jarman_alban berg the origins of a method

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Alban Berg: The Origins of a MethodAuthor(s): Douglas JarmanSource: Music Analysis, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Oct., 1987), pp. 273-288Published by: Blackwell PublishingStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/854206 .

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DOUGLASJARMAN

ALBAN BERG:THE ORIGINSOF A METHOD

IThe role playedby symmetrical formations in the music written in the firsthalfof the twentieth century has been the focus of much theoretical and analyticalattention in recent years. And yet, despite the considerable amount that hasbeen written about the use of such formations in the music of Bart6k,Stravinsky, Berg and other composers - and despite the pioneering work ofGeorgePerle in his Twelve-ToneTonality'andthe more recent secondvolumeofhis book on the Berg operas2 we are, I think, still only beginning to understandjust how extensive are the implications which the properties of suchsymmetricalformations have for the study of post-diatonicmusic.To give only one, as yet I think unnoticed, exampleof the influence thatsuchformations have on the large-scale structure of Lulu: although it has beengenerally observed that an ordered version of Basic Cell I of Lulu - the 0167collection in the characteristicmelodic form shown in Ex. 1- is embodied in allthe different sets employed in the opera,no one, I think, hasyet remarkeduponthe fact that, amongst its other unique properties(notablythat of being the onlyall-combinatorialset in the work), the Basic Set of Lulu is peculiar in havingembodied within it ordered statements of two of the Basic Cells of the opera(Basic Cell I of Ex. 1and the figuration,shown in its most characteristic orm inEx. 2, which I shall call Basic Cell II) and, what is more, of having both at thesame sum of symmetry:Ex. 1

Ex. 2 I w!A6.ira,. n

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DOUGLAS JARMAN

As is well known, the 0167 collection of Ex. 1, Basic Cell I of Lulu, is one ofonly three four-notecollections - all of them, necessarily,based on interlockingtritones- that have the unusualpropertyof being referableto two different(thatis tosay,not ritone-related)xesofsymmetry.3f, as scustomary,werepresentthe axes of symmetry as alignments of the ascendingand descending chromaticscale then, as Ex. 3 shows, Basic Cell I, at the pitch shown in Ex. 1, can beregardedas being symmetricalat either Sum 9 or Sum 3: 4Ex. 3

B.C.I

TBI(LC.(a)Sum9 (b)Sum3(a)Sum9 1 L )Sum3

BasicCell II of Lulu(Ex. 2), on the otherhand, is not symmetricalbut is what wemight term 'potentially symmetrical', which is to say thatit can be turned into asymmetrical figurationthrough the addition of a single note - the one note thatdistinguishes the inversion of the Cell from its prime form. In the case of thepitch level shown in Ex. 2 (which is the main pitch level of the Cell throughoutthe opera)the missing note is Bb. Example4 shows how, with this addition, thisform of Basic Cell II becomes a member of the same Sum 9 symmetry as BasicCell I in Ex. 3a:Ex. 4

B.C.II

tJ, .,-T

In an article published seventeen years ago5I showed how Berg employs acommon axis of symmetry as away of relatingall the different rows employed inthe second half of Act 2, Scene 1of Lulu- with the result that some 200 bars ofthe scene (including Dr Schoen's 'Five-Strophe Aria' and the music thatprecedes and follows it) are organized, first, around Sum 9 and then aroundSum 7 symmetries. The choice of Sum 9 as the axis of symmetry at thebeginning of this passageis determinedby the fact that, as Ex. 4 has shown, thisalignmentcontains BasicCell II at what is its primarypitch level in the workandthe level at which it has dominated the music earlier in the scene. The choice ofSum 7 as the axis of symmetry of the second half of the scene is similarlydeterminedby the fact that this is one of the two alignmentswhich containBasicCell I at itsprimarypitch level, on the notes E-A-Bb-Eb.The influence which the inversionallysymmetrical properties of these Cellshave upon the large-scalestructure of this scene is, however, much more far-274 MUSICANALYSIS6:3,1987


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ALBAN BERG: THE ORIGINS OF A METHOD

reachingthanI suggested in my originalarticle. On the basisof ourobservationsabout the way in which Basic Cells I and II are embodied in the Basic Set itself itis now possible, I think, to extend our remarkson the function of these Sumsymmetries to explain something of whathappensin the following 'Film Music'Interlude.

