Berg and Schubert
Alban Berg: Lyrische Suite
According to Berg's friend and Schoenberg pupil Erwin Stein, "The work (Ist and VIth part, the main part of the IIIrd and the middle section of the Vth) has been mostly written strictly in accordance with Arnold Schoenberg's technique of the 'Composition with 12 inwardly related tones.' A set of 12 different tones gives the rough material of the composition, and the portions which have been treated more freely still adhere more or less to the technique."
According to René Leibowitz (1947) it is "entirely written in the twelve-tone technique, [it] is a sonata movement without the development. Thus the recapitulation follows directly upon the exposition; but, because of the highly advanced twelve-tone technique of variation, everything in this movement is developmental."
However, the first analysis was undertaken by H.F. Redlich (1957), who notices that, "the first movement of the Lyric Suite develops out of the disorder of intervals in its first bar, the notes of which, strung out horizontally, present the complete chromatic scale, and from this in the second and following bars, grows the Basic Set in its thematic shape."
Theodor Adorno called the quartet "a latent opera". Redlich described, "the concealed vocality of the Lyric Suite" despite having no knowledge of the setting of Baudelaire in the finale movement, deciphered by Douglass M. Green in 1976 from what George Perle calls "Berg's cryptic notations". Perle discovered a complete copy of the first edition annotated by Berg for his dedicatee, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, Franz Werfel's sister with whom Berg had an affair in the 1920s, later that year.
Berg used the motif, A-B♭-H-F, to combine Alban Berg (A.B.) and Hanna Fuchs-Robettin (H.F.). This is most prominent in the third movement. Berg also quotes a melody from Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony in movement four which originally set the words "You are mine own". In the last movement, according to Berg's self-analysis, the, "entire material, the tonal element too...as well as the Tristan motif" is developed "by strict adherence to the 12-note series."
Despite assertions by Berg and others, George Perle, however, "had not yet been informed, as Leibowitz and Redlich were by the time they came to write their respective books, that everything in the 'strictly' dodecaphonic first movement had to be derived from a single serial ordering of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale." Rather, he, "recognized that the first three chords unfold tetrachordal segments of a single statement of the cycle of fifths, and that at the bottom of the same page, in bars 7-9, the cello presents a linear statement of the same cycle." The second violin unfolds "the initial tetrachordal segmentation of the perfect-5th cycle," again at the beginning of the recapitulation. He asks: "How could one [think] of the initial bar as 'disordered'? If anything is to be designated as an Urform here, surely it is this perfect-5th cycle, given its background role in relation to the tone row and other components of the movement."
Franz Schubert: String quintet op 163
The String Quintet in C major, D. 956, op. 163, was composed during the summer of 1828, two months before his death, and is Schubert's final instrumental work. The Quintet was first performed on 17 November 1850 at the Musikverein in Vienna; it was published in 1853.
The work is the only full-fledged string quintet in Schubert's vast oeuvre. It also stands out for its somewhat unconventional instrumentation, employing two cellos instead of the customary two violas. Most other string quintets follow the example of Mozart and call for an ensemble consisting of the four standard instruments of the string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello), plus a second viola. Schubert, like Luigi Boccherini before him, decided to replace the second viola with an additional cello, thereby enhancing the richness of the quintet texture's lower register. However, Schubert's use of the second cello is very different from Boccherini's, for Boccherini essentially uses the second cello to create an additional viola line.
The work consists of four movements:
1. Allegro ma non troppo
2. Adagio
3. Scherzo. Presto – Trio. Andante sostenuto
4. Allegretto
In common with other late works (eg. the Symphony in C major, D. 944, the Piano sonata in B-flat major, D. 960), the opening movement is broadly expansive, accounting for more than one-third of the total length of the piece. The second movement is in three part ABA form. The outer sections, in E Major, are of an otherworldly tranquility. The central section is intensely turbulent; it breaks in on the tranquility almost cruelly, in the unrelated key of F Minor. When the opening music returns, there is a running 32nd note passage in the second cello which seems to have been motivated by the turbulence that came before it. In the last three measures of the movement, Schubert somehow contrives to tie the entire movement together harmonically with a quick, brilliant modulation to the F minor of the middle section and an immediate return to E Major. The Scherzo is symphonic and large-scaled, with the open strings of the lower instruments exploited in an innovative manner to create a volume of sound which seems beyond the capabilities of five stringed instruments. The middle section, or trio of this movement is an unearthly slow march which seems to predict the sound world of Gustav Mahler. The last movement is an exuberant rondo with clear Hungarian influences.
While it was thought by earlier critics to lack the polish appropriate to a work of high-classical art music, it has grown steadily in reputation. Current consensus holds that the Quintet represents a high point in the entire chamber repertoire; the work is regarded as deeply sublime, with moments of unique transcendental beauty. It incorporates many unusual technical features, including the final two notes: the flat supertonic (also known as the Neopolitan chord) and the tonic, played "forte" in all parts.
The second movement's plaintive mood makes it popular as background music for pensive or nocturnal scenes in film. Examples include the 1989 "Nocturne Indi","Conspiracy", and the 2003 film "The Human Stain". Also Episode 21 from the Inspector Morse television series ("Dead on Time") draws extensively from this string quintet, as do certain episodes in Desmond Morris' BBC series "The Human Animal".
Schubert's string quintet was inspired by Mozart's String Quintet No. 3, K. 515 and Beethoven's String Quintet, Op. 29, written in the same key, as well as similar quintets by George Onslow. The instrumentation is reminiscent of Onslow, who used a double bass in some of his quintets. The opening theme of Schubert's work has retained many of the characteristics of the Mozart quintet's opening theme, such as decorative turns, irregular phrase lengths, and rising staccato arpeggios (the latter appearing only in Schubert's recapitulation).
In turn, Schubert's work inspired Johannes Brahms in the writing of his Piano Quintet. The third movement of Brahms's quintet, written in C minor/major, ends in the same manner as Schubert's finale, with strong emphasis on the flat supertonic, D flat.
The string quintet was composed during August and September of 1828, but it was not published until 1883 or 1884. Schubert submitted it to one of his publishers for consideration, saying that "finally I have written a quintet for 2 violins, 1 viola, and 2 violoncello... the quintet rehearsal will only begin in the next few days. Should any of these compositions by any chance commend themselves to you, please let me know.". Probst replied, asking only to see some of Schubert's vocal works and requesting more popular piano music. Even at this very late stage in Schubert's career, it is obvious that he was regarded as a composer who mainly focused on songs and piano pieces, and was definitely not taken seriously as a chamber music composer.
It is also interesting to note that this piece was composed mere months before Schubert died. The very last chord of the piece anticipates this, ending with a C major chord against a dissonant D-flat.
[Adapted from Wikipedia article - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quintet_(Schubert)
