1/XII/99: Tonal Relations in Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht"

Author(s): Richard Swift

Source: 19th-Century Music , Jul., 1977, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jul., 1977), pp. 3-14
Published by: University of California Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/746766

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 1/XII/99: Tonal Relations in

Schoenberg's Verkliirte Nacht

RICHARD SWIFT

nineteenth-century
December 1899, emotionally if not legally the compositional practice is
confronted,
end of the old century, was the month in which embraced, and resolved: trans-
two compositions were completed that formed
wouldby its twenty-five-year-old autodidact
composer with an astonishing power and vir-
point the direction for much of the dawning
century's music: Claude Debussy's Nocturnes,
tuosity of compositional thinking. And yet, de-
spite its popularity in the concert hall-a fact
almost ten years in the process of composition,
and Arnold Schoenberg's Verkldrte Nacht,
often regretted by Schoenberg-the composi-
tional of
composed during that autumn of 1899. Each ordering of the internal relations of Ver-
klarte Nacht has remained almost uncharted
these compositions has been said to be indebted
to Wagner, the headiest musical forceterritory.'
of the While clinging to the bounds and
nineteenth century: Nocturnes to Parsifal,
Verkldrte Nacht to Tristan und Isolde. Even
as received opinions go, this falls far short of'Exceptions
the include Andrew Porter's youthful essay with
its comments on relations among motive contours, Arnold
mark; it serves here as a reminder of the muffled
Whittall's discussion of relations among the early chamber
critical attitudes typically applied to much
music of Schoenberg, and Philip Friedheim's unpublished
study of Schoenberg's early music which pioneered in
turn-of-the-century music. With its subtle,
acknowledging the sonata structure of Verkldrte Nacht.
luminous and subversive evasions of conven-
Andrew Porter, "Modern German Chamber Music," in
tional late nineteenth-century tonal and struc-
Chamber Music, ed. Alec Robertson (Harmondsworth,
tural processes, Nocturnes-especially Nuages 1957); Arnold Whittall, Schoenberg Chamber Music (Lon-
don, 1972); Philip Friedheim, Tonality and Structure in the
and Sirenes-would seem to be the more drastic
Early Works of Schoenberg (Ph.D. dissertation, New York
of the two works. In Verkldrte Nacht, however,
University, 1963).

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19TH expectations of triadic tonality and book
tonalonstruc-
Schoenberg,3 tried to make point-to-
CENTURY ture, it suggests, through its paradoxical combi-
point identifications between the poem and the
MUSIC
nation of rigor and ambiguity, the music
air of inother
the approved nineteenth-century fash-
planets that would await its composer,
ion, andasSchoenberg
well himself, despite his fixed
as the art and craft of music, in the awakening
disavowal of such equivalences, wrote program
twentieth century. notes as late as 1950 that attempt a similar set of
Schoenberg's obeisance to the nineteenth
connections.4 Much earlier, in a 1912 essay in
century's treasured notion of "program Die Blaue Reiter, he had stated unequivocally
music"
in Verkldrte Nacht, and later in Pelleas und his opposition to program music of the common
Melisande, is far more subtle than that of most variety: "The assumption that a piece of music
of his predecessors or contemporaries. The must summon up images of one sort or another
symphonic poems of Liszt and his epigones are ... is as widespread as only the false and banal
often makeshift affairs, the texts an effort to can be."5
plaster over the seams of the music with literary As he transcended program music in Ver-
vinegar-and-brown-paper. Often texts purport- kldrte Nacht, so Schoenberg also transformed
ing to have some connection with the music many compositional techniques of the im-
were added later. Naturally enough, composers mediate past. The music of the sextet does not
of such program music offered other, rather no- slavishly imitate models, but it does owe much
bler, reasons for their reliance upon texts or to the music of Brahms and Wagner, "to which a
upon literary and historical references: the flavor of Liszt, Bruckner, and perhaps also Hugo
"new music" of the mid-century had believed Wolf was added."6 Having confronted and hav-
such programs were enough to guarantee its ing mastered those techniques-including
novelty, its estrangement from the "classical" modes of thematic construction and combina-
past, its adherence to imagined "precepts" of tion, of development and extension ("Brahms's
Berlioz, Schumann, and the Beethoven of the technique of developing variation"7)-the
Pastoral Symphony. For many composers, youthful composer achieved an intensely per-
though, programmatic texts remained an easy sonal style. Gone were the times of blind parti-
means of assembling otherwise unrelated mu- sanship for either Brahms or Wagner, for "what
sical materials. Tchaikovsky, at work on Ro- in 1883 seemed an impassable gulf was in 1897
meo and Juliet in 1869, received this advice from no longer a problem."8 The stylistic and techni-
Balakirev: "Determine your plan. Do not worry cal accomplishments of those masters could
about the actual musical ideas."2 Such a cold- now be blended without hesitation, for there
wasa no longer any incongruity in their propin-
blooded dismissal of the musical generation of
quity. Later, in "Brahms the Progressive,"
composition would have repelled Schoenberg;
Schoenberg analyzed types of thematic con-
for his sextet, he chose a poem with internal
structural relations that could be correlated struction to be found in Brahms's music. Many
with purely musical processes. The music is not
a meandering fantasy or loose improvisation il-
lustrating an anterior verbal plan, but a deter-
mined manifestation of the tonal principles of
3Egon Wellesz, Arnold Schoenberg (London, 1925).
sonata structure. If the music does suggest the
4Arnold Schoenberg, notes for Verkldrte Nacht, 26 August
action of the poem and its psychological mo-
1950, in the booklet for "The Music of Arnold Schoenberg,"
vol. 2, Columbia Records M2S 694. Schoenberg wrote that
tion, it does so because the structural processes
the music "does not illustrate any action or drama, but is
of both the poem and the music, consideredrestricted to portray nature and to express human feelings. It
abstractly, are similar. Egon Wellesz, in his
seems that, due to this attitude, my composition has gained
qualities which can also satisfy if one does not know what it
illustrates, or, in other words, it offers the possibility to be
appreciated as 'pure' music."
SArnold Schoenberg, Style and Idea, 2nd edn., ed. Leonard
2M. D. Calvacoressi and Gerald Abraham, Masters of Rus- Stein (London, 1975), p. 141.
sian Music (New York, 1936). 6Ibid., p. 80. 7Ibid. 8Ibid., p. 399.

