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Thus Spoke the Early Modernist: Zarathustra andRotational Form in Webern's String Quartet (1905)
SEBASTIAN WEDLER
Twentieth-Century Music / Volume 12 / Issue 02 / September 2015, pp 225 - 251
DOI: 10.1017/S1478572215000043, Published online: 26 August 2015
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1478572215000043
How to cite this article:SEBASTIAN WEDLER (2015). Thus Spoke the Early Modernist: Zarathustra and Rotational Formin Webern's String Quartet (1905). Twentieth-Century Music, 12, pp 225-251 doi:10.1017/
S1478572215000043
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Twentieth-Century Music 12/2, 225â251 C Cambridge University Press, 2015
doi: 10.1017/S1478572215000043
Thus Spoke the Early Modernist: Zarathustra and RotationalForm in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
SEBASTIAN WEDLER
Abstract
The large-scale structure of Anton Webernâs String Quartet (1905) is an ongoing conundrum in music scholarship.
Initially inspired by Giovanni Segantiniâs Trittico della natura , the quartet has been interpreted by most commentators
in terms of a tripartite episodic form. Through the lens of rotational theory, this article puts forward an understanding
of the quartet that interprets it in dialogue with the sonata paradigm. Based on this reading, it will be argued
that the quartet bears strong links to the early modernist discourse on musical form. This perspective will befurther explored, with reference to Webernâs manuscripts and sketches, in the way the quartet engages with
the Zarathustra trope. In casting the quartet in this light, this article challenges the common historiographical
interpretation that sees it merely as a precursor to the high modernism of Webernâs later development.
In his essay on Anton Webernâs landscape composition Im Sommerwind (1904), Derrick
Puffett lamented Webernâs decision shortly after the workâs completion to take up
compositional studies with Arnold Schoenberg:
Obviously it would be absurd to âblameâ Schoenberg for everything that âwent wrongâ
in Webernâs development after 1904 (just as he should not be given all the credit
for what went ârightâ). As with Berg, it is hard to imagine what Webern would have
turned out like as a composer if he had not studied with Schoenberg [ . . . ]. Yet
the fact remains that as Webernâs compositional technique matured â largely under
Schoenbergâs guidance â so his expressive range, and range of musical sympathies,
narrowed, leaving him with a set of relatively abstract preoccupations such as âunityâ,
âsynthesisâ and âlogicâ. [ . . . ] âHistoryâ triumphed again.1
Any attempt to think through such âwhat ifâ considerations is most certainly otiose and may
be subject to the criticism which Julian Johnson, indirectly reproaching Puffett, felicitously
put as follows: âTo regret that Webern did not go on to write more expansive works in the
I would like to thank Drs Thomas Ahrend and Benedict Taylor, Professors Jonathan Cross, Daniel M. Grimley, and Julian
Johnson,and the two anonymous readers, for their helpful remarks on thisarticlein its various stages. The research for this
article was supported by generous grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK; Merton College, University
of Oxford; and the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basle, Switzerland. This article is dedicated to Professor Max Paddison, on
the occasion of his 70th birthday.1 Derrick Puffett, âGone with the Summer Wind; or, What Webern Lostâ, in Webern Studies , ed. Kathryn Bailey
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 65â8.
225
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226 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
style of Im Sommerwind is simply to regret that Webern wrote the music he did.â 2 This being
said, while in general I share Johnsonâs critical objection, the potential immanent to the
historical subjunctive Puffett raises should not go unrecognized. Pointing out the historical
contingency (rather than the historico-immanent inevitability) of Webernâs decision to step
under Schoenbergâs wings in the autumn of 1904, Puffett â and this is how I would suggest hisregretmaybeturnedintoaproductiveperspectiveâsensitizesustothe inconsistencies inherent
in Webernâs later self-historiographical account as put forward in his 1932â33 lectures on The
Path to the New Music , where the composer aimed at bringing his entire musical development
into a coherent narrative. As a corollary of this, Webern neglected precisely those strands
of early modernist musical thinking which despite having had great impact on his early
development had later proven themselves subordinate to a certain âhistorical state of musical
materialâ (Materialstand ) which he by then considered himself to embody.
Within this field of tensions, Webernâs String Quartet (1905) may provide a particular
point of interest. Composed during his summer break at the Preglhof in 1905 outside of the usual teaching context (though possibly intended as a direct response to Schoenbergâs
D minor Quartet, Op. 7),3 Webernâs quartet has received considerable scholarly attention
as the supposed turning point at which the composer deliberately began to cultivate the
elaborated chromatic idiom which would ultimately become the âmaster signifierâ4 of what
he himself later famously described as his âpathâ to the New Music. Deeply indebted to an
orthodox understanding of Theodor W. Adornoâs historical dialectic of musical material and
the notion of progress that springs from this (Materialfortschritt ), Heinz-Klaus Metzger took
this mode of reception to the furthest extreme when he argued, based upon Webernâs quartet,
that music historians need to date the beginning of atonality earlier than hitherto posited.
Aiming to rectify the historiographical picture, he contended that it wasnot Schoenberg but in
fact Webern who for the first time transferred the âemancipation of dissonanceâ into the realm
of atonality .5 This reception still inspires a broad consensus, as may be discerned, for example,
by Allen Forteâs study on The Atonal Music of Anton Webern . Aligning himself completely with
Metzgerâs assessment of the workâs historical significance, Forte reasoned that âthe harmonic
vocabulary to which the opening music [of the string quartet] refers [ . . . ] strongly suggests
that of Schoenbergâs atonal music, although of course the date of composition anticipates by
2 Julian Johnson, âReview of Webern Studies ed. Kathryn Baileyâ, Music Analysis 17/2 (1998), 252.
3 We have good reason to assume that just before the summer break Schoenberg had introduced Webern to his D
minor Quartet (which at that time was still in its gestation); compare the dates of Webernâs sketches with Walter
Frischâs analysis and dating of Schoenbergâs sketches in âThematic Form and the Genesis in Schoenbergâs D-minor
Quartet, Opus 7â, Journal of the American Musicological Society 41/2 (1988), 298. Similarities between both works
have been pointed out by Lynus P. Miller, âThe Relationship Between Compositional Technique and Scoring in the
Works for String Quartet by Anton von Webern (1883â1945)â. Masterâs diss., University of Kansas, 1967, 22â26; also
Heinz-Klaus Metzger, âUber Anton Weberns Streichquartett 1905â, in Anton Webern I: Musik-Konzepte Sonderband ,
ed. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn (Munich: edition text+ kritik, 1983). However, we do not know if Webern
ever showed the score of his String Quartet (1905) to Schoenberg.
4 The use of this term is borrowed from Annika Forkert, British Musical Modernism Defended Against its Devotees (PhDdiss., University of London, 2014), 59.
5 Metzger, âUber Anton Weberns Streichquartett 1905â, 80ff.
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 227
some three years the emergence of Schoenbergâs own fully atonal music.â6 While both Metzger
and Forte, basing themselves on the workâs chromaticism, implicitly reinforce Webernâs self-
historiographical narrative, I argue that the formal organization of the work â needless to
say an expressive device in its own right â is of no less importance to the discussion of the
way the work engages with, and is interwoven by, modernist thought, and that it is precisely through this perspective that we can cast the workâs engagement with modernism in a very
different light.
Since the discovery of Webernâs quartet by Moldenhauer in 1965, the workâs formal
organization has proven to be something of an ongoing conundrum in Webern scholarship.
