Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4, for string sextet (1899)
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- Опубликовано: 19 май 2012
- Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4, for string sextet (1899)
A work in one movement for string sextet by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), his first true masterpiece, which is perhaps his most enduring composition. Composed in a highly harmonically advanced post-Romantic idiom, this work demonstrates that the young Schoenberg, aged 25, had already surpassed all his contemporaries in their style; it is little wonder that he would go on to search for new modes of composition and musical expression, pioneering atonal, expressionist and twelve-tone music. Even in this early work, the extensive use of chromaticism, modulation, dissonance and unorthodox harmonies made it very controversial when it premiered in 1902. In particular, Schoenberg used a certain "nonexistent" inverted ninth chord (it was nonexistent because it was uncategorized, and hence forbidden by convention), and this led the Vienna Musical Society to reject the composition.
"Verklärte Nacht" takes as its subject a poem by Richard Dehmel that describes a man and a woman walking through a dark forest at night. She confesses a secret to him: She is pregnant with the child of another man. He reflects on this revelation in silence, and eventually comes to accept and forgive the woman. Schoenberg was inspired by his feelings for Mathilde von Zemlinsky, the daughter of his teacher Alexander von Zemlinsky and his future wife.
This classic performance by the Hollywood String Quartet dates from 1955.
English translation of Dehmel's poem:
Two people are walking through a bare, cold wood;
the moon keeps pace with them and draws their gaze.
The moon moves along above tall oak trees,
there is no wisp of cloud to obscure the radiance
to which the black, jagged tips reach up.
A woman's voice speaks:
"I am carrying a child, and not by you.
I am walking here with you in a state of sin.
I have offended grievously against myself.
I despaired of happiness,
and yet I still felt a grievous longing
for life's fullness, for a mother's joys
"and duties; and so I sinned,
and so I yielded, shuddering, my sex
to the embrace of a stranger,
and even thought myself blessed.
Now life has taken its revenge,
and I have met you, met you."
She walks on, stumbling.
She looks up; the moon keeps pace.
Her dark gaze drowns in light.
A man's voice speaks:
"Do not let the child you have conceived
be a burden on your soul.
Look, how brightly the universe shines!
Splendour falls on everything around,
you are voyaging with me on a cold sea,
but there is the glow of an inner warmth
from you in me, from me in you.
That warmth will transfigure the stranger's child,
and you bear it me, begot by me.
You have transfused me with splendour,
you have made a child of me."
He puts an arm about her strong hips.
Their breath embraces in the air.
Two people walk on through the high, bright night.
Hollywood String Quartet: Felix Slatkin, Paul Shure (violins), Paul Robyn (viola), Eleanor Aller Slatkin (cello)
with Alvin Dinkin (viola) and Kurt Reher (cello)
Like Picasso, Schoenberg was highly skilled and accomplished in the conventional art. However, both men were drawn by the mystery of the unknown and untapped to transcend convention and perhaps touch something greater. Picasso with the 4th dimension and non-Euclidean geometry, Schoenberg with the liberation of tonality in its whole unbounded sweep, to "taste the air of an alien planet".
It's funny that you should say that, considering how much more conservative Schoenberg was.
Serialism may have been a new thing, but it was more of a progression from Wagner, Debussy, Scriabin, Roslavets, etc. than it was intended to be a total departure, as seen in Schoenberg's own literature on music theory. His later music still used the same musical devices as before, e.g. motifs, leitmotifs, counterpoint, and other such conventional musical devices, and he always was fixated on Romance period thematic material.
''liberation of tonality'' I love that. Schoenberg was so pissed when people called his music ''atonal'' because he saw it as twelve-tone music rather than atonal music. If anything, it was more tonal than the work of his predecessors. If he was alive to read your comment, you'd certainly make him happy!
In other words, it's chaotic garbage. **clap clap**
Arnold Schoenberg produced music no longer dominated by a harmonic universe of triadically centered orbits.
this still a little bit tonal, ambiguous tonality
First loved this when I was a teenager. Not knowing anything about music theory, but recognizing the sheer inventiveness, freedom and beauty of the work. Thank you....x
A 1:27
B 2:28
Etwas bewegter 3:00
C 3:14
D 4:36
E 5:12
F 7:50
G 9:12
H 10:01
J 10:30
K 11:24
L 13:22
Sehr breit und langsam 14:54
M 15:47
N 17:04
O 19:16
P 20:16
Q 21:01
R 21:14
S 21:42
T 23:13
U 24:29
V 25:12
Sehr gross 26:01
W 26:57
X 27:37
What I love about this piece is that it is bursting at the seams. The emotions are too big for six people, but they would also be too big for 600. Also the limits of everything that has gone before, la fin de toute la tradition tonale de Monteverdi a Richard Strauss. Chaque fois que je l'entends je me sen completement epuise pares.