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of these-such as model and sequence, incom-
plete sequence, the extension and expansion of
thematic contours by diminution or augmenta-
tion of temporal patterns-are similar to the es-
sential thematic unfoldings, continuations and
developments of Verkldrte Nacht.
To cite a specific case, the melody in exam-
ple 1 unfolds downward-leaping fourths that
expand to fifths and sixths in a sequence (mm.
259-61) whose half measure is a diminution of
m. 255. The climax of the melody (mm. 262-64)
combines upward fourths and downward fifths
in a rhythmic structure that includes both the
previous eighth-note pattern and an irregular
diminution of m. 256. The final descending
scale in even eighths smooths out the linear and
rhythmic angularities of the melody (ex. 1):
p xi
8va.----------------------------
Dehmel, who had expressed the pleasure given
RICHARD
relationships of one diatonic scale segment (ut-
SWIFT
re-mi-fa) nested in the perfect fourth. The pro-
Verklarte
found effects of this scale segment in shapingNacht
the musical structure and its textures can be
traced both in relations among strands of pri-
mary and subsidiary motivic material and in
large-scale tonal relations, while local tonal
connections unfold a network of parallel inter-
vallic relations.
To have begun by emphasizing the purely
musical aspects of Verkldrte Nacht is not to
minimize the importance to Schoenberg of the
poetry of Richard Dehmel. "At the end of the
19th century, the foremost representatives of
the 'Zeitgeist' in poetry were Detlev von Lilien-
cron, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Richard
Dehmel."9 Between 1897 and 1907, according
to Jan Maegaard's brilliant reconstruction of the
chronology of Schoenberg's music,1' Schoen-
berg completed or sketched fourteen settings of
Dehmel's poems, in addition to sketching two
uncompleted orchestral works and composing
the sextet. Three of these settings were com-
pleted shortly before or during the composition
of Verkldrte Nacht: Warnung, op. 3, no. 3; Er-
wartung, op. 2, no. 1; and Erhebung, op. 2, no. 3.
In 1912, Schoenberg replied to a letter from
him by a recent performance of the sextet:

Your poems
Example 1 had a decisive influence on my develop-
ment as a composer. They were what first made me
try to find a new tone in the lyrical mood. Or rather, I
found it even without looking, simply by reflecting in
music what your poems stirred up in me. People who
know my music can bear witness to the fact that my
Schoenberg was to dub G
first attempts to compose settings for your poems
basic shape, that rationali
contain more of what subsequently developed in my
rials of music made to create relational con- work than there is in many a much later composi-
nections at every level, to make richly con-
tion.11

gruent compositional contexts. Hierarchical

reduction as a critical tool was deduced from
The estimate of the importance of Schoenberg's
Dehmel settings in the development of his style
this fundamental and universal aspect of com-
positional thinking; in the twentieth century,
reduction becomes a primary mode of ap-
prehending works of art (in music, from
Schenker onward) and, in an extended interpre- 9Schoenberg, notes for Verkldrte Nacht, Columbia Records,
tation, a mode of comprehending the relations op. cit.
of human nature in the world (from Husserl m0Jan Maegaard, Studien zur Entwicklung des dodekapho-
nen Satzes bei Arnold Schoenberg (Copenhagen, 1972).
onward). When applied to the music of Ver- 11Arnold Schoenberg, Letters, ed. Erwin Stein (London,
kldrte Nacht, reduction reveals the inter- 1964), p. 35.