Most commentators have chosen to explain the apparently freely improvized or episodic
formal structure in the programmatic light of Giovanni Segantiniâs Trittico della natura
(albeit in quite vague and at times obscure terms) which, as evidenced by a formal draft
found in the sketches, served as Webernâs initial inspiration. In particular, it is the workâs
supposed tripartite structure that has been considered to correlate with Segantiniâs triptych.7
Yet this take on the workâs formal organization is somewhat unsatisfying; by merely âmappingâ
Segantiniâs triptych onto the quartetâs formal structure this approach all too readily avoids
grappling with the workâs âinner formâ and the Formprobleme therein articulated. In critical
distance to such a âheteronomousâ understanding of the quartetâs form, I shall argue that just
as one does not need to be aware of the private programme which inspired Schoenbergâs D
minor Quartet in order to make sense of its formal structure, so too can the âautonomous
sideâ of Webernâs quartet surely be conceived of in its own terms. As I shall put forward
in the first part of this article, through the lens of rotational theory we can understand
Webernâs quartet as entering into a complex dialogue with the sonata paradigm. Based on
this reading, I will suggest that the quartet can be situated in the context of early modernist
sonata deformation, as opposed to Metzger and Forteâs historiographical interpretations of
the work as a crucial precursor to âhigh modernismâ. Renegotiating the heuristic value of
the workâs initial programme with reference to some of Webernâs manuscripts and sketches
archived at the Paul Sacher Foundation, in the second part of this article I shall argue that
Webernâs programmatic concern did not lie in actually representing Segantiniâs triptych as
such (despite the suggestions of most commentators) but in the possibilities that this offered
Webern to position himself within what had crystallized towards the end of the nineteenth
century as the Zarathustra trope. This argument will be substantiated with recourse to a
composer who â albeit esteemed by the young Webern as one of the most prolific voices of
6 Allen Forte, The Atonal Music of Anton Webern (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 64. See also Andreas Krause,
Anton Webern und seine Zeit (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 2001), 21.
7 The seeds of this reception were planted by Hans Moldenhauer, Anton von Webern: A Chronicle of his Life and
Work (London: Victor Gollancz, 1978), 86; the most systematic analysis pointing out the congruencies between the
formal draft and Webernâs quartet has been put forward by Annabelle Paul, âNatur als Spiegel seelischer Erfahrungen:Analogien zwischen Giovanni Segantini und Anton Webernâ, in Wie Bilder Klingen: Tagungsband zum Symposion
âMusik nach Bildernâ , ed. Lukas Christensen and Monika Fink (Vienna: LIT, 2011).
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228 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
the musikalische Moderne â was later in Webernâs The Path to the New Music deprived of any
historiographical significance: Richard Strauss.8
Analysis of the rotational formRotational theory has been proven to be a powerful tool with which we may come to
grips with turn-of-the-century sonata deformation, enabling us to account for the usually
strophe-like formal idiosyncrasies of the individual work while still remaining sensitized to
its generic components. Precisely in those works where the sonata paradigm seems somewhat
âunhingedâ or âde-constructedâ as it were, rotational theory encourages us first of all to identify
the erstwhile constitutive sonata elements and the power they once had to generate âsonata
activityâ, and then in a practice of music-analytical hermeneutics to finally bring them into
a new context of meaning and functionality (Sinn- und Funktionszusammenhang ).9 Here
lies the great potential of rotational theory as a method to contend with the complex form
of Webernâs string quartet. If we take the stance, which I shall later substantiate, that the
initial programmatic reference to Segantiniâs triptych from the formal draft has only little
significance for our understanding of the workâs formal structure, we may come to expect that
in this piece Webern, in one way or another, engaged with sonata thought. Carl Dahlhausâs
appeal that âa movement is to be interpreted, within sensible limits, as a variant of the form
characteristic of the genre, and not as exemplifying another schema unusual for the genre â10
may serve here as our guiding premise.
To my knowledge there has hitherto been only a single attempt to understand Webernâs
string quartet in terms of âautonomous musicâ in any profound way, that of Reinhard Gerlach;
8 Of the three times Webern made reference to Strauss, it is only once that he actually acknowledged him in any
real sense, namely in his discussion of the âemancipation of dissonanceâ â albeit tellingly only in passing and by far
subordinate to the contributions made by Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner; Anton Webern, The Path to the New
Music , ed. Willi Reich, trans. Leo Black (Bryn Mawr: Theodore Presser Company, 1963), 36.
9 The linchpin of this discourse is still James Hepokoski, Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993), see esp. 7, 23â6. A comprehensive list of literature concerned with rotational form can be found in
Warren Darcy, âRotational Form, Teleological Genesis, and Fantasy-Projection in the Slow Movement of Mahlerâs
Sixth Symphonyâ, 19th-Century Music 25/1 (2001), 52, n. 9; see also Andrew Davis and Howard Pollack, âRotationalForm in theOpening Sceneof Gershwinâs PorgyandBess â, Journal of the American Musicological Society 60/2(2007),386,
n. 26.Mostrecently, rotationaltheoryhas served as theanalytical focal point in a varietyof studiesconcerned with early
musicalmodernism,including J.P. E. Harper-Scott, Edward Elgar, Modernist (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,
2006), ch. 4; idem., ââOur True Northâ: Waltonâs First Symphony, Sibelianism, and the Nationalization of Modernism
in Englandâ, Music & Letters 89/4 (2008), 576ff.; Seth Monahan, Mahlerâs Sonata Narratives (PhD diss., Yale University,
2008), published in a revised version as Mahlerâs Symphonic Sonatas (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015); idem.,
âSuccess and Failure in Mahlerâs Sonata Recapitulationsâ, Music Theory Spectrum 33/1 (2011); Daniel M. Grimley, Carl
Nielsenand the Idea of Modernism (Woodbridge:Boydell Press, 2010), ch. 7; idem., âLandscapeand Distance: Vaughan
Williams, Modernism and the Symphonic Pastoralâ, in British Music and Modernism, 1895 â1960 , ed. Matthew Riley
(Farnham: Ashgate, 2010); James Hepokoski, âClouds and Circles: Rotational Form in Debussyâs âNuagesââ, Dutch
Journal of Music Theory 15/1 (2010), 1â17; and Michael J. Puri, Ravel the Decadent: Memory, Sublimation, and Desire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 67â79.
10 Carl Dahlhaus, Analysis and Value Judgment , trans. Siegmund Levarie (New York: Pendragon Press, 1983), 82â3.
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 229
1&2
S (?)
Exposition
P
44 69 73 79 80
E [-66] A F
Introduction
1 22
TR
Fugato [ ; 2]
90
131 143
C [-112]
MC or
37
Development or actual S-space?
126 152 178
P S (?)
E [-185]
180 187 200
Recapitulatory Rotation Coda or S-replacement?
TR
introductoryrotation
F
Introductory Rotation
thematic spaces:
D [-221]
222 249 260
E [-end]
D
actual ESC?
actual
EEC?
G
Figure 1 Webern, String Quartet (1905): âmacro-rotationâ.
thus it seems appropriate, first of all, to begin by critically engaging with his analysis. The
quintessence of Gerlachâs reading is that he sees the quartet as being divided into the following
sonata spaces: exposition (bb. 1â79), development (bb. 80â125), recapitulation (bb. 126â85),
and coda (bb. 186â279).11 The crucial peg from which he hangs this interpretation is the
varied recurrence of the three-note motive in b. 126, which for this reason he implicitly
designates as functioning as the primary space. While I believe that he is right to sense that
generic sonata components pervade the quartet, his sonata form reading comes across as
rather forced â something which he himself allows in his quite surprising concession that the
work is not explicitly interwoven by sonata traces after all.12 This inconsistency is borne out
by the mixed success he has in reconciling some of the workâs formal parts with the sonata
paradigm. It is precisely in this that the proton pseudos of Gerlachâs approach becomes evident:
primarily concerned with the positivistic analytical inquiry into whether the quartet is âinâ
sonata form, he takes a perspective on its formal organization all too evidently informed by
a petrified conception of âtheâ sonata form (as usually inherited from A. B. Marxâs reading
of the middle-period Beethoven) that is ultimately too rigid, too narrowly conceived to be
actually able to account for the quartetâs formal discourse in its own terms. What Gerlach
identified with b. 126 as the (varied) beginning of the recapitulation is, as Figure 1 suggests,
more felicitously understood in terms of the workâs fundamental rotational structure, or what
I shall refer to as its âmacro rotationâ. The motivic-thematic spaces are shown, in accordance
with Gerlachâs analysis, in Example 1.13
Unlike Gerlach, I see the first impression of a primary theme crystallizing with the onset
of the thematic space Îł in b. 44 (P), corroborated by the instruction Mit grossem Schwung
11 Reinhard Gerlach, Musik und Jugendstil der Wiener Schule, 1900 â1908 (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1985), 165.12 Please compare pp. 165 and 170 from Gerlach, Musik und Jugendstil der Wiener Schule.
