Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Busch-On The Horizontal and Vertical Presentation of Musical Ideas and On Musical (1985)
Busch-On The Horizontal and Vertical Presentation of Musical Ideas and On Musical (1985)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/946351 .
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Tempo.
http://www.jstor.org
ON
THE
AND
HORIZONTAL
VERTICAL PRESENTATION
OF
MUSICAL
IDEAS
and
on
Musical
Space
(I)
Regina
Busch
'HIS OWN ATTEMPTSAT EXPLANATION,just like his compositional work, lend themselves to
to frighten people; at all events it does not make things easy for them. It has not become
familiar, or at least not self-evident, even to experienced interpreters.
Above all, it is hardlyloved-and the blame for this cannotlie only with the fact thatit
is mostly performed badly and without understanding.It seems only to give genuine
pleasureto a very few, and often not even then as music but more as an elitist occasion.
Access to this music is thereforecertainlynot easy. But providedthat one doesnot propose
simply to forget, displace, ignore or proscribeit, but regardsit as interestingand full of
promise(not merely significant),one will nonethelesshave to involve oneself andactively
come to terms with it. Webern's own statementscould facilitate this access and provide
helpfulcommentaries,especiallyif one does not get on too well with the scores,but only as
long as they are not robbed of their possible causes of misunderstandingand their
contradictions.Holding fast to the inconsistenciescould turn out to be more revealing,as
far as the understandingof his music and its general evaluation are concerned, than the
applicationto it of decisive interpretationmodels in which problemsand difficulties are
degradedinto errorsandaestheticflaws. Forit cannotsurelybe a matterof ascribinga place
in (musical) history to Webern and then consigninghim to the historical records?
Webern's 'attemptsat explanation'have in general sufferedthe samefate as his music:
they havebeen kept at a safedistance,or repelledaltogether.The vocabularymainlyusedin
talkingand writing about the music is peculiarlyneutral,cautious-one might almostsay
timid. The concepts have a sterilizingeffect upon the way the musicis heard,bluntingthe
effect of the sounds,blurringthe music.At any rate-and thiscan even be heardin the most
obscure interpretation-they are remote from the music and inadequateto it. They only
mirror the perplexity that Webern's music causedand causes;they do not removeit. The
conviction (which is widely disseminated)that one cannot, on the other hand,get on well
with or close to the music with 'traditional' music-theoretical concepts or ways of
describingmusic-and these after all includeWebern'spreviously-mentionedattemptsat
explanation;attemptswhich may not even be intendedto explain!-is in no way basedon
the actualexperience of the music. One may even askwhetherit reallywas thismusic-or,
more generally, non-tonal music-that provoked the re-examination, modification, or
even the throwing overboardof the concepts.
It is nonsensicalor falsifying-so it has been argued, for example, in connexion with
Webern-to apply the traditionalconcept of a period (a concept directed above all at
regularity) to him; it is similarlyheld inappropriateto speak of sonata form, unless one
means an ABA form in the most general sense-that is, once again in that neutral, and
perhapsalso neutralizing,sense. This kind of argumentcan be appliedconcerningvirtually
every music-theoreticalconcept to almostevery music:a consequenceof the naturallyand
inevitablycomplex relationshipof theory to thatof which it is a theory.Whether, over and
above this, the relationshipbetween musical circumstancesand 'traditional'concepts is
especiallyproblematicin the case of Webern, andwhy andto what extent, would firstneed
to be found out. Be that as it may, Weber, Schoenberg,Berg (and some of their pupils)
have spokenand written about their own music with the help of these concepts, to which
they, too, have linked concrete musical experiences concerning 'traditional'music. To
renouncethe use of this terminologybefore testingit-and this would, after all, also mean
giving up certain ways of thinkingand hearing-would be a luxury, or a sacrifice that
would only be worth while if one thenunderstoodthe musicandenjoyedit better. And that
is by no meanscertain:up to now, at any rate, we havenot got any furtherthanintellectual
satisfaction.To expect no more from a musicologicalengagementwith Webern,however,
is surelyalso an exampleof'stupidity in music',in the senseof Eisler'scategoryas described
by Karoly Csipak.2
2German'Dummheit'-see Karoly Csipak, 'Problemeder Volkstiimlichkeitbei HannsEisler'(HannsEislerand
the problem of popularity)in Berliner
ArbeitenVol. 11 (Munich1975);Karoly Csipak, 'Was
musikwissenschaftliche
heisst "Dummheit in der Musik"?Uberlegungenzu HannsEislersMusikdenken'(What does 'stupidityin music'
mean?Reflectionson HannsEisler'smusicalthinking),in Notizbuch5/6: Musik,edited by ReinhardKapp(BerlinVienna, 1982), pp.175-202.