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19TH III. 1above
contained in the last sentence quoted Zwei Menschen
has gehn durch nebelnassen Hain
CENTURY not been surpassed by later critics. Richly
MUSIC Zwei Menschen stehn, als sei ein Schwur ge-
worked-out contrapuntal textures andfallen.
a dense
allusiveness of pitch and interval relations
make the settings of the Dehmel poems in opera
2, 3 and 6 far superior to the settings
Similarof other
constructional ingenuities are shared by
texts in the same collections, admirable aspoems
the other thesein the novel; they are typical of
may be on their own terms. Dehmel's poetry.
Despite the present low ebb of his The
literary
Verkldrte Nacht poem, printed in the
reputation, Dehmel's poems enjoyed score consider-
of the string orchestra arrangement, has
able vogue in pre-World War I Germany irregular lineand
groupings-six lines for the open-
Austria. Their mildly erotic tone ingcombined
description of the physical scene, twelve
with striking post-Baudelairean and post- lines for the woman's confession, four more
Nietzschean sensuousness of imagery and lan- lines of description, eleven lines for the man's
guage to give an impression of sexual candor so avowal, and a final three lines affirming their
typical of Jugendstil. The poem that serves as union-and a rhyme scheme which illuminates
point of departure for Schoenberg's sextet was line structure with pairs of rhymes at the begin-
published with the title Verkldrte Nacht in the ning of each division, intricately unfolding
first edition of Dehmel's collection Weib und rhymes for the woman's speech, and tightly en-
Welt (1896), and later was incorporated into his
folding rhymes for the man's. The "double" ex-
verse novel Zwei Menschen (1903).12 Although position of the poem, with direct speech of the
the novel postdates the composition of the sex-
woman and the man, must have provided an
tet, it exhibits a pre-compositional planning
impetus for Schoenberg's novel structure-a
that must have appealed to the composer. pair
It of sonatas with contrasting, although
consists of three parts, each containing thirty-
closely related, motivic materials and tonal re-
six poems (Vorgdnge) of thirty-six lines each.lationships.
A It must also have suggested the
twelve-line Eingang precedes each part; there combining
is and blending of motives from the
an eight-line Leitlied at the beginning, andfirst
a sonata with those in the second. The great,
four-line Ausgang at the end of the novel. Allu-
if simple, shift of mode from predominantly
sions and resonances among words and themesminor in the first sonata to predominantly
abound among the poems in the three parts of major in the second serves to emphasize the rel-
the novel. For example, the first poem in eachative rhythmic and melodic incompleteness of
part has beginning and ending lines that echo the first and the relative rhythmic and melodic
back and forth, like a transformed refrain: completeness of the second. The development
of these contrasts is resolved in the tonal seren-
I.1 Zwei Menschen gehn durch kahlen, kaltenity of the coda.
Hainm.
Although usually described as being in five
Zwei Menschen gehn durch hohe, helle Nacht. sections, Verkldrte Nacht consists of the two
intimately related sonata movements, the first
II.1 Zwei Menschen reiten durch maihellen Hain of which has a truncated-if not to say im-
pacted-recapitulation of first group materials
Zwei Menschen reiten in die Welt.
only. The two sonata structures are preceded by
an Introduction, and they are linked by a Transi-
tion in which the materials of the Introduction
'2Verkldrte Nacht appeared on p. 61 of the 1896 edition of return in a tonal area made important in the
Weib und Welt; it was removed from later editions after
Zwei Menschen was published serially in Die Insel, Introduction (bvi) and are provided with a new
1900-01 and in book form, 1903. I am indebted to Barbara cadence. Sonata II has a normal recapitulation.
and Roland Hoermann (who are not responsible for opinions (References are to the sextet; measure numbers
expressed here) for discussions of Dehmel's poetry and the
fin de sidcle German literary world; also to Dorothy Swift are the same in the string orchestra arrange-
for her usual invaluable help and advice. ment.)