IIThe way in which the change(we might almost say 'the modulation')from Sum9 to Sum 7 symmetries in the middle of the scene is effected is of considerableinterest. Markeddramaticallyby the first revolver shot at b.416, the shift fromSum 9 to Sum 7 is achievedby superimposingtwo versionsof Basic Cell II in theway shown in Ex. 5. In this example the upper part is the potential Sum 9versionof BasicCell II (the versionthat has been heardthroughoutthe previouspartof the scene) andthe lowerpartthe potentialSum 5 version of the samecell.Together the two forms are inversionally symmetrical at Sum 7, the sum ofsymmetry that will govern the remainingsection of the Five-Strophe Aria:Ex. 5

B( 1Su1 9

Sum7,. 1"1o/i b B.C.,um416 B CLIISum5

We might, parenthetically, note that the Sum 9 and Sum 5 forms that aresuperimposedat this point themselveshavea specialsignificance, since not onlydoes the note row associated with Dr Schoen have embodied within it anordered statementof BasicCell I but, in addition, the firstfive notes of Schoen'srow at I-0 areidenticalin content with the upper(Sum 9) versionof BasicCell IIin Ex. 5 whilst the next five notes areidentical in contentwith the lower(Sum 5)version of the same cell. 6Sum 9 and Sum 7 symmetries thus dominate almost the whole of the secondhalf of Act 2, Scene 1of the opera, with a Sum 5 versionof BasicCell II actingasa transitional link between these other - more important - sums. It is thistransitional,but otherwise ignored, Sum 5 axis that is takenup at the beginningof the 'Film Music' Ostinato that follows. As Ex. 6 shows, the Ostinatointerlude begins with repeatedstatements of both Basic Cell I and BasicCell IIat a level at which they sharea common axis of symmetry:both aresymmetricalat Sum 5:

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Ex. 6B.C.I

II/ b65 Sum5B.C.II

B.C.I, Sum5

Ex. 7 shows how these Sum 5 forms of Basic Cells I and II areembodied in theBasic Set at P-O. It is at precisely this level - which is also the primarytranspositional level of the set in the opera as a whole - that the canonicstatements of the Basic Set now open the Agitato section of the Film MusicInterlude:Ex. 7

B.C.II, Sum5

B.C.I, Sum5

But if the opening section of the Film Music is concerned with the Basic Set atitsmain pitch level, the section which leads up to the centralpalindromicbar ofthe Interlude is similarlyto be concerned with statements of Basic Cell I at itsmost importantlevel, that is to say on the notes E-A-B6-Eb, at which level it issymmetrical at Sum 7 or Sum 1. It was at this level that the Cell was first heardas the very firstnotes of the Prologueatthe start of the work, and it is at this levelthat it will dominate the final scene of the opera. It is, therefore, fitting that itshould appearat this same level here at the very centre of the piece.The transitionfrom the Sum 5 axis of the opening and Agitato section of theFilm Music to the Sum 7/1 symmetriesof the passageleadingup to the middle ofthe Interludeis ingeniously contrived. Example8 shows the course of the mainevents during the whole of this passage:

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Ex. 8 Film music 'Ostinato', Act II bs 663ff.b.663 B.C.IIBasic Set P".C.BCum7/

b.6BCI Sum7/BSu

BasicetP'he.. .b.666 b.68I

b.670Smf/ BC

BasicSet VmB./um7/

Alwa Schoolboy

Geschwitz

Sum7/1"--

j Sum5/11

After the initial statements, at b.663, of the Basic Set at its main pitch level(beginning on C), the row is progressivelyshifted up until (at b.666) it reachesits tritone transposition, beginning on the note F# - the combinatorialtranspositionwhich incorporatesanother Sum 5 version of Basic Cell II and atwhich reappears he same Sum 5 versionof BasicCell I that we heardthree barsearlier. The prime form of the Set is then replaced by the inversion alsobeginning on F#, in which form the Sum 5 versions of the Basic Cells arereplacedby a Sum 7 version of BasicCell II anda versionof BasicCell I which issymmetricalat both Sum 7 and at Sum 1.As Ex. 8 demonstrates, the complementaryform of this version of the BasicMUSICANALYSIS6:3, 1987 277


