Anton Webern (jan 1, 1883 – jan 1, 1945)

Description:

an Austrian composer and conductor. Along with his mentor Arnold Schoenberg and his colleague Alban Berg, Webern was in the core of those in the circle of the Second Viennese School.

Even more than his teacher, Webern worked toward economy of means.
a. Many of his works are extremely short.
b. He once noted that, once he had used all twelve notes, what else was left to do?
c. Webern developed a practice, named Klangfarbenmelodie, whereby tone color has value as well as pitch.

Epitome: Anton Webern
1. Webern differs from Berg and Schoenberg in his strict approach to serialism.
2. He was not a verbose composer: All of his works fit on three CDs. His work is sometimes described as pointillist.
3. Because he approached order and unity in a more thorough-going method, Webern’s works provided a model for future twelve-tone composers.
4. Webern was a musicologist, and his familiarity with Renaissance structural techniques further influenced his own compositions.
5. Webern’s Symphony, Op. 21 (1928) is exemplary. The row is an intervallic palindrome, which means there are not many possible independent row forms. Retrograde forms are not an issue.
6. Webern’s music looks backward and forward.
7. Descriptions of Webern’s music are often more confusing than the music, and to some people this is deliberate.
8. We know that Webern delighted in the tight structures he created—the aesthetic deliberately became objective and impersonal.

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