Webern, Anton

▪ Austrian composer

Introduction

in full  Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern 

born Dec. 3, 1883, Vienna, Austria

died Sept. 15, 1945, Mittersill, near Salzburg

      Austrian composer of the 12-tone Viennese school. He is known especially for his passacaglia for orchestra, his chamber music, and various songs (Lieder).

Life and works

      Webern's father, a mining engineer, rose to the highest rank of his profession, becoming chief of mining in the Habsburg government. Nobility had been conferred upon the family as early as 1574 by Emperor Maximilian II. Although the predicate von was outlawed in Austria after the 1918 revolution, and the composer's music had to be published under the name Anton Webern, he upheld his aristocratic heritage throughout his life.

      Webern's father's career caused the family to move to two provincial capitals, Graz and Klagenfurt, and then back to Vienna. Webern received his first musical instruction from his mother, an amateur pianist. In Klagenfurt, Edwin Komauer instructed him in the rudiments of musical theory, as well as in piano. Webern also learned to play the cello and participated in the local orchestra.

      His first compositions, Two Pieces for Cello and Piano (1899) and several songs, date from the Klagenfurt period. In 1902, after graduation from the Klagenfurt Humanistisches Gymnasium, he attended performances of Wagner operas at the Bayreuth Festival, and these left a deep impression on the young musician. That fall, he entered the University of Vienna, studying musicology and composition. He received a Ph.D. degree (1906) with a dissertation on the Choralis Constantinus II of the Dutch composer Heinrich Isaac (Isaac, Heinrich). Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1904, Webern had become a private pupil of the composer Arnold Schoenberg (Schoenberg, Arnold). The association proved to be a decisive influence. With Schoenberg, and soon also his friend the young composer Alban Berg (Berg, Alban), Webern explored new dimensions of musical expression, leading to the breakthrough that established “ atonality”—a revolutionary concept abnegating the necessity of a governing tonal centre. But from the start Webern created a style distinctly his own.

      Schoenberg's direction of Webern's musical development ended in 1908. By then, Webern had already written many works, including the orchestral idyll Im Sommerwind (1904; antedating his study with Schoenberg), several string quartets, the songs based on poems of Richard Dehmel (Dehmel, Richard), the orchestral Passacaglia (1908), and the choral canon Entflieht auf leichten Kähnen (1908). These still adhere to traditional tonality, but, with the Stefan George (George, Stefan) songs (1908–09), Webern entered the realm of music no longer based on a fixed tonal centre.

      In 1911 Webern married Wilhelmine Mörtl, the daughter of his mother's sister. Because of the Roman Catholic prohibition of the union of first cousins, the marriage was solemnized only in 1915, after three of the couple's four children had already been born. Webern, while deeply religious in a pantheistic sense, was averse to church dogma, rejecting the priest's role as intermediary between God and humanity. During the years 1908 to 1913 he held posts as coach and conductor in Vienna, Ischl, Innsbruck, Teplitz, Danzig, and Stettin. These engagements proved to be short-lived since he loathed theatre routine, choosing instead to focus on free creative work. His compositions of that period reveal a growing tendency to compress the highest intensity of expression within the greatest formal brevity, characteristics that mark his Five Movements for String Quartet (1909), Six Pieces for Orchestra (1909), Four Pieces for Violin and Piano (1910), Two Songs, Opus 8 (1910), Six Bagatelles for String Quartet (1911–13), Five Pieces for Orchestra (1911–13), and Three Small Pieces for Cello and Piano (1914). The Cello Sonata (1914) marks his first effort to return to more expanded forms following his “aphoristic” period. Webern's Four Songs, Opus 12 (1915–17) and Opus 13 (1914–18), Six Songs (1917–21), Five Sacred Songs (1917–22), Five Canons on Latin Texts (1923–24), Three Folktexts (1924), Three Songs (1925), and Two Songs (1926) are vocal compositions; except Four Songs, which employs piano accompaniment, these works are distinguished by highly original instrumental combinations.