13 Gerlach, Musik und Jugendstil der Wiener Schule , 166, 169.
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230 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
Example 1 Webern, String Quartet (1905): motivic-thematic chart.
(see Example 2). This isalso the first passage whereE major sticks out as the âtonicâ (established
via the harmonic progression IâIIIâV64â[ . . . ]âI),14 clearly indicating that the two preceding
motivic-thematic spaces, Îą (bb. 1â21) and β (bb. 22â43), serve an introductory function dueto their segueing dynamic and tonal instability.
The identification of b. 44 as the onset of P reveals the actual formal problem of the quartet
understood in terms of the sonata paradigm: the identification of the secondary thematic
14 I am aware that my reading of Webernâs quartet as a tonal piece requires reflection upon the limitations of this
assumption, the more so since my interpretation of the workâs formal organization critically relies upon the
identification of cadential articulations. My use of the word âtonalâ targets those aspects of the quartetâs harmonic
language that are clearly rooted in common nineteenth-century harmonic practices. By conceiving of tonality as
âpracticeâ rather than âsystemâ â an understanding and use of the concept of tonality which I believe is anticipated
in the concluding words of Brian Hyerâs important article on âTonalityâ, in The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory , ed. Thomas Christensen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 750 â I hope to push beyond the
question whether Webernâs quartet is (still) a piece of âtonalâ or (already) âatonalâ music.
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 231
Example 2 Webern, String Quartet (1905): bb. 44â60 (bb. 53â8 omitted).By Anton Webern/Arranged by James BealeCopyright C 1965 by Carl Fischer, Inc.All rights assigned to Carl Fischer, LLC. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
space (S). The situation is complex and most certainly cannot simply be âsolvedâ in any
positivistic sense; it strikes me that only by the problematization of the issue may we near any
âsolutionâ. With this in mind, in the following I provide a detailed discussion of what makes
the status of S throughout the work so problematic.
The set of problems begins to unfold with bb. 69â79 (labelled in Example 1 as δ),
which Gerlach, while identifying this to be a new motivic-thematic entity, nonetheless
does not consider to function as S. Indeed, the role of δ as a potential S remains critically
underdetermined given that it is not preceded by a medial caesura (MC) â which is, as James
Hepokoski and Warren Darcy point out, an indispensable requirement for the establishment
of S.15 In fact any notion of a rhetorical caesura associated with the MC is fully undercut: δ is
15 James Hepokoskiand WarrenDarcy, Elements of Sonata Theory:Norms,Types,and Deformationsin theLate-Eighteenth-
Century Sonata (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 49.
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232 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
arrived at as the climax of a Steigerungsform, breaking through in b. 69 with the instruction
Sehr breit , which arguably lends this entire passage a character somewhat reminiscent of a
codetta or coda theme. (Notably, Sehr breit is precisely the instruction which Webern used
in the Langsamer Satz in order to mark the beginning of the coda section, completed only a
couple of weeks before composing the quartet.) What makes the candidacy of δ as a functionof S even more problematic is the fact that it signifies an extensive cadence: it knocks the
harmonic pillar of D major (b. 69) into the chromatic realm, immediately followed by an A
major chord (b. 73), before subtly dipping into F major (bb. 76â7), which finally lends the
last chord of C major (b. 79) a half cadence-like quality. This cadential articulation leaves
us with a set of formal problems: is this passage functioning as the essential expositional
closure (EEC) which would, despite all reservations mentioned above, be a clear indication
of δ serving as S (and then most plausibly associated with the secondary key area of C major
which is conveniently the submediant to the key associated with P); or is this rather the
much-anticipated MC setting up the new key F major?If we were to understand b. 79 as the MC, this might suggest the possibility that the
fugato section beginning in b. 90 serves as some kind of stand-in for S, which at least from
a rhetorical point of view is plausible given that the fugato neatly corresponds with the
conventional expectations that we may have of a secondary theme. Besides the fact that
it is contrastive to Îł in textural terms, its tempo is notably rather slow (furthermore we
may note the accompanying instructions weich and sehr zart , played mit D ampfer in pp and
ppp ); moreover, it gives rise to an authentic cadence in C major (bb. 104â11) which, albeit
being the flattened submediant of E major, nonetheless would still form a secondary key
area barely less plausible than the C major associated with δ. And yet the fugato is not a
persuasive stand-in for S after all. Not only does it not take up the key area of F major set
up in b. 79, but this cadence is also immediately followed by a conspicuous transition (bb.
80â9). This suggests that the fugato marks the onset of the development section, a notion
which can be further substantiated by the fact that the fugato refers back to the three-note
rhetoric substance provided by ι and δ2. Moreover, there is a long tradition of fugatos
constituting the development section, perhaps most notably in âMephistophelesâ from Franz
Lisztâs Faust Symphony or the beginning of the Von der Wissenschaft section in Straussâs Also
sprach Zarathustra , Op. 30 (the latter of which I shall go on to argue may serve us as a fruitful
âhermeneutic window â16 for Webernâs quartet).17 An understanding of the fugatoâs overall
formal function as the development section has far-reaching implications: it would mean that
the exposition has not simply failed because both δ and the fugato have been unable to fulfil
the generic expectations of a secondary theme but in a more fundamental sense because the
exposition has actually failed to produce any S in the first place and thus remains essentially
incomplete.
16 This term is borrowed from Lawrence Kramer, Music as Cultural Practice, 1800 â1900 (Berkeley and Los Angeles:University of California Press, 1993), ch. 1.
17 See John Williamson, Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 79â80.
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 233
S (?)
Recapitulatory Rotation
152 159 173 175
1&2
178
S (?) P
F G [Steigerungsform]
expository rotationnow complete (!)
E [-185]
180
(!)
22 1
Introduction
S (?)
44
P
E [-66]
Exposition
inverted exposition
inverted expositoryrotation in theexpected order
(but incomplete)
69
S (?)
1&2
inverted expositoryrotation in theexpected order
(but incomplete)
D
Figure 2 Webern, String Quartet (1905): âsub-rotationsâ.
Indeed, in the recapitulatory rotation we are presented with a strategy of compensationfor the underdeterminacy of S. With the consequence that the dichotomy suggested on
the âmacro-rotationalâ level between âintroductionâ and âexpositonâ de facto disintegrates; as
Figure 2 suggests, on a quasi-âsub-rotationalâ levelβ could be considered to incrementally take
over the supposed S-function of δ in the recapitulatory rotation, as if the actual expository
space was to be understood as an âinverted expositionâ.
Whatbringsthepossibilityofanâinvertedexpositionâintoplayisthefactthattherecurrence
of Îł (b. 152), despite being presented in F major instead of E major clearly suggestive of the
onset of the recapitulatory rotation, is followed by β (b. 159), not δ. This seems to suggest a
reading of β (bb. 159â72) as a stand-in for the lack of S. But β does not settle in any key area
and hence does not result in an essential structural closure (ESC), which would complete
the recapitulatory rotation. Instead, Îł is relaunched in b. 173 which, followed by a brief
restatement of β once more, turns into a Steigerungsform that surprisingly culminates in b.
178 in δ (note, mit gr osster Macht and mit erhabenstem Ausdruck und ganz breit ), first stated
in G major before finally yielding to a cadence in E major. It is as if in b. 178 we were invited
to hear δ claiming to have (re)gained the status of a proper secondary theme â as if it had been
the real secondary theme all along. The effect that results from this is a massively protracted
recapitulation: it is only in bb. 180â5 that one realizes that the entire recapitulation has in
fact been repressed all along (Example 3).
Having said this, what is deeply troubling in the recapitulatory rotation is the fact that it
does not produce an ESC in any conventional sense: the E major chord in b. 185 is arrived at
by a plagal cadence, not a PAC. (One may consider this event to have been foreshadowed by
the A major chord in b. 73.) The undermining of the ESC mirrors the MC/EEC-ambivalence
initiated in b. 79 (an association which is at least rhetorically suggested by the shared lang
chords), keeping the under-determinacy of S in limbo. Indeed, it is only in the thematic
space of Îľ that we get an authentic cadence (bb. 207â21), complementary to the cadential
articulation towards the end of the fugato section (bb. 104â12), but in the âwrong keyâ of Dmajor. This ambivalence is complicit with the function of Îľ as both mirroring the supposed
fugato stand-in for S as some kind of S-replacement in the recapitulatory rotation, while also
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234 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
Example 3 Webern, String Quartet (1905): bb. 152â85 (bb. 155â77 omitted).18
By Anton Webern/Arranged by James BealeCopyright C 1965 by Carl Fischer, Inc.All rights assigned to Carl Fischer, LLC. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
marking the onset of the coda section which entails the return of the âtonicâ E major in which
the piece finally concludes.
