects into a tri-chord in both

the piano and cello [890] joined by T4 (See example 3) Underneath all of this, we have

tetrachord [2367] (SC(0145)) and tri-chord [126] (See example 2). In the following bar,

we see not only the highest point in terms of notation in the cello, but also another

incredibly dense chord in the piano found in measure 7(See example 2) . This chord is

quite dense and comprised of quite a number of tri-chords and tetrachords together:

(See example 2 and 2-a)

SC(015):

- [9,10,2]
- [11,3,4]

SC(014):

- [10,11,2]
- [3,4,7]
- [7,10,11]
- [0,3,4]

SC(0145):

- [9,10,1,2,]
- [10,11,2,3]
 Adame 7

Surprisingly, all of this connects together through that one chord and joins through a

series of Transpositions and inversions (example 2-a). Finally, the texture essentially

fades out and thins out to the end of the piece, with the cello outlining one last PCS,

[347] (See example 1). The piano and cello part together, PCS [10,1,2] (See example 3)

connects together through I5 (See example 3-a) and the piano with [9,10,2] and [6,9,10]

(connects to [347] I1) (connects to [10,1,2]T4) (See example 2-a). Lastly, the piano

ends quietly and softly, with 2 short and soft iterations from the piano outlining the

SC(014) one last time (See example 2). Through this analysis of form and connection,

we see the intricacy of Weberns web throughout the movement. Another example of

these connections are found throughout the movement as Contextual inversion (See

example 4).

Another intricate web found in Weberns three little pieces for cello and piano is

contextual inversion. Through analysis of the movement, there are two different kinds of

contextual inversion. The first, is when the chord is inverted around IC4, which I will call

A, For example [E,F,G#,A] = [E,E, G,G#]. The second is when the chord inverts around

IC1, which I will call B. for example [E,F,G#,A] = [G#,A,C,C#]. In the first measure, we

have [E,F,G#,A] which contextually inverts into [E,E, G,G#] in the fourth measure

through A and is connected by T11. Secondly, in the fourth measure [E,E, G,G#] then

contextually inverts to [D,E,G,G] through A and is connected by T11. In the fifth bar,

[G#,A,C,C#] contextually inverts to [A,B,D,D] in the end of the 6th measure and the

beginning of the 7th measure through A joined together, by T1. In addition, there are

chords that are contextually inverted through B and are connected through

transposition and inversion. In the first measure [E,F,G #,A] contextually inverts into
 Adame 8

[G#,A,C,C#] (See example 4). In the end of the fourth measure and the beginning of the

fifth measure and connects together through T4 (See example 4-a). As well, another

instance of the B inversion is in the fourth measure when [E,E, G,G#] contextually

inverts into [B,C,E,E] (See example 4) in the fifth measure and is connected through T 8

(See example 4-a) . Even through the different contextual inversions, when illustrated

on a score, we can still see the continuing pattern of the fact that there is still three

different sections to this movement. The Slow, sparse section in the beginning, the

chaotic, agitated section, and the dense, quiet section that thins out to the end in the

final four measures of the movement. So we see that the genius in Weberns writing not

only comes through in the connection of each chord from one chord to another, but also

the level of symmetry that can be found within this movement, and by extension,

throughout the whole work itself. In mentioning symmetry, another method in which

Webern created symmetry in this piece is through the method of composing out. We

see as he takes the first section of the cello part and expands it throughout the entire

piece.

The first three notes in the cello outlines the subset of Set Class (0145), subset

(015). As I analyzed the first movement of this piece, I began to notice that this first PCS

[6,10,11], was actually composed out through the whole movement. Meaning that

Webern took these three notes and expertly placed them in specific places throughout

the movement in such a way that intricately defines the symmetry of the piece and even

clearly outlines the three major sections of the movement. First, Webern takes the first

note, (F# or interval 6) and marks the beginning of both the actual tri-chord and the tri-

chord that has been composed out. Second of all, he takes the second note of the set,
 Adame 9

(B or interval 11) first found in the end of the second bar, and takes the cello part and

composes the note out to the end of the fifth measure, 4 measures after the bar it

started and 9 notes after the first note (interval 6). Finally, Webern takes the final note of

the set (B or interval 10) and he places it another 4 measures after the previous note

(interval 11) and exactly another 9 notes after the previous note placing it right at the

end of the piece. Not only does this do an effective job of creating symmetry throughout

the movement, but it also shows the three different sections of the piece. This is yet

another way of how Webern expertly creates symmetry within his music.

Through an analysis of the piece, we can find numerous different ways in which

Webern creates symmetry within one movement. It shows how he uses these different

methods of composition within 12-tone to really show the symmetries and connections

between the chords and how it clearly outlines SC(0145) and its subsets (014) and

(015) throughout the piece. As we look even further, we see the amount of detail that

goes into every phrase and the placement of notes within each measure throughout the

whole movement. Through intervallic analysis, we can see that most of the notes, if not

every single note, in this movement can be connected in one way or another and be

placed into either SC(0145) or its subsets (014) and/or (015). On top of the connections

within the set classes, we also see how the set classes create a link between each of

the sections within the piece. From the quiet and calm demeanor of the first three

measures, to the chaos and agitation in measures 4-5, and finally returning to the calm

and quiet in the last four measures of the movement. Webern also uses contextual

inversion and composing out in order to create some symmetry within the movement.

He uses contextual inversion not only to create symmetry but also to show connections
 Adame 10

from one chord to another, as well as from one section to another through thicker

textures and increased concentration of chords. Finally, he takes the first three notes of

the cello line and composes it out perfectly symmetrically through the movement in

order to define the symmetry of the movement.

Bibliography:

Straus, Joseph N. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. New York: W.W.

Norton & Company, 2016

 Adame 11

"Anton Webern." Wikipedia. April 13, 2017. Accessed April 17, 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Webern.

Schaffer, Seth. "Analysis of Weberns Pieces for Cello and Piano Op. 11,

No. 1." David Bard-Schwarz. June 10, 2015. Accessed April 16, 2017.

http://www.davidbardschwarz.com/pdf/shafer.one.pdf.

Score:
 Adame 12

Webern, Anton. Drei Kleine Stucke Op.11. IMSLP. March 20, 2017.

Accessed April 16, 2017. http://imslp.org/wiki/3_Kleine_St

%C3%BCcke,_Op.11_(Webern,_Anton)

Discography:

Webern, Anton, Drei Kleine Stucke Op. 11. YouTube. December 15, 1010.

Accessed April 10, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C3SeVoM_II