I love everything about this comment, nottament la transition vers le francais :)
111 1
If it was the end of the tonal tradition between Monteverdi and Richard Strauss, then it came rather early, even for Schoenberg (who didn't produce his first atonal works until nearly a decade later) and for Strauss (who was composing in his lush, late romantic idiom for another half century afterwards).
Another great composer who maintained the viability of tonality well into the 20th century - Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) - was the second cellist at the work's Viennese premiere. You can hear overt Straussianisms in his Fourth Symphony (which appeared in 1933), but also echoes of Schoenberg's tonal music, including this work (which Schmidt regarded very highly).
Bro I thought I was having a stroke mais heureusement c'était seulement ta alternance codique
Okay, I take back what I said about Schoenberg. This piece is pretty cool!
William Ford Darn tootin' it's pretty cool, especially Boulez' version
+Bertrand Marotte Darn tootin' hah
The bit at 1:17 is used in Bjorks Song, Hidden Place - she uses voices instead of violins though
@@peterpowis4145 who cares about her?!
@@helenamarie4337 well i do. And im sure others do too
Nobody has mentioned that this sextet is based on the poem by Richard Dehmel, or how the music follows so closely the poem, making it the musical rendition of the text, like a tone poem. The text is very romantic and so is the sextet. Shoenberg was still under the influence of late romanticism.
look at the description
11 3
This is prime Schoenberg for that reason. Atonal music is so much better as sprinkles in otherwise tonal music. Otherwise it is just farting
I love the tone painting at 16:30 so much, of the line: "Look, how brightly the universe shines! Splendor falls upon everything around; you are voyaging with me on a cold sea..."
Having a rising scale is so simple and still so effective to emulate their looking upwards. The depiction of the stars is singularly beautiful, too.
Terrifying and stunningly beautiful at the same time; an absolute masterpiece!
Well said!
Finally, finally, after a lifetime of trying...I am convinced this is truly a masterpiece and a wonder to behold!
Thanks very much for posting. We don't hear this often enough in performance. It is beautiful and Mahlerian. Schoenberg was working under the influence of the titan of late romanticism. Mahler was both friend and mentor of Schoenberg. It was a contentious and devoted relationship.
Incredible string writing....like another emotional world never captured by strings before, that perfectly captures the passionate orginal poem--- and goes far beyond as music often does....
3:02-3:51 - etwas bewegter.
5:13 - ohne Dampfer
5:35 - Lebhafter
5:54 - etwas belebter
6:08 - Wieder belebter
6:31 - lebhafter
7:35 - bar after rit. - - -
8:20 - Drangend
8:52 - wild, leidcnschafthch
10:32 - Schneller werdend
10:48 - Sehr langsam (!!!)
18:49 - rit.
19:25-19:33 - (this is so beautiful)
20:17-21:08
21:17-22:29 - [R] Etwas bewegt.
24:38 - [U] Sehr ruhig
25:50 - molto rit.
27:08 - [W] (the chord progression here)
This song is, to me, the feeling of relief after being rejected for something that you thought you wanted and the stagnation of failures that were thought to be pacified.
This is awesome! Thanks for putting the sheet music to it !
What a beautiful, moving piece this is. What a touching story and poem that it is based on. This work is so full of love and compassion, it just overflows with emotion.thank you for uploading it and also with the score. 🙏
Reading the comments, I can see why Schoenberg just went for the whole twelve tone thing. They're either, "it's too weird, I don't get it" or "meh, how conventional."
people are just dissatisfied, one must make music for himself or for herself. If the public follows good for them
I'm somehow both at once.
