Schoenberg Six Little Pieces

[gguo96]

This is not rubbish. This is called paying attention to detail and precision. It sounds easy, but it's hard to master.

[toAbigail]

I think this music sheet must be very difficult to read. It may be easy for some people to play a piece like this without having to look at music sheet, but it's definitely hard to play it exactly the same the second time. And not to mention to write it down. Yes. This young lady is quite incredible to be able to recite and play a piece like this.

[diesechspfade]

Well thats a thrilling music!

Its awesome!!

[BK3007]

LOL!!! I could play this without even looking at the sheet music!! LMAO!!!

[waltzforluma]

Regarding atonal VS tonal music - rock 'n roll appalled people back in the day, too, and so did Mozart and Stravinsky. If composers never dared to push the boundaries, we wouldn't have all the music that's available to us today.

That aside, I think this young lady is incredible. She took a piece like this and performed it beautifully, with a lot of passion and emotion.

[ecobenoman]

Could someone please explain where the musical value is in this??!!

[mechwarreir2]

I personally LOVE atonality, but some in the audience might be like "wtf, she is just playing random notes!" There is actually a lot of thinking and emotion behind the dissonance in atonality, it actually takes thinking it order to try your best to NOT play anything tonal. Playing random notes might accidentally fall in tonality.

[micaciche]

WTF? It's too bad!!!!!

[OceanderTethyseus]

it irks me to no end that Schoenberg is held up as a great music theorist. he is a joker and a fraud and a purveyor of poop.

[GlimpseInTheLife]

When my cat fall on to my piano! Shitty sheet

[OceanderTethyseus]

utter rubbish

bach would spit in his face

[Fagottissima]

@OceanderTethyseus do me a favour, please, and listen to Bach's "Große Fuge" (in english it might me sth like "great fugue" ) and then say that again. seriously. without being stubborn.

[gubbbies]

@OceanderTethyseus

Retard

[OceanderTethyseus]

@gubbbies

this song should have been titled, "six little pieces of shit".

[contrapuntalslunk]

@OceanderTethyseus It's more of a concept than anything..

[ottodachat]

Schoenberg wrote really beautiful tonal music, and even his tonal music he managed to stretch the boundaries, like his Transfigured Night. But listen to Webern when you have finished with Schoenberg especially his cantata.

[06SeAnFe09]

the video makes no really sence... she is not playing the same, like you can hear...

[pasna45]

shitttyt

[lovingboarding]

I especially like the last one at 5:07

[MAYLO777]

if disonance were taken as consonance it would be the same chaos on comments lol.

its a matter of humanity traditions, our concept of consonant is so made up, made up by men, getting out of traditions is not better or worst, like some dull ppl here says, it's just that maybe your disonances are consonances to other, and viceversa. every human is a lab himself.

[GREGOHARD]

The people of his time were radicals..They disobeyed the culture and stereotypes...They watched the world burn and no one would dare to scream the pain the world was in...(I Am talking about WWI and WWII). They were forbidden in most of the art galleries and theatre houses...But still they made the world hear them... These compositions sound dull and a waste of time to most...But if you know what is to feel suffering, torment, agony, sadness and loneliness...You know what youre listening...

[Azshmo]

@GREGOHARD classical music literally forced this music onto audiences and music students for half of the 20th century. These composers were anything but shunned by the academic institution of music.

I think you're romanticizing the notion of portraying pain and suffering a bit. These composers desperately wanted to be the next of the "great masters," and were more concerned with "furthering music" than anything else. The fact that their music did not resonate with the public is not irrelevant.

[Mozart1800]

Are we sure this is atonal music? Listening it very carefully we can "discover" in this pieces a tonal "scheme" and "mentality". There is a official "tonality" in the classic sense, but we can join some harmonic passages with other tonal harmonic scheme...

[wojtekmetal]

Arnold Schoenberg shreds:)

[chrispalmo]

4:09!!!!

[percyjacksonrox98]

EVERYONE JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, THIS MUSIC WAS MEANT TO SOUND THIS WAY. ITS CALLED SERIAL MUSIC. THIS WAS A PERIOD WHEN THEY THOUGHT JUST RANDOM NOTES WOULD EQUAL MUSIC.

