Sociological Probe Into the Expressionist Avant-Gardism

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FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Shifting the Role and Meaning of Composition: Sociological Probe into the Expressionist Avant- Gardism

Master's Thesis

MGR. JAKUB FILIP

Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D.

Department of Sociology Programme Sociology

Brno 2021 SHIFTING THE ROLE AND MEANING OF COMPOSITION: SOCIOLOGICAL PROBE INTO THE EXPRESSIONIST AVANT-GARDISM

Bibliographic record

Author: Mgr. Jakub Filip Faculty of Social Studies Masaryk University Department of Sociology Title of Thesis: Shifting the Role and Meaning of Composition: Sociological Probe into the Expressionist Avant-Gardism Degree Programme: Sociology Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D. Year: 2021 Number of Pages: 90 Keywords: music, social action, ideal-typical conception, agency, phenomenology, Expressionism, Avant-Gardism, The Second Viennese School, Arnold Schoenberg

SHIFTING THE ROLE AND MEANING OF COMPOSITION: SOCIOLOGICAL PROBE INTO THE EXPRESSIONIST AVANT-GARDISM

Abstract

This Master's thesis applies selected methodological approaches related to examining both dynamics of social action and producing subjective meanings in connection with the Avant-Garde Expressionist composers of the Second Viennese School. We- berian ideal-typical conception is a central methodological point of departure which is extended by the concept of agency as well as Schutzian non-historical phenomenological perspective relating to intersubjective nature of experience. The author offers his own ideal-typical constructs of avant-garde music and examines its functional nexus with composers' capabilities to act independently of the sociocultural structures. Furthermore, the thesis offers a unique insight into the very nature of highly ambiguous behavior that shaped the avant-garde endeavors. The reader is thus offered a perspective into the social dynamics of collective intentions shifting the role and meaning of music composition.

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4 SHIFTING THE ROLE AND MEANING OF COMPOSITION: SOCIOLOGICAL PROBE INTO THE EXPRESSIONIST AVANT-GARDISM

Signed Declaration

I declare that the thesis Shifting the Role and Meaning of Composition: Soci- ological Probe into the Expressionist Avant-Gardism was composed by myself, that the work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degree or processional qualification.

22. prosince 2020, Nova Dubnica ...... Mgr. Jakub Filip

SHIFTING THE ROLE AND MEANING OF COMPOSITION: SOCIOLOGICAL PROBE INTO THE EXPRESSIONIST AVANT-GARDISM

Acknowledgement

I must not ignore support that was patiently offered to me while writing this thesis. It cannot be taken for granted especially because the present thesis is not the first one I wrote. Writing cost a lot of time and energy and affected not only myself, but also my family and closest friends. Hence, I would like to thank to my parents and my brother. Special thanks go to Zuzka for her long-lasting support and love. It is my pleasure to thank to my supervisor, Csaba Szaló, who has been extraordinarily helpful. I am thankful also for everything he has taught me during my studies and for all the stimulating discus- sions.

CONTENTS

Contents

1 Introduction 11 1.1 Methodological Approach ...... 14 1.2 Research Questions ...... 15

2 Ideal-typical Conception 16 2.1 Weberian Heuristics ...... 16

3 Case Study: The Twelve-tone Music 24 3.1 Introductory Remarks ...... 24 3.2 Ideal-Typical Construction ...... 29 3.3 Analytical Examination ...... 33 3.3.1 Rational Means in the Light of the Avant-Garde Expressionist Music ...... 33 3.3.2 Further Selected Sociological Aspects Related to the Social Action ...... 55

4 Conclusion 82

Bibliography 85

Index 91

INTRODUCTION

1 Introduction

First, everything of supreme value in art must show heart as well as brain. Second, the real creative genius has no difficulty in controlling his feelings mentally; nor must the brain produce only the dry and unappealing while concentrating on correctness and logic.

— Schoenberg, Style and Idea, 1950: 179

Characteristic of analysts in the twentieth century is the ambition to discover a system of relationships hidden behind the acoustic skin of a musical work, behind the facade it presents to a superficial hearer.

— Dahlhaus, Analysis and Value Judgement, 1983: 39

The emotion is so violent and so consistently tense that for a great many people Schoenberg is a non- emotional composer.

— Rosen, in Frank Scheffer's documentary Five orchestral pieces, 1994

Just imagine the excitement stemming from the possibility that you are a young composer starting a career at the very pinnacle of massive societal and cultural shift that happened during the second half of the 19th century. How would you act in such a case? What would your ambitions and endeavors look like and how would you achieve your goals? How would your ideals look like and how would you perceive your position within the European cultural environment? These are the questions provoking interest of many social analysts with passion for musical culture—and I am one of them. The present thesis hence offers an analytical insight into the fascinating story of how the society took part in producing unprecedented modern musical art via several pioneers. And vice versa, how these actors reciprocally partially shaped the society. When the Second Viennese School came into being, the European society had just gone through the extraordinary transformative processes establishing new perspectives and paradigms. These were influenced by many, but the famous triad of personalities still having huge impact on our culture must not be overlooked. Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud—only few will dispute these pioneers

11 INTRODUCTION have left a legacy in our thinking about the world of art (Schorske, 1980; Doorman, 2003; Ashby, 2004; Cook, 2007; Arens, 2015). What makes Schoenberg and his followers similar to these giants is the motive of novel idea. It tries to change sociocultural conditions, within an intense pursuit of the constant progress (Poggioli, 1968; Doorman, 2003; Gur, 2009). Further- more, this simply cannot be understood without realizing what role in society did the Western science play since the beginning of the 19th century (e.g., Lakatos, 1970; Kuhn, 1962, 1977; McCain, 2016; Johansson, 2016). Sociologists are well aware of the fact that the 20th century was inherently influenced by scientific progress more than any other period of human history. This century of shifts and turns was oftentimes seen as a human catastrophe (see, e.g., Bauman, 2003). However, except the unprecedented suffering that it brought to entire generations it also brought some tremendous cultural phenomena tied with interesting social behavior. Hence, I aim to examine specifically delimited period in the history of Euro- pean music in terms of how the individual constituted the collective and vice versa; and how such collective created meanings which held its constitutive role for both particular human lifetime and cultural circles which took part in development of Western music. This thesis is thus about the social existence of the advocates of the Expressionist Avant-Garde music. The matter of interest are specific types of social action. Through related types of novel music, social actors aspired to create meanings that could be of help in making sense of their lives and contemporary music art within the world of change. The fathers of the Twelve-tone music thought of their methods and related approaches as a monism (Ashby, 2004: 32). This coincides with the notion of teleological development of music, where Schoenberg and his fellows were supposed to hold a position of ultimate achievers. That undoubtedly makes them rational and goal-oriented actors who never really gave up this identity. However, an intellectual

12 INTRODUCTION idea as an abstract form of visualizing the possible is one thing, while transforming it into the real world is another. As I shall discuss in this thesis, such process consisted of highly ambivalent social dynamics. The thesis is designed to be a case study through which I shall discuss selected phenomena that are sociologically significant. Methodological approaches and research questions are introduced in the next section. Then I move on to discuss Weber's ideal-typical conception that is a basic point of departure in my own construction of ideal types of avant-garde music. Subsequently, I progress to the core section of the thesis where I examine various aspects of the Second Viennese School's life. The section is basically divided in respect to the four aspects: (1) rationality and rational means, (2) ambiguity of documented action, (3) the role of agency in the avant-garde endeavors, and (4) avant-gardism as an intersubjective phenomenon shaping the musical lifeworld. Through such probe I comprehensively study the very dynamics of peculiar social action that was shaped both by individual intentions and collectively shared ideas producing culturally significant meanings. Such dynamics consisted to high extent of rationality, reason and logic, as well as profound human emotions that makes the whole story so much alluring. Being a composer in the early 20th century Europe meant to face the dis- rupted society which was continuously sinking into devastating crises. Disunity and uncertainty were causing enormous pressure. On the other hand, the dawn of the rising modernity with its transformative power had offered unique opportunities in music art and elsewhere. Unquestionably, such constellation has permanently influenced the world of modern Western society until this day. Hence, it is definitely wor- thy of studying these trajectories and tracking down particular causes.

13 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Methodological Approach

I employ several methodologies that provide me with functional perspective on herein studied issues. First of all, I draw upon the Max Weber's heuristic approach represented mostly by the concept of ideal types. In the name of distinguishing the nuances in particular social action capable of creating meanings, I construct my own ideal types of avant-garde music. Through them, I observe which parame- ters and aspects delimiting the avant-gardism in music were important for Schoen- berg and his fellows, and which were consciously or inadvertently excluded. I intentionally construct the types of music instead of types of action because as will be apparent, the composers literally perceived their very existence through the music. Thus, the music they tended to create intrinsically bound to particular types of behavior. I would also like to emphasize that these ideal types must not be understood and used separately. Both paradigmatical and canonical types are profoundly intertwined and relate to each other. I construct them separately only for instrumental purposes—to allow the reader to better tackle the nuances hidden beneath the surface of examined reality. Secondly, I also employ the concept of agency in connection with composers' action. As I will show in Table 2 and discuss in the section following it, the agency enriches previously constructed ideal types by transposing the action to relational nature where actors interact with a wider social environment. While the types point out to the action affiliated primarily with goal, idea or meaning orientations, agency deals with positions of actors within the structures, while forcing them to succumb. Moreover, the concept of agency helps with seeing composers' capabilities to resist or escape the environmental pressure. Thus, although such methodological combination might seem a little bit unusual, it is an important tool for grasping all the tiny

14 INTRODUCTION details that played a role in the social life of the School. I consider this approach functional and accurate. Finally, I extend my perspective by drawing from the phenomenological perspective of Alfred Schutz. Following on his effort to generalize theoretically the social action proposed in Weber and elsewhere, I employ this perspective in studying intersubjectivity and its role in making sense of collective experience. In the section dedicated to the phenomenology of avant-gardism, I show how the mutual sense of temporality and spatiality might influence how the composers acted and perceived their roles. Furthermore, I also discuss how such constellation justified the creation of specific musical lifeworld which we now know as the circle of the Second Viennese School. Throughout the whole thesis, I utilize these concepts and apply them in my analytical pursuit to answer the given research questions. I aim at systematizing the entire issue through assembling historical data while introducing them into the analytical frameworks. For the sake of clarity and comprehensibility, I present the particular intricacies into a nutshell by offering easy-readable schemas.

1.2 Research Questions

When thinking about research questions, one has to be aware of the fact that they must be understood conjointly and contextually. Hence, although the following research questions might answer some particular issues, they are predominantly providing a platform for painting a vivid picture. My research questions are thus following:

1) What role did rational action play in the change of approach to music of the Avant-Garde Expressionist composers?

2) What is the relationship between the cultural meaning of the Twelve-tone compositions and the role of composers?

15 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION

2 Ideal-typical Conception

2.1 Weberian Heuristics

Weber's concept of ideal type is remarkably interesting one, although its application has a lot of risky pitfalls. It might easily cause some misunderstanding also when trying to grasp the concept theoretically. Especially for those who are not familiar with Weber's methodological points of departure as well as with what he sought to achieve it might not be clear what the ideal type is really about. Further- more, there is also quite a high risk of mistakenly confusing “ideal” (in a sense of the perfectness or best possible) and “ideal type”. Hence, let me briefly explain what is the latter one. According to Weber, ideal type is a theoretical—sometimes reasonably classified also as a hypothetical—mental construct whose main goal is to provide a so- called reference point (Weber, 1949: 99-100). Why though? Well, Weber realized that when seeking answers to such questions like “What is the true motivation behind a particular behavior?”, one must necessarily take into account various sorts of nuances implicitly hidden within the process of ascribing cultural meanings by individual actors both to particular actions and to social reality. So, this reference point enables us to see these nuances in detail. It is essential to realize that the ideal type makes it possible to compare the theoretical assumption about what is the state of social reality with its actual condition. People do not usually act like machines with narrowly pre-defined sets of tasks that determine their future action. It is rather a question of perpetual dynamics of decision making, oftentimes based on highly emotional motivations with no rational grounding. Thus, the main point here is that the ideal type helps us to distinguish between the sociological idea and true social reality. To be capable of doing so, we use considerable number of various tools and techniques through which we can

16 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION observe social reality. However, this in particular is a matter of a different topic which is not central to my commentary at this point. It is well worth noting that social action is central to Weber's sociology. It should be mentioned in passing—and I will demonstrate it later in this thesis—that it plays an important role also in the present case study. However, the ultimate goal in the process of seeking answers as mentioned above should be to understand subjective meaning of individuals, its reflection in the broader collective scope within a society that is being studied, and reasonably and causally explain dynamics and effects of social action (Kubátová, 2012: 168). More specifically said, “[t]he goal of ideal-typical concept-construction is always to make clearly explicit not the class or average character but rather the unique individual character of cultural phenomena” (Weber, 1949: 101). The use of ideal-typical conception requires selectiveness. One could hardly gain a “meaningful knowledge of the concrete reality” without this principle of selection because it accepted to be tightly connected to “investigator's evaluative ideas” which is a basic prerequisite for distinguishing “the important from the trivial” (Weber, 1949: 81-2). Furthermore, the selectiveness is also important for reasons of helping defining cultural significance (cf. Psathas, 2005: 150) as well as for the methodological purposes. Especially in connection with the historical ideal type, selecting particular elements of facts has to be satisfactorily related to a research question (Kubátová, 2012: 165). Since this aspect brings us more to the realm of methodological problems, let me return to it in the next section. Before doing that, let me shortly put the whole matter concerning theoretical delineating of the ideal type in a nutshell. The ideal type is a mental construct. A sort of reference frame which is being created by a sociologist to allow him to explore beneath the trivial surface of social reality. It is a comparative tool which “is based on or derived from observations of empirical reality” (Psathas, 2005: 147) and it aims at revealing and explaining

17 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION culturally unique phenomena. Furthermore, it is intrinsically intertwined with social action and associated theory. It is widely known that the ideal-typical conception is fundamentally connected with Weber's types of action. In fact, the ideal type is a “pure type of subjective meaning” (Weber—Parsons, 1947: 11-2) through which Weber aimed at analyzing normative and ideal patterns of behavior. Although I will focus on Weber's types of action in detail later—particularly emphasizing the issue of rationality in connection with musical culture—let me now shortly mention them here. There are four basic types of action: (i) rational-purposeful oriented, (ii) value-rational oriented, (iii) affectively oriented, and (iv) traditionally oriented (cf. Weber, 1947: 115- 7; Skovajsa, 2012: 581). In them, a sort of privileged position belongs to ends and modes which take our central attention all the way back to the ideal type conception.

