Intermezzo by Johannes Brahms Op. 119 No.3: nonclassical trends in music of late Romanticism

This article analyzes the intermezzo by J. Brahms Op. 119 No.3 for determining the nonclassical trends within the structure of musical fabric and form-making principles in this composition. The research employs the method of holistic analysis, which implies examination of the peculiarities of harmony, texture uniqueness, thematic processes, and formative patterns in the intermezzo by J. Brahms Op. 119 No.3; the elements of comparative analysis (juxtaposition of the form-making principles in this composition and classical works, as well as of interpretation of the reprise of the three-part form in the intermezzo by Brahms Op. 119 No.3 and Nocturne by Chopin Op. 48 №1). The scientific novelty lies in revealing the nonclassical trends in the music of J. Brahms, namely homogeneity of the sound fabric, low degree of differentiation of relief and background in the texture, absence of the common forms of sound and passive fragments in musical form. The author determines the conceptual proximity of Brahms' principles of working with musical material with the method of interfusion of the object and space that gained popularity in painting of the early XX century. The acquired results allow concluding that in the intermezzo Op. 119 No.3, J. Brahms implements a number of nonclassical principles of working with musical material, which anticipate the discoveries of the composers of the Second Viennese School (in particular, Webern). The presented materials can be valuable for further study of the compositions of J. Brahms, various theoretical aspects of music of the turn of the XIX –XX centuries, as well as performance and pedagogical practice.

The Function of Timbre in Music (1966)

Adorno’s purpose in these lectures, presented at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in the fall of 1966, was to address the relationship between what he called “sound” and “structure.” At the heart of his thinking is the notion of “structural instrumentation”—the ideal of organizing timbre in a manner commensurate to the compositional logic (Satz) of a given work. Following a historical survey of orchestration and instrumentation in the music of Bach, Viennese Classicism, and the New German School, Adorno turns at length to the “new music,” and above all the work of the Second Viennese School. Ending with a brief consideration of the experiments in Klangkomposition undertaken by composers such as Stockhausen and Ligeti, Adorno challenges the younger generation of composers who held court at Darmstadt by calling into question the equality of timbre with other musical parameters.

TIM EWERS (b. 1958)Moondrunk (2000)

This chapter discusses English composer Tim Ewers’s Moondrunk (2000). This short piece is a confident and clearly imagined setting of an English translation of the first poem of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 masterpiece for voice and ensemble, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21. Though brief, it should prove a useful and characterful item for a recital programme, especially one containing lengthier pieces, perhaps based around other works from the Second Viennese School or, alternatively, a collection of songs about the moon. The tessitura is wide-ranging, but within the reach of most voices, although a female voice was originally envisaged, in direct reference to Schoenberg’s seminal work. The musical idiom is pleasingly logical in its chromaticism, with frequent use of tritones. As always, when singing unaccompanied, the vocalist will need to be scrupulous about tuning intervals, avoiding microtonal slippage. Despite moments of freedom and rubato, rhythmic discipline is an important factor, and a sense of pulse needs to be preserved. Within this modest time span, the singer has to create and sustain a welter of shifting nocturnal moods, both threatening and intoxicating.

Shaping Form: Performances as Analyses of Cyclic Macroform in Arnold Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19 (1911), in the Recordings of Eduard Steuermann and Other Pianists

Arnold Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke (Six Little Piano Pieces), op. 19 (1911), offer a fruitful case study to examine and categorize performers’ strategies in regard to their form-shaping characteristics. A thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of 46 recordings from 41 pianists (recorded between 1925 to 2018), including six recordings from Eduard Steuermann, the leading pianist of the Second Viennese School, scrutinizes the interdependency between macro- and microformal pianistic approaches to this cycle. In thus tracing varying conceptions of a performance-shaped cyclic form and their historical contexts, the continuous unfurling of the potential of Schoenberg’s musical ideas in both “structuralist” and “rhetorical” performance styles is systematically explored, offering a fresh approach to the controversial discussion on how analysis and performance might relate to one another.

NICHOLAS MAW (1935–2009)The Voice of Love (1966)

This chapter takes a look at Nicholas Maw’s The Voice of Love. It illustrates how this cycle rewards the careful study needed to master its difficulties, and represents the composer in his most compelling form. Such sumptuous vocal lines could seem to encourage a stream of warm, unvaried tone, but the eight movements give the singer the opportunity to display the widest possible range of mood, timbre, and character. In addition, Peter Porter's resonant texts are taken from a series of seventeenth-century love letters. The vocal writing is rich and powerful, and shows the influence of the Second Viennese School. Phrases are of a length to strengthen and exercise the voice.