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Cell is that on the notes E-A-B6 -E6, the primary pitch level of the Cell. It is thiscomplementarylevel that determines the transpositional evels employed in thefollowing section when, from b.670 onwards,all the importantnote rows in theoperaareplayedand BasicCell I on the notes E-A-B6 -E6 is extracted fromeach.The overallprogressionof the Film Music Ostinato from Sum 5 to Sum 7/1symmetries is now summed up in the central section of the Interlude. Bar 680presents simultaneous statements of the two Sum 7 versions of Basic Cell Iagainsta residualdiminished-seventh chord thatis alsosymmetricalat Sum7/1;while the palindromicb.687, at the very centre of both the Interlude and thewhole opera, similarly presents the two complementaryversions of Basic Cell Isymmetrical at Sum 5/11 (the axis of symmetry of the opening and closingpassagesof the Ostinato) in the same way.

IIII have been concerned here with a relativelyshort passage- a passageof some325 bars in a work that runs to almost 4000 bars - yet even so brief a surveydemonstrates, I think, the skill and ingenuity with which Berg exploits theunusual structuralproperties of these symmetricalformationsand gives someindication of the extent to which these properties influence the large-scalestructure of the opera.In the second volume of his book TheOperasof AlbanBergGeorge Perle hasargued that the musical language of Lulu rests, not upon what Hans Kellercalled 'a phoney twelve-note technique', but upon a technique which, differingin many respects from that of Schoenberg, is both more far-reachingand moresystematic in its approachto the radicalconcepts embodied in the idea of thetwelve-note method than is that of his two 'Second Viennese' colleagues; thatthe intricate serial organization of the opera is only one aspect of a morecomprehensive system of pitch organization which embraces not only'orthodox'twelve-noterows, tropes, serialtropesand variousincidental sets butalso the complete arrayof interval cycles as well as diatonic, whole-tone andother 'familiar'formations.7

Many of the elements of that comprehensive system of pitch organization-such as the use of symmetricalformations or of materialbased on the systematicunfolding of one or more interval cycles (formations and material such as wehave just examined in Lulu) - are a common feature of Berg's earlierworks.Chromatic wedge progressions, which we can regard as the unfolding ofsimultaneouslyascendinganddescending statements of the interval1cycle- area common feature of Berg's earliestmusic, as Bruce Archibaldobserved manyyearsago.s Indeed, as MarkDeVoto hasrecently pointed out, such progressionsare a natural development of Berg's early tonal language.9George Perle'ohasshown how importanta featureof the Op.3 StringQuartetis Berg's explicit useof interval cycles and how the opening of the second movement of the workemploys figurationsbased on symmetricallyrelated P/I dyads of Sum 8 while,278 MUSIC ANALYSIS 6:3, 1987


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nonetheless,observing hat thecyclicprinciples still farfromprovidingOp.3with a'structure'nalogousowhatwe meanbythat ermwhenweuseit toreferto music written n themajor/minorystem.Certainlyhefrequentchromaticwedge progressions n Berg's non-twelve-notemusic are rarely used sosystematicallyr oversolongaperiodas toenableus toaccountoreverynote na passage,let alone account for every note in a piece in the way that theexpandingchromaticwedge which forms the basisof the fifth of the Op.9Bagatelles f Webernenablesus to account oreverynotein thatpiece.The clarinetphrasethat opens the first of the Op.5 Pieces of Berg, forexample,presentsus- as Ex. 9 shows withawedgewithinawedge,directingour ear to the risingsemitoneprogressionA6-A on the highestnotes of thephraseand thecomplementaryG-F#descentonthe lowestnotes;while,at theregistralcentre of the figuration,the Eb on the second note moves bothchromatically pwards o E andchromaticallyownwards o D, a progressionwhich s immediately resented t adifferentpitchand n amorecompact ormin theopeningnotesof thepianopartand in thefollowingclarinet igure:Ex. 9 clarinet (sounding as written)

p- LI

In the last six bars of the same piece a chromatically contracting wedgeprogressionin the clarinetparthomes in on the final repeatedG natural. As Ex.10 demonstrates, the three-octave move from the high to the low D on the firstand last notes of the opening figurationoutlines the outer limits of the wedgewhich the rest of the phrasethen systematicallyfills in, until the ascendinganddescending lines arrivetogetherat the G which forms their goal:Ex. 10

