Anton Webern - String Quartet (1905)

[@gary1988]

I learned of this from an old Frank Zappa interview from 1976. He said he listen to this to relax. Very soothing

[@gentle_goy23432]

Действительно успокаивает

[@eastlondonblues]

same here.

[@GelonDoswell]

What an amazing piece! I've known most of Webern's published work since college, but never heard this quartet before. It has a lot of the charm of Verklärte Nacht, and the Berg Op.1.

[@davidrehak3539]

Anton Webern:Vonósnégyes 1. Scuro e pesante - Con grande slancio 00:03 2. Adagio - Molto adagio 04:53 3. Molto ampio e lento con grande passione 09:02 4. Allegro commosso 12:02 Emerson Vonósnégyes

[@VanVlearMusic]

9:33 that E major chord!! It is perfectly in tune, listen to those G#s...Emerson String Quartet is amazing

[@Tylervrooman]

dude... how? (good to see us brought together by the great algorithm)

[@VanVlearMusic]

@@Tylervrooman yooooo! Yep, nice to see we have some KZbin listening in common

[@VanVlearMusic]

@@Tylervrooman am I right about that chord though?!?

[@Tylervrooman]

@@VanVlearMusic oh yeah... E is a great chord for strings too, has the overtones to go along with it i suppose...

[@heskestv]

There are some picky listeners commenting below, particularly Verschlungen. Once the piece started I had to listen to the end. Webern's genius is in keeping the listener interested with a new thought or idea without boring them with a lengthy and unnecessary musical conversation.

[@trees1]

Master piece! I can hear his youth days, the influence and the attempts!

[@federicozimerman8167]

This is great for those gloomy days when one needs to hear something uplifting. Great piece!

[@pedrofariacomposer]

starting with the (014) set class, so fitting for Webern since he loved it much!

[@dordiwesterlund2528]

Please explain, I am interested.

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

@@dordiwesterlund2528 Set theory. Pitch-class sets. You can read John Rahn's "Basic Atonal Theory" or Allen Forte's "The Structure of Atonal Music" for more details or check this out for a quick overview: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory_(music)#:~:text=The%20fundamental%20concept%20of%20musical,(i.e.%2C%20without%20duplicates).

[@ThomasTJDavis]

@@dordiwesterlund2528 The (014) set class consists of a beginning note, a semi-tone above it, and a major third above the beginning note. For example, G G# B.

[@dordiwesterlund2528]

@@ThomasTJDavis Thank you, I find this very interesting.

[@dordiwesterlund2528]

I am sorry for asking, probably too much, but would it be possible to explain what the 014 set class is. How is it being produced?

[@krishanoberoi]

Just discovered this piece- wow, so great!! I was never a huge Webern fan, but this might change my mind :-)

[@Woodcut60]

This was composed under the supervision of Schoenberg and inspired by a text of the mystic writer Jakob Böhme. The first motif was perhaps inspired by Beethoven's "Muss es sein?" in the string quartet in F major, op. 135. (Source: "Anton Webern und seine Zeit" (2001) by Andreas Krause.)

[@mediolanumhibernicus3353]

Interesting. In fact I hear a lot of Verklarte Nacht which Schönberg composed six years earlier. I didn’t think of Muss es sein? The first thing I thought was the opening of the C# minor quartet Op. 131

[@ban9nas177]

same @@mediolanumhibernicus3353

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

I intend no backhanded compliment when I observe that Webern is the only composer that I know of who had composed his greatest music by the time he reached his Opus 1.

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

Unless you include Glenn Gould, perhaps.

[@mrtchaikovsky]

How so? Pretty much everything he wrote after he found his own voice with his Passacaglia Op.1 is better than the works he wrote before.

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

@@mrtchaikovsky That rests on personal value judgements. Mine differs fundamentally from yours. Webern's own "voice" led him to write a lot of incoherent noises that are more interesting to a certain kind of analyst, who discerns the essentially mathematical patternings in the "compositions", than to listeners. Berg, in contrast, (and Schoenberg to a lesser degree) took the 12-Note technique and made real music from it; Webern did not. It's a shame, because he showed some promise in his early, tonal works, and he definitely had an individual gift for instrumental/orchestral colour.

[@mrtchaikovsky]

​@@Khayyam-vg9fw What a load of hogwash. You begin with the assertion that value judgments are subjective, only to make ridiculous generalisations immediately afterwards.

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

@@mrtchaikovsky I did not say that value judgements are subjective; I said that they are personal, i.e. varying from person to person. Please learn to read carefully and do not put words into other people's mouths, so to speak, in order to grandstand. I would rather make generalisations, if the facts support them, than to misrepresent other people's opinions while making unsupported assertions (e.g. that generalisations are somehow inherently "ridiculous").

[@singtatsucgc3247]

The opening tribute to Beethoven is unmistakable! Right after that, another tribute to Wagner. It shows clearly where serialism was coming from.

[@dordiwesterlund2528]

Yes. From Beethoven :-)).

[@marilenaguarnieripoesie]

It seems to me to be catchier music than that of Varese... Strange landscapes, mysterious evocations... fascinating! Suitable as a background for an exhibition of abstract paintings. Although perhaps the one in Varese is more suitable for an exhibition of abstract paintings...❤

[@SCRIABINIST]

2:34 8:06 theme is so beautiful

[@TdF_101]

very "richard strauss"

[@rogerherlin7966]

Ça termine bien TONAL. MI mayor !!!