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Introduction (1-28) i (D minor) successors-Schoenberg was to transcend by RICHARD
SWIFT
such means the tonal principles of sonata Verkldrte
Sonata I Nacht
exemplified by the neo-classicism of Brahms,
Exposition
Bruckner, and Strauss.
First Group,Part 1 (29-49) i
Part 11(50-62) bvi In its simplest form, the global tonal scaf-
Bridge (63-104) folding of Verkldrte Nacht can be reduced to:
Second Group (105-132) II i-II-(i)-III-iv-I, or ut-re-mi-fa. This scale
Development segment permeates the fundamental linear and
Part 1 (132-168)
vertical progressions of the entire sextet. It is
Part II (169-180)
"Recapitulation" (shortened) the primary element of the Introduction, whose
First Group (181-187) i falling scale motive ranges over the "tonic
hexachord" (the sixth to first scale degrees), ini-
Transition (188-228) bvi tiating a contour that is at once incomplete-its
many repetitions arouse anticipation for com-
Sonata II
pletion of the scale pattern-and static. At m.
Exposition 13, completion seems near, for the motive
First Group (229-244) I
Bridge (244-48) V of iii moves to the "dominant hexachord" (third
Second Group (249-277) III downward to fifth scale degrees); but the shift
Codetta (278-294) III of V-bIII of V involves a conflict over the raised and lowered
Development forms of the sixth and seventh scale degrees, a
Part 1 (294-319) bIIIl-V conflict that serves to extend the sense of scalar,
Part II (320-340) III of V-V
Recapitulation as well as motivic, incompleteness. Rhythmic
First Group (341-363) I fragmentation, arising from the amassing of
Bridge (363-369) one-measure units, creates a temporal breath-
Second Group (370-390) I-(bIII-i-iv)-I lessness that will not be dispelled fully until the
Coda (391-end) I broader and rhythmically more stable expanses
of Sonata II are reached.
Reduction of Tonal Plan:
While it is in the nature of introductions to
First Sonata Second Sonata
i- II- (i-bvi) - I- III- (iv) - I expose weakly shaped contours and im-
mediately unresolved harmonic contexts, the
motives and progressions that occur in Sonata I
"The very essence of romance is uncer- itself are scarcely more complete, giving rise to
tainty," Algernon remarks in The Importancethe uncertainty that is so prominent a part of
of Being Earnest-a principle those composers
the character of this music. The first group sen-
commonly called Romantic were quick totence dis- begins with a continuation of the one-
cover. Algernon would have been the first to unit inherited from the Introduction,
measure
recognize the pleasures of uncertainty in andthe
the sentence motive is repeated rather than
tonal ambiguity of the first movementtransposed.
of The bass line is formed from an in-
Schumann's Fantasy, or in the tensions of the of the chief Introduction motive; its as-
version
cending diatonic scale pattern in-at first-
open structure of the first song of Dichterliebe;
he might have been slower to perceive one-measure
the units serves to emphasize the am-
biguous nature of the sentence itself. The ca-
clouded whole-step progression from the begin-
dence
ning to the end of Tristan. For Schoenberg in the of the first group (end of m. 57-m. 62)
sextet, the shaping of rhythms, motivepresents
con- the whole step in the melody with
thirds in the opposing bass; the whole step is
tours, and local tonal relationships are contin-
gent upon uncertainty and its capacity forthen
am-used as the basis for the sequence of aug-
biguity. In Verklirte Nacht, the first of his chords and chromatic motives that
mented
one-movement sonata compositions-Pelleas concludes the exposition, a sequence proceed-
und Melisande, the First Quartet, and the First ing by whole steps in each of the voices (mm.
Chamber Symphony are prominent among its 128-31).