[mezanw]

I don't understand this song...

[sevenonpaper1]

Why six? Six Little Feces? Was he constipated that day?

[Xalex209X]

@sevenonpaper1 haha i was not prepared for this im gonna be giggling all day now

[eaglesonofwill]

yeah.. right.. get real.

[babichrook]

crap

[Modes9]

The 20th century was a time of war, chaos, and increased industrialization. It seems appropriate to me that dark, dissonant music would be created during such uncertain times. It doesn't invalidate earlier music or the music of other cultures, but I do hear it as a viable alternative.

[e6e2e3e1]

He was genious, not mad man.

[efngn]

my gun

[UserID20]

Beautiful :)

[MarvinCelosky]

someone just kill the one sitting on that chair!

[DrMerkwuerdichliebe]

@MarvinCelosky

No, rather: someone just kill that chair!

[wefasdf23]

Atonality will crumble.

[gufok]

close your eyes and imagine a guy stuck in a mansion, thinking someone is gonna kill him anytime... this piece of art is perfect in describing emotion

[OmegasWill]

What most of you undeveloped people don't realize is that music is almost like that of a skill. it has to be trained and developed. this song is very spiritually, musically, and technically advanced. you don't like it because your still stuck on baby stuff and will only listen to what is pleasing to the ear. it must be hard to express yourself through music with such limitations. if your stuck in pure tonality, you are only hearing about 1% of what music is really out there. no exaggeration.

[LowEndDream]

True man, I find it pretty ignorant.

That so many people love music,yet they dont want to explore it in a deeper sense.

[mizutofu]

why is atonal better than tonal?

[louis621]

its not any better or worse... atonal is simply a reaction to tonal music... like the anti-art after ww1... its interpreted differently and judged differently...

[felipesarro]

@louis621 it is not really interpreted differently... Schoenberg himself used to say that his music is romantic, so it must be played like that. it's a kind of late Brahms, or even Chopin.

[Elhardt]

@mizutofu: Atonal isn't better, it's worse. There's a reason why the music of cultures all over the world, and for centuries, is tonal. Because certain frequencies have ratios to others that blend nicely and are pleasant to listen to. Atonal is dissonant and unpleasant to listen to. And while that last characteristic may be used to good effect for short periods of time in certain pieces of music to invoke some kind of disagreeable mood, it's just plain ugly for entire pieces of music.

[mogueyou]

@Elhardt why listen then?

[gabrieloni]

Atonal music it's not made to "pleasant". It's an artistic and revolutionary movement in music and if you see the time that serialism born, it match to many artistic movements with the same "intention". Dont listen to this, trying to hear a beatiful music to your ears... Its beatiful in a way of thinking, not acusticaly. By the way, tonal music is not natural ok? tempered tuning it's very distant from "acustic" perfection...

[EuphoricDan]

@Elhardt

This is obviously abrasive and ugly music. But that in no way what so ever means that it isn't amazing.

If you've ever enjoyed a movie like 'Silence of the Lambs", or 'Fargo' then you understand my meaning.

With music some people can only see the musicality in Disney cartoons (there equivalent). Others such as myself and many of the other people posting here understand that just because something is ugly, does not mean it is not beautiful.

[yaisum]

Can you describe what you get out of listening to this sort of thing? I've been a musician most of my life, but I enjoy beautiful melodies, lyrics and so on. I am prepared to admit that I don't have the musical intellect to appreciate eg Coltrane, Zappa and others, but I would be interested to know why those that do enjoy it. I can enjoy tension in music, but only with resolution. Can you enlighten me?

[Nachtmarchen]

Firstly, I do not find this music particularly tense, at least not compared to the convulse tonal music that preceded it. Listen to Schoenberg's first (wholly tonal) String Quartet if you want to hear something truly unintelligible and tense. Secondly, I enjoy it for the same reason why I enjoy all other music, I recognize the human intelligence behind it, I find such challenging music far more beautiful than the vacuous garbage that is minimalism, for example.