"The ideal type as Weber used it is both abstract and general. It does not describe a concrete course of action, but a normatively ideal course, as- suming certain ends and modes of normative orientation as 'binding' on the actors. It does not describe an individual course of action, but a 'typical' one – it is a generalized rubric within which an indefinite number of particular cases may be classified." (Weber—Parsons, 1947: 13)

It is also worth noting that Weber constructed these types according to a degree of rationality that they include within themselves. In other words, each and every type of social action has its own “measure” of rationality that is given by the nature of actors' original motivations triggering certain type of action. This conceptual construct is also sometimes called the “classification of the modes of orientation of action” (Weber, 1947: 117). In addition to that, it is also claimed that these types are constructed also according to a degree of freedom available to actors (Levine, 2005: 110 [Skovajsa, 2012: 583]). According to Weber, the highest measure of freedom can be associated with the “actions which we are conscious of performing

18 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION rationally, […] in which we pursue a clearly perceived end by 'means' which are the most adequate in accordance with the extent of our knowledge” (Weber, 1949: 124- 5). However, at the same time, it should not be forgotten that the measure of rationality can be defined only from the rational point of view. Weber explained this peculiarity on the economic acquisitions “as the means for the satisfaction of […] material needs” among Protestant, Lutheran, Methodist, and some other believers in America and elsewhere (Weber, 2002: 13, 140). There is almost an inexhaustible amount of literature focusing on the issue of rationality in these types of social action, in regard with a general theory of social action, general sociological theory, the theory of free will, the issue of producing collective and individual social and cultural meanings etc. My goal is not to offer an extensive elaboration on these. I will focus in particular only on one single segment for which the measure of rationality in social action is crucial. That is the role of rationality in the Avant-Garde Expressionist music. Let's focus our attention now on some methodological aspects of the ideal-typical conception that I find substantial for further proceeding. There exists an inherent hierarchy within the conception of the ideal type. This hierarchy is derived from the dominant position of the rational-purposeful type of action. According to Weber, the “privileged” position of this particular type has a lot in common with human freedom. He wrote: "The error in the assumption that any freedom of the will — however it is understood — is identical with the 'irrationality' of action, or that the latter is conditioned by the former, is quite obvious" (Weber, 1949: 124). The idea is quite simple: Weber claimed that the highest measure of freedom that any individual can empirically experience in his or her life is unconditionally connected to his or her own conscious realization of objective options available to him or her. Furthermore, the principle of rationality is based also on the assumption

19 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION that an individual has an adequate amount of factual information available. These allow him to choose rationally according to his or her own pre-defined goals (cf. Skovajsa, 2012: 583). Thus, all those types of action differ in the measure of availability of (i) information and (ii) individual abilities to rationally evaluate and thus decide how to act. Hence, one might say that it is at least half a matter of the agency. It should be mentioned in passing that this is exactly the reason why Weber's types of social action— together with the entire ideal-typical conception—is considered typically pure. I only pay attention to this hierarchy because it binds some methodological problems that are crucial here. Few will dispute the fact that in real life one could hardly observe social action that is oriented solely to one of the types formulated by Weber. In other words, there is no reason to think of a human being as an entity who does not fuse or combine its motivations when trying to act in a certain way or when trying to achieve some goal. It would be “very unusual” to see such behavior (Weber, 1947: 117). It cannot be denied that this is one of the most crucial points to realize. As I will demonstrate in the case study, there is no situation where this would not be true. Let me now focus on some methodological specifications concerning the analytical application of Weber's ideal-typical conception. I put a special emphasis on its application in historical research. Right after the short paragraph dealing with this issue, I will focus on the main methodological pitfalls related to ex post interpreting of the social reality. Helena Kubátová (2012: 167) has offered a well formulated and easily understandable perspective on how analyst should proceed when applying Weber's methodological approach. It has to be taken into account that we are talking about the historical ideal type which is more specific in comparison with the general sociological type. So, let me briefly summarize Kubátová's perspective.

20 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION

When analyzing a particular historical period with all its diverse economic, social and cultural circumstances, an analyst has to construct an ideal type. First of all, he or she has to begin with methodologically standardized observation of particular phenomena, which is a procedure known to any investigator with expertise in history. The analyst should subsequently reasonably create his or her own definition delineating the phenomenon which is central to the examination (Kubátová men- tions, e.g., the definition of capitalism; Ibid.). The process of construction of such definition helps the analyst to distinguish which other observable events and phenomena, documented as being objectively present within a particular historical period, are affiliated with or related to the central one. At the same time, the analyst has to evaluate very carefully both social action and the mechanisms of ascribing meanings by social actors. Besides that, the analyst is necessarily determined to select only particular elements that are useful for the construction of the historical ideal type of the studied phenomenon (e.g., capitalism) based on his or her research question. According to Kubátová, the historical ideal type aims at revealing genetic relationships between historical events and its goal is to find the “causal links among individual historical creations” (cf. Kubátová, 2012: 167) which apparently appear uniquely once or just a couple of times in history. That makes them different in comparison with those manifested repeatedly, as it is obvious when studying phenomena from the perspective of general sociological types (cf. Ibid.). Since this aspect highlights the role of research attitude towards studying the past, let me now shortly explain why Weber's methodological approach is oftentimes labeled as heuristic. Weber's ideal types are in fact “typical probabilities confirmed by observation to the effect that under certain given conditions an expected course of social action will occur, which is understandable in terms of the typical motives and typical subjective intentions of the actors” (Weber, 1947: 107). To claim that these are, methodologically speaking, a manifestation of “heuristic rationalism” (Schluchter 2005: 23 [Skovajsa, 2012: 582]), means to realize that the rational action is the easiest one

21 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION to observe. Employing the rational-purposeful action as the main reference type is thus pragmatically effective because “[i]n such cases the relations of means and end will be clearly understandable on grounds of experience” (Weber, 1947: 108). The ideal-typical conception is designed to “achieve heuristic and analytical purposes” and to “orient empirical study” (Psathas, 2005: 154). Heuristic approach in sciences, in general, guides and modifies ways of thinking about the particular phenomena (cf. Ashby, 2001: 586). Thus, the same function belongs to the ideal types. They work as the heuristic instruments or devices which regulate the way how we approach interpretation of social reality (cf. Weber, 1949: 135). Following on this brief explanation which sheds the light on the basic defini- tions regarding how to construct and apply certain ideal types, let me summarize several critical aspects of Weber's methodological perspective. Regarding the methodological use of Weber's ideal-typical conception, one has to be aware of some risky pitfalls accompanying efforts to sociologically interpret social reality. It is especially important when studying past periods. As Weber himself pointed out, while trying to understand all possible circumstances of any particular phenomenon, one must necessarily be chiefly careful for at least several reasons. One of them is that the analyst could quite easily get into confusion based on unrecognized cognitive bias. It is sometimes caused by shortcuts in heuristic pro- cessing of information swapping cause and effect. According to Weber, this kind of confusion might express itself in three different ways: 1) to believe that theoretical concepts authentically and exclusively portray history, 2) to use these concepts as a “box” into which we compress history, and 3) to believe that such concepts are real forces shaping the reality “which operates behind the passage of events and which works itself out in history” (Weber, 1949: 94). I believe that awareness of especially these problematic pitfalls is important in both music history and sociology of music.

22 IDEAL-TYPICAL CONCEPTION

At the same time, I consider these the most substantial for the following case study, although I am perfectly aware of the possibility that there are some others. All in all, one must necessarily acknowledge the following context. Musicolo- gists sometimes tend to express highly biased views on particular historical periods or towards particular composers. Alongside a zealous study of one's life concerning correspondence or everyday life, they usually study beautiful music he or she composed both in form of musical score and authentic recordings, if available. Dealing with such pleasure of hearing such a sounding beauty, it often makes it difficult not to think of a composer as a genius. Furthermore, musicologists are sometimes so captivated by these geniuses that they even categorically deny the possibility of social-cultural or historical effect influencing composer's social actions and related strategies. I contend that such a case is precisely what Weber tried to warn against.

23 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC

3 Case Study: The Twelve-tone Music

3.1 Introductory Remarks

When trying to understand the Twelve-tone compositional technique, one must necessarily be aware of some basic concepts. Thus, let me now shortly elaborate the common definition of the Twelve-tone technique, describe the process of its birth, introduce its founders as well as fundamental differences in overall understanding of its role from the perspective of composers. Please, remember that this is just an introductory chapter and the main goal here lies in providing a general idea on what I will be discussing later on. So, let's begin with a common definition. The Twelve-tone composition1 is a specific approach to composing music. It is a method "in which the 12 notes of the equal-tempered chromatic scale, presented in a fixed ordering (or series) determined by the composer, form a structural basis for the music" (Headlam—Hasegawa—Lansky—Perle, 2001a: par. 1). Thus, this peculiar method aims at constant use of the set of twelve tones of the chromatic scale in a specific, highly organized manner (Schoenberg, 1950: 107). Few will dispute the fact that such serialism has offered a brand-new way in organizing musical structure. The principles upon which it is based result in "the abolition of tonal expectations, and a reorganization of the musical surface as an ar- ray of permutations" (Scruton, 1997: 335). Thus, one could recognize without any

1 Oftentimes also used in several different variations: the twelve-tone technique, the twelve-tone serialism, dodecaphony, the twelve-note composition, or just simply as serialism. At this point, I have to point out that using the term “serialism” very much varies depending on the country or continent from which a scholar who uses it comes from. Within the Continental European musicological tradition, the term “serialism” is considered ahistorical and anachronical when thinking about avant-garde modern music before ca. 1950. However, in the Great Britain or in the USA this term is widely applicable to pretty much every musical work that meets the criteria for the serial organization of tones into tone rows, while it does not really matter whether such work was composed in the early 1920s or in the late 1980s. Continental Euro- pean musicology understands serialism as a further application of dodecaphony. Nevertheless, in this thesis I'm adopting the Anglo-Saxon convention.

24 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC serious difficulties that this system uses some fundamental mathematical principles. It is well known and it has been historically proved that mathematics always played some role in music since the Ancient times (see, e.g., Sachs, 1961; Hagel, 2009; Černý, 2006; Hoppin, 1978).2 However, in the case of serialism, it is a bit different. Mathematical operations and principles are here used as tools directly connected to a compositional procedure. It is an intentional activity that is expected to result in structurally, sonically and thus aesthetically new music. It is no more only about critical reflections of sounding music that notices some naturally determined “mathematical laws” as it was to a high extent in the case of Ancient cultures from the south of the European continent on the Balkan and Apennine Peninsula. Added to that, the Twelve-tone method is more than just a systematic approach to music composition. As I will demonstrate in the next sections, this method is more im- portantly about changing specific types of paradigms on given problems that have emerged from the music development. The Twelve-tone compositional technique is something that had never appeared before it arose in the late 1910s. It is unique. And that is not an aesthetical judgement—on the contrary: it is reasonable statement. Some of them were mentioned in the previous paragraph, but let me summarize them briefly in the following part:

I. it systematically constituted a new kind of organization of musical material; II. some fundamental mathematical principles were used for intentional achieving structurally, sonically, and aesthetically novel music; III. it stood for the new philosophically and rationally driven approach to “liberating the dissonances”;

2 Although we have only limited knowledge about the Ancient periods due to the lack of primary historical sources in general.

25 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC

IV. it reflected the very essence of its founders' perspective about historical development and commenced a strong desire for a far-reaching cultural change; V. it aimed at re-defining composer's position within the society; VI. it aimed at re-defining the role of musical piece within the Western culture.

If it's true that the Twelve-tone technique is so unique, then the question comes to mind of whether its development was a matter of spontaneous evolution or rather an outcome of individual effort of some theorist or composer. The answer is tremendously complicated. It strongly depends on the perspective through which we observe history of music in the 19th and early 20th century. It is undoubtedly true that a considerable number of organic events happened during the 19th century and some of these had a profound impact on developing serialism. I will examine these events and aspects in detail in the following chapters. First of all, partly following on the above-mentioned question, let's shortly turn our attention to the debate on who is considered the founder of the Twelve-tone technique. It could be only hardly surprising that answering such question also very much depends on our perspective and definition of the Twelve-tone technique (cf. Simms, 1988: 109). This definition, then, also must include particular composers who enabled the technique to exist. Among these composers we usually include Josef Mat- thias Hauer and Arnold Schoenberg.

“Compositions in which all twelve pitch classes are continuously and systematically recirculated were written by Hauer beginning in 1919 and by Schoenberg from about 1920, although Schoenberg experimented with twelve-note thematic materials in earlier fragmentary pieces. These do- decaphonic essays by Hauer and Schoenberg are strikingly dissimilar in style and in compositional method. But still the question of priority in

26 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC

twelve-tone music became a matter of the utmost concern to both men.” (Simms, 1988: 109)

The fact that theoretical reflections of both were “strikingly dissimilar” makes us reasonably believe that they started developing the technique independently on each other (cf. Headlam—Hasegawa—Lansky—Perle, 2001a: par. 1; cf. Adorno, 2018: 68). It is still being debated who is the “true founder” of the technique and some scholars repeatedly tend to reopen such discussion until today. Nearly only two of the most articulate advocates of Schoenberg's primacy were Schoenberg himself and Theodor W. Adorno. In a typical stridently evaluating manner, Adorno wrote that Hauer's endeavor resulted only in “enormously boring and miserable” application of the Twelve-tone method (Adorno, 2018: 63). Such a commentary cannot be perceived without taking into account Adorno's biased approach to music's evolution. Besides that, one should not overlook Adorno's advocacy of Schoenberg's goals as part of an inevitable fulfillment of the historical development, although the overall notion of Adorno's position as Schoenberg's fawning “defender” is “prone to gross simplification” (Ross, 1996: 165). Going back to Schoenberg and Hauer, there exist some differences between them. Some are of more technical nature—or of compositional nature—and others are more philosophically grounded. However, at the end they all manifested themselves in composers' music. Since the comprehensive examination of differences concerning the compositional techniques is far beyond my scope in this thesis, I will primarily focus on more general ones in the following brief overview. These will or- ganically allow me to meet my “storyline” which addresses the discussion of Max Weber's ideal-typical conception in connection with the early 20th century Avant- Garde music. The main difference between Hauer's and Schoenberg's approach lies in their understanding of the twelve-tone idea. They both found this concept crucial because

27 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC they believed it could “offer a solution to specific aesthetic problems” (Covach, 1994: 161). While Hauer put emphasis on the structural independence within particular pieces where he empowered the role of melodic lines and its pitch classes, Schoen- berg aimed at using the method to unify different kinds of elements within both horizontal and vertical dimension of music (cf. Simms, 1988: 124). Schoenberg understood the musical idea as “consisting of melody, rhythm, and harmony”. These elements were to be “partly incorporated in the horizontal plane as successive sounds, and partly in the vertical plane as simultaneous sounds” (Schoenberg, 1950: 109). Additionally, the approach of both composers differed also in their view on using traditional musical schemas and principles that were established during the late 18th and 19th century. It is quite a common misunderstanding that Schoenberg rejected forms, genres, or particular features such as thematic and motivic development that came to practice during the great epochs of the Western music culture (Rosen, 1975: 73). On the contrary, he intentionally based his attitude on profoundly rooted traditions codified by such composers as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms (cf., e.g., Schoenberg, 1950: 48, 56, 71, 187).3 Moreover, one of Schoenberg's main goals was to inaugurate himself as “a creative artist striving for personal expression in music” (Covach, 1994: 159). In comparison, Hauer viewed himself only as an “in- terpreter of the twelve tones” while “rejecting the artist-as-expressive-genius model” (Ibid.). As I shall discuss later, this might not have been really universally true. Hauer believed that the Twelve-tone music should necessarily take the place of traditional tonal music, i.e., that the musical idea of twelve-tone compositiona creates some kind of autonomous and novel “universe”. For him, the twelve-tone system underlined the “order of the cosmos” while for Schoenberg it “constituted one

3 Such influences were of different nature for Schoenberg. He thought of some of the composers as geniuses because of their technical mastery, while others inspired him profoundly because they created new styles.