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19TH The most remote tonal relations,mote
theas most
this section must have seemed at its
CENTURY complicated chromatic inflections, the first performance, it fits smoothly into the
MUSIC
lengthiest of delays in resolving non-chord compositional processes of the music; the dis-
tones in the sextet are rooted firmly in thesonance treatment employed is far more rigor-
plainness of diatonic reduction. Certainly theously and exactingly controlled than in many
passage that begins the development of Sonata Ianother less tonally vagrant section of the
(mm. 135-52) is the furthest removed from an music.
encompassing triadic tonal area of any in Ver- At the center of Verkldrte Nacht (m. 188ff),
kldrte Nacht. In "How One Becomes Lonely,"there occurs the section-the Transition-that
Schoenberg compared this passage with a simi- rounds off Sonata I and at the same time links
lar passage in the Fourth Quartet as an instancethe two sonatas together. Again, the whole step
of "more violent expression."13 In the sextet, itsand diatonic scale segment provide the essential
expressive role is clear because its structuraltonal scheme. The music returns to the down-
function as the commencement of the ward scale motive from the Introduction, a re-
development-the area of a sonata inturn which
prepared for by a long, almost unaccom-
wide-ranging tonal movement is expected-is panied, passage. This thirteen-measure passage
clear. The section consists of a complex seg-
(mm. 188-200) conveys in petto the subtlety,
ment of music that is repeated a whole step
strength, and originality of Schoenberg's man-
higher. Each of the elements of thener of evolving melodic contours and contra-
segment
functions within the framework of a diatonic puntal voices, demonstrating anew the essen-
scale segment. First, there occurs a linear con-tially diatonic nature of the musical elements,
tour that creates the effect of appoggiatura- however transmuted by chromatic inflection
resolution by half step-a Neapolitan-derived (ex. 2):
scale-degree relation-to the members of the
Cg-minor triad. When the last member (E in
this spelling) is reached, the other voices have 188 E 198x 201
changed so that the meaning of the final resolu-
tion (mm. 135-36) becomes ambiguous. This
process is followed immediately by a descend-
ing contour incorporating an augmented triad
within its pattern and harmonized by minor and
diminished triads. The second element consists
of an expanded version of the motive of the sec- Example 2
ond part of the first group, here heard in con-
junction with an expanded version of the
appoggiatura-resolution pattern (mm. 137-40). The downward motion of the recitative-like
The final element consists of a shortened ver- melodic line and its bass contains the ur-motive
sion of the motive from the beginning of theof a diatonic scale segment forming a perfect
first group with a chromatic scale anticipation,fourth (two whole steps and a half step). The
its model and sequence moving by whole step passage
in may be considered a paradigm of those
all voices (mm. 141-43). The normalizing fundamental elements, a compositional reduc-
characteristics of the diatonic scale segments, tion that reveals a capacious potential for trans-
voice-leading expectations, whole-step rela- formation and connection. The upper and lower
tions, and patterns of motive expansion and neighbor tones and passing tones that are intro-
reduction contrive to nest this section into the duced into the downward melodic motion focus
music that precedes and follows. Tonally re-upon its diatonic basis. The bass, too, projects
the same image as it moves by whole step and by
leap through the fourth. As the whole motive
13Style and Idea, pp. 30-33. emerges in its usual contour (m. 201ff), it

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shocks by commencing its descent on the nant of the dominant appears over the domi- RICHARD
SWIFT
"wrong" scale degree: not on the sixth, as in the nant pedal; the pitches of that chord establish a Verkldrte
Introduction, but on the fourth scale degree, de- connection with the second group material byNacht
scending to the seventh. This is as disruptive of becoming the main pitches of its first melodic
contour, this time over a tonic pedal (mm.
the sense of tonal location as are the chromatic
chords within which the melody is placed, a 105-07). The tension produced by these large-
diminished chord moving to an augmentedscale suspensions, for so they are treated con-
triad. This shuddering and constantly iterated textually, is tightened by irregular temporal
music is eventually heard in a sequence that resolutions; often, when a resolution takes
finally reaches the tranquillity of the subdomi- place, the note of resolution has become part of
nant of bvi. That pitch, E,, reaches back to the a new and uncertain harmonic context, to as-
beginning of the motive in m. 201, rounding off sume a meaning different from the one antici-
the passage with a return to that contextually pated. It is through such means that restless
important fourth scale degree. motion and melodic incompleteness are
The whole step continues to play a major achieved in Sonata I.
role in Sonata II, combining with the fourth and In structural positions where powerful
the thirds implicit in both foreground and dominant areas might be expected-such as the
background of the thematic material to produce end of an exposition, the beginning or end of a
the consoling-because intervallically explicit development section-Sonata I again evades
-climactic melody that concludes the devel- the issue. The sequence of augmented triads
opment section, a melody that will be heard that ends the exposition has nothing directly to
briefly at the onset of the coda (ex. 3): do with the dominant, although the need for
resolution may suggest a typical function of the
dominant. It leads to a cadence on a chord which
320
serves as a substitute for the dominant of bIII,
- ft7 iY r ITh I and the lowest note (E) of that dominant-
substitute chord becomes the initiator of the
development section. This unsupported, fero-
ciously sustained pitch refers in several direc-
tions: back to the II area of the second group, to
ME-m p 3 31mF the dominant, and to the extremely ambiguous
Example bIII that follows. The preparation for the re-
capitulation of Sonata I takes place on the
dominant-substitute of the dominant. While
As the outline of major tonal areas of Ver- this is scarcely an unusual procedure in itself,
kldrte Nacht (page 7) demonstrates, there is an its significance here lies in its oblique evasion of
astonishing absence of emphasis upon the dom- the dominant.
inant as a large-scale tonal area. This evasion of In Sonata II, relations among large-scale
the dominant is reflected in local harmonicprogressions, melodic contours, local harmony,
and
progressions as well, especially in Sonata I, al-rhythmic movement are manifestly more
complete and more strongly shaped than in
though there are many dominant-substitute
Sonata I, a set of circumstances that is
progressions, both in tonic and other chord
confirmed by the more normative use of domi-
areas, whose function is to modify their respec-
nant area relations. The broad, succinctly pre-
tive tonal areas indirectly, deceptively and am-
biguously. Even when a dominant function sented
is first-group sentence, with its cloud of
implied by a pedal-as in mm. 100-04, where motives from Sonata I, cadences on iii. In the
the dominant of II is in the bass-the harmonic bridge, the dominant of iii is prolonged and,
meaning of the pedal is blurred by non- with a shift to the major mode, the second group
dominant pitches. In this instance, the domi- begins its long, firmly structured melody. The

