What's with Webern

[Jerry Freedman]

I downloaded a bunch of Webern stuff for my ipod which I use for long
walks. Not easy listening music but it is interesting and gives me
much to think about. I along with the usual Webern, I also got his
German dances which are from a different musical world the the rest of
what I downloaded. Is there a story behind it? Was it from his early
period? Did he write them just to mess with people?

[Steven Bornfeld]

Yeah, those second Viennese school composers--what a bunch of jokers!
Actually, after trying and failing to develop a taste for Schoenberg,
it was suggested I try Webern. Haven't had the chance yet, but I plan
to. Have sat through a production of Berg's "Wozzeck", which wasn't
particularly easy sledding for me either.
As for Schoenberg, I once spent time on Google images looking for a
smiling picture of ol' Arnie. I found this, but I think it may just be
a gas bubble:

http://www.berfrois.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/1_Schoenberg_Smiling1419.jpg

Steve


--
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001

[Joe Roberts]

"Steven Bornfeld" wrote:

(snips for brevity -- please see Steven's original post)

> As for Schoenberg, I once spent time on Google images
> looking for a smiling picture of ol' Arnie. I found this,
> but I think it may just be a gas bubble:
>
> http://www.berfrois.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/1_Schoenberg_Smiling1419.jpg

Amazing to see that! (If it was a personal bubble, let's hope he passed it downwind.)

One wonders why good ol' Ludwig too is perennially shown scowling, as if going around shaking his fist at storms all the time.

But then there's the sturdy Sullivan. His reputation was as an amiable, cheery chap and if anyone made folks smile, it was he, but none of the few photos of him show him smiling.

Cheers,

Joe

[John Wiser]

"Jerry Freedman" <jerry.fr...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:fc16bd72-be5a-4a65...@w5g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...

Webern didn't mess with people,at least, not intentionally.
Those German Dances are transcribed Schubert:

a.. Deutsche Tänze (German Dances) by Schubert (1824), orchestrated by
Webern (1931)

He can be found conducting them here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000002707

Various works of other composers were transcribed for small ensemble
performance by Berg, Schoenberg and Webern:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000002707 and elsewhere. Schoenberg transcribed a
piano
quartet of Brahms and some Bach chorales for large orchestra:
http://www.amazon.com/Schoenberg-Pieces-Orchestra-Concerto-Quartet/dp/B000IY0634/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1334902341&sr=1-1

JDW

[Paul Dormer]

In article <V87kr.38731$YM2....@newsfe05.iad>, cee...@gmail.com (John

Wiser) wrote:

>
> quartet of Brahms and some Bach chorales for large orchestra:

Don't forget Webern's pointillist transcription of the 6 part Ricecar
from Bach's Musical Offering.

[Paul Dormer]

In article
<fc16bd72-be5a-4a65...@w5g2000vbp.googlegroups.com>,

jerry.fr...@gmail.com (Jerry Freedman) wrote:

> Was it from his early
> period?

If you want to try early Webern, try his tone poem Im Sommerwind, which
is positively Mahlerian.

At the other extreme, I'm a great fan of his last work, the Cantata No. 2.
I'm not sure I understand it, but I want to keep listening to it. (If
only he hadn't had that encounter with the US army cook.)

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Apr 19, 3:51 pm, Jerry Freedman <jerry.freedman...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Wouldn't it mostly be too quiet to work on an outdoor iPod?

[Jerry Freedman]

I walk on very light traffic back roads. I stock my ipod with
interesting music--Rite of Spring, Sketches of Spain, Brandenburg,Bob
Wills, Chieftains Beachboys, Ives, Linda Rondstadt, DocWatson, Bird,
and now Webern. Its all set on random shuffle so I have a very
interesting ambulatory aural experience every day.

[Paul Dormer]

In article
<ef60db2c-ac3e-44d0...@21g2000vbh.googlegroups.com>,

gram...@verizon.net (Peter T. Daniels) wrote:

>
> Wouldn't it mostly be too quiet to work on an outdoor iPod?

I've listened to Webern whilst travelling on trains - noise cancelling
phones help.

Now, Feldman is probably too quiet for this.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Apr 20, 9:20 pm, Jerry Freedman <jerry.freedman...@gmail.com>

But surely a very quiet piece directly after a normal or lound piece
would be even harder to perceive! --Especially if it's very short, so
you can't acclimate to it ...