This passageis exceptional, however, foralthoughthe whole of thispiece can beMUSICANALYSIS6:3, 1987 279


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interpretedin terms of overlappingand superimposed wedge progressions (inwhich any note of one wedge can become the startingpoint for another)few ofthem arehandledassystematicallyorasconsistentlyas is that shownin Ex. 10.At what point, then, did Berg become aware that symmetrical formations,wedge progressions, interval cycles and other such (apparently unrelated)procedures were all different aspects of a single unified system of pitchorganization?At what point did he begin to recognizethe larger, if not the full,structuraland theoreticalimplicationsof these techniques?The famous letter which Berg wrote to Schoenberg on 27 July 1920, andwhich George Perle has reproduced in his article on 'Berg's Master Array',"shows that Berg was aware of some of the peculiar structuralpropertiesof theintervalcycles at the time he was workingon Wozzeck,as do not only those barsin Act 2, Scene 3 of the operain which he briefly employs the arraybut also thesketches for the 'drowning music' of Act 3, which reveal that Berg originallyconceived this passage as overlappingchromaticscales which outlined a seriesof contractingintervalcycles on the main beats of each bar.But the setting down of the array n the chartwhich he included with his 1920letter to Schoenberg was, I think, only one stage in the development of Berg'sgrowing understandingof the largerimplicationsof those elements which hadalready, by that time, become a characteristicpartof his musical language.

IVAt the beginning of the second of the AltenbergLieder,the voice part presents athree-note figure, consisting of an ascending semitone and descending majorthird, which returnsin inversionas the closingnotes of the firstvocalphraseandis then taken up by the horns in retrograde- in which form it becomes thestarting point for the chain of alternating ascending thirds and descendingsemitones shown in Ex. 11. Compressed at bs 4-5 into the chain of interlinkedverticalmajorthirds shown in the final barof Ex. 11, the motif gives rise to thethree diminished-seventhchords (two of which are stated overtly on violas andhorns) that together produce all twelve notes of the chromaticoctave. Example12, in which the three discrete transpositionsof the diminished-seventhchordare labelled A, B and C respectively, shows a schematic reduction of thispassage. In the final bars of the song the wind and brass present the explicitdiminished-seventh figurations in what, since the two are identical, we mayinterpret as either a retrogradeor an inversion of the correspondingpassageatb.5:

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Ex. 11

Hp.Hn )I ? Fag.

Ex. 12A- -- -- -

hr~c

The diminished-seventh chord is, of course, another of the Basic Cells ofLulu. What is particularly nteresting about the second of the AltenbergLieder,however, is that it employs not one but twoof the Basic Cells of that opera- thediminished seventh and what I have called Basic Cell I (the collection shown inEx. 1) - and that it does so in a way that alreadyanticipatessome of the mostimportant features of Berg's handling of these same formations in the laterwork.A statementof Basic Cell I appearsin the opening vocal line of the second ofthe AltenbergLiederin the form shown in Ex. 13. A similar statement in thevoice, overlappingwith an identical orchestralstatement, ends the song, whilethe second half of the song begins, at b.8, with vocal and orchestralstatementsof the same Cellatits tritonetransposition,atwhich level the pitch-classcontentis, of course, identical with that of the opening and closing statements:Ex. 13

B.C.I

(Ge)-wit - ter - re - gen

An inverted statementof the same Basic Cell I on the solo cello at b.6, also at alevel which retains the pitch-class content of the originalstatementin the voicepart at b.2, introduces the central pause. This cello statement, in which theBasic Cell is integratedinto a largerfiguration, is shown in Ex. 14:

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Ex. 14

The first appearanceof Basic Cell I in the AltenbergLiederoccurs in the firstsong of the cycle, when a celesta figuration which has formed part of theintroductory web of thematic ideas graduallyevolves at b.9 into what, in thesecond song, is to become the cello figuration shown in Ex. 14. This celestafiguration (which is shown in Ex. 15) consists of two fragmentsof the cycle offifths a tritone apart, two fragments which, as Ex. 15 demonstrates, togetherpresenttwo interlockingversions of Basic Cell I: one of them(marked'a 'in theexample) on the notes Bb-Eb-E-A, the pitch level at which the Cell willdominate the vocal part of the second song; the other (marked '(3p' n theexample) on the notes Eb-Ab-A-D. The two versionsof the Cell arethus linkedby their common tritone, Eb-A:Ex. 15