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19TH codetta, on the dominant of III (written enhar-
inordinantly proud of this progression, referring
CENTURY monically as Db), presents a new melodic con-
to the passage several times in his writings, no-
MUSIC tour that moves downward over the triad and tably in Harmonielehre where he was intent
upon explaining the theoretical status of the
whose second phrase begins with a form of the
downward scale motive in diminution. Al- famous ninth chord with the ninth (marked
"X") in the bass (ex. 4):
though the codetta concludes with a toniciza-
tion of bIII-through the dominant of the
dominant-the development section pivots
about two powerful dominant statements. The
first part of the development section cadences
emphatically on the dominant (mm. 316-19),
with a deceptive movement from that cadence Ex

into a new tonal area (V of III). At the end of the q

second part of the development (mm. 332-40), - 1' : . , .. - - - ,
the harmony is violently wrenched from the
dominant of the III area to the dominant itself in
order to prepare for the recapitulation in a nor-
mal tonal manner.
Example 4
The dominant, then, plays a secondary part
in the unfolding of major tonal areas of the sex-
tet. There are several other tonal areas whose In "Criteria for the Evaluation of Music,"
importance is greater in shaping the large-scale explained that because of this "one single u
tonal functions. The Introduction first hints at catalogued dissonance," Verkldrte Nacht w
and later emphasizes strongly two chords des- rejected for performance by a Viennese conc
tined to assume crucial roles in subsequent and group.14 But this progression has a grander fu
subsidiary events in the two sonatas: bvi/bVI tion in the sextet than as a source for a partic
and bIII. The latter sometimes appears in its chord-construction and usage, or even as a lo
function as the dominant of the former; it some- linking passage, for it returns at two cru
times exists as a tonal area by itself. The pro- structural points. First, it is the harmonic sca
gression that links the two parts of the first folding for the recapitulation of the first gr
group (mm. 41-49) moves through the domi- sentence (mm. 181-87), and is in part respons
nant of bIII, which quickly turns toward the ble for the ambiguity and uncertainty of th
dominant of bvi in mm. 46-49. Schoenberg was return (ex. 5):

I II r- II, M1
fff i sIf
coZZ' 8vaU -.
fff

Example 5

14Ibid., pp. 131-32.

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 RICHARD
Second, this "uncatalogued dissonance" re- sition, this time beginning on the raised third SWIFT
turns in the first part of the coda as part of a suc- scale degree to reflect the modal shift of Sonata Verklirte
Nacht
cession of important motives from the compo- II (ex. 6):

