G C S E E D E X C E L M U S I C A R E A O F S T U D Y 2 W 2 S E T W O R K 4 - S T U D Y S E S S I O N 1 9 S N A P , C R A C K L E , P O P !  

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SET WORK SUMMARY

Peripetie from Five Orchestral Pieces, Op.16 - Schoenberg PART 1 - Placing the Set Work in its Musical, Social and Historical Context

About the Composer Placing the Set Work in a Social and Historical Context Arnold Schoenberg Austrian, born Vienna in 1874; died 1951 Painter as well as a composer composed and painted in Expressionist style. Created - serialism new compositional technique Related composers Alban Berg (1885-1935); Anton Webern (1883-1945)

About the Set Work Placing the Set Work in a Musical Context The term Expressionism was originally borrowed from visual art and literature. Artists created vivid pictures, distorting colours and shapes to make unrealistic images that suggested strong emotions. Expressionist composers poured intense emotional expression into their music exploring their subconscious mind. Expressionist music often features: A high level of dissonance; Extreme contrasts of dynamics; Constantly changing textures; melodies and harmonies; Angular melodies with wide leaps Music comes from the TWENTIETH CENTURY (c1900-1999) features of 20th century music include

Melody likely to include wide leaps, using chromatic and dissonant intervals, angular and spiky, short and fragmentary, glissandi, melodies based on note rows

Harmony extreme dissonances, more discords, note-clusters, hexachords Rhythm vigorous and dynamic, syncopation, irregular metres, changes of metre,

polyrhythms, ostinato, motor rhythms Timbre greater concern with tone-colour, strange, intriguing, exotic, striking, explosive,

contrasting; expansion of percussion section and emphasis on percussive sounds, unfamiliar sounds from familiar instruments, extreme pitch-ranges, instruments being played in different ways, new sounds such as those involving electronic and magnetic tape.

PART 2 Musical Elements, Instrumentation & Musical Features Form & Structure Free RONDO A B A1 C A2

Tempo & Rhythm Instrumentation & Texture

Pitch & Melody Harmony & Dynamics

A sehr rash (very quick) contains mostly triplets,

sextuplets and demisemiquavers

Full Orchestra Homophonic & Solo Sections

Use of MUTED brass for timbre effects

Opens with motif played by

Flutes, Clarinets and Bassoons

Then a chromatic scale by MUTED trumpets and

Trombone GLISSANDO

Opening Motifs:

Motifs based on HEXACHORDS

Dissonant Harmony

(use of the interval of a 7th)

Sudden loud bursts Ranges from fff to pp

B Uses different rhythms which overlap

Very THICK TEXTURE in percussion and woodwind

Starts off VERY SOFT

A1 Variation of A

Return of a HEXACHORD on the Horns

Dissonant Harmony and extreme dynamic range

C Alternates between ruhiger (calmer) & heftig (passionate)

Sparse texture with solo instruments overlapping

Bassoon tune, taken over by the cello & double bass

range from pp-fff. A few Loud semi quaver passages

A2 Another Variation of A Speeds up with use of triplet

motifs.

Builds up from clarinets & strings to the full orchestra (tutto) . Double bass play

TREMOLO chord in very high register.

Motifs are piled up on top of each other and are played in

COUNTERPOINT and CANON

crescendos very quickly from pp to fff dissonant chords &

immediately dies away to finish with a pp chord

Instrumentation Five Orchestral Pieces is written for a very large orchestra using some unusual instruments. There are three flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons (instead of the normal pairs) plus piccolo, cor anglais, clarinet in D, bass clarinet and contrabassoon. There are extra horns, trumpets and trombones plus a tuba. The percussion section includes xylophone, cymbals, tam tam (a large gong) and bass drum. Instruments often play at the extreme of their registers. There are many performance

G C S E E D E X C E L M U S I C A R E A O F S T U D Y 2 W 2 S E T W O R K 4 - S T U D Y S E S S I O N 1 9 S N A P , C R A C K L E , P O P !  

W W W . M U S I C A L C O N T E X T S . C O . U K

directions in the score. Schoenberg was looking for very specific tone colours or timbres.