28 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC of many possible musical contexts in which one could project the musikalische Gedanke” (Ibid.: 177). Having mentioned all these aspects, I would like to conclude this part by point- ing out to apparently the most crucial aspect. It is a tiny and inconspicuous detail which, however, is important for my further elaboration. In spite of all those complicated and oftentimes indistinct philosophical elaborations and mental constructs, intrinsic motivations of both Hauer and Schoenberg were emotionally-driven. Both incorporated spiritualism into their inner abstract mental frameworks that enabled them to reflect what could be called the lifeworld. Especially in the case of Schoen- berg, the declared rationality seemed to be just a surface layer that reflected the very nature of culturally constructed meanings as well as the way how these meanings were supposed to be saturated through the Western rationalism. I shall discuss these issues in detail throughout the entire thesis. Let me now proceed to the next sections.

3.2 Ideal-Typical Construction

What would the ideal-typical construction look like in the case of the early 20th century Avant-Garde serialism? Let me now propose a comprehensive schema that helps me construct the ideal type of the early 20th century Avant-Garde serialism. This schema aims at defining central aspects that I find interesting regarding examining the very nature of course-of-action types that had been employed during the given period (cf. Schutz, 1967: 188-90). I'm intentionally constructing types that are not personal because I aim at examining the dynamics of affiliated social action that ambivalently produces certain types of meanings. I decided to do so because I found it suitable for repeatedly declared position of the given composers who tended to transposed their notions and intentions into the following types. Thus, they oftentimes acted upon them.

29 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC

For studying what the avant-garde actually really is, I would suggest to see some crucial contributions in dictionaries, monographies etc. (e.g., Weightman, 1969; Poggioli: 1968; Călinescu, 1987; Samson, 2001; Doorman, 2003). In general, avant-gardism is a concept of pioneering given approach in a given area. However, what is crucial here are the selected aspects of avant-gardism. Firstly, avant-gardism inherently includes strong tendency to (i) reflexivity. Secondly, as is quite obvious also from philosophical and theoretical contributions of some authors (see, e.g., Adorno, 2018), it also employs the (ii) criticism. Thirdly, avant-gardism must necessarily include the element of (iii) experimentation. This one is meant to provide novel constitutional approaches responding to prevailing conditions, i.e., to already existing state of cultural and social matters. Fourth aspect is more than any other tightly connected to the element of experimentation. In such connotation, we can think of the aspect of (iv) innovation. I will discuss these aspects in detail within the following chapters. Let me now introduce the types. Although I decided to construct two types—paradigmatical and canonical—I contend that it is not really possible to use them separately in any type of analysis. My only goal in doing so was motivated by an effort to construct the types that might help in distinguishing the nuances bound to the Avant-Garde endeavors of Schoen- berg and his fellows. So, let's see the construction in the following table:

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Table 1 Schema for the Ideal-Typical Construction of Avant-Garde Music

Ideal Basic Definition Types of Means Orientation Commentary Types

Tend to gravitate towards If a composer wishes to An ideal type of avant-garde Musical work as a mean employing value-rational change the paradigm in

music exclusively concerned for signifying means. Reflecting the music relation to musical work, with patterns of thinking technological and from outside: external he must change the role of about constituting newly intellectual progress. Philosophical theorizing perspective such work. Thus, he positioned music. about the ontology of intentionally changes the Shifting an artistic and musical work that re- Primarily future- way of how is this work Pioneering perspective on social role, as well as transforms it into a mean oriented being treated and Paradigmatical the status of music in function of the musical of reflection of understood as a complex modern world. work. development. sociocultural medium.

An ideal type of avant-garde Tend to gravitate towards Musical work as an A composer tries to music concerned with employing both value- aesthetical problem of challenge the prevailing

newly-desired set of rational and rational- fundamental structures. Reflecting the music aesthetical order that aesthetical principles and purposeful means. from within: internally- governs music, by shifting rules. Re-evaluating of centered perspective fundamental functionality Technical solutions canonical principles, and relations within the Canonical Pioneering perspective on focused on internal artistic and technical Primarily past-oriented music. He employs novel the relevance of aesthetical structural problems of functionality of “musical sets of measurements. status quo. musical material. laws”.

CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC

3.3 Analytical Examination

In this chapter, I will systematically examine some of the most fundamental rational means primarily affiliated with composing music, the existence and manifestation of which are an absolutely inseparable and necessary part of the study of the Avant-Garde serialism of the early 20th century. Following on Weber's famous and comprehensive elaboration of the rationality in Western music (Weber, 1958), I will discuss how had these symptomatic elements of progress rapidly established a novel approach to European music in the early 20th century. Entire chapter 3.3 Analytical Examination is divided into the following sections: First I will focus on how these means had been manifested in the Twelve-tone music composition. Second, I will try to shed light on the mechanisms constituting certain types of social action that were closely related to the utilizing of the rational approach in music composition. Thus, one of my main goals lies in offering an insight into how the composition of the Twelve-tone music was affected by the instrumental—highly pragmatic—rational means. Furthermore, I also aim at studying given sociological aspects related to ways of thinking, behaving, and producing culturally significant meanings. I will comprehensively focus on this in the next chapter 3.3.2 Further Selected Sociological Aspects of the Avant-Garde Expressionist Music.

3.3.1 Rational Means in the Light of the Avant-Garde Expressionist Music

Since the problem of rational means is a complex one, it must be noted that focusing on discussing the questions what, how, and why will be examined continuously throughout the entire chapter Analytical Examination. Thanks to the ideal- typical perspective that is central to this thesis, I believe that such an examination will help us to tackle the distinction between both (i) individual and collective motivations and purposes that were oftentimes of emotional nature and (ii) those

33 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC which might be considered purely rational. Since I'm perfectly aware of the constraints that are bound to ex post interpretations, I'm far from suggesting that this should necessarily lead to definitive and inexhaustible understanding of the state of things. Let's make it clear what in this thesis is being considered the rational means. Those are all possible and thinkable groups of tools that human intellect can use in achieving his pre-defined goals. An exceptional role here thus belongs to intention. Rational means are rational because of their affiliation to an intentionally-based attitude towards the reality-solving social action. Moreover, the particular aspect emphasizing the importance of utilizing currently available societal means cannot be overlooked here. In other words, what exactly a particular society can offer in terms of technology and knowledge that can be utilized by actors. It is the reason that coordinates this entire activity resulting in choosing an appropriate approach towards selecting desired means that allows the agent to act in a certain fashion (Parsons, 1949). I mean, such fashion which we can now consider rational.4 By writing “all possible and thinkable” tools, I pursue to emphasize the necessity to include quite a wide-ranging scope of these means. Such a definition has to remain open because only in such constellation we can absorb the diversity of human action that utilizes instrumental rationality. Thus, we can delimit this cat- egory by understanding rational means not only as tools or resources—which is often being criticized for the high level of abstractness anyway—but also "as actions, intentions, choices, decisions, etc. that might make use of such tools or resources" (Kolodny—Brunero, 2018: sect. 2, par. 1).

4 I write „we can now consider rational“—which is another form of emphasizing that we are inevitably dealing with already dead past—because we, obviously, can see ex post how rational those actions really were. We can examine the very nature of these individual and collective expressions and study what motivation, leading to what action, led to what cultural artifact or “product”. In fact, we are truly privileged to see the past in such a manner, although we are exposed to numerous confirmation biases at the same time.

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Regarding the case of the Avant-Garde Expressionist Twelve-tone music, one has to take into account the following application of above-defined rational means: rational means can be classified into two basic categories that coincide with previously defined ideal types. That is, the rational means present and manifested in (i) changing the paradigm, primarily in terms of the role of a musical work, and in (ii) re-evaluating already existing canonical principles which relates to aesthetics of music. Within both these categories, composers of the given period had applied rational means when trying to achieve their goals. Generally speaking, it has to be mentioned in passing that in some cases actors could eventually do so without even realizing it. That might seem a little bit strange since the use of rational means is usually expected to be applied by the actors fully consciously and intentionally. However, there might be some exceptions because composers' original intentions could be of different nature than that of purely rational-consciously oriented. For example, when Schoenberg used to theoretically reflect the nature of consonances and dissonances, it was primarily a matter of an aesthetic dispute for him. It was a sort of philosophical debate about the particular phenomenon that already had some meaning and position within the field of theoretical reflections in music. Thus, he did not necessarily have to really realize that even this kind of reflection is, in its essence, actually a rational mean. At the same time, when he had been practically and systematically working on the logically structured protocol designed for compositional development of his motives and themes, he intentionally employed rationally-based mathematical and formal-logical means. And he was apparently aware of it. So, the main difference here lies in distinguishing between the nature of original subjective motivations that had led to concrete ends. Regarding the above-mentioned examples, both can be considered rational, in a sense. However, each one in its own way. Hence, the selection of decisions dealing with the question of how to approach the issue of dissonances and therefore how to

35 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC resolve them within a musical composition—that is guided by calculative rules of conduct—can be understood as selecting the means. Let me now shortly finalize the definition of rational means that will guide further discussion both in this chapter and the remaining ones. One has to remember that choosing particular rational means are internally interconnected with a rational social action. Weber thought of rationality as a phenomenon revealing the way how social actors choose the right means “in terms of the appropriateness to ends” (Mar- tindale—Riedel, 1958: p. xix). Thus, the very intrinsic motivations are crucial for understanding people's actions—as well as for the ends they achieve for. One might ask, then, when exactly is the social action rational. Well, it seems a little bit tauto- logical. The term is quite self-explanatory:

"In applying the term 'rational' to social action, Weber was concerned to isolate one kind of relation between the means and ends of action. A social action is rational when the means utilized in the course of action are chosen because of their efficiency or adequacy to the attainment of the ends in view." (Martindale—Riedel, 1958: p. xviii; italics by me)

When I was previously trying to emphasize the need to distinguish between emotional artistic creativity and rational procedures that are instrumental in their purpose, I was thinking about the core essential principle that governs approaches to music in Western society. The fundamental forms of these rational-purposeful principles in music—as were discussed and studied by Weber—are quite clearly and spontaneously understandable by a wide range of public:

"This drive to reduce artistic creativity to the form of a calculable procedure based on comprehensible principles appears above all in music. Western tone intervals were known and calculated elsewhere. But rational harmonic music, both counterpoint and harmony and the for- mation of tone materials on the basis of three triads with the harmonic

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third are peculiar to the West. So too, is a chromatics and an enharmonics interpreted in terms of harmony. (…) In the West appears a system of notation making possible the composition of modern musical works in a manner impossible otherwise." (Martindale—Riedel, 1958, p. xxii)

The consequences of this kind of rationality—in terms of rational means and rational social action as well—can be grasped by the undemanding intellectual con- sideration. However, what Schoenberg and his pupils did in music still remains widely misunderstood. Hence, let me now analytically discuss the rational means utilized in the Twelve-tone music. By creating two basic thematic categories, I intend to discuss the most important means that deserve our sociological attention. First, I shall focus on (a) structural proportions and mutual relations through which I wish to illustrate intellectual rationalism that is predominantly of abstract nature. Second, I shall focus on (b) mathematical and formal-logical principles that are more tightly connected to the very pragmatics of the Twelve-tone compositional method. 1. Structural proportions and mutual relations. The problem of the appropriateness of size or number of different parts towards the whole—and the question of how to achieve universally valid aesthetical attraction—has been central to music at least since the Antique period (cf., e.g., Strunk, 1950; Scruton, 1997; Hagel, 2010; Maor, 2018). The great dawn of systematic and extensive theoretical reflections dealing with this issue can be then traced back to the second half of the 12th century—the time when Perotinus lived (Apel, 1953: 145). In general, Schoenberg and his affiliated contemporaries were not an exception in dealing with this.

"Evenness, regularity, symmetry, subdivision, repetition, unity, relationship in rhythm and harmony and even logic—none of these elements produces or even contributes to beauty. But all of them contribute to an organization which makes the presentation of the musical idea intelligi- ble." (Schoenberg, 1950: 53; italics by me).

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Schoenberg did a remarkable job in constituting an autonomous position of particular elements within the musical structure. From his perspective, none of the tones and harmonic functions dominate the others. The very nature of intrinsic relationships within a musical structure is of “egalitarian” type. Schoenberg's Expres- sionist Twelve-tone music challenged the age-old notion of hierarchy by employing the principle of equality into the architecture of music composition. This was the most vital aim Schoenberg strove to achieve. Such perspective stemmed from the composer's critical attitude towards the concept of tonality which was—and still is—based on the notion that there exists a fundamental root tone that governs the chord and harmony construction. Schoenberg categorically doubted the functionality of such hierarchy, the consequence of which is the system of harmonic functions. According to the composer and his fellows, such hierarchy had already lost its position as well as its meaning— there was no such thing as dominant, subdominant or tonic anymore.5 "[I]t became doubtful whether a tonic appearing at the beginning, at the end, or at any other point really had a constructive meaning." (Schoenberg, 1950: 104). The departure from the notion of tonality—a decision to critically re-evaluate one's own approach to music composition—seems to serve as a rational mean on the journey towards the novel type of music compositions (cf. Schoenberg, 1983: 151). In Schoenberg's case, liberating previously codified relationships within musical structure started to be employed in 1908. From 1923 onwards, the conceptual system where "all the tone relations that govern a given musical context [which] are

5 It must be mentioned in passing that the endeavors of the Second Viennese School did not really irre- versibly exclude this hierarchy from the theory of Western music, of course. In fact, they were in a minor opposition against the dominating, traditionally based approaches and conventions. Furthermore, it also remains questionable whether the legacy of Schoenberg and his pupils really had any meaningful impact on the future development of music, especially in terms of changing listeners' perspective on what is considered attractive.