Yes!
TEMPO
TEMPO
finally, too:
The chromaticpathhasbegun, i.e. the path that entails stridingforth in semitones.(LectureII, with referenceto
Brahms'sGesangderParzen).13
It is not only important that the formulation 'Composition in Twelve Notes'can be readily
joined onto the above formulations and functions in a suggestive way; it is above all
important that the conception which Webern arouses or addresses by means of these
formulations is a spatial conception. One might say even one with some degree of
concreteness, insofar as this spatial conception enables the 'concrete' musical experience of
music that 'is in C major' to be communicated by analogy. This becomes plain if one reads
the lectures through for the formulations tied to spatial conceptions. It is, of course, true
that our vocabulary, at least as soon as thinking is concerned, is in any case tied to spatial
conceptions; and perhaps music, which is known to have 'a close relationship with time', is
especially affected by the fact that temporal and spatial relationships can only be conceived
and described in dependence (including linguistic dependence) on each other. Weber's
"In Arnold Schoenberg,GesammelteSchriften,edited by Ivan Voytech (Frankfurt, 1976), pp.272-282.
12Cf. Hans and Rosaleen Moldenhauer, Anton von Webern.A Chronicleof his Life and Work, (New York, 1979),
pp.373f. Schoenberg's suggestion in the following sentence is quoted from p.374.
"My translations.-M.G.
MUSICAL SPACE
And the idea that the note-row shouldtake over certainof the functionsof the foundation
note is soundedin formulationslike: 'The twelve notes in a quite specificsequenceform the
for the whole composition'(LectureVI), and:composingor inventingis 'founded
foundation
on the row' (Lecture VII).13
in space':that is alreadya different spaceor spatialdomainthanthe one in
'Suspended15
which a piece is situatedif it is 'in a key'. Whetherit is tonalityin generalor a particularkey
that yields the space in a given case cannot be clarified here. But the space in which the
foundationnote referred to is floating15seems to be an altogetherdifferent kind of space
(the meaningis not merely that of 'extended'tonality),a spacenot formedout of tonalities.
The way in which the twelve notes, which now have 'equalrights'and 'haveenteredinto
their dominion'(LecturesIII,V), relateto thisspaceor are locatedin thisspaceis againonly
metaphoricallyexplainedby Webern: 'The row in its originalformandat its originalpitch
gains an analogousrole to that of the "principalkey" of earlier music;the "reprise"will
naturallyreturnto it. We close "in the samekey"!'16(-a quotationfromTheMastersingers,
in which the formulations'in' a key, 'in' twelve notes resonateonce more. Schoenberg,
incidentally,had also quoted the sameplace in similarcontexts:in the chapteron closesand
and at the beginningof the essay 'Problemeder Harmonie'
cadences in the Harmonielehre,
Erwin
of
Stein, in 'Neue Formprinzipien',hadalso alludedto it with
Harmony);
(Problems
'You set the rule yourself and then obey it'.17)At the end of his secondlecture-series,in
April 1933,Webern once more took up the earlier conception:'As earlierone wrote in C
major, so we write in these 48 forms'. Otherwise he generally employed Schoenberg's
'compositionwith twelve notes'. Whether it was Schoenberg'slecture in Vienna at the
beginningof 1933that causedhim to changehis formulation,or he had chosen the version
with 'in' for didacticor similarreasonsin the first lecture-seriesonly, cannotbe determined
at present. Spinner and Reich have assuredme in letters that there was no difference
between 'in' and 'with', or that the differencewas negligible. In our context, however, in
which we are concerned(amongstother things) with changesin spatialconceptions,it is
perhapsuseful to rememberthat at one time both formulationswerein use.