ff ~di~m. sf

Example 6

The bvi chord, touched upon In Sonatain the

II, bIII Intro-
continues in its strong mod-
ifying area
duction, emerges as the tonal supportof of the
the primary
secondtonal areas. The
development
part of the first group of Sonata I;section
it isbegins (mm. 294ff) in the
prepared
area of bIII.
for linearly by the F# (=Gb) of In mm.
its function of the dominant
46-49, a of
lowered sixth scale degree in
bvi, it isbvi,
the point which
of arrival func-
of the sequence aris-
tions here as the Neapolitan
ing of
fromthethe end dominant
of the melody of ofexample 3 at
bvi, a common Brucknerian relationship.
the beginning of m. 322, as well Theas the moment
other extensive bvi area of Sonata
in which the first of the I occurs
tonal abruptions occurs
in the Transition, discussed
as the above.
developmentIts role
is pulled towardinthe domin-
Sonata II is limited to minor appearances.
ant. It functions in the second group of the re-
These third relations among
capitulation astonal
part of aareas,
larger progression to-
such as i-bvi or i-bIII or I-III,
ward the minor are extended
subdominant (mm. 376-78),
to other compositional levels, particularly
where it is heard as
for a final time in the sextet as a
intervals of transposition forofsequence
member the global scale seg-
degree motion
ments. In Sonata I, the minor third is often the
D-E-F-G.
basis for sequences-for example,
The half-stepthe large- that has the mo
relationship
scale repetition of mm. 75-82 rising
far-reaching a minor
consequences in Verkliirte Nac
third higher in mm. 83-90,is thator the
of the series Itof
Neapolitan. is encountered fr
sequences in the development
quently assection from
a modification of local linear and ve
m. 153 with each segment tical contexts,
rising as in the
a minor linkage between tw
third.
The ambiguity of tonal direction tonal areas inthat results
mm. 46-49. In this passage, d
from the linear diminished triads
cussed is F#(=Gb)
above, the especially
assumes the functi
potent in its intensification of of
the the weak
Neapolitan ofand
V of un-
bvi; and it later tak
certain motivic contours on andthe harmonic
function of bvipro-
of bvi. This resulta
gressions in Sonata I. Thecomplex majorof meanings
third is an essential chara
appears
somewhat less prominently in such cir- teristic of the oblique and ambiguous tona
cumstances; but when it occurs, the resulting movement of Sonata I, encouraged by linear a
linearly and vertically stated augmented triads vertical Neapolitan relations. By analogy, t
have a powerful effect on harmonic and melodic chromatic inflection of linear elements reflects
stability. A compelling summary of linear and and prolongs the action of the Neapolitan rela-
vertical third relations occurs at the conclusion tion. The Neapolitan serves as an intensifica-
of the development section, Sonata I, m. 169ff,tion of the ii-V-iv progression in m. 34ff. Yet
where augmented, major, minor and di- another instance of Neapolitan linkage, whose
minished triads are systematically exhibiteddramatic intensity is in part owed to those pre-
both as melodic contours and as chords in the viously encountered Neapolitan relations, oc-
curs between the Transition and Sonata II. The
preparation for the dominant of the dominant.
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19TH Transition cadences upon the minor subdomi-
nant, it becomes an element in that progression
CENTURY toward
nant of bvi with only the Bb remaining bIII discussed
from the above, as well as the im-
MUSIC subdominant triad. The Bb, in a manner
mediate analo-
goal of the progression of which bIII is
gous to that of mm. 46-49, leads to the
itself major
an element (mm. 375-80). The articula-
tonic as the Neapolitan of the fifth scale degree,
tion of the subdominant area at this, the penul-
timate
as bvi of I, and as a foreshadowing of the Ag stage of the
ofcomposition, is an affirma-
tion of those
the III region, the tonal area of the second stable and stabilizing properties of
group.
The Neapolitan also has a major function
diatonic tonality.
in It is generally in such a posi-
the tonal wrenching toward the dominant tion, near the
thatend of a tonal composition, that
the subdominant
takes place near the end of the development sec- (or its substitute, II) is given
tion of Sonata II (mm. 332-36). Thestrong sequences
functional emphasis; Schenker's analyt-
of the preceding section halt abruptly, ical reduction
leaving of tonal function on the model of
the melody and its subsidiary contrapuntal
a complete cadence pattern-I-IV- (or II-)
lines stuck for some time in the same V-I-is rooted
place, bii, in the observation of this
before they plunge with equal abruptness phenomenon
to the in tonal music. Schoenberg wa
dominant in preparation for the recapitulation.
not blindly obeying some unwritten canon, for
in Verkldirte Nacht the structural emphasi
II has functioned, more or less convention-
upon the
ally, as a substitute for IV in earlier phases subdominant links back to the II area
of the
music, but from the beginning of this of recapitu-
Sonata I, and forward, in combination with
bII, to the coda's concluding cadence, incorpo
lation, it comes to the fore as an independent
rating
entity to isolate the subdominant area in its references those Neapolitan rela
in prep-
aration for the iv-bII-I cadence which con-function so compellingly throughou
tions that
the sextet. The sustained emphasis upon th
cludes the sextet. The brief detail of the
major-minor subdominant triads in thetonic
first
from the beginning of the recapitulation o
group exposition (ex. 7): Sonata II to the end at once rights the intensel
dramatic tonic imbalance of much of the pre
ceding music, and at the same time provides
E2l2
stable context in which the combined
subdominant-Neapolitan cadence may mak
its full effect.
In this discussion of tonal functions in Ver-
kldrte Nacht, much has been said about the cor-
relation between motive generation and the
explicit global tonal relations of the music, par-
Example 7
ticularly as an aspect of the unfolding of the
diatonic intervals from the perfect fourth. The
is expanded in the recapitulation both through ingenuity and fluency with which linear con-
repetition (mm. 342, 349, 351, and 355) and tours represent compositional prolongations of
through the cadence on the subdominant (mm. those intervals is nowhere more clearly discern-
358-61) that is an element in a large-scale pro- ible than at the beginning of the coda (m. 391ff ),
gression: I-ii-V-IV-V (mm. 353-63). This ex- where the succession of motives from earlier
panded statement of subdominant function stages of the sextet succinctly displays that
continues with equal force in the return of the framework for motive and tonal generation
second group, where, as the minor subdomi- (ex. 8):

8va -.--' . . .,- ', . . .