[elliotgoodger]

@yaisum the same artistic flavour can be taken out of this sort of music, as can from extreme metal, and distortion etc. brain craves new sound, something different, something new and exciting and something raw. this music fits those categories well

[minedarea]

@yaisum Nobody with a musical intellect would like Frank Zappa...

[steadric]

try listening to Debussy's Prelude. he was on of the starting composers of the atonal revolution but his music is much more conventional

[hexachordal]

@steadric mm. I've often thought that any chord taken out of context from Berg's Sonata op.1 would not be out of place in a Debussy piece.

[cnmaster01]

@hexachordal imy grandmother once mistook it for rhapsody in blue actually

[cnmaster01]

@mizutofu why is tonal better than atonal?

[loisjomm]

We studied him for GCSE

[maxhansendk]

Schoenberg is very sick...

[JamIsOnToast123]

can someone tell me if this is a serialist piece please..

[jojomellon]

No, its straight atonal.

[ignacio270]

no es serialismo. es atonalismo libre. es la etapa anterior al dodecafonismo. en éstas piezas schoenberg trabaja con "sets de sonidos" que guardan entre sí una relación interválica.

[Carlosbassman9886]

... interesante, la verdad no escucho relacion alguna, supongo que habria que tener la partitura para hacer el analisís y alguien como usted me explique cual es la relación, sea como sea, tiene un aire muy diferente este tipo de musica, para mi es como si tensionara los sonidos y luego los "aliviara" osea causara un efecto agradable para volverlo a tensionar y asi va, asi lo describiria yo

[ignacio270]

la verdad, no es fácil escuchar a primera audicion dichas relaciones interválicas. sobre todo cuando los "sets de alturas" estan tocados en distintos registros. por ej: si un set tiene 3 notas(por ej do reb mi) y suena el Mi en el registro grave,el Reb en el registro medio,y el Do en el agudo, ahi se hace muy difícil de escuchar. pero cuando dicho set aparece en un mismo registro, es más facil de escuchar. de todas formas hace falta "acostumbrar el oído" a ésta música.que es bellìsima!

[Fuglebolle]

Yes, it seems as these pieces are serialistic using Schoenbergs very own 12-tone technique.

[lentoagitato]

I'm not sure if Schoenberg had developed his 12-tone technique yet when he composed the six little pieces. I could be wrong, however. :P

[Fuglebolle]

I think you're right.. Wikipedia said they're composed in 1911, and he didn't come up with the 12-tone technique before 1921 or so

[lentoagitato]

You've got to love wikipedia...

[vincecharus]

hehehehehehe

[PickUpYourLighters]

Arnold Schoenberg is absolutely incredible, his music really is an insight into the madness of his own mind hahaha, sometimes I wish a few more people could feel the 'madness' though...

it's a bit lonely being the only teenager who likes him XD

[jazzlover06]

Trust me, you're not his only teenage fan! :P

[AMRadioHits]

Nor his only teenaged metalhead fan, :D

[marudell]

i'm 18 and i enjoy his music.

haha, i was introduced to it in a music class i'm taking in college

[k4lasama]

Schoenberg es una mierda!!!!!

bien por la chica

[thatsme92]

I love Arnold Schoenberg and this piece is still so beautiful she played it very nicly..

[thecurlsofrage]

Damn squeaky chair!

[DulceMariaEv]

HAHAHA...I know:)

[gattij1]

yea its an acquired taste. Taste like foam.

[MinisterofScissors]

hahahaha

[ohbugger18]

Sehr Langsam doesn't sound to bad. I can't beleive i've got to play the fourth one o_O

[toxiclottie]

i understand how it works you know, like only 12 notes throughout the whole piece. but to me music needs a key... atonal sounds bad to listen to, that's why key signatures were actually found. well i'm not going to say anything else on it, everyone has their own opinion.

i find the pianists who perform serialism much more interesting than the music. they make it interesting to watch.

[WeibchenOfDeath]

but i think if u are open for it and get used to this kind of music it will sound better and better to your ears... a few years ago i found this kind of music simply horrible... although i must admit that i miss some rythm in this... so maybe future composer can make further work on this

[ShutUpNShred]

It's an acquired taste that not many will pick up.

