Variations for piano (Webern)

History of composition#

By the early 1930s, Webern was one of the composers and artists criticised by the Nazi Party, which was rapidly gaining power. By 1934, Webern’s conducting career, a major source of income for the composer, was practically over, and he earned his living by teaching composition to a few private pupils. Despite the considerable financial disadvantages of this situation, the lack of a stable job provided Webern with more time to compose. * Third movement: begun 14 October 1935, completed 8 July 1936 * First movement: begun 22 July 1936, completed 19 August 1936 * Second movement: begun 25 August 1936, completed 5 November 1936 The piece is the only work for piano solo that was published by the composer and assigned an opus number. It was also the last work by Webern to be published by Universal Edition during his lifetime.

Structure#

All three movements of the work are 12-tone pieces based on the following row (as found at the beginning of the second movement): # A three-movement sonata: sonata form – binary scherzo – variations # A three-movement suite: ternary movement – binary movement – variations # A set of variations, in which the first two movements have little connection to the third One of the earliest explanations was offered by René Leibowitz, who in 1948 described the first movement as a theme and two variations, the second movement as a theme with a single variation, and the third movement as five variations of yet another theme.

Symmetry#

A particularly notable feature of Variations is symmetry, which is featured throughout the work. Horizontal symmetry can be observed, for example, in successive phrases of the first movement: bars 1–18 comprise four phrases, each built from the normal row and its retrograde stated simultaneously, and the second half of the phrase is always a reverse of the first. Each phrase is therefore a palindrome, though only the first pair of rows in the beginning of the movement is perfectly palindromic. Vertical symmetry pervades the second movement, which is a canon. The pitches are arranged around the pitch axis of A4. Each downward reaching interval is replicated exactly in the opposite direction.

Notes#

Sources * Paperback reprint 2006. . * * * Translation of Muziek van de twintigste eeuw: een onderzoek naar haar elementen en structuur. Utrecht: Oosthoek, 1964. Third impression, Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema, 1977. . * * * *

Further reading#

• Bailey, Kathryn. Juni 1988. “Willi Reich’s Webern”. Tempo, New Series, no. 165, Emigres and ‘Internal Exiles’, pp. 18–22.
• Fiori, Mary E. 1970. “Webern’s Use of Motive in the ‘Piano Variations’”. In: Lincoln, Harry B. (ed.). The Computer and Music, pp. 115–122. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Jones, James Rives. Autumn–Winter 1968. “Some Aspects of Rhythm and Meter in Webern’s Opus 27”. Perspectives of New Music, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 103–109.
• Leleu, Jean-Louis. 1998. “Intuition et esprit de système. Réflexions sur le schéma formel du deuxième mouvement des Variations pour piano op. 27 de Webern”. Revue belge de Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap, vol. 52, pp. 101–122.
• Lewin, David. October 1993. “A Metrical Problem in Webern’s Op. 27”. Music Analysis, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 343–354.
• Moldenhauer, Hans, and Rosaleen Moldenhauer. 1978. Anton von Webern: A Chronicle of His Life and Work. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. . London: Gollancz.
• Ogden, Wilbur. Spring 1962. “A Webern Analysis”. Journal of Music Theory, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 133–135.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1963. “Gruppenkomposition: Klavierstück I (Anleitung zum Hören)”. In his Texte zur Musik, vol. 1, edited by Dieter Schnebel, 63–74. DuMont Dokumente. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.
• Travis, Roy. Spring–Summer 1966. “Directed Motion in Two Brief Piano Pieces by Schoenberg and Webern”. Perspectives of New Music 4.2, pp. 85–89.
• Westergaard, Peter. Spring 1963. “Webern and ‘Total Organization’: an analysis of the Second Movement of Piano Variations, op. 27”. Perspectives of New Music 1.2, pp. 107–120.

External links#

• A Metrical Analysis and Re-notation of Webern’s Variations for Piano, 1st movement, Joseph L. Monzo 2010, tonalsoft.com
• Performance of Variations for Piano by Jonathan Biss from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format