Webern'sexample of the ash-traywhich, from whatever sideit is viewed, remains'the
same' (Lecture VII, 1932)is also of significancefor the conception of space. In the essay
'Neue Formprinzipien', Stein reports that Schoenberg once picked up a hat during a lecture
and turned it 'in all directions': 'Do you see-this is a hat, whether I look at it from above,
from below, from in front, from behind, from the left, from the right; it is and remains a hat,
even if it looks different from above than from below'. Schoenberg always held firmly to
this example with precisely this description: in 'Composition with Twelve Tones (1)'
(1941/50) we have knife, bottle, watch; in the draft for this (1934) watch, bottle, flower.
14German
'Grundton','Grundtonart'.I have chosen 'foundation'in preferenceto the usual'fundamental'because
the latter word has (at least in common usage) lost the literal connotations'ground','earth'(underfoot)and the
derived connotations 'cause', 'reason (for)' of the German 'Grund'-M.G.
15'Suspended
tonality'is Schoenberg'sEnglishphrasefor 'schwebendeTonalitat'. 'Hovering'or 'floating'ismore
exact: '...floating in space...'.-M.G.
16'Wir schliessen im gleichem Ton'.
TEMPO
MUSICAL SPACE
TEMPO
10
(It strikes thirteen.) Thirteen.-Not,
As late as 1932, Schoenberg pointed out similar circumstances in his second orchestral song
from op.22, composed at almost exactly the same time (30 November 1914-8 January
1915):
...or, however, one has, as in an aphorism or, too, in the lyric, to invest every smallest component with such a great
richness of relationships to all the other components that the minutest change of position allows as many new
shapes28to be seen as in other contexts does the richest working-out and development. The shapes are then situated
as in a cabinet of mirrors and can continually be seen simultaneously from all sides and display relationships in all
directions.29
The difference from the ideas of Balzac/Swedenborg is not only a matter of the conflict,
mentioned above, between a centre-point conception and one of ascending degrees.
Schoenberg's space is not one in which terrestrial conditions are put out of action or at least
have become irrelevant; it is not described negatively ('no up, no down', etc.), but is a space
with other (than the usual) properties, but quite 'concrete' ones: in one direction it sounds
single-voiced, in another polyphonic-but the directions can evidently be distinguished
from one another. 'Altogether, it has countless directions, and every single one can be
perceived.' Countless: that is not anything uncertain, unlcear, unfocussed-just'countless'.
That for Schoenberg unusual spatial conceptions could be based on, as it were, real
experiences, is shown by his description of Loos's architecture:30
His houses are conceived of in three dimensions from the beginning, instead of being thought of in terms of a series
of planes fronted by a facade. They are so constructed that, with the use of only a few occasional steps, one can
proceed from the first floor to the second without being conscious of the change. Uncle Arnold compares them to
once.
sculptures made of glass, in which one can see all the angles at
Really conceived three-dimensionally, a glass space in which one can see all the angles at
once, or, as in Totentanz, in which it sounds single-voiced in one direction, polyphonic in
another, in which everybody sings something different but believes himself to be singing the
same: these conceptions paraphrase one of the principal properties of Schoenberg's and
Webern's musical space, the one which finally also makes possible the synthesis of the
horizontal and vertical presentations of a musical idea. Schoenberg laid this down in the law
of the unity of musical space; he was conscious of the fact that 'absoluteness'and 'unity'are
closely related.
(To be continued)
28'Gestalten'.
29My translation-M.G.;
Claudio Spies.
see also leaflet in record-set The Music of Arnold Schoenberg,Vol.III (CBS): notes by