ANTHONY PAYNE (b. 1936)Evening Land (1981)

This chapter considers Anthony Payne's first work for voice and piano—Evening Land. Here, the composer's characteristic language blends elements of the Second Viennese School with echoes of English Romantics, reflecting a deep affinity and extensive knowledge of both. The piece carries a strong and immediate appeal for the listener. It cannot fail to hold attention, especially since words are set so as to be clearly heard. Moreover, the audience can follow the poet's spiritual journey as it unfolds through a succession of nine songs, which are joined in a single span. Poetic and musical images depict the changing seasons, as the young ‘narrator’ recounts his gathering awareness of the vastness of the universe, and realizes he is ‘no longer a child’.

Combinatorics as a constant principle of I. Stravinsky’s orchestral writing

Background. I.Stravinsky’s orchestration is quite an original phenomenon; its essential characteristics are influenced not only by objective intra-musical factors (reconfiguration of musical language on the verge of XIX–XX centuries) or by subjective individual and stylistic determinants, but also by the changes, which occurred in the cultural context of the first half of XX century under influence of scientific and technical progress (Arkadev, 1992; Gerasimova-Persidskaya, 2012). The first two decades of XX century became the time, when the new generation of composers emerged, who reflected complexity of the world and different understanding of temporal and spatial relations in sound matter of their works. First, we mean C. Debussy, I. Stravinsky, the composers of the Second Viennese School and B. Bartók. Objectivation of the worldview largely influenced the orchestration as it is one of the means to organise musical matter in space-time. Literature review. Orchestration by I. Stravinsky is the object of research in the articles of V. Gurkov (1987) and A. Schnittke (1967; 1973). Valuable observation and commentary on composer’s orchestration are found in several monographs (Asafev, 1977; Baeva, 2009; Druskin, 2009; Savenko, 2001; Yarustovskiy, 1982). In the available works, orchestral writing by I. Stravinsky has not been examined, especially in the aspect of its constant principles. Results. Concept of “orchestral writing” needs to be clarified; it is widely used, although scarcely developed. We suggest our own definition of this concept. Orchestral writing is an individual system of technological devices and principles, determined by composer’s musical language and common, basic rules of orchestration, aimed at realisation of timbre and textural aspects of the work, conditioned by style, genre and artistic idea and incarnated in functional interaction of orchestral parts in horizontal and vertical axes. General principles of I. Stravinsky’s orchestral writing became discernible in his early works; we define them as multi-figure composition, combinatorics and plastique. Combinatorics can be understood as universal principle of I. Stravinsky’s compositional method and orchestral writing, which affects all the levels of compositional whole, the work itself. Combinatorics is widely used in visual arts, where it is interpreted as a method to find various combinations through rearrangements, moving, different configurations of given elements, their juxtaposition in a certain order. Used as a term to define orchestral writing, combinatorics supposes manipulation with small timbre and textural elements and structures; this is conditioned by type of the themes, used by the composer as well as by variability of intervals and motives. Frequent succession of thematic structures causes rushed tempo of changes of timbre and textural structures, which, in its turn, causes musical time to be densely filled with informational events, and musical space became heterogeneous, contrasting, motley. Combinatorics is embodied in such tools as timbre transmissions and switching, when thematic structures distributed between several timbre groups by the means of split, handoff or juxtaposition, combination of orchestral groups, while remaining in the same structural and compositional section; as a rule, this does not result in a change of orchestral texture. This engenders mosaic-like orchestration, intense contrasts of timbre. Combinatorics in I. Stravinsky’s scores is skillfully realized through increase and decrease in quantity of voices (timbres) in horizontal and vertical axes. In vertical axis it is achieved by usage of incomplete and inexact (fragmentary, variable) doubles, having role of timbre “highlighting”, creating timbre variants of the main line, filling orchestral texture with unremitting timbre move and spatiality. As fragmentary and variable doubles are used, density of the texture is regulated through pauses in doubling lines; thus, the composer avoids risk of overloading the texture. In horizontal axis combinatorics causes alternation of timbres and timbre mixtures within rather shorts periods of musical time with the same orchestral texture, which causes constant timbre development and indicates wise usage of orchestral resources. In the light of combinatorics it is possible to examine and a type of orchestral tutti, raising on the basis of multi-layered orchestral texture, composed from several timbre and textural strata. Conclusions. Continuous usage of combinatorics allows to interpret it not only as constant principle of I. Stravinsky’s orchestral writing, but also as “universal” (according to definition of S. Savenko, 2001) in composer’s orchestral thinking. The same can be applied to such principles as multi-figure and plastique. Their interaction spawns diverse combinations in the Stravinsky’s compositions of the “Russian”, “Neo-Classical” and late stages of his creativity, their influence might be either conspicuous or hidden. Abovementioned principles are used to different extent in each case, depending on the type of space-time that I. Stravinsky employs in the works of different periods: time filled with events and motley, heterogeneous space in the works of the “Russian” period; relatively continuous time, rich with information and events, and more homogenous space in the works of the “Neo-Classical” period; Eternity and simultaneous usage of different time models and strictly geometrical (pure in its abstractness) Space in the works of the late period.