38 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC referable to a specific linear ordering of the twelve notes of the semitonal scale" became a living compositional method (Perle, 1962: 2). Schoenberg's goal to reconsti- tute the original relationships that had governed music for a number of centuries was thus directed by highly logical and rational principle—a type of ordering that had an influential impact on organizing entire music. In fact, it has a lot in common with the above-mentioned issue dealing with proportions. The reason is that this Schoenberg's serialist technique allows composers to use each tone only once within the sequence of the row of twelve tones. That makes the structure of the scale proportionally fundamentally equal. Additionally, the Twelve-tone row constitutes a pitch-classification that categorizes particular tones of the scale according to their similarity, relationship respectively. Hence, this kind of “importance proportionalism” was supposed to include also pitches as big- ger organizational and functional entities that contribute to the nature of a piece. “[T]here are just 12 pitch classes, corresponding to the notes of the chromatic scale, often numbered from 0 to 11," while "pitches in the same class are interchangeable, or equivalent" (Roeder, 2001). As a result, composers had a comprehensive “all-are- equal” system at their disposal. In compositional practice, such a system entails the aspect of arbitrariness in some facets of musical material—especially the harmony (for example, a composer can never fully specify in advance in which octave a particular pitch would be situ- ated) and rhythm. Since the Second Viennese School focused solely on serializing pitch, elaborating the other facets of music such as dynamics, timbre or duration had necessarily remained reliant on Pierre Boulez's Total Serialism. All in all, it remains clear that the Twelve-tone technique represents a completely different concept of order compared to what music theorists and composers considered order in the periods before the method had appeared. Coming up with a formula—i.e., a numerically-based pattern that determines what tone or pitch-class is going to be used—can be done in many different ways. It

39 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC depends on individual creativity of composer (cf. Perle, 1962: 2). An example formula might look like as follows: based on the minor triad, major triad, augmented and diminished triad, a composer can construct a linear melody, chord or polychord progression that consists of F sharp minor, E flat major, C augmented, and B diminished. Such a formula creates a Twelve-tone triadic succession that can vary depending on the compositional intention and which, additionally, abates the proportional differences as they are perceived by human ears. It has to be remembered that the arbitrariness is solely a matter of final result. One might come up with a perfectly organized arrangement of a formula—a pre- defined way how to organize a musical idea that is far from being random—but it would result in an arbitrarily sounding music. Anton Webern explained it as follows:

"How does the row come to exist? It's not arbitrary, the result of chance; it's arranged with certain points in mind. Here there are certain formal considerations, for example one aims at as many different intervals as possible, or certain correspondences within the row symmetry, analogy, groupings (thrice four or four times three notes, for instance). Our Schoenberg's, Berg's and my rows mostly came into existence when an idea occurred to us, linked with an intuitive vision of the work as a whole; the idea was then subjected to careful thought." (Webern, 1960: 54; note: originally presented in Webern's private lecture in 1932 in Vienna)

Such formulas, understood as forming entities, bring us back to the question of what nature is the human tendency to perceive sounding proportions in music (see, e.g., Helmholtz, 1885). And what happens in the human brain when listening to the Twelve-tone composition in which traditionally perceived types of proportionalism absent. It is far beyond my possibilities in this thesis to elaborate this issue in detail—which is, besides that, still far more a matter of psychology and aesthetics than music theory or sociology of music. However, let me briefly introduce at least Schoenberg's view on the problem of the nature of proportionalism. He was aware

40 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC of the possibility that humans have the sense of proportion somehow naturally en- coded within their psychological apparatus. On the other hand, he believed that such a mechanism is capable of change—meaning, there is a possibility that it could succumb to some sort of external pressure. That is not surprising and it contextually relates to his overall perspective.

"[E]very idea has some (...) proportion within it; however, it is also possible that this proportion is not in the idea, or at least not in it alone, but in ourselves as well. Only, it does not therefore have to be in us as something immutable, as something given in our nature, hence incapable of change or development; rather as something that is modified according to changing tastes, perhaps even according to fashions, keeping up with the spirit of the times (Zeitgeist)." (Schoenberg, 1983: 127; italics by me).

Thus, the fundamental logic behind the proportionalism that dominates music for a number of centuries—even after the Second Viennese School came up with its approach and methods—had been doubted. As I discussed above, the Twelve-tone system enabled us to reorganize mutual relationships within the very nature of musical material. That being said, it is related to the fundamental facets of musical elements such as the aesthetical position of tones within octaves, the importance of relationships between intervals, or even the relations between individual tones that—from the perspective of traditional music theory—belong to different keys. Schoenberg and his pupils asserted that the asymmetry inherently included within the Western music causes internal inequality which consequently results in an “enslavement” of the musical material. In other words, the system of harmonic dominance that was seen by these composers as purely asymmetric in relation to tones as fundamental building blocks of music was supposed to restrict the composer's freedom as well as the freedom of music itself. “Symmetry” and “regularity” were allegedly supposed to guarantee the final liberation of music from the oppress- ing rationalization that—furthermore—had lost its legitimacy and justification. On

41 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC the other hand, the rationalization conducted and advocated by the Second Viennese School was supposed to be rational-purposeful. That is, to serve a certain highly specific goal: to re-structuralize the relationships in musical material and thus enable both a piece of music and listeners to “become free”. However, it still remains quite questionable whether there really exists an ultimate freedom and equality within the musical structures even after the employment of the Twelve-tone method. Same applies for listeners' “perceptive freedom”. In the case of the former, a certain level of freedom might be found in the very process of composing because a composer is much less limited by deeply-embedded and conventionally codified perspectives on how to perceive sounding relations. In other words, the composer is not expected to tend to gravitate neither towards the keys nor the harmonic pillars that play a role in perceiving tense and release. In the latter, one has to point out that the perfect equality has never been reached. One of the reasons might lie in the observation that the human ear can only hardly resist its desire to satisfy the so-called developmental diversity. This principle is fundamentally based on prioritizing some parts over another, depending mostly on the level of pleasure involved.6 Since the system within which Schoenberg and his pupils operated is originally based on this principle—carefully designed and tested for several centuries of intellectual endeavor—it might seem relevant to question their own ability to escape it (cf. Weber, 1958: 102). Especially when taking into account that all these composers had been starting their musical careers as “traditional” composers and listeners as well. All that being said, it cannot be less surprising that Anton Webern himself admitted this little discrepancy:

6 This is, however, predominantly influenced by culture that cultivates the aesthetical norms among people.

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"Considerations of symmetry, regularity, are now to the fore, as against the emphasis formerly laid on the principal intervals dominant, subdominant, mediant, etc. For this reason, the middle of the octave—the diminished fifth—is now most important. For the rest, one works as before." (Webern, 1960: 54; note: originally presented in Webern's private lecture in 1932 in Vienna)

2. Mathematical and formal-logical principles. In his well-known essay, Max Weber opens up his comprehensive elaboration with the description of basic principles of tonal and octave construction upon which the Western music is based (We- ber, 1958: 3-10). In fact, it is a part of a much wider prequel to his sociological interpretations of Western music as a sociocultural phenomenon. What is the most important aspect to mention at this point is that Weber describes the well-known facts about how music was being logically and mathematically organized—and also how it all had evolved throughout the history of humankind to that particular point of state. Although it is a long-lasting and fascinating story, I am much more interested in how the Second Viennese School shifted the application of the rational principles of that kind to a brand-new level. I contend that their case reveals the way of how rational-purposeful action resulted in producing certain types of cultural artifacts which unprecedently emphasize the role of rationality in Western musical culture (cf., e.g., Weber, 1958; Feher, 1987; Segady, 1988; 1993; Turley, 2001; Botstein, 2010). In the previous section, I was primarily discussing the very fundamental rational means that were being utilized in the process of achieving both paradigmatic and aesthetical change. I suggested that these rational means manifest themselves in the ambition to liberate basic relationships within the structure of Western music. They ambivalently balance between at least two poles that can be categorized according to Weber's typological classification: rational-purposeful and value-

43 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC rational. In the case of the former, we can think of the use of literary texts in the Twelve-tone music where the content seems to be evaluated as a secondary aspect, following the functional role of text as such.7 In the case of the latter, let us remember those decisions and approaches dealing with the aesthetical aspects of tonal equality—they were apparently based on value attitude. In this section, I shall focus on another rational means that are of slightly different nature. One might say that in this case, we are dealing with tools. However, I would rather like to maintain the position that speaks for using the term means because it is more inclusive. Moreover, it suitably and more dynamically represents something that inevitably results in a desired goal. A tool—in its rigorous meaning— cannot guarantee such logic. Besides that, the term means is a well-established and consensually used concept in the social action theory, (see, e.g., Weber, 1978; Par- sons, 1949; Giddens, 1979, 1984; Stones, 2009: 83-105) so we can directly follow the prevailing theoretical frameworks. Thus, let me begin this discussion with defining the means we are dealing with in the given context. Those rational means that might be of our concern here deal with practical applications of mathematical or formal-logical principles employed in the process of composing the Twelve-tone music. In other words, they can be seen as the most no- ticeable expressions of rational-purposeful thinking and acting which we can observe when studying this music. They are explicit in its nature and they served just for the given purpose. What I understand by these can be summarized as following: (1) the very fundamental principle of mathematical permutation that was supposed

7 This, however, depends to a high extent on particular situations as well as on particular composers. Far from a position of enforcing reckless generalizations, I only try to emphasize some more or less obvious tendencies that were present among the composers of the Second Viennese School. Approaches to literary texts as autonomous medium differed primarily depending on the phase in which a composer currently was. Compare, for example, Alban Berg's atonal opera Wozzeck, finished in 1922 (see also his commentaries: Berg [Simms], 2014: 216-19), and Arnold Schoenberg's one act opera called Von heute auf morgen, finished in 1929.

44 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC to govern the creation of music from its smallest building blocks to larger segments giving a specific structural form to the piece (cf., e.g., Babbitt, 1960); (2) a system of complementary sets that constitutes the pitch-classes consisting of sets of similarities; (3) utilizing mathematical terminological and algebraic8 apparatus when composing the Twelve-tone music, i.e., a formal-logical system (cf., e.g., Morris, 2007). Eventually, in the original concept I would also include (4) the rigorously defined mathematically-based restrictions focused on organizing rhythmic and metric pa- rameters of a piece (cf. Schoenberg, 1983: 202-6; 1950: 108-9; Rosen, 1975: 47, 63, 103-5; Perle, 1962: 33-4). However, the last one is not so important since the School never really applied it to the practice. Hence, let me now focus on discussing the main three. By the principle of mathematical permutation, I simply refer to one of the already mentioned organizational postulates that were created as a guideline for Schoenberg's fellows. But not only—they are more than anything else a result of his rational and goal-oriented endeavor, of course. Clearly said, the principle involves basic operations with musical material, focusing on organizing the number of given elements within a given set of elements. Thus, such set might be defined as general formula that looks like as follows: 푀 = {푘1, 푘2, … , 푘푖}, 푖 = 12. Specifically defined, it might look like 푆 = {0, 4, 1, 3, 6, 2, 7, 8, 9, 푎, 5, 푏} (see Example 2 below). “S” stands for the label “Set,” while the numbers and the last two small letters represent all the tones originating in a thinkable twelve-tone row.

8 Here and onwards, I use the word algebra in all its forms solely as a label for mathematical notation consisting of both numbers and letters which is part of the elementary algebra as a basic branch of mathematics.

45 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC

Example 1 Possible tone occupations corresponding to each grade of a twelve-tone row

Example 2 The tone row composed out of the above-defined formula

The way how these tones could be potentially permutated might be calculated out of this formula: 푃(푛) = 푛!. That is the permutation without a repetition—it coincides with one of the Twelve-tone postulates requiring no repetitions of the same tone until the tone row starts again from the beginning. Hence, the permutation of twelve elements (notes) that a composer wishes to choose inevitably results in nearly 480 million (479 001 600) possible combinations available for him to be used in composing the melodic lines and motives.9

"[A permutation is a] finite sequence of length n in which all the elements are different, i.e., a permutation is an arrangement of n elements without repetition. The number of permutations is n!." (Mikheev, 2020)

9 For slightly different formula—a little bit easier to understand for those who are not so much familiar with algebraic formulas—see also Maor, 2018: 126.

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Example 3 Basic tone row in Schoenberg's Five Piano Pieces, op. 23; the fifth piece: Waltz

The second rational means mentioned above—the system of complementary sets—includes several aspects. As far as the reader has probably already realized, composing in the Twelve-tone method requires applying a systematic approach to organizing musical material that has its own inner logic. This logic consists of a group of rules which have determining character. That implies especially for the system of complementary sets. By these I mean mainly pitch-classes which can be understood from a certain perspective as vertical sets of elements. Furthermore, this logic organizes also the linear sets of tone rows. While in the case of the former we can think of, e.g., a vertical set of all Gs across the given range of octaves10, in the latter we can think of the fundamental four-group of tone-row sets. As I already mentioned, these are: (1) basic tone row, (2) inversion, (3) retrograde, and (4) retrograde-inversion. Schoenberg and his pupils called them “the mirror forms” (Schoenberg, 1950: 115). Additionally, Anton Webern stated in one of his private lectures in 1933 that this particular method was supposed to re- place the key. Besides that, he also pointed out to certain possibilities that stem from the permutation system:

"Now the analogy has still to be developed, starting from the Netherland- ers; the basic shape, the course of the twelve notes, can give rise to

10 “Given range” might include in this case only octaves that are sonically audible for the human ear. Theoretically, it might include all thinkable octaves.

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variants we also use the twelve notes back to front—that's cancrizan11— then inverted—as if we were looking in a mirror—and also in the cancrizan of the inversion. That makes four forms. But then what can one do with these? We can base them on every degree of the scale. 12x4 making 48 forms. Enough to choose from! Until now we've found these 48 forms sufficient, these 48 forms that are the same thing throughout. Just as earlier composition was in C major, we write in these 48 forms." (Webern, 1960: 41; note: originally presented in Webern's private lecture in 1933 in Vienna)

Example 4 Basic tone row (Schoenberg, 1950: 115)

Example 5 Inversion of the basic tone row (Ibid.)

Example 6 Retrograde set (Ibid.)

Example 7 Retrograde Inversion of the set (Ibid.)

11 “Cancrizan” is an archaic term which stands for the English word “retrograde”. The term originates in the traditional European musical-theoretical terminology. It is a compositional procedure where a particular motive is being exposed in a backward sequence compared to the original one.

