Schönberg - (2/7) String Quartet no. 1 (I/2)

Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951)

String Quartet no. 1, op. 7 (1905)

A large work consisting of one movement which lasts longer than 45 minutes, Schoenberg's first string quartet was his first assured masterpiece, and it was the real beginning of his reputation as a composer. Written in the years 1904 and 1905, this string quartet is remarkable for its density and intensity of orchestration with only four instruments. Unlike his later works, this work is tonal, bearing the key of D minor, though it stretches this to its limit with the thoroughly extended tonality of late Romantic music, such as the quartal harmony pictured at right. It also carries a small collection of themes which appear again and again in many different guises. Besides his extension of tonality and tight motivic structure, Schoenberg makes use of another innovation, which he called "musical prose." Instead of balanced phrase structures typical of string quartet writing up to that period, he favored asymmetrical phrases that build themselves into larger cohesive groups called "sentences." The first performance was given in Vienna on February 5, 1907 by the Rosé Quartet after extensive rehearsal.

According to Schoenberg, when he showed the score to Gustav Mahler, the composer exclaimed: "I have conducted the most difficult scores of Wagner; I have written complicated music myself in scores of up to thirty staves and more; yet here is a score of not more than four staves, and I am unable to read them."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Schönberg
• String
• Quartet

[treflir]

@Hamporkcheese

Bach and Schoenberg don't have anything in common. Bach was baroque and only composed using scales, Schoenberg never used at least one.

[bartje11]

@treflir Wrong! They have a lot in common: Use of counterpoint, strict rules, mathematical constructions. Bach used numerology Schoenberg tone rows, which is also a form of numerology. Did I mention polyphony? The use of same material in all voices. There are more similarities than differences between the two. If you only judge it by sound you are missing the point.

[Leitilumo]

This makes me want to cry, where's  "Do" ? :(

[jessegguitar]

ur all wrong!

[treflir]

@bartje11

By the way, my point was to destroy hamporkcheese joke, not to fight against you. Cheers.

Thanks for posting this piece.

[treflir]

@bartje11

Music always has 3 rules: Harmony, Melody and Rythm. That is the reason why you noticed polyphopny and counterpoint. For the mathematical construction, here is the difference. Bach used baroque rules which implied scales and very small transposition, whereas Schoenberg used dodecaphony, and wasn't stcuk in scales rules. You are right when you say they have a lot and common, but Schoenberg has way less in common with Bach than with Stravinsky.

[wamlf6571]

@bartje11 Thank you for your astute observation and for putting Hamporkcheese in his/her place.

[Hamporkcheese]

this is what happens when bach meets a train crash... 

[lovesGenet]

by the secong listening features become more apparent . recurrent rythmic patterns become a new motif theme comes back was fighting desc..the minor sec descen .the halb so rasch really neat 3 against 2 and the verkl theme &rhythm .It only gets better let see ! sonata structure not sure about yet .

[lovesGenet]

sounds like verklaerte .same motif .