      In 1915, during World War I, Webern enlisted for army service but was discharged at the end of 1916 because of poor eyesight. After a last theatre season in Prague (1917–18), he settled in Mödling, near Vienna, teaching privately and acting as supervisor for the Schoenberg-founded Society for Private Musical Performances (1918–22). In 1924 Schoenberg formulated the 12-tone method of composition—the system in which a basic “row,” formed from the 12 independent tones of the chromatic scale, is used melodically and harmonically through the devices of inversion, retrograde progression, and transposition, allowing for a total of 48 possibilities in which the chosen row may appear. Webern adopted this system first in his Kinderstück for piano (1924), employing the serial (serialism) technique thereafter for all further compositions and developing it with severe consistency to its most extreme potential. The instrumental works during that period—String Trio (1927), Symphony (1928), Quartet for Violin, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, and Piano (1930), Concerto for 9 Instruments (1934), Piano Variations (1935–36), String Quartet (1937–38), and Variations (1940)—are governed by rigorous formal discipline. In the vocal realm, the lyrics of Hildegard Jone, a painter and poet, inspired all of Webern's later works, such as Three Songs, Opus 23 (1933–34) and Three Songs, Opus 25 (1934); Das Augenlicht (1935); Cantata No. 1 (1938–39); and Cantata No. 2 (1941–43). Always professing his ties with tradition, Webern was a foremost exponent of the genre of the German Lied. He also was a skillful arranger; notable among his orchestrations of classic works is the Ricercata (1935) from Johann Sebastian Bach (Bach, Johann Sebastian)'s Musical Offering (1747).

      After the Society for Private Musical Performances was dissolved, he conducted several choirs, notably the Singverein, a lay group especially organized to perform masterworks, such as Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (1907), in conjunction with the Workers' Symphony Concerts. Both organizations, sponsored by the Social Democratic Party, were dissolved after the “Dollfuss Revolution” (February 1934). As guest conductor, Webern occasionally appeared with the Austrian Radio Orchestra and was invited to conduct in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and England.

      Although an outstanding teacher, Webern never received an appointment at the University of Vienna or the music academy. He held a minor position at the Israelitic Institute for the Blind (1925–31) and from 1932 on gave private lecture courses. Public recognition at home remained limited to the Vienna Music Prize, awarded to him twice (1924, 1932) under the Socialist regime. Although Webern was not politically active, he nevertheless fell victim to the rising tide of right-wing nationalism. Schoenberg left Europe soon after Hitler came to power in 1933. The Nazis branded the music of the “New Vienna school” as “cultural Bolshevism” and “degenerate art” and banned performance of this type of music. Webern's artistic isolation grew complete with Berg's death in 1935, and his economic plight became desperate after the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938. The political upheaval brought to a halt the publication of his works. With almost no private pupils left, Webern had to resort to accepting such tasks as piano arrangements of works by lesser composers. Always of a retiring disposition, he fell into total obscurity with the outbreak of World War II. Webern's disillusionment with the Hitler regime was deepened by increasing bombing raids. In February 1945 his only son, Peter, was killed in a strafing attack on a train. When the Russian Army neared Vienna, the composer and his wife fled to Mittersill near Salzburg, where their three daughters and grandchildren had sought refuge. Webern was accidentally shot and killed there by a soldier in the U.S. occupation forces.

Assessment

      Inherently poetic, Webern's music mirrors his remarkable sensibility. Nature worship, from mountain grandeur to the microcosmos of flowers, influenced his creative thinking. His uncompromising championship of a new aesthetic led him to pursue his path relentlessly, bringing to fruition a musical syntax entirely his own. Webern's expressionism, while aphoristic and pointillistic, is distinguished by extraordinary sensitivity of diction and colouring, encompassing the gamut from atmospheric suspense to explosive vehemence. Many of his works reflect concrete personal experiences and in that sense are even “programmatic,” such as the Six Pieces for Orchestra (1909), which, according to the composer himself, describe episodes connected with his mother's death. Formal plans, revealing definite extramusical associations, preface sketches to various instrumental compositions, even in the later period. Similarly, literary affinities result in a preponderance of vocal works.

      The novel aspects of his style (melodic and harmonic fragmentation, wide intervallic leaps, unusual use of dissonance and timbres, ascetic sparseness of texture, and extreme conciseness of form) at first disconcerted those conditioned to the opulence of the late Romantic era (e.g., Richard Wagner operas, Anton Bruckner and Mahler symphonies, and Richard Strauss tone poems). Beginning with the 1950s, however, Webern's music was acclaimed by a young generation of composers, among them Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as the “cornerstone” and model for a new epoch, and acknowledged masters such as Igor Stravinsky joined in the accolade. Knowledge of Webern and his extraordinary repertoire was substantially enlarged during the 1960s by posthumous discoveries of many important manuscripts by the musicologist Hans Moldenhauer.

Hans Moldenhauer

Major Works

Instrumental compositions.