B.C.I1

c IB - C l A

As a comparisonof Exs 14and 15reveals, the cello figurationat the centreof thesecond song is the tritone transposition of this celesta figure, a transpositionwhich (since the two fragments of the cycle of fifths contained within thefigurationarethemselves tritone-related)simply reverses the orderin which theopening two three-note collections appear, so that the cello statement beginswith the notes E-A of the 'ox version of the Cell.At the sametime as the celestaarrives,atb.9 of the firstsong, atthis definitiveversion of the figuration, the violas begin to unfold a chromaticallyexpandingwedge progression(centring around the note C) which includes Basic Cell I atthe pitch of the 'P ' version. This wedge progression- the first real melody toappearin the work- is shown schematicallyin Ex. 16, where the ' (3'version ofBasic Cell I is indicated by stemmed notes:

Ex. 16B.C.1Iroom tJ



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A similarwedge progressionin the second vocal phraseof the second song alsounfolds a horizontal statement of this '13' version. This second wedgeprogression, which is shown in Ex. 17, is, however, at a different pitch levelfrom thatwhich appears n the firstsong of the cycle, havingas its starting pointand centreof symmetry not the C which forms the axis of the progressionshownin Ex. 16 but the F played in octaves by the piano and viola at b.2 of the song:Ex. 17 B.C.I 3

Al- les ras- tet, hlinkt und ist

Finally, at bs 8-9 of the second song, the two tritone-relatedfragments of thecycle-of-fifths progressionwhich are embodied in the cello figurationof Ex. 14are presented by the celesta as three chromatically descending chords ofsuperimposedfourths, in such a way that the upper notes of the three chordsoutline the major third/semitone motif which I have already discussed andwhich originally generated the diminished-seventh chords of bs 4-5. Examples18a and b illustrate the relationshipbetween the cello figurationat b.6 and thecelesta chords at bs 8-9:Ex. 18

b.l

C e l . l

Here alreadyin the AltenbergLiederwe find what I have called Basic Cell Ihandled in a way that demonstrates an understanding of those peculiarpropertiesthat are to play so importanta role in the structureof Lulu:1) a recognitionof the relationshipbetween any one version of the Cell and itsT6 transposition, its T5 and Tl l inversions and the retrogradesof theseforms;2) a recognition of the possibility of interpreting both the Cell itself and thecompound figurationto which it gives rise as fragmentsof differentintervalcycles; and,3) as is demonstratedby a comparisonof the two differentwedge progressionsshown in Exs 16and 17, a recognitionof the fact that identical statements ofMUSICANALYSIS6:3, 1987 283


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the same Cell can be generated by two different (that is to say, not tritone-related)transpositionsof the same complementaryintervalcycle.It is, as we have seen, precisely these properties of Basic Cell I that have soextensive an influence on the large-scalestructure of the lateropera.The two 'o' and '13' versions of Basic Cell I contained in the celestafigurationat b.9 of the first song and in the cello figurationof the second song ofthe AltenbergLieder(that is, the two versions indicated by stems in Ex. 15)areconstantly juxtaposedin the final song of the cycle, when the expanded celestafiguration and the wedge melody of the opening song return as the two mainthemes of the Passacaglia. Example 19 illustrates the juxtapositionof these twoversionsin one shortpassagefromthe final song. It is perhapscoincidentalthat,as Ex. 20 illustrates, it is these same two versions of Basic Cell I (the same notonly in terms of their being relatedthrough a common tritone but also in termsof actual pitch class) that are so noticeably juxtaposed at the point when Jackleaves the dying Geschwitz in the final bars of Lulu:Ex. 19

