Course Code: MU2316 0.5 Status: Option (Honours) Value: Title: The Second Viennese School Availability: Autumn or Spring Prerequisite: None Recommended: None Co-ordinator: Professor Jim Samson Course Staff: Professor Jim Samson This course will: Aims: • contextualise the achievement of the Second Viennese School within music history and cultural modernism • explain the special workings of serialism, including invariance, combinatorial method, permutations and troping • examine the serial music of all three composers as species of Neo-Classicism • evaluate the Schoenberg legacy By the end of this course students should: Learning Outcomes: • understand something of the complex relation between compositional and contextual histories of music • have a basic knowledge of the particular configuration of Viennese modernism, and of the reciprocity between music and the other arts • have a clear grasp of the technical workings of the twelve-note method, and of the different uses of it made by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern • be in a position to trace some of the lines connecting Schoenberg’s music to the new music of the 1950s and 1960s, and to the music of today The course will include the following: Course Content: • An account of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century background, including the construction of a German tradition, the sidelining of Vienna by German nationalism, and the Jewish character of Viennese modernism. • The tonal music of the three composers approached by way of close-to-the text analyses of the styles and structures of certain key works, notably the first two string quartets of Schoenberg and the Piano Sonata of Berg. The declining structural weight of tonality and the gradual emergence of alternative constructive methods. • The pre-serial music of Schoenberg (1908-13) approached from three complementary perspectives: the ‘weight of the past’, the influence of an Expressionist aesthetic, and the quest for new principles of construction. The relevant works of Berg and Webern will then be considered, allowing their very different projects to be identified. Key works to be discussed will be Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, Berg’s Wozzeck, and Webern’s Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 10. • An introduction to the serial method and to the appropriate presentation of serial note- counts. Special uses of serialism will be discussed in relation to all three composers, and the technical and aesthetic implications of the method, including its inherent Neo- Classicism, explored. Changing phases of serialism will also be traced, and some of the 'Classical' serial works analyzed. These will include Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31, Berg’s Lyric Suite, and Webern’s Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24. By way of summarizing the findings, the course will critique the concept of a Second Viennese School, with some reference to the first school. There will be some reflection on its contribution to musical modernism, and some assessment of its impact on the later development of 20th- (and 21st-) century music. Teaching and 20 hours of lecture-seminars, with formative activity including seminar presentations, with Learning tutorial support and feedback. Each of the sessions is divided into two equal parts. During the Methods: first part a general lecture is given, and during the second there are (unassessed) seminar presentations from at least two students. Seminar presentations will be subject to critique both from the tutor and from other students. In ideal conditions, this critique will be beneficial in the preparation of coursework and examinations. Presentations contribute to some 130 hours of private study (an average of 12-14 hours per week spent on reading, preparation and written work etc. and including private tutorials), resulting in the notional total of 150 hours of study for the course. Bailey, K., The Twelve-note Music of Anton Webern (Cambridge, 1991) Key Bibliography: Haimo, Ethan, Schoenberg’s Serial Odyssey: The Evolution of his Twelve-tone Method Oxford, 1989) Jarman, D., The Music of Alban Berg (London, 1979) Perle, G., Serial Composition and Atonality (London, 1962) Schorske, Carl E., Fin-de siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture (Cambridge, 1981) One 2500-word essay to be written during the course and contributing to the final course In-course mark; the essay to be returned with tutorial mark and written comment, together with Feedback: annotations to the text as appropriate. See also under Teaching and Learning Methods. Exam: 2 questions from 6 in 3 hours (50%) Assessment: Coursework: One essay completed during the course (50%) Deadlines: The essay to be submitted by the appropriate in-course deadline in order to qualify for final submission for assessment. .