Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and ste ...

's Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24 (German: Konzert für neun Instrumente), written in 1934, is a

twelve-tone The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law ...

concerto for nine

instruments Instrument may refer to: Science and technology * Flight instruments, the devices used to measure the speed, altitude, and pertinent flight angles of various kinds of aircraft * Laboratory equipment, the measuring tools used in a scientific l ...

: flute,

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

, clarinet, horn,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

, and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

. It consists of three movements: The concerto is based on a

derived row In music using the twelve-tone technique, derivation is the construction of a row through segments. A derived row is a tone row whose entirety of twelve tones is constructed from a segment or portion of the whole, the generator. Anton Webern often ...

, "often cited uch as by Milton Babbitt (1972)">Milton_Babbitt.html" ;"title="uch as by Milton Babbitt">uch as by Milton Babbitt (1972)as a paragon of symmetry">symmetrical Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definit ...

half note ''Half Note'' is a live album by saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in 1974 and first released on the SteepleChase label in 1985.," and, partly as a result, "features great uniformity in

texture Texture may refer to: Science and technology * Surface texture, the texture means smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object * Texture (roads), road surface characteristics with waves shorter than road roughness * Texture ...

and

gesture A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or o ...

".Hasty, Christopher (1981). "Segmentation and Process in Post-Tonal Music", pp. 63–64, ''

Music Theory Spectrum ''Music Theory Spectrum'' () is a peer-reviewed, academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It is the official journal of the Society for Music Theory, and is published by Oxford University Press. The journal was first published ...

'', vol. 3, (Spring), pp. 54–73. The tone row may be interpreted as: 019, 2te, 367, 458. : The opening displays " he Concerto'sdistinctive

trichord In music theory, a trichord () is a group of three different pitch classes found within a larger group. A trichord is a contiguous three-note set from a musical scale or a twelve-tone row. In musical set theory there are twelve trichords g ...

al structuring," four of which "comprise an

aggregate Aggregate or aggregates may refer to: Computing and mathematics * collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...

," or partition.Alegant (2001), pp. 2–3. "The six

combinations In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are t ...

he partition's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

trichords generate three pairs of complementary

hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six-note series, as exhibited in a scale ( hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial theor ...

s".Alegant (2001), p. 4. "Webern takes full advantage of this property

degree of symmetry In music using the twelve-tone technique, derivation is the construction of a row through segments. A derived row is a tone row whose entirety of twelve tones is constructed from a segment or portion of the whole, the generator. Anton Webern often ...

] in the Concerto," that under four appropriate transformations (T₀T₆I₅I_B), the tone row maintains its unordered trichords (j=019,091,etc., k=2te, l=367, and m=458). The hexachord featured is sometimes called the 'Ode-to-Napoleon' hexachord (014589).Van den Toorn, Pieter C. (1996). ''Music, Politics, and the Academy'', pp. 128–129. . According to Brian Alegant, " e

Latin square In combinatorics and in experimental design, a Latin square is an ''n'' × ''n'' array filled with ''n'' different symbols, each occurring exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column. An example of a 3×3 Latin sq ...

... clearly shows the built in redundancy of hepartition," four, and, "needless to say, Webern takes full advantage of this property in the Concerto":Brian Alegant, "Cross-Partitions as Harmony and Voice Leading in Twelve-Tone Music", ''

'' 23, no. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 1–40, citation on p. 5. : For example, I₅ = 548, 376, 2et, 109.

Sources

External links

* {{Authority control Compositions by Anton Webern

Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

Twelve-tone compositions 1934 compositions

Sources

Further reading

External links