Personally, I like it.

[meluaz]

hahahahahahah what the hell is this?

[awixa2]

yourforte..."serious videos" sometimes produce a good laugh, the other day some nut translated "..con un detto sol tu puoi, le mie pene consolar" as, "...with just a word you can console my penis" our Italian friends probably got a good laugh from that!!

[yourforte]

I don't like using 'lol'... but LOL

[awixa2]

yourforte, I'd as soon listen to fingernails being dragged across a chalkboard as listen to Schoenberg; as for G. Clooney, naked or otherwise, thanks but no thanks...he was a good comic in the old Emergency Room series, but hasn't done well since.

[yourforte]

Me too. I don't want to look at George Clooney naked - or any other man for that matter. I wasn't clear what a naked George Clooney had to do with Schoenberg anyway. Something about my apparently being a 'convent girl'. I always find it laughable when people resort to infantilia just because you don't like what they profess to like. I didn't expect it on 'serious' videos though.

[awixa2]

Lol, OK yourforte, you're forgiven...I just listen mostly to "Wir Setzen Uns..." frm ST. Matthew anyhow, it's pretty great...cheers

[yourforte]

awixa2, thank you for forgiving me. My remarks were directed at ad80ad because he thought listening to Schoenberg ought to be as pleasurable as looking at George Clooney naked. I don't like Schoenberg and I have no desire to look at George Clooney naked. Apparently this makes me a 'convent girl' with no heart...

[awixa2]

Schoenbergs piano music sounds like a cat (or dog) ambling up and down the keyboard...may sound good to the cat, but sounds like s..t to me, but I'm pretty unsophisticated!

[yourforte]

My cat doesn't like it either..

[yourforte]

awixa2 - I suspect you aren't at all unsophisticated. There was more gift in one of Bach's Little Preludes than there was in the whole of Schoenberg's oeuvre. And if you want to hear some chromatic notes that work, listen to Webern's orchestration of Bach's Ricercare. Btw, I've just pilched Ruhe Sanft from Bach's St Matt Passion from your favourites.

[humpitydumpity1]

Get a life ad80ad. Your views are cr*p and your remarks are juvenile

[yourforte]

furtivotrix, I said music isn't JUST for the mind - not that it's not for the mind at all. Atonal music would never have won over tonal music; it sounds horrible, that's why. Serialism, for example, was developed as a way to organise music. And it succeeds at that. Most serialist music sounds horrible, however. Music is answerable to the ear. Composers, fortunately, are now coming to terms with that. This work is no longer contemporary: it's nearly 100 yrs old. The Emperor's New Clothes...

[ad80ad]

AHHHHHHHAHAHAH...it sounds horrible to the ears...ahahahah...it is like to say that to see Jessica Alba naked looks horrible to the eyes (in your case...George Clooney?)...this bullshit about "to sonund horrible" is only an academic moralistic matter between convent girls, fortunately intelligent people doesn't wast their time thinking about what is licit and not licit in music. If i see a woman naked leg at the cinema and I'm a moralist I don't say:"It is horrible" buahuahuaha

[yourforte]

"It sounds horrible to the ears" is logical nonsense and I would never have written it. I don't like looking at Jessica Alba or George Clooney naked - mind your own business about that. I played these pieces for my Grade 8 many years ago. Fortunately I no longer have to pretend to like them. 'Licit' and 'illicit' are not terms that make sense in regard to music. So please don't put illogical sentences into my mouth

[ad80ad]

"It sounds horrible", sorry fot the logical nonsense...probably logic is your first quality, before having a heart.Don't you like looking at George Clooney? You confirm what I said: you are a convent girl. Good for you...fortunately the world today is going another way. We are in 2008, and your moralism sounds a bit outadet.But you know...while you pasturing in your academism, someone other outside your little world enjoys himself and attempts to realize his dreams.WAKE UP!

[yourforte]

I'm not a convent girl.Mind your own business.Whether or not I like looking at George Clooney naked is none of your business.Whether or not I have a heart is none of your business.However, I wouldn't be a musician if I didn't have a heart.I AM logical,however,so don't put illogical words into my mouth.And, let's face it, not many people like this music.And it's about 100 years old-so you needn't talk about MY views being outdated.Music has emerged from the bleakness of the early 20th century

[DreamedOfHugeSpiders]

how does one get to be a musician?