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As it is apparent from Schonberg's writings—but also from those of Ernst Krenek (1939: 192-218; 1940), Heinrich Jalowetz (1944) or Hanns Eisler (1978)— certain position of dominance belongs in an entire system to mathematical logical apparatus. That brings us to the third rational means that deserves our attention at this point—i.e., the formal-logical system that helps in creating a sort of scientific approach to musical composition. The very existence of this apparatus as well as its meaning in this world of art lies in fulfilling the practical role of interconnecting the realm of intellectual ideas with compositional practice. It was supposed to serve as an instrumental communi- cator which justifies the functionality of the entire system. Furthermore, it was also meant to be used for comprehensive description of the relations within particular musical pieces, understandable predominantly to other composers. In this sense, it was not so far from being a scientific language: the language that is highly incomprehensible for society, but very functional and effective for the community. Accord- ing to Krenek,

"[The Twelve-tone music] shows interesting relations to the thoughts active in modern physical science. This does not mean that twelve-tone music has assimilated physics, or has turned into a new kind of mathematical operation. The example merely connotes similarities in habits of feel- ing, viewing, and thinking." (Krenek, 1939: 209)

“Sets”, “denominator”, “class”, “order”, “variable”, “invariance”, “function”, “permutation”, “combination”, “retrograde”, “equivalence”, “digit” and many others are terms originating in mathematics (cf. Morris, 2007: 83). For composers of the Second Viennese School, they served as descriptive terms for specific types of procedures applied in composing music or represented particular means dedicated to describing peculiarities within these procedures. It seems that especially

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Schoenberg as a father of the method had an interesting relationship with mathematical rationality. From his perspective, it was a transcendental form of language— with all its apparatus and terminology—that somehow speaks to our minds. A purely rational field where exactness is the primary and sole quality that really matters turned out to be in Schoenberg's view some kind of mysticism. Theodor W. Adorno tended to go a little bit further in his interpretations and asserted that interest in mathematics, in numbers and in so-called “logical positiv- ism” found their fertile ground among the Viennese intellectuals of the early 20th century for certain reasons. Adorno explicitly discussed the “mathematical musical techniques” to which this applies. He saw the reasons in conflicting discrepancy between the “intellectual production forces” and “material production forces” where the former was supposed to pull the shorter end. The eager “interest in numbers” was then a new ideal towards which Viennese intellectuals looked up to, Adorno says. Thus, they allegedly had only two options how to become a meaningful part of society with appropriate influence on its direction—(a) to become a part of production processes in an industry or (b) to pursue an intellectual profession in such fields like medicine, law or art. Especially within the last one they were supposed to be obsessed with numbers as something affiliated with money and power (cf. Adorno, 2018: 68). This Adorno's interpretation is pretty far from not being bizarrely biased. Only he knew why he thought about the issue in such a way. However, it still remains true that Schoenberg himself was really obsessed with numbers (Schoenberg, 1950: 56, 194) and, besides that, he also had experience drawing from both those intellectual worlds. He worked as a bank officer and subsequently became an intellectual figure—a musical composer. Schoenberg's attitude towards the mathematical rationality was thus interestingly ambivalent, sometimes seemingly purely rational than at other times. I interpret the former case as a profoundly functional approach— similarly as in the case of philosophy and application of the Twelve-tone method,

50 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC mathematical logic and its apparatus were supposed to play a role of mediators. I mean, something that allows an actor to reach certain goals. Schoenberg used to view the world through such a distinction where certain types of rationality were instrumental while the others were rather a sort of emotional “guilty pleasures” (cf., e.g., Shawn, 2003: 207).

"A diagram may tell the whole story of a game to a chess expert; a chemist recognizes all he wants to know by glancing at a few symbols; but in a mathematical formula are combined the distant past, the actual present, and the most remote future." (Schoenberg, 1950: 55)

In addition to that, Ernst Krenek in his famous book Music Here and Now written in 1939 admitted that the use of specific terminology that seems like taken from mathematics might not be necessarily understood as inherent to music as it appears to us. What I would like to stress out at this point is the little “match”, so to speak, that they mutually had with Schoenberg in terms of the nature of the position of mathematical apparatus within music. Krenek thought of it as of liberating rational means that, besides, also “simplifies” the nature of music from within (cf. Krenek, 1939: 214-5).

"In using words like 'consonance,' 'dissonance,' and 'contrary motion' to define the relationships of our musical thought-concepts, we obviously mean that these relationships are not inherent in the material, but that we add them to it. Their significance depends on how we define them. Anyone will probably agree that this interpretation applies to such 'artificial' concepts as 'inversion' and 'retrogression.'" (Krenek, 1939: 208)

In the Theory of Harmony, which is one of Schoenberg's most prolific and comprehensive theoretical works written and published in 1910/1112, the composer

12 Officially published by the Universal-Edition in 1922.

51 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC discussed the issue of mathematical thinking that is present within music as such. He saw musicians, composers, and theorists as driving forces in the whole process of music development. As he asserted, judging all those developments from the perspective of musicians and composers themselves—from the perspective of human beings—might seem a little bit overwhelming. In other words, he believed we tend to be overwhelmed by ourselves. But still, he tended to keep a room for something else, something that unbelievably surpasses us—the nature.

"Here they would have stopped, had the will and talents of the theorists prevailed! But they did not stop: they had discovered the scale; true, they did not understand how to find its fundamental tone, but they did what men have to do if they want to find out: they reflected upon it, they organized what they had discovered (kombinierten). What they did led them onto all the wrong paths, but perhaps also to a number of truths; they did what men always should and must do when intuition will give no more help: they took up crutches to walk, put on spectacles to see, enlisted the aid of mathematics and inference (Kombination). Thus emerged a marvelous system; measured by our intellectual and spiritual powers it is marvelous, but compared with nature, which works with a higher mathematics, it is child's play." (Schoenberg, 1983: 313)

I believe that this suitably illustrates how Schoenberg used to position himself into a role from which he aimed at achieving some ideals. The Twelve-tone method was nothing more than ideal. In conclusion to this chapter, a single and quite simple question naturally emerges: What does this all mean? Well, even though it might not be so obvious, establishing these rational means into the field of music composition indicates a profound shift in perceiving new possibilities of the early 20th century society. Apart from calling it symptomatic, we can also think of it as a long-awaited advent of highly rational, mathematical reasoning applied to music composition (Morris, 2007: 84). In other words, one might say that

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“music had finally lived to see the true application of mathematics in it”. But was it worth it? What was the primary goal of Schoenberg and his fellows when composing the Twelve-tone music in such a fashion? And how does it relate to the ideal type of Avant-Garde music as I am suggesting to employ? As far as we know—following on the available historical sources such as correspondence, theoretical works or available encyclopaedical contributions—Schoenberg literally struggled for constituting new musical language (cf., e.g., Schoenberg, 1950; Jalowetz, 1944; Leibowitz, 1975: 259, 264; Rosen, 1975: 46, 62; Simms, 2000). He was lucky enough to find several contemporaries who were of help to him in this chase. However, since it is more than clear that Schoenberg cleverly took advantage of the favorable circumstances of a “much wider phenomenon” that was represented by the “end of the long, grad- ual breakdown of tonality,” (Rosen, 1975: 27) we cannot blindly think about his endeavor as of solely unique original phenomenon that came from nothing but his mind. The Twelve-tone method—with all the rational means utilized in its development—came out of the crisis in music that culminated in Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Traditional dichotomy between the major and the minor broke down and the result in the form of extreme chromatism came to existence. This approach was a highly rigorous one—the scientific, highly rationalized way of treating musical material resulting in strictly organized notes which evoke extreme emotions. But there still remains just one tiny little paradox in mind. Despite the fact that the musical material in serialism is rigorously organized according to a group of several fundamental postulates, and governed additionally also by another set of rational means, a composer was expected to be freer than those born earlier. Following these few rules that were meant to guarantee an absolute freedom to all notes in an octave, a composer could choose how to compose. There should not be any constraints such as aesthetical conventions that needed to be followed.

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There should not be any sets of rules defining how to proceed when facing the dissonances, no rules for hierarchizing the harmonic functions or delimiting the roles of particular instruments. No extensive rules except those mentioned above which served, in fact, to rational purposes. Thus, the music that comes from this method is liberated from the oppressive traditional conventions that had allegedly depleted the potential of music as such. The question then is whether this “liberation” had its functional meaning in terms of the ontological aspect of music. Furthermore, did this music really include an inherent order? What type of order was it? Did it function only for the sake of music or for composers and listeners as well? Besides that, what does it mean for music and its listeners that the Twelve-tone composition had accomplished the “emancipation of the dissonance”? What if this entire endeavor resulted only in an “elaborate pretense at musical discipline: a congeries of rules, canons, and theories, and a mock exactitude which strives in vain to overcome the listener's sense of the arbitrariness and senselessness of what he hears” (Scruton, 1997: 471)? Let me finally conclude the whole chapter by the following paragraph. For the sake of addressing a single question that spontaneously emerges: What came out of this music, actually? Well, after 100 years, it is still being debated. In 1939, Ernst Krenek wrote that atonal music cannot be fully theoretically and ideologically grasped because it had “been practiced for only thirty years” at that time (Krenek, 1939: 208). Now, after those approximately 130 years, both atonal and the Twelve- tone music are at best not being performed. At worst, they are being hated. These types of music seem to be too emotional and tend too much to gravitate towards uncertainty that the human mind tries so desperately to avoid. Unfortunately, people strive to stay away from this "new, revolutionary invention," oftentimes compared to Einstein's Theory of relativity. Structural equality seemingly proved not to be working because people seem to need clear stimuli, guidelines and frameworks that prevent them from being lost. The Twelve-tone music rationally prioritizes

54 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC organization and ideology before peoples' pleasure. That's one of the reasons why we call it avant-garde. In the next chapter, I shall discuss further selected sociological issues related to the music that evokes so much controversy.

3.3.2 Further Selected Sociological Aspects Related to the Social Action

Following on the previous chapter where I predominantly discussed some rational means that I consider highly symptomatic and thus also important, this chapter is being dedicated to the discussion focusing on some further selected sociological aspects. These aspects might be categorized into three basic thematic groups: (1) ideal type of the avant-garde Twelve-tone music concerning related motivations to act and to produce meanings, (2) a problem of both individual and collective agency and its dynamics in the light of proliferation of avant-garde musical tendencies, and (3) phenomenological perspective on the lifeworld of music within which it all exists. The basic assumption might be then formulated as following: The degree and nature of rationality that seems to be pushed to incredible proportions within the Avant-Garde Expressionism—almost beyond the very limits of art—is a collective symptom of a specific way of thinking applied to music art. Furthermore, few will dispute the fact that it is also a symptom of an unprecedented strive for a new way of expressing emotions in music (cf. Scruton, 1997: 343; Rosen, 1975: 15-16, 27, 53). Let me try to tackle some issues that emerge from such assumptions. 1. Ambiguity of the avant-garde endeavors and attaching the meanings. As We- ber showed (1947, 1949, 1958, 1992; Waters—Waters, 2015), rationality is historically embedded within the Western society. I have previously argued that the Avant-Garde modern music aimed at skyrocketing rationality to a brand-new level. A spontaneous question then may be whether we can now classify the atonal and the Twelve-tone music as solely rational in its purpose-accomplishment. In other

55 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC words, was it proved to be a straightforward process or do we face a highly ambiguous dynamics of action? Furthermore, how “far” were they from the notion of avant-garde artists who aimed at changing both the paradigm and listeners' aesthetic perspective? Accord- ing to Scruton, “[a]vant-gardism can (…) never be the key to aesthetic renewal” because it “leads, in time, to the loss of an audience” (Scruton, 1997: 470). This must be, in fact, the basic starting point when thinking about the avant-gardism. In the case of the atonal and the Twelve-tone Avant-Garde music, it seems that implementing new elements into the environment failed not only in relation to listeners, but also in relation to musical practice. Many of the Twelve-tone compositions were created in such technically complicated manner that they cannot be performed even until this day. Regarding this fact, Arved Ashby once wittily asked: “But then what's the meaning of music that, even after nearly a century, still can't be played?” (Ashby, 2004: 66). Today, in 2020, the situation is by no matter of means different. It opens up a legitimate question concerning the ontology of such music (cf. Scruton, 1997: 470-1) and points out to the core problem of ideal-typical conception of avant-garde music. Furthermore, it also deals with the problem of how avant-garde motivations and intentions fulfill the notion of the types and what meanings produced alongside of the avant-garde efforts might be involved. In the chapter 4.2 Ideal-Typical Construction, I have pointed out that four basic aspects of avant-gardism gain power and meaning through related types of action. By this action, I mean mainly collective will to act in accordance with achieving particular types of projects. It is a subject of discussion in the next section how this action may be influenced by dynamics of agency, so let me first focus on examining the former issue. Instead of succumbing traditionally-based beliefs that directly govern one's action as can be seen in the case of religious asceticism during the advent of

56 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC capitalism (cf. Weber, 2002: 53-6), actors of the Avant-Garde Expressionism seemed to act primarily under the general cultural influence of the Zeitgeist that was compatible—from their perspective—with certain types of values. Even though their action was a mixture of such influence and various personal motivations, they seemed to be independent of any religious dogmas.13 I am suggesting that their strive for change and progress was not really motivated by any type of moral tradition that would oblige them to adjust their action to a certain fashion while accordingly requiring devotion to the commitment from next generations. What was peculiar for this case was fulfilling the notion of higher secular moral or ethical virtues instead of the notion of serving to a higher good. Schoenberg's, Berg's and Webern's tendency to employ moral and ethical categories into their en- deavors14 were most likely ex post products of both rationalization and justification of their intentions. Empowering such narrative was a part of an ideological contex- tualization of modern avant-gardism. Defining both artistic and intellectual reasoning of the School's avant-garde efforts is a peculiar task. I must emphasize at this point that this reasoning and related positions were by no matter of means consistent. Pure ideal types would suggest the opposite: that these composers must have been strictly following predefined goals, in a perfect rational manner, eliminating anything that might have threatened their plans. Fortunately, the reality was significantly different and a way more interesting. We can study this through these realms: (1) success of the method, (2) public success of the music produced by the method, and (3) successful fulfillment of expectations concerning the music's role as a historical game-changer.

13 Although Arnold Schoenberg was a Jew, and at the age of 24 had converted to Christianity (Neigh- bour, 2001: sect. 2, par. 7). 14 For more details and references, please see page 70.