On Thursday, I was in Israel, where it happened to be Memorial Day,
and the classical music station played nothing but appropriate elegiac
pieces (not works -- just slow movements), until the end of the day (6
pm), when there was a multi-movement work that began with an erratic
monophonic line played by piano and violin, later joined by
clarinet ... immensely exciting ... I guessed (from the context) that
it might be Wolpe -- but it turned out to be, once again, the
extraordinarily powerful Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen.
(Clearly it had been too long since I'd heard it ... the only time in
person was at Trinity Church, the last work played in their Thursday
summer concert series, on 6 September 2001: I couldn't just get on
the subway and go home, so I walked over to the River through the
WTC ... for the last time ...)

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Apr 21, 8:18 am, p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk (Paul Dormer) wrote:
> In article
> <ef60db2c-ac3e-44d0-936d-44e1bb319...@21g2000vbh.googlegroups.com>,

> gramma...@verizon.net (Peter T. Daniels) wrote:
>
>
>
> > Wouldn't it mostly be too quiet to work on an outdoor iPod?
>
> I've listened to Webern whilst travelling on trains - noise cancelling
> phones help.
>
> Now, Feldman is probably too quiet for this.

I think it was last summer, WNYC's "New Music" guy put on a free
chamber chorus concert featuring "Music for the Rothko Chapel" (or
wait: is that Wuorinen?) -- presumably the concert would be an hour-
long program a few days or weeks later -- but it was held in the
Winter Garden of the World Financial Center. Now that's one of New
York's great interior spaces, but the ambient noise from the air
conditioning is very loud even for ordinary conversation. Needless to
say, almost nothing could be heard! Presumably all the microphones
meant the engineer could come up with a broadcastable tape.

[Paul Dormer]

In article
<16328850-5853-4fc7...@m31g2000vbn.googlegroups.com>,

gram...@verizon.net (Peter T. Daniels) wrote:

>
>

> I think it was last summer, WNYC's "New Music" guy put on a free
> chamber chorus concert featuring "Music for the Rothko Chapel" (or
> wait: is that Wuorinen?) -- presumably the concert would be an hour-
> long program a few days or weeks later -- but it was held in the
> Winter Garden of the World Financial Center. Now that's one of New
> York's great interior spaces, but the ambient noise from the air
> conditioning is very loud even for ordinary conversation. Needless to
> say, almost nothing could be heard! Presumably all the microphones
> meant the engineer could come up with a broadcastable tape.

I actually attended a performance of that piece with Feldman present in
London in 1974.

I remember a performance of For Stephan Wolpe given not long after
Feldman's death in the Union Chapel in London where the pigeons cooing on
the roof nearly drowned out the performance.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Apr 21, 12:31 pm, p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk (Paul Dormer) wrote:
> In article

> <16328850-5853-4fc7-a66e-939fc5239...@m31g2000vbn.googlegroups.com>,

D'ye remember the George Crumb album on Nonesuch -- the cover
reproduced part of the score: a staff making a complete circle -- some
sort of Zodiac piece -- that was like that.

(It's a shame no one ever tried reissuing all of Nonesuch's
contemporary treasures on CD. I could do without all the minor Baroque
even if their artwork always was amusing.)

[Steven Bornfeld]

You ain't kidding! I googled "Arthur Sullivan smiling" and this is the
BEST they came up with:

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQYCoXTHSQwqSEpsdcEgmRvdPwFPAiE5fDLlL3WBMFxkaFh2rek-1OxJ2WehQ

Gilbert looks as if he'd welcome a gas bubble:

http://etonmess.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/ws.jpg

[Joe Roberts]

"Steven Bornfeld" wrote:

(...)

> Gilbert looks as if he'd welcome a gas bubble:
>
> http://etonmess.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/ws.jpg

Pooh-Bah.

(sorry)

Joe

[gggg...@gmail.com]

According to this:

- All life, and
therefore all [art] strives towards
harmony. Why [does] a playwright
[like] Stoppard, a novelist like
Naipaul. a painter like Malta, stand
out so tremendously today? Because
artists like these do know* the artist's
duty: to face the void without
flinching, to declare that the world
will yet be saved, and to weave their
single strand of the great rope -
made of form and meaning equally -
that holds the universe together.
And I know this: another century
hence, no one will think of
celebrating Webern's bicentenary,
because he will be utterly forgotten.
But the C major Symphony of
Schubert will still be as fresh, as
glorious, and as true as ever.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yWiqL46xiyEJ:https://archive.org/stream/NewsUK1983UKEnglish/Dec%252017%25201983%252C%2520The%2520Times%252C%2520%252361715%252C%2520UK%2520%2528en%2529_djvu.txt+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[gggg gggg]

On Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 12:51:56 PM UTC-7, Jerry Freedman wrote:

(Youtube upload):

Anton von Webern, explained in 10 minutes