The ingenuity and subtlety by which the harmonic development facilitates the settling
of the quartetâs generic sonata form strata while at the same time setting up an immanentlogic that exists in its own terms is a fundamental characteristic of the work which is crucial
for understanding it as entering into a dialogue with the sonata paradigm. The harmonic
development of the whole movement is encapsulated in b. 3, where the three-note motive
âcâcâeâ from the upbeat and the first bar (with a fermata) âresolvesâ to the augmented triad
âcâeâgâ (note, again with a fermata). Operating as a Zentralklang (or âharmonic motiveâ)
which exists as a sonority in its own right and which resurfaces in various local instances (e.g.
18 Please note that in Webernâs autograph bb. 178 and 181 are notated in G major; Example 3 cites Bealeâs edition (New
York: Carl Fischer, 1965) where this passage is enharmonically respelled as A major; another important enharmonicrespelling concerns b. 74 (not reproduced here but reflected in Example 5), which in Webernâs autograph is notated
as C major, in Bealeâs edition as D major. I am grateful to Dr Thomas Ahrend for pointing this out to me.
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 235
Example 4 Weitzmann, Der ¨ uberm¨ aĂige Dreiklang : reproduction of Example, 15 (1853).
notably amidst P, b. 50),19 this chord foreshadows the logic upon which the âharmonic pillarsâ
of the large-scale structure arise.20 Based on the twenty-four possible ways of resolving the
augmented triad as discussed in detail by Carl Friedrich Weitzmann in his 1853 study on The
Augmented Triad , on the large-scale level Webernâs quartet consistently applies Weitzmannâs
first rule. According to this, â[e ]ach voice of an augmented triad or one of its inversions can
fall a half step , while the two other voices sustain, by which means the resolution is achieved
to a major triad or to one of its inversions. The moving voice falls in the process to the fifth
of that major triad.â21
Applying this rule to the augmented triad âcâeâgâ, Webern obtainedthe three major chords which we are nowadays familiar with as the hexatonic cycle âH 0â (or
what Richard Cohn calls the âNorthern cycleâ): C major, E major, and A major (or when
enharmonically reinterpreted, G major) (Example 4).22
These three chords crystallize as the âharmonic pillarsâ of the whole movement. Organized
in âhexatonic spaceâ (where triadic uniformity is assumed), the harmonic consistency of
the work can be illustrated along the lines of Figure 3. The distances within triadic space
are exclusively either T2 (in the case at hand, as Gegenterzschritt (PL)) or T4 (either
as Ganztonschritt (LRLR, RLRP, RPRL), Gegenganztonschritt (LRPR, PRLR, RLRL), or
19 See David Clampitt, âWebernâs Music for String Quartetâ, in Intimate Voices: The Twentieth-Century String Quartet.
Vol. 1: Debussy to Villa-Lobos , ed. Evan Jones (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2009), 197â200.
20 The significance of the augmented triad as the Zentralklang of the whole piece has been singled out by Reinhard
Gerlach, âMystik und Klangmagie in Anton von Weberns hybrider Tonalitat: Eine Jugendkrise im Spiegel von Musik
und Dichtung der Jahrhundertwendeâ (1976), in DieWiener Schule , ed. RudolfStephan (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1989), 359. The functionality Webern ascribed to the augmented triad bears strong similarities to
harmonic practices found in Liszt, Wagner, and Wolf; see in particular Eric Sams, The Songs of Hugo Wolf (London:
Eulenburg Books, 1983), 30â1; R. Larry Todd, âThe âUnwelcome Guestâ Regaled: Franz Liszt and the Augmented
Triadâ, 19th-Century Music 12/2 (1988); Mark Anson-Cartwright, âChord as Motive: The Augmented-Triad Matrix
in Wagnerâs âSiegfried Idyllââ, Music Analysis 15/1 (1996); James M. Baker, âFranz Liszt, Carl Friedrich Weitzmann,and the Augmented Triadâ, in The Second Practice of Nineteenth-Century Tonality , ed. William Kinderman and Harald
Krebs (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996); and Matthew Bribitzer-Stull, âThe A-C-E Complex: The Origin
and Function of Chromatic Major Third Collections in Nineteenth-Century Musicâ, Music Theory Spectrum 28/2
(2006).
21 Carl Friedrich Weitzmann, Der ¨ uberm¨ aĂige Dreiklang (Berlin: Verlag der T. Trautweinâschen Buch- und
Musikalienhandlung, 1853), 28; cit. in translation after idem., âTwo Monographs by Carl Friedrich Weitzmann:
Part I: âThe Augmented Triadâ (1853)â, trans. Janna K. Saslaw, Theory & Practice 29 (2004), 213, 215; emphases in
the original (1853) but not in Saslawâs translation and reproduction (2004). The significance of Weitzmannâs study
for neo-Riemannian theory has been discussed by Richard Cohn, âWeitzmamnâs Regions, My Cycles, and Douthettâs
Dancing Cubesâ, Music Theory Spectrum 22/1 (2000); and idem., Audacious Euphony: Chromaticism and the Consonant
Triadâs Second Nature (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 56â8.22 Richard Cohn, âMaximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late-Romantic Triadic
Progressionsâ, Music Analysis 15/1 (1996), 17ff.
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236 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
T4D
(200-21)
F(152)
E(44-66)
T2
F(69-79)
T4
C(90-112)
T4
G(178)
E(180-85)
T4
T4
T2
T4
E(249-end)
T2
T2
T2
Figure 3 Webern, String Quartet (1905): hexatonic space.
Example 5 Webern, String Quartet (1905): Urlinie unfolding by means of H0 {E+; C+; G+} and H2
{F+; D+}. Full slurs (unconventionally) indicate whole-tone relationships.
Tritonusschritt (PRPR, RPRP)). While F major is not part of the âNorthern cycleâ itself, it
nonetheless further advances the whole-tone quality of the large-scale harmonic development
by following or being followed by E major, C major, and Gmajor respectively. In conjunction
with D major, F major forms the complementary (albeit incomplete) hexatonic cycle to the
âNorthernâ one: the âSouthern cycleâ (âH2â), which extends the three roots of the six chords
integral to the âNorthern cycleâ to the whole-tone pentachord âcâdâeâf âgâ (in which notably
âeâ, representative of the âtonicâ E major, is framed).
Without meaning to suggest that the harmonic development of the quartet can be bent
into orthodox Schenkerian terms, Example 5 aims at illustrating one possible interpretation
of how the notion of the Urlinie is conveyed by means of the underlying âbi-hexatonic cyclingâidentified above. As this graph illustrates, the harmonic-motivic coherence obtained in this
piece arguably lies precisely in the dialectical relationship between the hexatonic cycling on
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 237
the one hand and the Urlinienterzzug paradigm on the other.23 Arguably Webernâs quartet
is indeed a particularly pertinent case in point to think through what J. P. E. Harper-Scott
most recently anticipated as a âdialectical method of analysing twentieth-century tonalityâ,
mediating âon theonehand, theorthodox, diatonic, prolongation of thetonictriad, and on the
other hand constructions of musical space which tend to cut against diatonic prolongationâ.24
The effect obtained in Webernâs quartet through this âmediationâ is complex. In a way, one
could understand the whole harmonic development following the âlack of Sâ in the key of F
major as collapsing into the rest of the work. The tonicization of the S-space frustrated F
major infiltrates into the recapitulatory rotation. And when finally in b. 185 the recapitulatory
rotation is clearly marked (to recall, E major posited by δ), the Urlinie is still at the third
scale-step and thus requires ongoing unfolding in order to actually conclude the work, which
is then finally redeemed by Îľ. This suggests that the sonata form strata evoked by the divided
Urlinie paradigm and its underpinning hexatonic practice are not simply âsynthesizedâ but
in a truly dialectical sense constitute an immanent logic of disintegration (to speak withAdornoâs early philosophical agenda). But when taking this perspective, the initial formal
âproblemsâ are no longer what they initially appeared to be. It is integral to the workâs âsonata
deformationâ (in the sense of a second form) that what erstwhile appeared in Gerlachâs analysis
to be irreconcilable with the sonata paradigm (in the sense of a first form) is transcended,
annulled, and preserved all at the same time â in short, in the complex sense of the term,
aufgehoben (sublated).