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Firstly, the method had started to gain popularity among composers slowly at the end of 1920s. After the Second World War it became a “perfectly cosmopolitan method” and “common international compositional language” (Ross, 2011: 185). Secondly, the rigid and orthodox forms of the Twelve-tone music—which were highly elusive and expressionist—have never been publicly accepted because they aimed at resolving methodological, canonical and paradigmatic problems instead of offering a vital and alive piece of art (cf. Krenek, 1953: 526). The “humanized” form of the Twelve-tone music, represented mostly by Berg, comprehensively mediating musical meaning might be a different story (cf., e.g., Abraham, 2003: 734). Thirdly, few will dispute the influence that the Second Viennese School left on the 20th century music—including also such things as necessity of composers' en- gagement in critical reflection of their own music (cf. Gur, 2011: 267). However, the original utopian and ideological notions and goals have never been accomplished (Rosen, 1975; Dahlhaus, 1983: 39, 52; Scruton, 1997: 471; Rosen, 2000: 194-5). So, the method and the music produced by it were, after all, accepted by other composers not because of the “prophetic” potential that had allegedly supposed to stem from an inevitable teleological development promising the fulfillment of the necessity to change music. It was accepted thanks to a simple curiosity and a wish of not being outdated. Although Schoenberg significantly tended to pursue his own subjective goals, he still can only hardly be considered a perfect pioneer in pure sense. Same for Alban Berg and Anton Webern, or even for such followers as Hanns Eisler, Ernst Krenek or Kurt Weill. Speaking about the last one, albeit he never really composed the Twelve-tone music, he used to experiment with bitonal harmony, triadic atonality and jazz tim- bres in late 1920s (Robinson—Drew, 2001: sect. 6, par. 2). Like many others for various pragmatic reasons, he decided to stop composing—let me now paraphrase— an incomprehensible music that constantly needs special explanations (cf. Ross,

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2011: 188). Besides a wish to not spend one's own life in constant intellectualiza- tion, such a stance often included pragmatic motivations like a need to make a living. Especially Schoenberg and Webern criticized it: "Ambition or the desire for money stimulates creation only in the lower ranks of artists" (Schoenberg, 1950: 193). Here, we can observe a very implicit signifying of some extra meaning attached to the efforts—a true and historically significant musician would have never yearned for wealth and fame. His motivations are expected to be more “noble”, a “higher- purpose-like”. However, complaints about insufficient funds were not unusual. In 1911, e.g., Schoenberg wrote to Berg that he had to do a “work that is beneath” him which he found unfair due to his reputational “stature” (Schoenberg, 1911 [Brand—Hailey— Harris, 1987: 38]; see also Ibid.: 66). Hanns Eisler—known as one of the first Schoenberg's pupils who was "taught privately without fee" (Blake, 2001: par. 2)—allegedly had quite different motivations when decided to “betray” the method. He was not able to combine modernistic complexity with his leftist political orientation (Ross, 2011: 187). Schoenberg called him a “traitor” because Eisler kept claiming that he was essentially devoted to the method, but was not (cf. Ibid.). In the early periods of his career, Ernst Krenek belonged to a wide circle of avant-garde composers whose works experimented with what we call an extended tonality. Krenek was influenced by both Ferruccio Busoni and Franz Schreker (Bowles, 2001: par. 2). However, during the 1920s he had criticized the Twelve-tone method by saying that it is "the self-gratification of an individual who sits in his stu- dio and invents rules according to which he then writes down his notes" (Ross, 2011: 187). Schoenberg attacked him immediately by blaming him for servility towards popular trends. Then, after the 1930, Krenek "came back to the fold" and "took up twelve-tone writing" (Ibid.).

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These are only a few examples of different sorts of motivations that stood behind the disunity of modern avant-garde composers. They can also illustrate how fragile an avant-garde endeavor might be and how little is enough to not pursue pre- defined goals. Neither Schoenberg's nor Berg's main ultimate goal was really to be original and innovative. In 1946, Schoenberg confessed that he “belonged to those who did not care much about originality” (1950: 181-2). And it could not be truer—his counterpoint, forms, motivic and thematic developments intrinsically originated from the great traditions of baroque, classicism and romanticism. Pretty much the same applied for Berg who never really gave up his passion for the past (cf., e.g., Leibowitz, 1949: 190). Webern's trajectory was, however, more oriented to seeking the nov- elty—after becoming a student of his master, he practically entirely gave up composing in the “old styles”. What was truly original is the innovative approach to organizing tones. How- ever, one is forced to ask whether not enforcing avant-gardist strict approaches in all other facets of music such as those mentioned above is perfectly consistent with avant-garde ideals. It is more than clear that legitimization of pioneering position tended to happen only partially which is reasonably visible predominantly in the realm of ideology. The School had obviously decided to reflect the state of dissonances, which “grew out of a necessity” (Schoenberg, 1950: 103), although it was already in fact a matter of Occidental composers (cf. Weber, 1958: 73-4).15 So, were Schoenbergian endeavors really a matter of paradigm change or rather an aesthetical re-evaluation of canonical principles? Or both? And to what extent? Schoenberg repeatedly claimed that his novel music art is not for everyone which was reciprocally affirmed by many, including people from his broader circle of acquaintances such as Alma Mahler (cf. Keathley—McCoy, 2019). This flavor of

15 Of course, there is a great number of differences in these two approaches.

60 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC elitism corresponding with the ideal type of avant-gardism was supported also by such things as the Society for the Private Performance of Music. It was a private platform founded in 1918 focused on performing and reflecting music “withdrawn from the dictates of fashion” and “from the pressure of commercialism” (Rosen, 1975: 65). However, Schoenberg evidently craved for the success of his music, although he accepted his overall artistic exclusion and recognition failures—at least ostensibly. As it turned out, after the great success of Berg's Avant-Garde opera Wozzeck, premi- ered in Berlin, Schoenberg envied composer's success (cf. Ross, 2011: 194). This am- bivalence was apparent also in connection with other events and circumstances where the Avant-Garde master desired for appreciation (Stein, 1964: 29, 53, 290). The lack of public recognition during the early 1910s, e.g., had even forced him to move to Berlin (Ibid.: 20). The repeatedly declared School's core motivation was centered on personal expressiveness with no real ambition to move the music history. This might be rather false or, at least, highly ambiguous. Of course, there are plenty of such declara- tions from all three composers (cf., e.g., Schoenberg, 1950: 13; Webern, 1960: 42-3; Simms, 2014: 1). On the other hand, the effort they put in shifting the understanding of fundamental musical problems tells exactly the opposite story. If not something else, this ambiguity might be at least a testimony to uncertain maneuvering and clash of different motivations and stances. Around 191016, Schoenberg wrote to Alma Mahler:

“I do not want to be understood. I want to express myself—but I hope I will be misunderstood. It would be terrible if people could see through me. For this reason, I prefer to say something about my works that is technical, or aesthetic, or philosophical.” (Keathley—McCoy, 2019: 38)

16 The letter is not dated, so this is just an estimated date.

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Although these words have been written during the composer's atonal period, still a few years before he publicly came up with the Twelve-tone method, he had already been pioneering the avant-garde tendencies. One simply cannot overlook that such a position is in stark contrast to the music's paradigm change. Thus, here we can observe a brightly shining nuance that deflects the avant-garde course outside its trajectory. Similar to Schoenberg, but more than a decade later, Berg wrote to his master in a letter from 1926 that "it would have pained me dreadfully if it had been denied me to express myself musically this way" (Brand—Hailey—Harris, 1987: 348; italics by me). One could hardly take seriously the notion that an archetype of avant-garde musician—fully psychologically independent of his surroundings and not naturally expecting social reciprocity—is compatible with a real social world. Hence, one should not be surprised that any type of accomplishing such archetype is in fact accompanied by human diversity of action. Just like we can only hardly find someone who subordinates all his action to economic profit—homo economicus—, the same applies for this case. Schoenberg and his pupils have been selectively prioritizing their goal orientations, but could not really escape the fact that they were humans and so they faced the risk of not accomplishing especially the rational means-end goals. Thus, specific dynamics that can be observed in both individual and collective action of the three is a testimony to a wide variety of subjective intentions that must not have been conducted in accordance with the predefined projects. As I shall discuss in the next section, one of the many meanings through which composers of the Second Viennese School legitimized avant-garde endeavors was related to an archetype identity of a true artist. That helped them be in the constellation and allowed them to be justifiably. Thus, what are we really facing here is a complex social mechanism of self-maintaining the roles and identities.

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Just before moving to the next section where I intend to discuss the agency of these composers that contextualizes this issue, let me briefly summarize in advance the distinction between the two concepts. The following table might be at hand an- ytime one decides to make sure what is my position discussed in detail in the next section.

Table 2 Methodological Delimitation of Ideal-Typical Concept and Agency Concept

Orientation Differentiation Nexuses

Goal-, idea- & mean- Besides implicitly Collective action that ing-oriented involving mean- is being chosen in Individual and sub- ing-production, the process of ideal types also achieving ideally Ideal Types jective intentions aim at revealing typified constructs. ⇵ individually de- Particular types of sired goals mani- Cultural meaning. projects fested in action.

Positional- or rela- Agency describes tional-oriented actors' relation to- Strategy that is being wards the struc- chosen when trying to tures that they face, act independently Agency Individual actor(s) their capability to upon the position and ⇵ escape constraints pressure of the status Social environment respectively. quo.

2. Agency. Although concerned mainly with the principal issue of subjective meanings, I contend that it simply cannot be grasped without discussing the problem of agency. Agency, as I employ it in this thesis, stands for an individual's ability to independently act upon the foreground of sociocultural structures (cf. Giddens, 1979; Mouzelis, 1991; Archer, 1996; Barker, 2002; Turner, 2009).

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"Agency is to be understood (…) as the socially constructed capacity to act and is not to be confused with a self-originating transcendental subject. We are not constituted by an inner core that possesses attitudes, beliefs and the capacity to act; rather, we are a network of attitudes, beliefs, and so forth, that does act." (Barker, 2002: 13)

One has to take into account also a reciprocal and temporal dimension of agency which both shape agent's social reality: "agency is always a dialogical process by and through which actors immersed in temporal passage engage with others within collectively organized contexts of action" (Emirbayer, 1998: 974; italics by me). We can think of this “collectively organized context of action” as of avant-garde endeavors. Agency is both of rational and emotional nature. This is observable, e.g., when a composer engages its unique agency to deal with omnipresent sociocultural reality. He can do so by resistance, improvisation, innovation, creativity, or any such similar type of intellectual reflexivity (Mouzelis, 1991: 27-31 [Turner, 2009: 98]). Some scholars emphasize the role of “psychodynamics” as a component of individual experience because taking into account only rational and strategic goal-oriented action “do not comprehend the action” (Alexander—Marx—Williams, 2004: 26-7). The theory of agency enriches the general theory of social action by stipulating that action is closely intertwined with intersubjective relationships that are framed by particular time, space, and social configuration. Agency takes into account both positive and negative components of social action. It does not necessarily have to clash with the ideal-typical conception—to the contrary, they might complement each other. My position herein focuses on the triadic relation: ideal type of avant-garde music—types of actions—types of meanings. The problem lies in grasping the relationship between the ideal type of avant-gardism and the way how composers of the

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Second Viennese School behaved. Also, what was behind this behavior in terms of the meanings. While agency describes primarily the ability to act independently of the “big structures”, Weberian types help to tackle the social action that is "oriented to the behavior of others and to which the actor attaches subjective meanings" (Stones, 2009: 85). Every avant-garde music is expected to bind strong tendencies to reflect, crit- icize, experiment, and innovate. It is well worth noting that these aspects are of great importance in connection with agency of actors because these aspects presuppose independency. At least to a certain extent. Actor's agency aims at describing how his personal preconditions—within a particularly given sociocultural situation—move him closer to or away from what could be called a mastering the avant-gardism. I contend that agency does not apply only for the above-mentioned types of abilities. In fact, it stands for a pretty wide range of different aspects that might pos- sibly govern actors' will to act. Analytically speaking, agency is of “two-fold” nature, especially in relation to culture. Thus, agency might regulate effects that cultural system has on actors as well as vice versa (cf. Archer, 1996: 143). Since there are a great number of categories through which one could examine agency of composers of the Second Viennese School—which cannot be fully discussed herein anyway due to the space limitations—I decided to focus only on those providing some insights into their ability to act independently as well as to resist the surrounding cultural and societal pressure. By this I predominantly mean the way how the composers dealt personally with their pioneering positions. The following discussion cannot be perceived without following on the chapter Rational Means in the Light of the Avant-Garde Expressionist Music. One might find it interesting to start with recently published insights into the personal lives of the three that can be found in the Puffett's and Schingnitz's book

65 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC published earlier this year.17 At the very beginning of the chapter dedicated to Ar- nold Schoenberg, the writers claim that he had a “colossal ego” which tended to result in pretty high self-esteem. That allegedly had enormous impact on how he dealt with his surroundings in its entirety (cf. Puffett—Schingnitz, 2020: 35). It seems that the notion of being chosen for taking the history of music into his own hands was an authentic belief that stemmed from the archetype of avant-garde artist. "Once when asked if he was the famous composer Arnold Schoenberg, he replied, 'No one else wanted the job, so I had to take it on.' He became a classic without ever winning the ungrudging public acceptance granted to lesser figures" (Rosen, 1975: ix). Table 3 Demarcating Schema for Composers' Agency

An Individual Active Agency Collective Structures

Relates to composers as individual They legitimize the process of actors. It represents their ability maintaining existing sociocultural to resist the externalities such as rules, paradigms, canons, informal social and cultural pressure as attitudes etc. These structures tend well as structures involved in acti- to create systemic social frames Definition vating and reclaiming the pres- that enforce the status quo.

sure.

Strategies related to defending particular positions of composers Both professional and public atti- within society; can be of different tudes towards the novel and unrec- nature—both purely rational and ognized cultural elements.

affective. Manifestation

17 See the bibliography.

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According to many, the twelve-tone technique was widely rejected both Arnold Schoenberg's emotional and by listeners and composers be- rational coping with prevailing so- cause it was seen as “misguided cu- ciocultural discourse; also, with riosity, misplaced reverence for an critical reflections concerning his imposing ancestor, and snobbish own music. fear of appearing not to be up-to-

date” (Krenek, 1953: 514). His own positioning as a “prophet”, Some reasons for such rejection

Examples the leading figure of an irreversible might lie also in misrecognition of process of evolutionary develop- the newly-establishing aesthetic ment of music. He “thought of him- values (cf., e.g., Adorno, 2018) or in self as an inevitable historical unfeasible practical requirements force” (Rosen, 1975: ix). regarding playing serial music live (cf. Ashby, 2004: 66).