391 ---- -----------------------]
A ii

C ? p | | j i I l I , " [ I ] |I I a I _d I ] . I

ff sfp pp-=-P
Example 8
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Schoenberg was justly proud of the speed and
facility with which he composed the sextet,
even permitting his memory to compress the
actual composition time to a dramatic three
weeks.'1 The sense of compression and rigor of
composition conveyed by Schoenberg's exag-
gerated statement is matched in its intensity by
the music, with its controlled contrapuntal
density of motive combinations flourishing as
prolongations of the basic tonal materials.
Schoenberg, in the same essay, cites the passage
that occurs at the beginning of the development
of Sonata I (mm. 161-68), where a motive is
presented in its original and inverted forms both
in succession and, finally, in combination, as an
RICHARD
instance of contrapuntal ingenuity that cost SWIFT
him some effort to accomplish.16 It is precisely Verklarte
Nacht
such a passage-and there are many others that
are comparable, including the recapitulation,
Sonata I (ex. 5), and the return of the second
group, Sonata II-where textures display func-
tional connections in layer upon layer of voices,
that further confirms the sense of compression
in the sextet. Similarly, compression is con-
veyed by the spatial placement of melodic lines
conceived as a mingling of several voices in sev-
eral registers. One such melodic contour, exist-
ing within a network of timbres and registers,
occurs at the beginning of the second part of the
first group, Sonata I (ex. 9):

colZ' 8va

,:. PP
. F IF IL!M! ?

Example 9
E

are many
The upper voice, presented added is
in octaves, orboth
expa
nuances,
counterpoint to and an answeringclarifications
variation ano
amplification of theinstructions
cello line. Such modes
are given ino
extending and proliferating
German of melodic contour
the original),
(absent
from a single line into from
wider the
zones of sextet
instru
mental space mark off sions other
of structural areas o
notation. Among
the music-as in the written-out
second group lateof Sonata
instance
II-and share in non-imitative
tation of duple contrapuntal
notation th
textures-as in the bridge
(ex. 10): of Sonata I, m. 69f
Through such melodic configurations, Schoen
berg was able to widen
Sextet the forms
String motives may
Orchestra
take and to deepen the
126
connections
126
among
them with their engendering elements.
In Schoenberg's later version for string or-
chestra (1917, revised 1943),
(Vn. there 2are &
no sub
V
stantive changes from the music of the origin
sextet. This version, with its bold and luxuriou
sonorities, is more familiar to the concert-goe
Exam
than is the leaner, more intimate sextet version
for concerts by string sextets are rarities. Ther

16Style and Idea, pp. 55-56. The example given by Schoen-

berg is incorrect, presenting only those measures in which
15"Heart and Brain in Music," ibid., pp. 55-56. See Mae- the two motive forms appear in succession (mm. 161-62),
not in combination-an error future editors may wish to
gaard, op. cit., for details of the chronology of Verkliirte
Nacht. correct.

13

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19TH Among the many subtle shifts about of string
Verklirte Nacht, "If only he had con-
CENTURY
sonorities and masses with which tinued Schoenberg
to compose in this style," to which he
MUSIC contrived to articulate the musical structure in replied: "I have not discontinued composing in
this new medium, the passage from m. 161- the same style and in the same way as at the
with the motive in both its original and inverted very beginning. The difference is only that I do it
forms-is notable for its clarity and delicacy, better now than before; it is more concentrated,
made possible by the use of eleven solo strings more mature.""7 That vocation for composi-
and divided second violins to articulate primary tion, to which the sextet is a burning witness,
and secondary contrapuntal voices. The tex- radically transformed musical thinking in the
tural clarity is aided by octave doubling and by new century by creating a music whose every
the contrasts in sonority provided by muted layer and corner is permeated by concentrated
solo instruments while the second violins re- relations and connections-enmeshing all, as
main unmuted.
Henry James wrote, in "the wonder of .
Schoenberg often heard the plaintive remarkthe consciousness of everything."

17Ibid., p. 30ff.

14

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