Schoenberg: String Quartet No 2 Mvmnt 4 "Entrückung" - Margaret Price and the LaSalle Quartet

[DrHepp]

es gibt in meinem Leben 3 musikalische Schübe: der erste war die Kunst der Fuge von Bach, der zweite der Mathis von Hindemith, der dritte dieses Streichquartett. Was muß Margaret Price eine gewaltige Musikalität besitzen, daß sie den Part so "richtig" singt. Die meisten Sänger, Dirigenten, Musiker, die sich an Schönberg heranmachen, verstehn ihn überhaupt nicht. Man hörts einfach, als läse jemand in einer ihm fremden Sprache, indem er die Worte nachbildet.

[MTegzes]

If this fact has already been stated elsewhere, sorry for the redundancy. This is the first moment of atonality for Schoenberg. In this last movement of the string quartet, he does not give a key signature. The first time I heard this piece in my third year music theory class at Peabody Conservatory - it blew my mind and penetrated my soul. I was lucky enough to sing it some years later. The poem is amazing as well. A perfect union between music and lyric.

[AmgNoWai]

Beautiful.

[burmesearmy]

I came across this whilst reading about Modernism for my uni course. It is quite an important piece of music, historically; I have to agree that it is pretty frickin' scary though.

[ebonics4everyone]

Clearly he influenced jazz and vice versa.

[bongfodder]

A drop of water with perfect synchronicity into the pan I made my sixth dinner of boiled oats in.

[DCBSupafly]

@maocharlisme I don't know about the painting. Maybe Schoenberg's? The song's words come from Stefan George's poem, I think called 'maximin'

[tjrcutts]

"Not based around a key chord". You can have degrees of atonality, I think, from very formally tonal music such as Mozart or Bach through less tonal experiments of the late romantic composers like Debussy and Ravel, through to Schoenberg, who started out as a typical late romantic composer, but steadily abandoned traditional harmony until he arrived at 12-tone music which has rules to make it atonal. This piece sounds like early stuff to me; it's crunchy, but still sounds quite romantic.

[Sandcat87]

Can someone explain to me what atonal music is? For someone who knows nothing about music (I forgot everything I learnt about music in school years ago). I love this piece though...

[Sandcat87]

Can someone explain to me what atonal music is? For someone who knows nothing about music (forgot everything I learnt about music in school years ago)...

[HLAX41]

This is the scariest frickin music I've ever heard.

[Faramir122]

@HLAX41 Don't think so. Try Sofia Gubaidulina or Penderecki's "Saint Luke's Passion"

[maocharlisme]

It's great how atonal music get's outs types of feeling which other kinds of music barely can. I personally really love the vocals. And the painting aswell! ^^ Does anyone know if the piece is inspired on the painting, our maybe the other way around? In my expirience there's a kind of simmularity between them.

[camoflux]

this is the first of his works that i have enjoyed

[lovesGenet]

People don't like the real times they live in.Artistic truths uncover these.Schoenberg says u listen to him just like Bach or anyone.Appreciate it as the sound of now.It is not happy there are manic moments there is so much more of the human situation here.It ain't adorno and you can be ablack guy like me raised with gospel and lots of baroque&classical stuff who grew to love Skryabinand Wagner. This quartet is a good place to start.WebernVar got me hooked.It's just awareness.

[aamusc]

@lovesGenet This is an enjoyable response: always exploring music.

[thecritiquevirtuoso]

Speaking of artistic liberation, wouldn't it be absolutely fascinating to see this liberation applied in the area of linguistics? Think, a language stripped of many "conventional" idioms in grammar just like Arnold Schoenberg's music which is stripped of tonality.

[MedusaVD]

That already exists.

It's called skatting

[Gaiacarra]

@thecritiquevirtuoso I don't know if "liberation" is the term I'd use for something that would take such considerable mental effort to maintain when all you want to do is write a poem.

[Haeronthegreat]

@thecritiquevirtuoso I think we call that Finnegans Wake.

[31337h4x0r3]

@thecritiquevirtuoso you can find that anywhere on the internet.

[thecritiquevirtuoso]

This is just another example of the liberation of artistic forms- from Schoenberg to Jackson Pollock.

[kisokushii]

it's so pretty. (: it's not hard to listen to, which i think is schoenberg's greatest achievement here, considering that it's an atonic piece.

[richtrophicherbs]

good as it gets!

[miusow]

Maybe the gratest piece of music, of all time! The whole Quartett is amazing but the music in connect with the words by Stefan George in the 3. and 4. movement are beyond belief - absorbing.

"Ich fühle luft von anderem planeten"

[thisisnotzimbabwe]

I enjoyed a lot this nice little piece by the master Schoenberg. It is hard to dance with it, though. I played it at a party last night and it was not very popular. Next time I'll try Pierre Boulez or ABBA

[DaZeuhlUndazir]

Imagine ABBA covering Boulez.

[doriansgray]

@thisisnotzimbabwe

Try Daft Punk, Far East Movement, or LMFAO. Sure to get your next party jumpin'.

[udadni]

Your comment demonstrates to me that you have no musical background, for if you did you would comprehend the genius behind these works. Schoenberg is well respected among those who ARE knowledgeable about music for his successful attempt to pioneer an entirely new style of classical composition. His works utilize the serial style of composition that he invented, leading it to sound foreign to your novice ears. If you feel I am unjust in my estimation of your musical experience, please reply.

[sbrafk]

udadni, if a chef served you something that tasted like dog food - you would undoubtedly complain. he would then tell you your taste buds and olfactory senses are uncultured, and you are not sophisticated enough to appreciate his genius. my point being, elitism and snobbery in subjects as subjective as music and food is beyond puerile.

while I do appreciate what schoenberg brought to the 20th century musical stage, I still think his music is crap. to each his own.

[mrvexingparse]

It seems rather casual that commentators who go against the majority gets bashed on, especially on youtube.

While there is a subjective aspect in music, as sbrafk pointed out, the objective side is important as well. One could appreciate Schoenberg, or just post-modernism in general, intellectually, without any obligation to like it emotionally, which is the case with sbrafk as well as myself.

Imposing your intellectual theology on other's emotional domain is what intellects don't do.

[bassninjatroy]

to paraphrase Ives, stand up and use your ears like a man.

[trevorheywood]

That's an absurd contradiction! Thankyou, it's quite funny! It can be a piece of music, but not be music?

[deadcalledpark]

atonal, "but" gentle: the beginning of the voice is quite d-minor, the favorite key of schoenberg

[AthensBenin]

This must be a good performance. Even though I am familiar with the music, this is the first time it gave me goose bumps.

[LemonDancer]

...

[beethomozart]

the last 2 movements of this quartet are sung by a soprano, an innovation in those days, to which many people weren´t used to, and it raised protests, this 4th movement is named Exstasy. the work was premiered on december 21, 1908, these 2 poems were extracted from a book of simbolist poet Stefan George

[aphalga]

good!

[DarkShroom]

an amazing bit of music, i think this video is a little quite however