That the School is a group of geniuses pushing one exhausted era into the next one was essential for Schoenberg's students as well. Both Webern and Berg had mastered this narrative and defending the position of an inevitable return to counterpoint and structuration of chromatic pitch had been grasped also by Erwin Stein who once wrote that “the crisis of musical form through which we are going today may be compared to the transition period between Bach’s polyphony and the hom- ophonic style of the classics.” (Stein, 1924: 59-60 [Simms, 2014: 299]). Although Alban Berg was known as a calm, charming and cordial persona, he “knew very well who he really was”—he was self-confident (cf. Ross, 2011: 69) and if it was necessary for supporting the reputation of the School, he did not even hesi- tate to express cultural chauvinism. According to Berg, all other musical styles and contemporary tendencies than those represented and advocated by the School must have been seen as a threat to “German modern music” (Simms, 2014: 4-5). Although Berg was loyal to Schoenberg's utopic fantasies and ideology (Berg, 1911 [Brand— Hailey—Harris, 1987: 20]), his works have always somehow stood aside of the strict canonical principles of the Twelve-tone music. In fact, his mission was "to relate to

67 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC the past each new phase of the future of the Schoenbergian universe" (Leibowitz: 1949, 147). That might seem to be in a little contradiction to the notion of not being stylistically eclectic which was something being quite often criticized in connection with neoclassicist style (cf. Adorno, 2018: 135). Schoenberg used to systematically build an identity of the School by empowering its avant-garde reputation and spirit. Such process might be observable in his numerous commentaries in which he more or less explicitly defended the School's endeavors as well as its “mission” (e.g., Schoenberg, 1950: 13, 191; Ibid., 1983: 9, 326, 400).

"Evidently it [a new music] must be music which, though it is still music, differs in all essentials from previously composed music. Evidently it must express something which has not yet been expressed in music. Ev- idently, in higher art, only that is worth being presented which has never before been presented. There is no great work of art which does not con- vey a new message to humanity; there is no great artist who fails in this respect." (Schoenberg, 1950: 39)

Similar enthusiasm applies for the will to act independently. Schoenberg dealt with the problem of dichotomy between the emotional and rational nature of an artist's thinking. He thought of himself as a logical person (Schoenberg, 1950: 48-9) who faces a constant stigmatization of the public because “it is not generally agreed that poets, artists, musicians, actors, and singers should admit the influence of a brain upon their emotions" (Ibid.: 153; italics by me). Similar position belonged to Anton Webern who was known as the “rational man” (Ross, 2011: 68), and Alban Berg as well who used to express an extraordinary respect for mathematics and loved a complexity for the sake of complexity (Ibid.: 71). They all perceived such alleged “non-artistic” features as handicap excluding them from widely accepted stereo- types that were oftentimes a sort of “gate-keepers”.

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However, it sometimes seemed like Schoenberg had resorted to a pretense as soon as he found out that it might help him publicly (cf. Gur, 2009: 1; Thomson, 1993). In the early period of his atonal works, he used to portray himself as a spontaneous, authentic, even anti-logic and irrational artist composing free atonal music. On the other hand, during the late war times, he tended to openly portray his endeavors and works as “logical and rational consequence[s] of particular historical process” (Ross, 2011: 63-4). As time went on, he started to accept his role in music history. He was ambitious and he demanded the same goal-oriented determination from others around. "[H]e [a composer] chooses his way like a tourist (…) If only he never loses sight of his goal!" (Schoenberg, 1950: 86) Resistance to the artistic status quo is fundamental for understanding the nature of the Twelve-tone music as an avant-garde type. It was being consciously acknowledged also by its main figures (cf. Rosen, 1975: 6). As far as we know, the identity of a true artist who is forced to face “destructive” attacks of “critics, publishers, theater directors and actors” was lively discussed by Berg and his master already in 1911 (Berg, 1911 [Brand—Hailey—Harris, 1987: 4]). Such resistance that came into existence within the notion of suffering artist manifested itself also in various facets of music directly connected to the “radical” Twelve-tone method. This was undoubtedly driven by the relentless strive for progress. “Again and again, [Schoenberg] claim[ed] that tonality lost its grip as an organizing force in music and that the new method is nothing but its natural continu- ation" (Gur, 2009: 2). The School—stimulated ideologically mainly by Schoenberg—portrayed itself as an independent force fulfilling the destiny of organic development of Western music (Thomson, 1993). Such notion necessarily included the aspect of formal, moral and ethical superiority which was definitely something Schoenberg and his affiliated contemporaries ideologically utilized (cf., e.g., Ross, 2011: 72). However, instead of developing novel pioneering alternative to the status quo, what they had

69 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC really anticipated was in fact the future crisis of the Western music (Abraham, 2003: 713). Following on the identity of a true artist, "Schoenberg's aesthetics of musical progress, as formulated [mainly] in relation to Brahms, are distinguished not only by a specific compositional technique, but also by a certain relationship between composer and audience" (Gur, 2009: 9). That should be understood especially in connection with Schoenberg's opinions on the purpose of high art as well as the nature of “average listener” who was not expected to appreciate “new and complex” avant-garde music (cf. Schoenberg, 1950: 50-1). But not only—this narrative point- ing to the difficulties of persuading the public about the value of revolutionary endeavors was utilized also by Webern. In 1932, he came up with well-known, often repeated defense when turning attention to previous giants while reasoning that "Beethoven and Wagner were also important revolutionaries, they were misunderstood too, because they brought about enormous changes in style" (Webern, 1960: 45). Even though such stance might seem like a unique one, one can hardly overlook that it vividly reminds us of the 18th and early 19th century romantic construct of a genius "whose artistic and moral standards compel him to write music that is not easily accessible" (Gur, 2009: 9). However, what was fundamentally different in the period of the School was an overall sociocultural climate which was not really favorable for anything intrinsically exclusive and radically new. General public, widely accustomed mainly to the romantic tradition represented by music full of gentle and intimate emotions, was not expecting facing such unprecedented extreme change. Avant-Garde Expressionist music was structurally highly thick and very difficult to understand. Furthermore, it was not even possible to develop it without destroying the very nature of Western music as such (Abra- ham, 2003: 721). All these adverse circumstances and paradoxes had originated in the 19th century, but still persisted at least until the beginning of the next one. Hence,

70 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC the difficult relationship between artist and public accompanied the rise of disrup- tion of tonality and vice versa.

"[E]xpansion of the mass public interested in consuming art combined to make the normally difficult relation between artist and public a patho- logical one. The artist and his public each conceived the other as a threat. The artist’s answer to ideological pressure was one of deliberate provocation, while the public came to believe that a violent response to such provocation was a citizen’s right and even a patriotic duty. A conserva- tive taste in art seemed to many the last defense against anarchy." (Rosen, 1975: 8)

It seems that resistance and the will not to subordinate to social and cultural pressure came first as a symptomatic part of an artificially constructed problem. In other words, to be capable of delimiting ourselves against the status quo, they firstly must had defined the problem against which they intended to fight. Schoenberg's opulent obsession to remain in his own position despite the external pressure has manifested even after he had penetrated the foreign culture. From the USA, he wrote:

"I have known for a long time that I won't live to experience a wider understanding of my work and my much-acclaimed perseverance is an exi- gency based on the desire to experience it after all. I have set my goal high enough to assure that those who resist and even those who oppose me will of necessity reach that point at some time. Even parallel lines meet-as mathematics assures us-at such points, if one only has the pa- tience to wait." (Schoenberg, 1934 [Brand—Hailey—Harris, 1987: 453])

Both individual and collective agency of composers of the School might be understood as vehicles ready for coping with the problem. "Our age seeks many things. What it has found, however, is above all: comfort. (...) The thinker, who keeps on

71 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC searching, does the opposite. He shows that there are problems and that they are un- solved" (Schoenberg, 1983: 2; italics by me). The motive of resolution is one of the most important one within the whole phenomenon of the Twelve-tone Avant-Gardism. Resolving the problem of dissonances, the problem of hierarchies, internal musical relationships, the problem of proportionalism, but also such problems as freedom of a musician and a piece of music, freedom of expression and the problem of musician's role within society. All these are central to the Second Viennese School. Schoenberg and his fellows were the first ones who deliberately decided to solve the problems that were more or less urgent or real. They struggled for re-constituting the rules while cancelling the prevailing ones and introducing the novel. They seemed to aim at establishing both a new paradigm and canons, although the pursuing such goals was inconsistent. They literally craved for killing tonality—We- bern even symbolically declared that they “broke its neck” (Ross, 2011: 85). This was widely understood by these composers as an ultimate goal concerning creating unlimited unity “just because unity increases comprehensibility” (Webern, 1960: 32). What a paradox! Although the School's innovations had quite successfully re- sisted the ultimate rejection, one might say that they were accepted at best ambivalently. Prevailing paradigm and aesthetical consensus—the ones that still had not been definitely destroyed yet—seemed to view this Avant-Gardism as an artificial exercise performed on the level of pure constructivism; all those arbitrary clusters of tones were seen as meaningless (Abraham, 2003: 734). That's pretty much far from being “comprehensive”. The way of how particular avant-garde pioneers used to deal with resolving the established problems varied depending on their capabilities as well as individual motivations. It can only hardly be disputed that the three tended to proceed consensually in terms of their will to act independently of the environment. Hence, their

72 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC collective active agency was apparently effective and resistant enough thanks to the mechanism constituting identities through which they could both collectively and individually accept their avant-garde roles. Individual agencies were highly influenced by the time-oriented goal-seeking motivations and actions. That reminds us of inevitable inner dynamics that shapes people's action—and make it oftentimes opaque. 3. An epilogue: Phenomenological perspective. It is consensually accepted among scholars that composers of the Second Viennese School have formed an important body of intellectual movement that constituted a culturally unique fraction of philosophy of arts. When thinking about any conceivable possibility concerning the question of “Why music had been evolving in such a particular way?”18, one must take into account also a phenomenological aspect of the whole matter. In this closing part, I would like to focus on a few things: to discuss selected nexuses between Weberian perspective and Schutzian phenomenology, especially within the realms of ideal types and rationalization, and to broaden herein presented perspective by brief discussion concerning the “musical lifeworld”. As we know, Schutz followed up on Weber in many areas. Generally speaking, Schutz has done a deep examination of Weber's work when provided “a firmer epistemological and phenomenological grounding” for examination of social action (Psathas, 2005: 156). He systematically tried to generalize Weber's sociological approach to social action which coincided with his life-long approach to sociology that was based on thick philosophical foundations (cf. Schutz, 1977: 125). Such generalization might be seen, e.g., within Schutz's approach to ideal types. He did not think of this Weber's heuristic aid as “antithetical to phenomenology” (Flaherty, 2009: 222). To the contrary, he accepted it and he has developed the types

18 Which is, in fact, an alternative form of asking “Why have people been acting in such a particular way?”, since music can only hardly evolve without humans being an integral part of such process. For those who are not proponents of calling the process an “evolution”, one might offer a substitutive term: exists—i.e., music can only hardly exist… (for further discussion, see, e.g., Dahlhaus, 1983).

73 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC which were based on the “fixed and invariant” principles—the types that “do not refer to any individual or spatiotemporal of individuals” (Schutz, 1967: 244), by which he has rejected historicism. Also, Schutz extended the notion of inherent ambiguity to the very nature of action. Thus, not only the contents of actions are supposed to be unstable and opaque, but also the very course of intentional flow and events (Ibid.: 39). By the “content” of action I mean motivations that are behind it and subjective meaning that is attached to it or produced alongside of it. The very complexity and ambiguity of these might have been those aspects that motivated Schutz to formalize and generalize the methodological approaches (cf. Psathas, 2005: 162) that he found problematic in Weber's work. Schutz's phenomenological perspective has a lot of consequences in terms of social action. He emphasized the role of immediacy, and therefore predominantly tended to focus on the problem of everyday life. Unlike Edmund Husserl, Schutz's disagreed that “intersubjectivity is simply given in the nature of human consciousness” and, instead, argued that it is “accomplished through socialization” (Flaherty, 2009: 222). Such social interactions can be thus phenomenologically grasped as being part of the much wider process of spatial-temporal sharing of experiences within the reality. This idea of social intersubjectivity necessarily applies also for the case of the Second Viennese School. We can think of it in context with so-called “typified forms of meaning” that Schutz employed when tackling a duality of social meaning which was supposed to be organized within the “categories of familiarity and strangeness” (Zaret, 1980: 1192 [cf. Schutz, 1962: 16, 134]). From this perspective, both paradigmatic and canonical ideal types of avant- garde music—always understood jointly—can be grasped as typified forms of particular sets of meanings. It was the notion of the novel collective expression, of the change—a sort of cultural shift—as well as the notion of the “privileged position”

74 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC that was supposed to belong to the operational palette of the School's composers. It was the meaning of cultural representation that mattered the most—the very process of internalizing the idea of representing specific types of values and “modus operandi” that made the composers historically significant figures. Of which they were quite unquestionably aware of. As we saw, it was accordingly and effectively utilized what had tended to gravitate towards familiarity. The specific spatial-temporal constellation enabled the composers to take advantage of the opportunity to change perspective on both composing and listening to music. As I have shown illustratively in the first section, there were also many of those who have additionally rejected the affiliation to the Avant- Garde movement as well as its ideas. This is, obviously, the other side of the coin— all those typified forms of meanings were too “strange” for them to be involved. And that could also be, of course, completely motivated by a pure and straightforward means-end rational approach. Intersubjectivity, as understood by Schutz, is to a great extent primarily a matter of practical processes. Weber was concerned with meaning, but tended to observe it from too far away and thus failed to recognize practical intersubjective interactions that shaped actors' thinking and behavior. Schutz seemed to follow up more directly on the Hegelian notion19 describing how we collectively think about us under the influence of consciousness that is built up on a mundane life (cf., e.g., Schutz, 1962: 29-30).

"[T]he world is from the outset not the private world of the single individual but an intersubjective world, common to all of us, in which we have not a theoretical but an eminently practical interest. (…) We have

19 Although it is only rarely recognized that one of Schutz's distant influences might have been Hegel. However, in a more general and broader sense—regarding the above-mentioned notion—one would find an implicit link between the two. Hence, let's take this only as a marginal suggestion for now.

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to dominate it and we have to change it in order to realize the purposes which we pursue within it among our fellow-men." (Ibid.: 208-9)

This is especially important in connection with the possibility that actors might be “actively engaged in construction and use” of the ideal types (Psathas, 2005: 163). This Schutz's idea makes the concept of types not phenomenologically interesting regarding only the analyst's position, but also that of actors. Schutz simply maintained the position that Weber's way of analyzing the social world, when focusing on an individual actor as a unit act, was too much dependent on distant constructivism that does not really coincide with a “common-sense thinking of man within everyday life” (Schutz, 1962: 334-5). While for Weber such a unit act20 stood for an individual actor, Schutz understood it as “processes of meaning-estab- lishment and understanding occurring within individuals” (Zaret, 1980: 1190). Schutz repeatedly criticized Weber for the lack of interest in meaning that a certain action has for the “actor's partner or a neutral observer” (Schutz, 1962: 57). In fact, Weber's Verstehen seems to be more focused on the attachment of meanings by actors. “Schutz claimed that Weber was not concerned with the subjective meaning of action but 'with the external course of the act quite apart from any concern with the conscious experiences of the actor'" (Zaret, 1980: 1191). The central question thus is how is the meaning produced. For Schutz, the starting point was intersubjectivity21 and immediacy. However, few will dispute the fact that it remains highly complicated to conduct such analysis ex post. Some might even object that the past is inevitably excluded from such analysis (cf. Bakker, 1995: 198). Hence, although an analyst may have some insights into how the mutual dynamics worked between Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, he is forced to limit himself to philosophical and methodological aspects of the problem. Nonetheless, this

20 That is a basic unit of analysis. 21 That might be represented by unique relations between the composers, mutually intertwined within the realm of the specific spatial-temporal constellation.