Orchestra: Im Sommerwind (1904); Passacaglia, op. 1 (1908); Six Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6 (1909); Five Pieces for Orchestra, op. 10 (1911–13); Orchestra Pieces (1913); Symphonie, op. 21 (1928); Variations for Orchestra, op. 30 (1940). Chamber ensembles: Two Pieces for Cello and Piano (1899); Langsamer Satz for string quartet (1905); String Quartet (1905); Rondo for string quartet (c. 1906); Quintet for string quartet and piano (1907); Five Movements for String Quartet, op. 5 (1909); Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, op. 7 (1910); Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, op. 9 (1911–13); Sonata for Cello and Piano (1914); Three Small Pieces for Cello and Piano, op. 11 (1914); Trio Movement for Clarinet, Trumpet, and Violin (1920); 2 string trio movements (1925); String Trio, op. 20 (1927); Quartet for Violin, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone and Piano, op. 22 (1930); Concerto for Nine Instruments, op. 24 (1934); String Quartet, op. 28 (1937–38). Piano solo: Sonatensatz (Rondo) (c. 1906); Satz (c. 1906); Kinderstück (1924); Klavierstück (1925); Variations, op. 27 (1936).

Vocal compositions.

Choral: Enflieht auf leichten Kähnen, op. 2 (1908); Two Songs, op. 19 (1926); Das Augenlicht, op. 26 (1935); First Cantata, op. 29 (1938–39); Second Cantata, op. 31 (1941–43). Voice with instrumental ensembles: Two Songs, op. 8 (1910); Three Orchestral Songs (1913–14); Four Songs, op. 13 (1914–18); Six Songs, op. 14 (1917–21); Five Sacred Songs, op. 15 (1917–22); Five Canons on Latin Texts, op. 16 (1923–24); Three Folktexts, op. 17 (1924); Three Songs, op. 18 (1925). Voice with piano: Three Poems (1899–1903); Three Avenarius Songs (1903–04); Eight Early Songs (1901–04); Five Songs After Poems by Richard Dehmel (1906–08); 3 groups of George songs, op. 3, 4 and op. posth. (1908–09); Four Songs, op. 12 (1915–17); Three Songs, op. 23 (1933–34); Three Songs, op. 25 (1934).

Arrangements

(selected). Schoenberg, Five Orchestral Pieces, op. 16, for two pianos (1912); Schoenberg, Kammersymphonie, op. 9, arranged for flute (or violin), clarinet in A (or viola), violin, cello, and piano (1922); Liszt, Arbeiterchor (Workmen's Chorus) for bass solo, mixed chorus, and orchestra (1924); Webern, Five Movements, op. 5, transcribed for string orchestra (1929); Schubert, German Dances, arranged for orchestra (1931); Bach, Fuga (Ricercata), Musical Offering, transcribed for orchestra (1935).

Literary publications.

Heinrich Isaac, Choralis Constantinus II, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich 16/1 (1909); The Path to the New Music, ed. by W. Reich, trans. by L. Black (1963); Letters to Hildegard Jone and Josef Humplik, ed. by J. Polnauer, trans. by C. Cardew (1967).

Additional Reading

Biographies include Hans Moldenhauer and Rosaleen Moldenhauer, Anton von Webern: Chronicle of His Life and Work (1978); Malcolm Hayes, Anton von Webern (1995); and Kathryn Bailey, The Life of Webern (1998). Hans Moldenhauer, The Death of Anton Webern: A Drama in Documents, with a foreword by Igor Stravinsky (1961), establishes the exact circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Theoretical analyses can be found in Walter Kolneder, Anton Webern: An Introduction to His Works, trans. by H. Searle (1968); and Kathryn Bailey, The Twelve-Note Music of Anton Webern (1990). Friedrich Wildgans, Anton Webern, trans. by E.T. Roberts and H. Searle (1966); and Hans Moldenhauer, foreword to, and Ernst Krenek, commentary to, Anton von Webern: Sketches (1926–1945) (1968), contain facsimiles from Webern's sketch books, affording insight into his working methods. A symposium of scholarly papers and a catalog of the Webern Archive is available in Hans Moldenhauer (compiler) and Demar Irvine (ed.), Anton von Webern: Perspectives (1966). Hans Moldenhauer, “In Quest of Webern,” Saturday Review (Aug. 27, 1966), describes the discovery of a cache of manuscripts. Kathryn Bailey (ed.), Webern Studies (1996); and Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz Stockhausen (eds.), Anton Webern, vol. 2 of Die Reihe, trans. by L. Black and E. Smith (1958), contain collections of scholarly essays. René Leibowitz, Schoenberg and His School, trans. by D. Newlin (1949), contains extensive material on Webern.

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