Schoenberg's Twelve-Tone Music

Contents

• 1. Musical idea and symmetrical ideal;
• 2. Suite for Piano, Op. 25: varieties of idea in Schoenberg's earliest twelve-tone music;
• 3. Woodwind Quintet, Op. 26: the twelve-tone idea reanimates a large musical form;
• 4. Three Satires, Op. 28, #3: the earliest example of the 'symmetrical ideal' in a (more or less) completely combinatorial context;
• 5. Piano Piece, Op. 33a: the 'symmetrical ideal' conflicts with and is reconciled to row order;
• 6. Fourth String Quartet, Op. 37, mvt. I: two motives give rise to contrasting row forms, meters, textures and tonalities (and are reconciled) within a large sonata form;
• 7. Moses und Aron: an incomplete musical idea represents an unresolved conflict between communicating with God using word or image;
• 8. String Trio, Op. 45: a musical idea (and a near-death experience) is expressed as a conflict between alternative row forms.