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Expressionism
This is a style
developed in the early
20th Century as a
reaction to the late
Romantic era and
composers such as
Brahms and Wagner.
Both composers were
moving further away
from the more classical
ways of writing music,
by using more
chromatics (#’s & b’s) and
less cadences which signify a
key e.g. G major.
This was making the music
more emotional, and full of
suspense.
Features
The Expressionist
movement was
strongest in Germany at
the end of the 1st World
War. There was a strong
feeling of disillusionment
and discontent regarding
living conditions and
restrictions imposed on the
country.
Artist, writers and
composers wanted to
express there emotions
through their art form. They
can often make you feel
uncomfortable!
Schoenberg
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Born in Vienna, Austria 1874
Played the violin
Taught Berg & Webern.
Was a Jew (but adopted
Protestantism for a few years)
• His music was condemned by
the Nazis
• His music did not really take
off, he often tried to convince
major composers and
conductors of the time with
little success.
• He started writing atonal music
when his wife left him for his
friend an artist. (sad!)
Features of Expressionism
• Atonal – using all 12 notes/ no key
• Each piece expresses one intense emotion
• Full use of pitch range of instruments,
extreme registers
• Extreme dynamics – ppp – ffff
• Pieces are often quite short – difficult to
write an interesting long piece with no key or
structure.
Peripetie
from ‘Five Orchestral pieces’
• ‘Peripetie’ is the 4th movement
• It was written when Richard Strauss (another
famous composer) offered to take a new piece
to fellow composers – they didn’t like it!
• Schoenberg did not want to give his works titles
– he thought the music should speak for itself.
His publisher made him.
• ‘Peripetie’ is Greek for ‘sudden changes’. The
sudden changes are in Timbre (instruments) and
Texture.
• ‘Peripetie’ was written for
a large orchestra so he
could produce contrasts
with texture, dynamics &
timbre.
• It is written for quadruple
woodwind (4 per section)
• 3 flutes & piccolo
• 3 clarinets & bass clarinet
• 3 bassoons &
contrabassoon
• 3 oboes & cor anglais
• A large brass section,
with and without mutes.
• A large percussion
section – cymbals,
timpani, xylophone
• & of course strings
Flute
Piccolo
clarinet
Bass clarinet
bassoon
contrabassoon
Oboe
Cor
anglais
Important features
• The parts are very challenging to play
• A lot of wide leaps, use of the lowest to the highest
register of all the instruments.
• There is no conventional structure – although it is like
a ‘free’ Rondo with contrasting textures & tempo.
• Use of melodic fragments (very short melodic ideas)
• Use of complicated fragmented rhythms
• Atonal
• Use of a hexachord (a group of 6 unrelated different
notes) which create dissonances, either played at the
same time like a chord, or one after the other like a short
melody. (The remaining 6 semitones are called a
compliment)
• The melody is passed around different instruments.
• It is made up of 5 sections
Section
A
Every instrument
gets to play in
families e.g. all
strings, but only
for a bar or 2
B
Every instrument
gets to play but
alone.
Description
Flutes & clarinets play a short motif – made up of a hexachord.
Fanfare like horns marked ff
Tempo & rhythm- sehr rash (very quick) contains mostly triplets, sextuplets and
demisemiquavers.
Rubato clarinet plays an expressive melody.
Instrumentation/Texture – full orchestra, homophonic & solo sections. Use of mutes on
brass for timbre effects
Pitch/melody – Atonal, angular & dissonant leaps. Full pitch range heard.
Dynamics – sudden loud bursts. Ranges from fff to pp.
Has a very thick texture
Starts off very quietly
Different rhythms which overlap
A more frantic section emphasised by high cellos and busy textures in percussion & wind.
A1
Variation to A. Return of a hexachord on the horns
A menacing mood
C
Bassoon tune, taken over by the cello & double bass
Tempo – alternates between ruhiger (calmer) & heftig (passionate)
Sparse texture – with solo instruments overlapping
Dynamics- range from pp-fff. A few Loud semi quaver passages
A2
Another variation of A
Instrumentation – builds up from clarinets & strings to the full orchestra. Double bass play
tremolo chord in very high register.
Tempo/rhythm – speeds up with use of triplet motifs.
Dynamics – crescendos very quickly from pp to fff & immediately dies away to finish with a
The contrasts
Peripetie is very dramatic!
• Sudden changes in timbre,
dynamics and texture which make
it exciting.
• Wide range and extreme
dynamics and pitch.
• Texture – polyphonic,
contrapuntal & sparse solo
sections
• Quick changes between
instrumental families.
• Complex rhythms/note lengths,
demi-semiquavers to
semibreves.
Then came …..Serialism
After 5 orchestral piece,
Schoenberg created a new
Compositional style called the
tone row, in which he would use
all 12 notes available and put
them in a random order creating a
Prime order.
To gets more notes/orders,
the composer would then, play
the prime order backwards which
would be called retrograde. This
would continue until you have
enough notes to write a piece.
• Serialist technique:
1. Prime Order (12 notes in any
order)
2. Retrograde – (backwards)
3. Inversion – (prime order
upside down)
4. Retrograde inversion –
(backwards upside down)
5. Prime order transposed –
(order moved up or down by a
certain interval)
6. Etc.