Webern and the Zarathustra tropeOur analysis of the rotational form has revealed the quartetâs strong links to the discourse on
musical form current among those composers whom Hepokoski has described as the âfirst
generation to come of age in a post-Lisztian/post-Wagnerian worldâ.25 Given the historical
scope of rotational form of that time, any attempt to pinpoint those strands of Webernâs
musical socialization which saw this principle become an integral part of his musical language
may prove otiose. Yet I wish in the following to venture the suggestion that Straussâs Also
sprach Zarathustra may have served Webern as a substantive case of reference. As Example 6
illustrates, in both works each âdevelopment sectionâ is introduced by a fugato, the primary material of which â again in both cases a three-note subject â refers back to the very beginning:
in Also sprach Zarathustra to the famous introductory ânatureâ motive; in Webernâs string
quartet to the opening motive âcâcâeâ.26
23 For Hepokoski and Darcyâs Schenkerian view of the sonata form in the major mode, see Hepokoski and Darcy,
Elements of Sonata Theory , 148.
24 J. P. E. Harper-Scott, âReview of Tonality 1900 â1950: Concept and Practice , eds. Felix Worner, Ullrich Scheideler and
Philip Rupprechtâ, Music Analysis 33/3 (2014), 394.
25 Hepokoski, Sibelius , 3.26 Given that, as Julian Johnson pointed out, the three-note motive was a locus classicus of nineteenth-century music
(Webern and the Transformation of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 77), to exclusively account
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238 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
Example 6 Comparison of the three-note fugal subjects in (a) Webern, String Quartet (1905), bb. 90â6;and (b) Richard Strauss, Also sprach Zarathustra , op. 30, bb. 201â5.(a) By Anton Webern / Arranged by James BealeCopyright C 1965 by Carl Fischer, Inc.All rights assigned to Carl Fischer, LLCAll rights reserved. Used with permission.(b) Extract from Also sprach Zarathustra , op. 30 by Richard StraussC Copyright by C. F. Peters, LeipzigReproduced by kind permission of Edition Peters, London
With this reference we may contemplate a number of speculative questions. Did Webern
intend the listener to perceive formal analogies to Straussâs work in his quartet? Indeed, just
as in Webernâs quartet the S-space remains underdetermined, so can the exposition of Also
sprach Zarathustra be considered, following Hepokoski, to have been âabortedâ. Although the
thematic space entitled Von den Freuden- und Leidenschaften âsounds much like the onset
of a sonata expositionâ,27 its complementary rotation fails to produce a secondary theme
after all. Instead the Sehnsuchts-Thema , initially found within the complementary part of the
introductoryâs second rotation, gains the upper hand in the course of the work, to the extent
that Hepokoski considers âStrauss [to have] invite[d] us to imagine that the Longing theme
[Sehnsuchts-Thema ], in its disparate and its scattered placements earlier in the work, has
been aspiring to become a secondary theme within a sonata form.â28 Likewise identifying the
underdeterminacy of the S-space as a crucial formal problem but interpreting the situation in
this to the motto âMuss es sein? Es muss sein! Es muss sein!â from the final movement of Ludwig van Beethovenâs
String Quartet in F major, op. 135 (as most commentators suggest) is perhaps rather one-sided.
27 James Hepokoski, âThe Second Cycle of Tone Poemsâ, in The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss , ed. CharlesYoumans (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 100.
28 Hepokoski, âThe Second Cycle of Tone Poemsâ, 101.
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 239
different terms, Charles Youmans argues that ââVon den Freuden- und Leidenschaftenâ and
âVon den Hinterweltlernâ assume the character of primary and secondary themes in almost
stereotypical fashion, but they appear in reverse orderâ, concluding that Strauss has âinvertedâ
the sonata exposition29 â a formal strategy, as we have seen above, which is also conceivable
in the terms of Webernâs quartet.30 Seeing Webernâs three-note fugato within this context,could it be possible that Webern intended to provide the listener with the means of finding
some sort of an orientation within the workâs complex form?
My impression is that Webernâs reception of Strauss in this period was much more multi-
layered and complex than could be exhaustively accounted for merely by seeing Webern as
having appropriated here a certain set of expressive formal means and devices(Formsprache ). I
readthefugatoratherasanattempttoconstructStraussâs Also sprach Zarathustra as a âparatextâ
intended to make the philosophical authority of Straussâs tone poem reverberate in his own
quartet. Thus Straussâs work offered Webern the possibility to buy himself, arguably in line
with Alexander Zemlinsky and Schoenberg, into what had crystallized towards the end of thenineteenth century as the Zarathustra trope.31 As the paragon of a pantheistic worldview
in which, in Kevin Karnesâs words, redemption was attainable through the individualâs
realization of the âessential relatedness, even oneness, of humanity and the natural worldâ, the
Zarathustra trope owes itsplace right at thecentreof turn-of-the-centurymusical modernism,
not least due to its famous antipodal constellation to Schopenhauerâs and Wagnerâs vision of
redemption âgrounded in metaphysical transcendence of oneâs physical being, and that were
literally attainable only through asceticism or the destruction of the subject in deathâ.32 That
Webern, though we do not know whether he was aware of this debate or would have been
willing to take sides, was familiar with an image of Strauss that saw his modernism reflected
not only in terms of âmusical materialâ but also in the philosophical content of his music can
be evidenced by a newspaper article from the Grazer Tagespost , following a performance of
Straussâs Don Juan , Op. 20, in Graz on 26 January 1900, which Webern copied into his diary
in its entirety. This article celebrates Strauss as âthe most modern of the modernistsâ and as the
âmost shining sun on the horizon of contemporary German music cultureâ precisely because,
citing the commentary on Also sprach Zarathustra , Strauss âexplores musicâs potential to
29 Charles Youmans, Richard Straussâs Orchestral Music and the German Intellectual Tradition: The Philosophical Roots of
Musical Modernism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 199â200.
30 While making such a comparison one may not neglect the fact that in Webernâs quartet, unlike in Also sprach
Zarathustra , the supposedly S-space, δ, in fact returns in the recapitulatory rotation.
31 See Kevin C. Karnes, A Kingdom Not of This World: Wagner, the Arts, and Utopian Visions in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 132â6. In particular Karnes points out Zemlinskyâs âTurmw achterliedâ, op.
8, no. 1 (1899), 137â40, and Schoenbergâs Gurrelieder (1900â11), 152â62, as crucial cases in point. For an in-depth
discussion of Nietzscheâs concept of Eternal Recurrence in relationship to modernity, seeMatthew Rampley, Nietzsche,
Aesthetics and Modernity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 148â52.
32 Karnes, A Kingdom Not of This World , 128. See also Charles Youmans, âThe Development of Richard StraussâsWorldviewâ, in The Richard Strauss Companion , ed. Mark-Daniel Schmid (Westport, CT, and London: Praeger, 2003),
81â3.
