Biography
A notable avant-garde composer of the Second Viennese School (along with Berg and Schoenberg), Anton Webern studied for a philosophy degree at university and afterwards decided to pursue a doctorate in music.
He was fascinated by an intellectual approach to music and appreciated ‘clever’ techniques in composition, such as music that took a theme, turned it upside down and then played the first half backwards.
After university Webern went to study composition with Arnold Schoenberg and, following his marriage, supported his family by teaching, lecturing and conducting.
Up to this point his life was fairly uneventful, yet this was all to change when the Nazis over-ran Austria and performances of his music were banned – Webern being declared a ‘non-artist’.
He just about managed to eke out a living by proof-reading and other low-level musical work that his loyal publishers gave him during Austria’s period of fascist rule.
Soon after the war ended, Webern’s life was tragically cut short when, smoking a cigar in his son’s garden on a summer evening, he was shot dead by an American soldier who had mistaken the glow of the cigar for the glint of a rifle.
Five Pieces for Small Orchestra
1913, Orchestral
There is no question that Anton von Webern was one of the most minimalist composers who ever lived and, therefore, was open to a lot of criticism concerning his approach to music. He is often described as a late Late Romantic, and this was true not only of his music, but also of his character and tragic life. He was gripped by an almost fanatical idealism in pursuing his style of music and, as a result, found himself at odds with the general public and music critics. But he was never disheartened, merely withdrawing from the hustle and bustle of the musical market-place so as to continue with his work.
The Five Pieces for Orchestra is a fascinating exercise in minimalist music, though hardly a surprise coming from a man who wrote a symphony that was only eight minutes long!
The longest movement in this collection is a little over a minute, while the shortest lasts only fourteen seconds. But is not only in length that Webern’s love of the miniature comes through, for the level of the music is, at its loudest, pianissimo, going down to ‘scarcely audible’. There is only one climax, found in the last bar of the second piece, which is scored for a mere eight instruments. The rest of the music has a fantastic and delicate texture, with individual wisps of melody creating subtle touches of colour.
The pieces have been given names but only to suggest the mood in which the composer wanted them to be played. They are as follows:
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Primal Image or Concept
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Metamorphosis
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Return
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Memory
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Soul
They only way to fully enjoy this strange and short collection is to resign oneself to it rather than to look for themes and analyse for structure.