76 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC should not be surprising since Weber's sociology aspired to be mainly the historical science emphasizing individuality of laws while Schutz aimed at rehabilitating We- ber's ideal types “as a method of theory rather than history” (Koppl, 1997: 69). When it comes to the problem of rationality, Schutz first of all tended to emphasize the uniqueness of purely rational action in our lives. Following on the famous Parsons's definition of rational action (cf. Parsons, 1949: 58), Schutz stated that "[i]n our daily life it is only very rarely that we act in a rational way" (Schutz, 1943: 134). Moreover, he claimed that "the concept of rationality has its native place not at the level of the every-day conception of the social world, but at the theoretical level of the scientific observation of it" (Ibid.: 143). Hence, scientific approach can only hardly grasp all the ambivalent nuances that emerge from achieving interpretation of rational action. Neither phenomenology, as belonging to the realm of “non-rational” disciplines, can do so (Schutz, 1970: 46). All the various methodologies—including that of Weber—are scientist's “pupils” (Ibid.: 149). After all, similar position belonged to Weber when he thought of the types of rational action as a reference frame and emphasized that they should not put us off the scent in our quest for valid interpretations (cf. Weber, 1949: 99- 100). It still remains quite disputable of what nature the rationality of the School's composers really was. Its greatest manifestations remind us of the disenchant- ment22 that Weber described and popularized (cf., e.g., Weber, 1946: 139-40; Weber, 1978: 506-7), i.e., the scientific-kind-of understanding of treating the music that has inevitably resulted in strict rational art. In Schutz words, this phenomenon might be considered a process of “the transformation of an uncontrollable and unintelligible world into an organization which we can understand and therefore master, and in

22 Weber actually used a German term “Entzauberung” which is supposed to literally mean "de-magic- ation" (Chua, 2016).

77 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC the framework of which prediction becomes possible” (Schutz, 1943: 136; italics by me). All this is quite evident in what the Expressionist composers achieved for— including the very strong motive for resolving and mastering the world of music. On the other hand, there is this oftentimes repeated desire to express oneself emotionally which is something that has no real intrinsic affiliation with any type of paradigm change as a rational project. This discrepancy reminds us of the clash between rational (mythical and reputed) and irrational world (naturally embedded within human society and never really “defeated”) (cf. Horkheimer—Adorno, 2002). Schutz claimed that "the ideal of rationality is not and cannot be a peculiar fea- ture of every-day thought, nor can it, therefore, be a methodological principle of the interpretation of human acts in daily life" (Schutz, 1943: 142). By this statement, he had anticipated what was later widely accepted as a critique of Weber's types, concerning prioritizing the rational-purposeful action.23 It must be noticed that this necessarily applies also for the actions of the School. Instead of “isolated rational acts” that might have governed the composers' behavior, Schutz prefers the concept of a “system of rational acts” (Ibid.: 143). Nat- urally, it is desirable to extend this system also by purely irrational acts because that is how the social reality of the given microworld probably really worked. Hence, it might rather be a “system of highly diverse acts” where rationality plays only a par- tial role. Regarding the rational means as manifestations of some of the intentions Schoenberg and his fellows had, Weber has recognized its origins and pointed out to the very phenomenon of a shared common-sense. He even expressed some con- cerns that “musical rebels” who aimed at transcending “the limits of tonality and its

23 An attentive reader, however, surely noticed how Weber explained this.

78 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC inherent rationality” (Feher, 1987: 152) might have seriously questioned the very fundamentals of our cultural nature.

"These modern movements which are at least in part the products of the characteristic, intellectualized romantic turn of our search for the effects of the 'interesting,' cannot get rid of some residual relations to these fundaments [traditional rational order], even if in the form of developing contrasts to them." (Weber, 1958: 102; italics by me)

I suggest that this nature primarily consists of a peculiar phenomenon that is profoundly embedded within the consciousness of Western society. That is, the nexus between the idea of an absolute gradient of progress and the typified archetype of civilized man. An intellectual reasoning that is formed around this very profound idea oftentimes took for granted such a progress as infinite. Also, it is usually being expected that there are some pioneers which will stand at the foreground of the “march of progress” (cf. Weber, 1946: 139-40). Thus, from such perspective, an “intellectualized romantic turn of our search”, as Weber wrote, might be a very natural consequence of our cultural development. A sort of teleological process that is primarily oriented to clear means-end solutions. However, such an idea has to be necessarily contextualized with a specific lifeworld. Schutz argued that the very dynamics of intersubjectivity that produces our collective and mutual understanding of actions generated by both sides of inter- action is based on the system of typification. Thus, Weber's Vesterhen—understood as an epistemological problem—is rooted in what we might consider a lifeworld in its broader sense (Schutz, 1962: p. xxxv). The School shared a common sense of history and viewed it in a peculiar relationship to current time and space (cf. Ibid.: 116). This is quite well observable in those insights that illustrate how Schoenberg, Webern and Berg understood their position within the history of music as well as how they used to frame their roots in the scope of the present.

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Schutz discussed in this connection the “transcendental subjectivity”, i.e., a subjectivity that somehow relates to everything around upon which the social world must necessarily be constituted (Ibid.: 121; Schutz, 1970: 116). However, there are few important assumptions: “the assumptions of the constancy of the structure of the world, of the constancy of the validity of our experience of the world, and of the constancy of our ability to act upon the world and within the world” (Schutz, 1970: 116). There are two basic types of experience within the lifeworld: those within our reach and those without. Within the former one, composers mutually shared a “common span of time” (Ibid.: 119) and space, and actively and operatively interacted in it. Within the latter one, composers shared a knowledge about life-worlds beyond their reach and interpreted it depending on their interactions and shared attitudes. When speaking about Weber, one might consider such a lifeworld to be vividly present in his analysis of Protestantism (Weber, 2002; see also Hall, 1981: 138). The sects were supposed to act upon a specific constellation of sociocultural environment while interpreting their own “mission”. The phenomenology of a lifeworld aims at tackling interactions and collective thinking that is expected to produce certain types of meanings. In this sense, any lifeworld allows to produce cultural meanings that can be understood as “contents of signification (however theorized) that inform meaningful courses of action in historically unfolding circumstances" (Hall, 2000: 331). Similarity of experiences might then be a fundamental building block upon which a cultural meaning as a typical interpretation of objects, subjects and events is constructed (cf. Strauss—Quinn, 1997: 6). The School's musical lifeworld is thus a crucial phenomenological aspect that has to be taken into account when thinking about why the composers acted in such a particular way. Also, how the lifeworld within which they were embedded allowed them to produce meanings that defined their behavior. As I have shown, some of the most crucial phenomena that were involved in this are (1) identity creation, (2) a

80 CASE STUDY: THE TWELVE-TONE MUSIC unique mixture of character traits, (3) suitable and favorable cultural conditions for compositional experimentation, and (4) relatively high level of curiosity present among the young generation of European composers between the Wars. Cultural meanings might be then framed by the unstoppable propensity for progress and the remaining meanings produced within the units of individuals may be unified under the leitmotif of insubordination. These were apparently the central stimuli shaping the musical lifeworld of the Second Viennese School.

81 CONCLUSION

4 Conclusion

Let me briefly summarize the thesis and its findings. As I have shown, rationality did play an important role in the process of shifting approaches towards the music composition among the composers of the Second Viennese School. It is especially apparent in how these actors utilized rational means when pursued the pre- defined goals. I have discussed that there exist two basic realms within which such behavior manifested: (1) rational means concerning the structural proportionalism and mutual relations, and (2) those of mathematical and formal-logical principles. Both these approaches were completely novel in terms of their complexity and sys- tematicity of application within music composition. Both these realms utilizing the given means directly resulted in certain types of ends that impacted the meaning of a composition by shifting its role. The Twelve- tone music had suddenly changed the paradigm through which composers had been creating by then. This paradigmatic change stood for the re-constituting the very nature of music organization as well as the role of composition. The main goal was to liberate the dissonances and equalize all tones, intervals and entire structure upon which the Western music is based. That required a comprehensive system based on the existence of complementary sets, permutation principle, and formal- logical system. According to the demarcating aspects of the ideal type of avant-garde music, these efforts were innovative, reflexive, and experimental. Although they bound related types of behavior, the composers still seem to be avant-gardist only partially. As I have shown, paradigmatic and aesthetic implementation of particular ideals that were supposed to resolve problems “produced” by previous epochs were not necessarily successful. The main reason lies in an unpredictable and unstable nature of human psyche. It permanently interfered with composers' actions and thus oftentimes made impossible to pursue rationally-defined goals that would have made

82 CONCLUSION them the “pure types” achieving for perfect cultural shifts and turns with far-reaching impact. Composers' lifeworld consisted of many different intentions and motivations that took part in creating a highly ambiguous social micro-drama shaped by intersubjectively reasoned meanings of action. I contend that Schoenberg and his fellows only selectively and inconsistently accomplished their artificially constructed and desired reputation, although it is un- disputable that they have been pioneering musical culture in many ways. I have argued that an important part of the whole issue was their agency as well—i.e., their capability to act independently of the sociocultural structures. They have diverged from the trajectory of meeting the notion of pure types because of their incapability to fully resist pragmatic and emotional pressure that was tied up to their very existence. In fact, this observation could not be more natural. A leitmotivic desire for constant progress that had been previously observed by them in science, bureaucracy or political affairs suddenly became central also in the sphere of music culture. The School aimed to be one of the main pioneering forces within this strive. I have discussed that monistic, teleological, rational-purposeful and scientific-like nature of the behavior might be considered a symptomatic cultural meaning. Such is the thinking related to roles, meanings, purposes and contents of the Twelve-tone music. Composing it thus meant enabling the meaning to be visible and recognizable for the community and wider public as well. The relationship between this means and the composers is thus defined as a complementary nexus between two entities, while the latter one is a living social force striving for consistent accomplishment of ideal types. It is a matter of an ontological turn when the composers became mediating entities framed by the cultural axioms, drawing them into the process of co-creating the Western narrative of rational progress, while they alone intentionally strove for accomplishing the notion of enlightened geniuses.

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90 INDEX

Index

A G Abraham, Gerald Ernest Heal ...... 58, 69, 70, 72 Giddens, Anthony ...... 44, 63 Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund .....27, 30, 50, 66, 67 Gur, Golan ...... 12, 58, 68 Alexander, Jeffrey Charles ...... 64 Apel, Willi ...... 37 Archer, Margaret Scotford ...... 63, 65 H Arens, Katherine ...... 12 Hagel, Stefan ...... 25, 37 Ashby, Arved ...... 12, 22, 56, 66 Hailey, Christopher ...... 59, 62, 67, 69, 71 Hall, John R...... 80 B Harris, Donald ...... 59, 62, 67, 69, 71 Hasegawa, Robert ...... 24, 27 Bakker, Johannes Iemke ...... 76 Headlam, Dave...... 24, 27 Barker, Chris ...... 63 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich ...... 75 Bauman, Zygmund ...... 12 Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von ...... 40 Berg, Alban Maria Johannes.... 40, 44, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 67, 68 Blake, David ...... 59 J Botstein, Leon ...... 43 Jalowetz, Heinrich...... 48, 53 Bowles, Garrett ...... 59 Johansson, Lars-Göran ...... 12 Brand, Juliane ...... 59, 62, 67, 69, 71 Brunero, John ...... 34 Busoni, Ferruccio ...... 59 K Keathley, Elizabeth...... 60, 61 C Kolodny, Niko ...... 34 Koppl, Roger ...... 76 Călinescu, Matei ...... 30 Krenek, Ernst Heinrich ...... 48, 51, 54, 58, 59, 66 Cook, Nicholas ...... 12 Kubátová, Helena ...... 17, 20 Covach, John ...... 28 Kuhn, Thomas Samuel ...... 12

D L Dahlhaus, Carl...... 11, 58, 73 Lakatos, Imre ...... 12 Doorman, Maarten ...... 12, 30 Lansky, Paul ...... 24, 27 Drew, David ...... 58 Leibowitz, René ...... 53, 60, 67

E M Einstein, Albert ...... 54 Mahler, Alma Maria...... 60, 61 Eisler, Hanns ...... 48, 58, 59 Maor, Eli ...... 37, 46 Martindale, Don ...... 36, 37 F Marx, Gary T...... 64 Marx, Karl Heinrich ...... 11 Feher, Ferenc ...... 43, 78 McCain, Kevin ...... 12 Flaherty, Michael G...... 73, 74 McCoy, Marilyn ...... 60, 61 Freud, Sigmund ...... 11 Morris, Robert Daniel ...... 45, 49, 52 Mouzelis, Nicos ...... 63

91 INDEX

N Scruton, Roger ...... 24, 37, 54, 55, 56, 58 Segady, Thomas W...... 43 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm ...... 11 Simms, Bryan R...... 26, 27, 28, 44, 53, 61, 67 Skovajsa, Marek ...... 18, 20, 21 Stein, Erwin ...... 61, 67 P Stones, Rob ...... 44, 64 Parsons, Talcott ...... 18, 34, 44 Strunk, William Oliver ...... 37 Perle, George ...... 24, 27, 39, 40, 45 Perotinus, Magnus ...... 37 T Poggioli, Renato ...... 12, 30 Psathas, George ...... 17, 22, 73, 74, 75 Thomson, William Ennis ...... 68, 69 Turley, Alan ...... 43 R Turner, Bryan Stanley ...... 63 Riedel, Johannes ...... 36, 37 W Robinson, J. Bradford ...... 58 Rosen, Charles Welles 11, 28, 45, 53, 55, 58, 60, 66, Wagner, Wilhelm Richard ...... 70 67, 69, 71 Waters, Dagmar ...... 55 Ross, Alex ...... 57, 58, 59, 61, 67, 68, 69, 72 Waters, Tony ...... 55 Weber, Max ...... 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 33, 36, 42, 43, 44, 55, 56, 60, 64, 73, 74, S 75, 76, 78, 80 Sachs, Curt ...... 25 Webern, Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von .... 40, 42, 47, Samson, Thomas James ...... 30 48, 57, 58, 60, 61, 67, 68, 70, 72 Scheffer, Franz ...... 11 Weightman, John ...... 30 Schoenberg, Arnold ..... 11, 12, 14, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, Weill, Kurt Julian ...... 58 35, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 66, 67, Williams, Christine L...... 64 68, 69, 71 Schorske, Carl Emil ...... 12 Z Schreker, Franz ...... 59 Schutz, Alfred ...... 15, 29, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79 Zaret, David ...... 74, 76