[@hippotropikas5374]

I think the 2nd violin penultimate measure (at 6:08) is supposed to be [ D - D sharp ] and not [ F - F sharp ] as indicated on the score

[@miguelbevilacqua9354]

the quintuplet cell seems obvioulsy influenced by verklarte nacht

[@RolandBouman]

shortly after its first occurrence, in 2nd measure of section 2., the sixtheenths motive reminds me of the 2nd theme in Schoenbergs d minor quartet (violin m9). Probably very deliberate.

[@miguelbevilacqua9354]

@@RolandBouman indeed, and also the two pieces were written in 1904-1905....

[@RolandBouman]

​@@miguelbevilacqua9354 Yeah I just looked it up and noticed that too. But the chronology is a bit too tight. At least I read that Schoenbergs d-minor quartet was completed "in september 1905" and that Webern didn't become a pupil of Schoenberg until 1908. I cannot find a date for the premiere or publication of the d-minor quartet but even if it did happen in 1905, it seems not very likely that the score would be easy to come by. Maybe I'm wrong. I'd be interested to know more about this.

[@franckmousset4022]

@@RolandBouman Webern began his lessons with Schoenberg in 1904

[@RolandBouman]

@@franckmousset4022 Thank you! So it would at least be possible then :)

[@machida5114]

quite good...

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

interesting to notice how this man came from one extreme to other

[@gerardbegni2806]

This is not the quartet op. 28, a masterpiece in which the B-A-C-H motto is used as a series generating cell, used sometimes with an impressive rigor, sometimes with great fantasy, using thhe octave jumps the composer was familiar with. This i certainly a work written as an exercice during his studies with Schoenbergas was Berg's op. 1. Berg's score was very dense and expressionist. Here, Webern takes care not to use a too heavy quartet writing. The score gives the feeling both to be quite light and very firmy built. Some features of the sonata form can be found, very freely used. For instance, if we look at other composer's outcomes; Bartok's first quartets were very different.

[@AndreyRubtsovRU]

Op. 28 is a senseless trash that real musician don't care about.

[@alessandroratoci3089]

@@AndreyRubtsovRU you are a senseless musical ignorant.

[@gentle_goy23432]

Квартет Берга удивительный!

[@Tylervrooman]

Yes

[@川口健太郎-m5e]

ヴェーベルンの師匠の初期の代表作「浄夜」を手本にしている 23歳で作る ヴェーベルンは20世紀前半を代表する巨匠

[@gentle_goy23432]

Какой квартет Веберна по вашему мнению лучший?

[@efun1234]

Guys, this, 5 movements, berg quartet or Schoenberg 1.?

[@brianshoman1723]

So, the first three notes, did anyone else have flashbacks to Wagner, Die Goetterdammerung, Immolation Scene?

[@예신-n2s]

1:19

[@coreylapinas1000]

Kind of feels like a poor man's Verklarte Nacht to me.

[@hyunminkim]

2:33

[@dolan5685]

im gay

[@Whatismusic123]

Congrats

[@shiroumxm2052]

cool, just dont say that to a muslim

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Good to know.

[@SCRIABINIST]

Thanks

[@Noejjkkkj]

Yay

[@klaasdamhof5346]

Influence of Max Reger.

[@coreylapinas1000]

I hope not

[@jaxnean2663]

Zappa.

[@markpx]

Was this performed on a computer? There are some obvious interpretative oddities in the "performance" that lead me to this conclusion.

[@Baghdadbatterymusic]

Do you really think a computer could perform this? are we listening to the same thing?

[@markpx]

@@Baghdadbatterymusic It says in the first frame of the video the name of the quartet that performed it, so obviously it wasn't a computer. I was just commenting on the curious errors in performance, such as the first measure of page two in the video, which is performed arco, not pizz. And yes, a score like this could be performed by a computer and sound deceptively human. In case you don't know, algorithmic performance has become quite sophisticated.

[@arielorthmann4061]

@@markpx the first measure of page 2 should indeed be performed pizz.

[@Verschlungen]

Cringe-y. I've enjoyed several other early 'unknown' Webern pieces that Raveliantique posted -- compositions that struck me as beautiful and helpful for gaining new insights into Webern (e.g., Raveliantique's post of 8 Early Songs by Webern, 1901-1908). But when I stumbled on the post of this 1905 String Quartet, I had a different reaction. I thought: "This is why so many authors and composers burn their juvenilia." In particular, the "quintuplet cell" is embarrassing (nor is it saved by miguel bevilacqua's suggestion that it might be a reference to Verklarte Nacht; the latter contains some quintuplets, yes, but they are mixed in skillfully with triplets, sixteenths and plenty of septuplets, too). It seems like a disservice to Webern to post such a hideous piece. In 1905 he would have been 21 or 22 years old, but from the jejune tone of the piece, I suspect that its actual date of composition might be a few years earlier than that, when he was still in his teens.

[@gopalkambo5885]

In what way exactly do you find the "quintuplet cell" embarrassing?

[@Verschlungen]

@@gopalkambo5885 I admit this is subjective, but to me it has a syrup-y adolescent 'love-lorn' quality about it. When Schoenberg uses it, it is mixed in with many related figures so that no such saccharine quality emerges from it.

[@mediolanumhibernicus3353]

What a pretentious comment…