[Smaejdah]

You eat a lot of pancakes

[DreamedOfHugeSpiders]

the rubbery home-made kind or the papery crispy duck kind? wanna do things right.

[Smaejdah]

Both, you mix them together ;) :D

[DreamedOfHugeSpiders]

ok thanks. i'll set to work. :)

[Smaejdah]

haha:D go make som pancakes! would have been cool if it worked though :P

[prandtastic]

That's pretty awesome. Really weird though. In a good way.

[DylanCobb]

I know, let's all start a shitstorm for the people who like atonal music! I personally think atonal music is more of a musical experiment and you have to look at it from the perspective that it's intention is not the same as most tonal music. You can't compare schoenberg to bach, although i do agree i wouldn't put on serialism to relax.

[Smaejdah]

Hehe, i wonder if Bach would be glad if someone told him that they used his music as a sleeping pill :D (relax.. ;) )

[eoghdes18]

Well now, the problem with this post is that you've said that music has an 'intention'.

Some music is functional.

Some music isn't.

it's all music.

[furtivotrix]

i honestly do.. just think about that last statement you made, that music isn't for the mind. Really.. come on now. this kind of stuff makes me wonder what mainstream music would sound like if atonal had won over tonal music. your opinion would be quite different, as would all opinions. but that is exactly the point. everyone is entitled to their opinion.

[yourforte]

Impressive playing, but who in all honesty likes this 'music'? The time has come to admit that the foregoing of tonality had a disastrous effect on 20th century music. Thank goodness composers are starting to come to their senses. Music is for the ear, not just for the mind.

[LackingLack0]

no offense but thats 1) factually false and 2) a totally subjective opinion of yours based on absolutely nothing except your own closed mindedness and prudishness. the end.

[yourforte]

Sorry, LackingLack - what's 'factually false'?

[iddyumpty]

LackingLack - I believe this remark is indeed offensive to yourforte. At least s/he has the integrity to admit that this music sounds horrible.

[humpitydumpity1]

This may be a good performance but the music is horrible

[lantheman9]

what's the difference between a good performance and good music?

[MinisterofScissors]

a good performance of "bad" music doesn't make the music better...it just makes the performance good.

There are technical aspects of both performing and music that make them something "good".

This is both a good performance and good music because the performer is trained in what she's doing and doing it well and the music isn't just noise. Shoenberg wrote music based on a system...he didn't just hit keys and call it music...which is still an acceptable form of the art.

[bingobongo]

sure, there is something fishy about schönberg. but some of us like fish.

[selfrighteous88]

=))

[kristopaivinen]

"Music is for the ear, not just for the mind."

Nice bumper sticker. What does it even mean?

[undergroundcry44]

Serialism FTW

[timpanimike]

I thought you did a pretty good job. The music is so precise, it must be hard to get every tempo change and every dynamic. Well done. I did think that many of the tempi were a little too slow. When it's that slow, it's hard to hear the phrases and the development of the themes. Also, I think the rests are pretty important formally, so it might be helpful to place them a little bit more precisely.

I hope you keep working on it. I like the piece.

[Mozart1800]

In my opinion, she can't to give an artistic and good interpretation of these pieces

[mattcookie]

oh shut up harry i personally love it :]

[3hlang]

well matt you're wierd

[3hlang]

what amazes me is that people actually applaud at the end, as if she has shown some sort of skill.

what you should do is make these pieces so little that they cant be heard. then you wont make my ears bleed

[Thanatherion]

You just don't get it, you ain't got no sense of what music's all about. That's why you're amazed at the applause. Simple as that.

[3hlang]

i just like to enjoy listening to music. i dont enjoy this. OK she did show some skill but if she made a mistake or was just making it up, nobody would no because it is not distinctive or tonal or annything that music should be.

[dgioe]

i suppose that's somewhat true...the bit about not being able to tell if she made a mistake or made it up. But, although I personally don't like this type of music, she did a lovely job playing it.