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240 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
Example 7 Webern, sketch (formal draft) of the String Quartet (1905), Paul Sacher Foundation, Basle,Anton Webern Collection; my transcription.34
express even metaphysical issuesâ.33 Thus in order to establish himself as a composer who
stood directly upon the beating arteries of the musikalische Moderne , in 1905 this meant for
Webern not only adopting Straussâs compositional idioms but also the philosophical themes
that Strauss addressed in his own works.It is, as I wish to venture, against this background that Segantiniâs triptych appealed to
Webern as his initial programmatic point of departure, as is evidenced by a formal draft
from 13 July 1905 (see Example 7).35 That Nietzscheâs Zarathustra had some crucial impact
on Segantini echoed throughout the reception history of the painterâs work ,36 and was in
33 The Germanoriginals read: âden Modernsten derModernenâ; âglanzendsten Nebensonne am deutschen Musikhimmel
der Gegenwartâ; âdie Ausdrucksf ahigkeit der Musik selbst f ur metaphysische Probleme erprobteâ. The transcription of
this diary entry was kindly provided by Barbara Schingnitz; her complete transcription of Webernâs early diaries are
forthcoming in Der junge Webern: Texte und Kontexte , ed. Matthias Schmidt and Thomas Ahrend. Webern-Studien:
Beihefte der Anton Webern Gesamtausgabe, 2b (Vienna: Lafite, 2015).34 A full reproduction of this formal draft is provided by Gunter Metken, âLâelevation en musique: Anton Webern
et Segantiniâ, Revue de lâArt 96 (1992), 82; he has also provided a transcription, albeit incomplete, on page 84; see
also Eric Frederick Jensen, âWebern and Giovanni Segantiniâs Trittico della natura â, The Musical Times 130/1751
(1989). The Anton Webern Gesamtausgabe , Basle, under the Editionsleitung of Thomas Ahrend, Simon Obert, and
Matthias Schmidt, is currently preparing a new edition of the quartet from the manuscripts and sketches; I am very
grateful to have been given the opportunity to look at an early version of this edition while studying the Anton
Webern Collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation in 2013â14, which was invaluable in the preparation of my own
transcriptions as provided in Examples 7â9 of this article. Any errors are, of course, my own.
35 In this context see Webernâs famous remark from his diary entry from 6 November 1904, according to which he
longed for âan artist in music such as Segantini was in paintingâ who would then be âthe Beethoven of our dayâ (cit.
in translation after Moldenhauer, Anton von Webern , 76).36 See, for example, the transcription of a report published in the Grazer Tagespost of 12 November 1899 about a paper
delivered by Hermann Ubell at a meeting of the Kunsthistorische Gesellschaft Graz held on 9 November, which
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 241
particular advanced with regard to his painting Lâannunciazione del nuovo verbo, completed
in 1896 just before he began producing the triptych. On a more general level, the way nature
was transfigured in Segantiniâs late work as a whole is often considered to reflect Nietzscheâs
pantheistic vision of redemption. Both Luigi Villari and Franz Servaes, the authors of the
first extensive monographs on the painter, broadly adumbrated Segantiniâs late work as thesynthesis of his early period concern for the mimetic or pictorial representation of nature
with the fantastical and at times disturbing dream-like worlds from his middle period. Villari
wrote:
From the point of view of his art his [sc. Segantiniâs] religion may be [ . . . ] divided
into three periods. In the first, he paints religion as he sees it in others, in the peasants
of the Brianza. In the second, he passes through a phase of purely natural studies and
of nature worship, in which outward religion is somewhat less prominent. He paints
nature in a realistic manner without giving much thought to the power by whomshe is ruled. But love of nature was too deep for him to forego for long inquiring into
her laws and moving causes, and from the worship of nature he returns to religion,
but to a higher and more spiritual religion than before, for it is now subjective and
not merely external.37
In the triptych these interspersions were considered to balance each other out particularly
well. Villari again: â[The three panels of the triptych] contain all that is best in his [sc.
Segantiniâs] symbolism, without any of those too fantastic flights of imagination which
alarmed and bewildered even his most devoted admirers. It also contains some of his most
perfect realism.â38 Crucial to Villariâs interpretation are (i) Segantiniâs overdrawn realism of
natural objects; (ii) the fact that in La Natura , the mother holding her child while sitting
underneath a pine tree (which indeed is the only element which surmounts the paintingâs
frame, and also recurs in La Vita ) has a clear Madonna and child symbolism; as well as (iii)
the unfinished lunettes of all three paintings, which feature the Christian symbolism of angels
as mediators between life and death, elevating from the mundane the seemingly everyday
situations depicted in the painting.39 Hence the triptych â and this was emphasized already by
contemporary commentators of the work â goes far beyond a mere pictorial representation
of landscape. Villari conceived of this seemingly paradoxical situation as follows: âHe
Webern may have come across. The report reads: âThe atmosphere of Segantiniâs major landscape paintings was
characterised by readings from some of the beautiful poems of Konrad Ferdinand Meyer and a few of the magnificent,
impressionistic, landscape aphorisms of Nietzsche.â; cit. in translation after Susanne Rode-Breymann, ââ . . . gathering
the divine from the earthly . . . â: Ferdinand Avenarius and his Significance for Anton Webernâs Early Settings of Lyric
Poetryâ, trans. Mary Whittall, in Webern Studies , ed. Kathryn Bailey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996),
11.
37 Luigi Villari, Giovanni Segantini (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1901), 172.
38 Villari, Giovanni Segantini , 201.
39 Villari, Giovanni Segantini , 163, 171, 196â201. See also Franz Servaes, Giovanni Segantini: Sein Leben und sein
Werk (Vienna: M. Gerlach, 1902), 104â11; Alfred Peltzer, âGiovanni Segantini (Betrachtungen bei Gelegenheit derAusstellung zu Ehren des Verstorbenen in Mailand)â, in Die Kunst f¨ ur alle , ed. Friedrich Pecht (Munich: Verlagsanstalt
F. Bruckmann A.-G., 1900), 292â4.
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242 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
[sc. Segantini] was a symbolist, but his symbolism lies in the harmony of his landscapes
and his figures, which together suggest the abstract idea.â40 This âabstract ideaâ, the harmony
between nature and humankind (and which, for example, induced Jensen to consider the
triptych as âcommentaries on nature and manâs role in itâ41), gives contour to the pivotal
aesthetic concern by which Nietzscheâs concept of redemption could be considered to havebeen redeemed in Segantiniâs late work.
Indeed, we have good reason to argue that it was the âZarathustrianâ impress associated with
Segantini, rather than an intention to actually represent Segantiniâs triptych as such, which
fuelled Webernâs primary programmatic concern. This perspective has been opened up by
Johnson who, in distance to those commentators who haveaimed at showingthecongruencies
that apparently exist between Segantiniâs triptych and the quartetâs formal structure, instead
sensed that âWebernâs quartet bears little resemblance to the painting whose detailed content it
makes no attempt to illustrate musically.â Rather it seemed to him that Webern was concerned
with the âideas expressed in each part of the triptychâ â that is, the general temporal notion of the circle of life.42 In this respect, in the Wittgensteinian sense, the formal draft was no more
than the ladder which Webern was ultimately to push away from once he had redeemed the
ideas there expounded (just as was Schoenbergâs initial programme for his D minor Quartet
which Ethan Haimo has argued served the composer âmore [as] an aide-m´ emoire than a
detailed blueprintâ43).
That Webern right from the start was concerned with redeeming the supposedly
âZarathustrianâ qualities which could be perceived in Segantiniâs work is most apparent
in the rather odd German translations of the original titles of the triptych, La Natura , La Vita ,
La Morte , which are translated in Webernâs formal draft as âWerdenâ, âSeinâ, âVergehenâ, and
not as we might expect the more literal âDie Naturâ, âDas Lebenâ, âDer Todâ.44 Quite possibly,
Webern took this peculiar rendering from the catalogue initiated on the occasion of the
IX. Exhibition of the Vereinigung Bildender K unstler ¨ Osterreichs Secession , or from the local
press.45 This suggests that Webern did not derive the idea of the circle of life from Segantiniâs
40 Villari, Giovanni Segantini , 164. See also Jaro Springer, âGiovanni Segantiniâ, in Die Kunst f ur alle , ed. Friedrich Pecht
(Munich: Verlagsanstalt F. Bruckmann A.-G., 1900), 70; Franz Wolter, âErinnerungen an Giovanni Segantiniâ, in Die
Kunst f ur alle , ed. Friedrich Pecht (Munich: Verlagsanstalt F. Bruckmann A.-G., 1900), 297.
41 Jensen, âWebern and Giovanni Segantiniâs Trittico della natura â, 12.42 Johnson, Webern and the Transformation of Nature , 76â7 (both quotes); italics in the original.
