Chamber Symphony No. 2 (Schoenberg)

Background#

When Schoenberg began the work in 1906, he was on the verge of a major stylistic change. His Chamber Symphony No. 1, for 15 players, has a concise form in which the four movements of a traditional symphony are condensed into a single larger one and establishes the soloistic orchestral writing sporadically found in works such as Gurre-Lieder and Pelleas und Melisande. After completing it, Schoenberg thought he had reached his mature style, but he soon began to explore new avenues of expression. In 1939, he added 20 bars to the original first movement, wrote the latter half of the second movement, and revised and reorchestrated the earlier portions of the work. He considered adding a third movement, an Adagio, and sketched out 127 bars of it but then decided that the work’s musical and ‘psychic’ problems had already been presented thoroughly in the first two movements. He also expanded the ensemble to that of a classical-sized orchestra, with the available forces of Stiedry’s orchestra in mind. Compared to the 1906 version, the 1939 version demonstrates greater variety between the string, woodwind and brass sections of the orchestra, using distinct instrumental groupings in a style similar to that of Anton Bruckner. It avoids the doubling of instrumental lines in favor of a differentiation of individual parts, showing that Schoenberg’s later style placed greater emphasis on clarity of textures than did his earlier orchestral scores. In almost every instance in the 1906 draft, first violins are paired with flute, oboe I, and clarinet I, second violins are paired with second clarinet, and lower strings are paired with octave doublings.

Music#

The work is scored for two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes (2nd doubling cor anglais), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets and strings. The chamber symphony are two movements: Harmonically, the Second Chamber Symphony generally progresses by stepwise motion, juxtaposing the First Chamber Symphony’s forward movement through non-traditional suspensions and appoggiaturas. Schoenberg combined this tonal style with fourth chords and similar combinations to grave and severe effect.

External links#

• Approachable Schoenberg – Chamber Symphony No. 2 by Menon Dwarka in Listen Winter 10
• Chamber Symphony No. 2 with notes and a recording at Arnold Schönberg Center.