B.C.I (~ 6 1

B.C.II

Ex. 20Lulu 111/2b.1310 .C. B.C.IC

alN

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VBut perhaps the most ingenious and the most forward-lookingof these earlyworks - forward-lookingboth in the compositional preoccupations which itseems to reflect and in its characteristicallyBergian combination of rigoroustechnical procedures and emotional spontaneity - is the second of the Op.2Songs. Readers of Music Analysiswill be familiarwith CraigAyrey's detailedand perceptiveanalysisof this song12and also with GeorgePerle's surveyof thepiece in two of his writings.13I should like to summarise and, I hope, addsomething to the findings of these two writers.In his remarks about this song George Perle has observed that the chordsequence which opens the song at bs 1-4 andalso closes it at bs 15-18consists ofa series of French Sixth chords which can be interpreted as systematicallyprogressing through descending semitone or descending perfect-fifth cycles.Example21 shows the chordsof the opening sequence, from b. 1to the first beatof b.4. In orderto avoidhavingto makeanarbitrarydistinction between the twointerval cycles that can generate this sequence, the different chords areindicated by Roman numerals rather than by numbers indicating trans-positional levels. With the harmonies changing on the first and third beats ofeach bar the originalstatement of this chord sequence progressesfromChordI,on the first beat of the openingbar, to its tritonetranspositionChord VII (whichis, of course, identical with the opening chord) on the downbeat of b.4, wherethe returnof the opening chord ofthe sequencecoincides with the last syllableofthe first line of text:Ex.21

SI I VI VIIII IIII IV V VI vII

Having reached this point, however, the chord sequence is not abandoned;instead (as Ayrey hints, but never fully states) the whole sequence is presentedin retrograde.The seriesof ascending perfectfourthsin the bass line on the firstand third beats of bs 1-4 is converted into a series of descending ourths -continuing (with melodic decorations) to appearon the first and third beats ofthe bar- and the chord sequence retracesits steps until it returnsonce more toChord I on the first beat of b.7, the return to the opening chord at this pointsignallinganincreasein the rate of harmonicmovement as the chordsnowbeginto change on every beat of the bar.Like the diminished seventh and Basic Cell I of Lulu (the other twotetrachordsbased on interlockingtritones) the French Sixthcan be partitionedin differentways to produce two intervals of the same class- in this case, as Ex.22 shows, into two tritones, two whole tones or two majorthirds:

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Ex. 22tLA-

In the opening barsof the song it is perhapsthe tritone sonorityof which we aremost aware- a sonority that is emphasised by the disposition of chords in thepianopart. From the returnof Chord I atb.4, however, both the arrangementofthe right-hand chords and the melodic line in the left hand of the piano partdrawattentionto the alternativemajor-thirdpartitioning,each of the two handsprogressing around the cycle of fifths in parallelmajor thirds (in the mannershown in Ex. 23a and b) until b.7, when the cyclic progressiondisappearsbutthe majorthird continues to be the dominant sonority:Ex. 23

b.4

a __LE_-_-

The French Sixth chord is also, of course, a whole-tone collection, and thesequence of chords shown in Ex. 21 alternateschords from the two differentwhole-tone scales- a featurethe large-scalestructural mplicationsof which arediscussed in Ayrey's analysis.A further fragment of the opening chord sequence appearsin the two barsfollowing the return to Chord I on the first beat of b.7, when an initial movefrom Chord I to Chord VI and back is followed by the first three chords of thesequence. By this point, however, the French Sixth chords have begun toacquireadditional whole tones; andalthoughthe passagefrom b.7 onwards(andmost of the central section of the song) maintainsboth the alternation of chordsbased on notes from the two different whole-tone scales and the emphasis(establishedin the preceding bars)on the major-third sonority, the addition ofthese extra notes obscures the identity of the individual chords. The furtherstatementof the chord sequence itself, which begins at b.7, is finally destroyedat b.9, when the centralsection of the song begins not with justanexchangebutwith a realignmentof the two melodic ideas with which the piece opened.The last four bars of the song, from the second quaver of b.15, present a286 MUSICANALYSIS6:3,1987


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straightforwardf slightlycompressed repriseof the opening bars(if, thatis, oneassumes that both the B natural on the fourth and the C natural on the lastquaverof b. 15 aremisprints- Berg correctedthe C in his own copy but not theB).14 But, as Perle has shown, this overt reprise of the opening material in thefinal barsis itself precededby a 'hidden' repriseat bs 13-15in which, beginningwith the alternations of Chords IV and V at bs 13-14, the piano presents asequence of chromaticallydescending statements of the Chord which, havingprogressedthrough Chords IV, V and VI, arrives at Chord VII (which is to sayChord I) on the first beat of b. 15 - at which point it becomes the first chordinthe explicit restatementof the opening bars. If the movement of the basspartinthe first four bars of the song suggests that the opening chord sequence beinterpretedas the product of a cycle-of-fifths transpositionof the French Sixthchord, this 'hidden' reprise at bs 13-15 clearly suggests the alternativeinterpretationof the sequence as the product of cyclic interval 1 progressions.