43 Ethan Haimo, Schoenbergâs Transformation of Musical Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 126.
44 Indeed, most commentators translated the three headings of the triptych as âDie Naturâ, âDas Lebenâ, âDer Todâ;
see, for example, Servaes, Giovanni Segantini ; Emil Heilbut, âGiovanni Segantiniâ, in Kunst und K unstler: Illustrierte
Monatsschrift f ur bildende Kunst und Kunstgewerbe , ed. Emil Heilbut and Casar Flaischlen (Berlin: Verlag von Bruno
Cassirer, 1903), 57; Katalog der Siebenten Kunstausstellung der Berliner Secession (Berlin: Paul Cassirer, 1903), 32.
45 Katalog der IX. Kunstausstellung der Vereinigung Bildender K unstler ¨ Osterreichs Secession (Vienna: Adolf Holzhausen,
1901), 21. Note that the catalogue does not feature a reproduction of the triptych. In fact it is to this date an open
question as to whether, and if so where, Webern visually encountered Segantiniâs triptych. I am aware of two main
threads of speculation. Based on Webernâs diary entry from 1 August 1902, it has become something of a common
place to point out Webernâs visit to the Neue Pinakothek in Munich in July 1902, where Webern, as he reported, saw Segantiniâs âAlpenlandschaftâ and which âmade a distinctive impressionâ on him. (Moldenhauer, Anton von Webern ,51;
apparently Moldenhauer was not sure which of Segantiniâs paintings Webern actually referred to; in all likelihood he
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 243
triptych directly, but presumably from secondary commentaries which cast the triptych as
unmistakably inspired by what Nietzsche himself identified as the fundamental idea of Also
sprach Zarathustra : the philosophical conception of Eternal Recurrence (Ewige-Wiederkunfts-
Gedanke ).46
Webernâs heavy reliance upon this particular interpretation of the triptych suggested by the buzz words âWerdenâ, âSeinâ, and âVergehenâ, can be exemplified by the way he set out the
quartetâs third part, âVergehenâ. Webern evokes the notion of return and circularity which
was apparent already in the formal draft by prominently restating Îą both in the transition
(bb. 187â99) and in the closing section (bb. 256 to the end). In fact, as the sketches suggest,
Webern was all too concerned with providing this framing effect; he revised the ending as
originally laid down on the final page of the Reinschrift , in an attempt to advance more
conspicuously the three-note motive from the opening bars. Curiously enough, based on
these revisions Webern wrote the final page of the Reinschrift anew and replaced the older
version. This revision now forms part of the complete Reinschrift which is archived at theLibrary of Congress, Washington, and which formed the basis for James Bealeâs print version
of the score; the previous final page is archived at the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basle. A full
transcription of this first version of the ending is provided in Example 8.
That in the course of the compositional process Webern changed his strategies to translate
the abstract concepts of âWerdenâ, âSeinâ, and âVergehenâ altogether, ultimately rendering the
heuristic value or Erkenntnispotenzial of the formal draft highly problematic, can be further
exemplified with reference to the gestation of the fugato section. As the formal draft shows,
Webernâs initial idea was to compose a fugue to serve the function of the development section
â and indeed, in the sketches archived at the Paul Sacher Foundation we find a lengthy sketch
of a fugue evidently from an early stage of the compositional process, presumably the one
initially planned in the formal draft to constitute the âSeinâ section (the sketch is transcribed
in Example 9). Here while sketching this fugal section, Webern stumbled upon the three-note
motive which would later form the famous introduction to the piece apparently en passant .
This sketch shows that an accompaniment with the chordal layering of âf , f , aâ joins the
restatement of the fugal subject in the lower register (bb. 9ff.), precisely the intervallic content
that corresponds to the opening motive (down a semitone and up a major third). Possibly
Webern found the main overall harmonic idea encapsulated in this intervallic structure:
the juxtaposition of the diatonic scale with the whole-tone scale in a given short melodic
space. Webern, then, seems to have considered this accompanying material to be potentially
fruitful, as is indicated by his enclosing of this group of notes with square brackets, before
completely isolating it from the fugal subject; bb. 27â8 finally show the three-note motive
had seen âLâaraturaâ (see Johnson, Webern and the Transformation of Nature , 73).) Susanne Rode-Breymann, rightly,
suspiciousof thisExhibition as theplace whereWebern encountered Segantiniâs triptychinstead raisedthe significance
of the periodical Der Kunstwart , then edited by Avenarius, as a platform for cultural debates on contemporary art;
Rode-Breymann, ââ . . . gathering the divine from the earthly . . . ââ, 11â14. However, to my knowledge none of the
issues of Der Kunstwart actually published a reproduction of Segantiniâs triptych.46 See Friedrich Nietzsche, âAlso sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch f ur Alle und Keinenâ, in Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe
VI:3, ed. Giorgio Kolli and Mazzino Montinari (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co, 1969), 333.
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244 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
Example 8 Webern, sketch of the String Quartet (1905), Paul Sacher Foundation, Basle, Anton WebernCollection; my transcription. The Reinschrift , written with ink, originally dates back to the 25 August 1905;the revision, written with pencil directly onto this page, bears the date 12 September 1905. Ink is presentedin small size, pencil is presented in normal size; non-bracketed bar numbers correspond to the bars of therevised final page of the Reinschrift .
as this would later crystallize into the first two bars of the Reinschrift , just as some of the
three-note layers that he toyed around with in this sketch (bb. 35ff.) correspond to bb. 8â12
in the final version. Surprisingly enough, Webern ultimately discarded this fugal sketching
in its entirety and only saved the three-note motive. Finally, Webern replaced this earlier
contrapuntal sketch in favour of precisely the fugato that we now know from the final version
(bb. 90ff.). That there is no evidence whatsoever that Webern had sketched the fugato before
writing down the Reinschrift corresponds well with the fact that this part bears, in comparison
to most of the other parts which had been subject to previous sketching, considerably more
ad hoc corrections.47
47 I am grateful to Dr Thomas Ahrend for drawing my attention to this.
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 245
Example 8 Continued.
This is something of a philological pitfall for all those commentators who have aimed at
interpreting the fugato in the light of the formal draft. While the initial plan of the âouter
formâ is maintained, each fugue is constitutive of a different coherence of significance and
function within the workâs âinner formâ. This is already foregrounded by the rather static
characteristic of the three-note fugato whereas the fugue initially sketched clearly had themomentum of an organic unfolding, an aesthetic understanding of the fugue all too familiar
from Schoenbergâs D minor Quartet.48 The contents of the âSeinâ section, it turns out, are
thus refurnished to the extent that we may even consider Webern to have fundamentally
changed his conception of this in its entirety.
48 Consider in this context Hermann Danuserâs interpretation of the opening of the Von der Wissenschaft section from
Richard Straussâs Also sprach Zarathustra , put forward in Hermann Danuser, Weltanschauungsmusik (Berlin: Edition
Argus, 2009), 404 (my translation): âStrauss uses the ambivalences of the fugue in an idiosyncratic way in order to
subject its use as a developmental technique [ fugenhafte Durchf uhrungstechniken ] to criticism. Given that thecommon
fugal technique had become petrified since the early nineteenth century, in so doing he allegorically opposed any positivistic philology as well as criticized the âacademicâ understanding of the sonata form in which the development
section is usually conceived to be a suitable place for fugal parts.â
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246 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
Example 9 Webern, sketch of the String Quartet (1905), Paul Sacher Foundation, Basle, Anton WebernCollection; my transcription.
It may be due to Webernâs extensive change of strategies to translate what he believed
to be the triptychâs headings âWerdenâ, âSeinâ, and âVergehenâ to music, which ultimately
led him to produce a work which was barely charged with Segantiniâs triptych in any
concrete-programmatic sense after all. In fact the final version, the Reinschrift , no longerbears any reference to Segantiniâs triptych; he assigned a mysterious quote from the
Christian theosophist Jacobus Boehme (1575â1624) to the Reinschrift instead, which notably
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 247
encapsulates the notion of circularity and the ongoing spirit in a single short paragraph:
âThe sense of Triumph that prevailed within my Spirit I cannot write nor speak about; it can
with naught be compared, save only where, in the midst of Death, Life is born, like unto the
Resurrection of the Dead. In this Light did my Mind forthwith penetrate all Things: and in
all living Creatures, even in Weeds and Grass, did I perceive God, who He may be and how He may be and what His Will is.â49
ConclusionIn a way, this article has embarked upon a journey to defend Webernâs quartet against a
reception that reads the composerâs later âpathâ to the New Music back into it. As I have
tried to show, it is possible to tease out aspects from Webernâs quartet that cannot simply be
attributed to Schoenbergâs direct influence but which are more generally rooted in the context
of the musikalische Moderne . Despite the profusion of biographical evidences well coveredin Moldenhauer and Kathryn Baileyâs biographies which draw a complex and variegated
picture of Webernâs early fascination and admiration for composers such as Strauss, Mahler,
Wagner, Wolf, Pfitzner, and Puccini, just to name a few, this perspective has been insufficiently
thought through in music-analytical and music-hermeneutic terms. The jargon of Webernâs
âhigh modernismâ still casts Webernâs pre-opus repertoire in the light of not-yet-fully fledged
works of juvenilia and so merely as a parergon to what was yet to come â entirely neglecting
the fact that, as Puffett has most impressively demonstrated with regard to Im Sommerwind ,
Webern was in an emphatic sense a composer of the Moderne well before he stepped under
Schoenbergâs wings, equipped with firm aesthetic ideals as well as the compositional skills to
express them.50
That Webernâs quartet would reflect this hardly comes as a surprise. Not only did Webern
produce the quartet outside the usual teaching context, but also â and this is most often too
indifferently looked upon â in that same year Webern was, first and foremost, Schoenbergâs
student (in a factual sense); he only began to construct his identity as a Schoenberg student (in
an idealistic sense) towards the end of his studies.51 To trace this genealogy, Webernâs letter
to Schoenberg on 2 September 1907 provides an important reference. Claiming that while
meeting Pfitzner in Berlin in 1904 he had come to the realization that his aspiration to study
with that composer was âutter nonsenseâ and that he must instead return to Vienna in order
to study with Schoenberg, Webern constructed a narrative of his years under Schoenbergâs
49 Cit. in translation after Moldenhauer, Anton von Webern , 87; Moldenhauer identified thisexcerpt as the one âthat Wille
had used as the opening motto for his novel Offenbarungen des Wacholderbaums â and added that âit now appeared to
the composer as a fitting literary formulation of everything that his music, evoked by Segantiniâs art, was trying to
conveyâ.
50 Puffett, âGone with the Summer Wind; or, What Webern Lostâ. See also Christopher Hailey, âDefining Home: Bergâs
Life on the Peripheryâ, in The Cambridge Companion to Berg , ed. Anthony Pople (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1997), 14â 15.
51 See Felix Worner, ââNachahmungâ und âUberbietungâ durch Webern: Aspekte einer komplexen Interaktionâ, inAutorschaft als historische Konstruktion: Arnold Sch¨ onberg â Vorg¨ anger, Zeitgenossen, Nachfolger und Interpreten , ed.
Andreas Meyer and Ullrich Scheideler (Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler, 2001), 204.
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248 Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905)
tutelage in deterministic terms: âIâve come to realize that for me nothing other than studying
withyouwasanoption,thatithadtohappenthatway.â52 (That Pfitznernonethelesscontinued
to be a significant influence upon Webern, somethingWebern himselfremained tellingly silent
about, can be glimpsed in Egon Welleszâs anecdote, according to which the Klang -oscillation
found in the first piece of Webernâs F unf Orchesterst ucke , Op. 10 was directly inspired by thePrelude to Pfitznerâs Die Rose vom Liebesgarten , conducted by Mahler in Vienna in 1905.53)
The deterministic nature of Webernâs narrative is an early manifestation of what would in
the years thereafter fully develop into a psychological dependency on Schoenberg.54 As is
evidenced by letters to Heinrich Jalowetz, by 1911 Webernâs dependency had reached such
intensity that Webern fundamentally suffered under the threat of rejection from Schoenberg,
from even the slightest of potential disagreements and alienations.55
How closely this psychological dependency was intertwined with Webernâs identity
construction as Schoenberg student can be observed particularly well in the context of his
preparation of the 1912 festschrift in honour of Schoenberg.56 When making the decisionof who should take a major role in the production of this festschrift, behind the scenes
Webern began to narrow down the members of the inner Schoenberg circle. In a letter to
Berg from 11 February 1912, Webern wrote: âIâm telling you, we are actually only four: you,
Koniger, Jalowetz and I. After that we have Stein and Linke. â57 What strikes me here is not
only that Webern seems to have created a âsecond-tierâ of Schoenberg students, but also that
he deprived Karl Horwitz a place at all. This is surprising not only given that Horwitz was,
and continued to be, an essential member of the Schoenberg circle, but all the more so if
what Wilhelm von Wymetal reported to Conrad Ansorge on 5 October 1904 proves to be an
accurate recollection: that Webern, only eight years previously, had travelled with Horwitz
to Berlin in order to study with Pfitzner.58 But Horwitz, as Webern angrily complained in
52 The full quote reads: â[I]ch [wollte] ja nach Berlin gehn [sic] zu Pfitzner, aber kaum war ich in Berlin[,] ist es mir
ganz klar geworden, daĂ dies zu groĂer Unsinn sei und daĂ ich nach Wien zuruckmusse, um Ihr Schuler zu werden.
Ich mochte Ihnen damit nur sagen, daĂ es mir ganz klar ist, daĂ f ur mich uberhaupt nichts anderes moglich gewesen
w are, daĂ es einfach so kommen muĂte.â Letter from Webern to Schoenberg, 2 September 1907, published in Opus
Anton Webern , ed. Dieter Rexroth (Berlin: Quadriga, 1983), 81; my translation.
53 Egon Welleszand Emmy Wellesz, Egon Wellesz: Leben und Werk , ed. FranzEndler (Vienna andHamburg:Paul Zsolnay,
1981), 27â9.54 See, for example, Anne C. Shreffler, âAnton Webernâ, in Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: A Companion to the Second
Viennese School , ed. Bryan R. Simms (Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 1999), 261.
55 See the letters from Webern to Jalowetz, 23 and 25 April 1911, published in Briefe an Heinrich Jalowetz , ed. Ernst
Lichtenhahn. Veroffentlichungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, 7 (Mainz: Schott, 1999), 140â5.
56 Arnold Sch onberg: Mit Beitr agen von Alban Berg [et. al] (Munich: R. Piper & Co, 1912).
57 The original quote reads: âIch sage Dir, wir sind jetzt eigentlich nur mehr vier, Du, Koniger, Jalowetz und ich. Dann
kommen Stein und Linke.â The transcription of thisletter was kindly provided by SimoneHohmaier;the transcription
is forthcoming in Briefwechsel Anton Webern â Alban Berg , ed. Rudolf Stephan and Simone Hohmaier. Briefwechsel
der Wiener Schule, 4 (Mainz: Schott Music, forthcoming).
58 I was kindly provided with a transcription of this letter by Eike Rathgeber; the transcription is forthcoming in Conrad
Ansorge (1862â1930). Von den M uhender Zeitenwendeâ Eine Dokumentation , ed.Eike Rathgeber, Christian Heitler andManuela Schwartz. Wiener Veroffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte (Vienna: Bohlau, forthcoming). Moldenhauer,
basing himself on a letter from Josef Polnauer from 11 September 1966, reported that Webern travelled to Berlin
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Wedler Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webernâs String Quartet (1905) 249
a letter to Berg on 1 November 1911, had by then done absolutely nothing which might
have increased Schoenbergâs reputation,59 a frustration which ultimately led him to question
Horwitzâs loyalty towards Schoenberg in toto. Most certainly telling us more about Webernâs
own relationship to Schoenberg than Horwitzâs, this kind of frustration â notably, arising
four years after completing his studies with Schoenberg â in a way epitomizes Webernâstransformation from being Schoenbergâs student to a Schoenberg student , a self-identity from
which he would never depart.
All this suggests, in turn, that there are elements in Webernâs musical language still to be
discovered, not only before the autumn of 1904 but also in his quartet from 1905 and arguably
even beyond this time, which do not stem from the âanxiety of influenceâ that Webern, as
Schoenberg student , later undoubtedly felt. To bring out these other â repressed â voices
in Webernâs work, as I have attempted to do in this article on his String Quartet (1905),
means nothing less than to explore what I, for heuristic reasons, like to think of as Webernâs
physiognomy of early modernism.
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