VIIn the second of the Op.2 songs we have, therefore, a piece the basis of which isthe peculiar structural properties of a single tetrachord - the only othertetrachordthat has the same structuralproperties as two of the Basic Cells ofLulu. Thirteen of the eighteen barswhich form the piece are based entirely onprime and retrograde statements of a chord sequence produced bysystematically transposing this one chord through descending semitone ordescending perfect-fifth cycles; harmonic varietyis achieved by exploiting thedifferent sonorities that can be obtained by partitioning the chord in variousways. The centraland freerfive-bar section of the piece continues to exploit theharmonic characteristicsof the chord sequence without, however, employingthe chord sequence itself.In his recent book TheMusicofBela Bart6kElliot Antokoletz has shown howBart6k's exploitation of the structuralpeculiaritiesof symmetricalformationscan be traced back to the FourteenBagatelles, Op.6, of 1908, written whenBart6k was twenty-seven.'5 The second of the Op.2 songs was composed in1909, the yearafterthe Bart6kpieces, when the twenty-four-year-oldBerg wasstill a student of Schoenberg. It is an extraordinaryachievement for so young acomposer. Already, in this song, we can see not only the seeds of those technicalprocedures that are a constant featureof Berg's later music but also evidence,even at this early stage, of a sophisticated understanding of the large-scaletheoreticaland structuralimplications of these procedures.Here, as in Berg's later works, we have a piece built on a rigorous andapparently abstract technical procedure; we have a demonstrably consciousunderstandingof the structural mplicationsof the different intervalcycles andof the relationshipbetween them; and we have an equallyconscious realizationand exploitation of the possibilities of partitioning the tetrachordupon whichthe song is basedinto differentpairsof identicalintervals.Alreadywe are withinMUSIC ANALYSIS 6:3, 1987 287


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hailing distance of those principles that underlie the cyclic rows of the LyricSuite and the Violin Concerto and of that synthesis of compositional techniquesand procedures that will eventually produce the comprehensive and all-inclusive system of pitch organization of Lulu.

NOTES1. Twelve-ToneTonality Berkeley: University of California,1977).2. TheOperasof Alban Berg: Vol. 2, Lulu (Berkeley: University of California,1985).3. See Douglas Jarman, 'Dr Schoen's Five-Strophe Aria: Some Notes on Tonality

and Pitch Association in Berg's Lulu', Perspectivesof New Music, Vol. 8, No. 2(Spring-Summer 1970), pp.23ff.; George Perle, 'Berg's Master Array of theInterval Cycles', TheMusical Quarterly,Vol. 63, No. 1 (January1977), pp.lff.;Elliott Antokoletz, TheMusic ofBela Bartok(Berkeley: University of California,1984).4. The terminologyis that proposed by GeorgePerle (see notes 1 and 3 above).5. 'Dr Schoen's Five-Strophe Aria' (see note 3 above).6. See Perle, TheOperasof AlbanBerg: Vol. 2, Lulu, pp.99-101.7. Ibid., pp. 198ff.8. 'HarmonicPractice in the EarlyMusic of Alban Berg' (Diss., HarvardUniversity,1967).9. 'Creeping Chromaticism', paper delivered at the University of ChicagoInternationalAlban Berg Symposium 1985, to be published in the collection ofessays edited by Robert Morganand David Gable(London: OUP, forthcoming).10. 'Berg'sMaster Array', pp.7-9.11. Ibid, p.5.12. 'Berg's "Scheideweg": Analytical Issues in Op. 2/2', MusicAnalysis,Vol. 1, No. 2(July 1982), pp. 189-202.13. TheOperasof AlbanBerg: Vol. 2, Lulu, pp.161-2; 'Berg'sMasterArray', p.3.14. I am indebted to Stephen Kett of HarvardUniversity for this information.15. Antokoletz, TheMusicofBela Bart6k,pp. 16-17, 78-9, 138-42.


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