@@starless5668 It's unconventional for its time and tradition, and still to this day the harmonics and sonorities carry a "weird" effect to them, but at the same time, music has greatly expanded its horizons since then, so we've become more used to a lot of what's used here, making it come off as conventional due to how long its been and how many pieces have followed a similar path since- so I'd say that's why a person would feel both ways at once. As for me, I just really like it lol
Schoenberg himself was almost ashamed (at least of Gurre-lieder) for more or less this reason. He was, understandably, bitter that audiences and critics only appreciated his more "conventional" works. Whilst, in his mind, he's simply writing for music's sake, the criticism of his more experimental pieces was too much and performing Gurre-lieder must have almost felt like a twisted kind of pandering.
schonberg fut un génie visionnaire ,, la musique dodécaphonique nous livra d'ineffables chefs d'oeuvre , quelle beauté , quel mystère ,, schonberg rompit avec le classicisme pour notre plus grand plaisir ,, les débuts durent étre difficiles pour le maître comme les auditeurs de stravinsky étant venus écouter le sacre du printemps , ils furent enragés par une musique visionnaire ,, la salle fût dévastée , des bagarres éclatèrent , une grande partie des auditeurs quitta la salle ,, et désormais le sacre fait partie du répertoire classique ,, soulignons le courage de ces compositeurs qui rompirent avec les traditions pour ériger leur art vers les cimes inaccessibles du génie ,, thanks for sharing
The way he skillfully uses limited rhythmic patterns and develops them into this whirl of raw emotion is nothing short of genius, a language in itself. It's a bitch that music like this is not widely understood and appreciated anymore and that very few people really take the time to get to speak this language. Thanks so much for putting this online with the score so it can be analysed and appreciated properly.
Exactly. In the conservatory I have talked about Schoemberg's pretonal works and everyone just asumes it sounds really bad.
I would honestly prefer if Schoenberg stopped at this style and developed it to its maximum potential instead of... whatever weird things he was doing after writing this piece and a few more.
Eloquently said
Sehr schön, mit einer dazu mitlaufenden Partitur. Ganz vielen Dank an den Hochlader :)
Here because a small part of the arrangement is used in Bjork's hidden place song, performed by a choir. Very beautiful, as is this.
The use of that small part is one of the peak points of Björk's discography for me but it's disappointing it's not stated on the album credits that it's a borrowed melody. But using it such a creative way is also genius.
Can i get the time stamp?
11:26초부터는 악보만 많이 봤는데 직접 듣게 되어서 좋으네요~ 쇤베르크는 연주를 들을 기회가 정말 많이 없는데.. 참 좋은 세상입니다. 올려주신 분께 정말 감사합니다~^^💕
To parlay this poem into film would be made to perfection with this score and some feeling direction
14:54 Probably the most powerful D major chord I'll ever hear in this life
I think I might be in love with this piece. I know it's program music but it really, really stands on its own and calls for personal interpretations. For me, this piece perfectly encapsulates so many feelings: profound sadness, depression, anxiety and existential dread, that finally transform into bittersweet joy, relief, acceptance and passionate love.
Those themes work well in regards to the poem, but they also represent life as a whole. One could say that the piece represents going from existential anxiety, looking for answers, asking "Why?" and shaking your fist at God, to finally accepting the finality of death and embracing life, content to live it to its fullest. That's my interpretation and I think it's a rather beautiful one. Powerful, powerful music.
I would never in a million years expect this much diatonicism from Schoenberg
Would be a great soundtrack to the Isle of Dr. Mareau or Dracula, both published around this time
Thank you so much for posting the synchronized score!
This may not be some people's idea of a fun listen, but the greatness can't be denied.
This is a great performance!
Most fun I’ve had on my phone in a while. A killer classic, and with the sheet music for the sextet. Thanks.
excellent performance and very useful video.
I was gonna make a joke involving the inverted 9th chord but then I saw it was covered in the description.
Absolutely gorgeous.
32 6
danke für die Mühe Noten uns zu senden!
Although you can not like it in first listen, just know that this is masterpiece from a genius artist.
this is my song of the summer!!!
it had been so long since i had read music, I thought i forgot how.. Thank you for the refresher course..brilliant piece
That's some beautiful viola playing by Paul Robyn.
Rhis postromantic score by the youngSchoenberg is interesting for two reasons. First, technically, it is derived both from Wagner and from Brahms. Second, in stylistic terms, it is a tone poem for chamber music, which is quite an exception.
16:46 - sounds like a clarinet. Wonderful
As an avid hater of Schoenberg....I’m speechless after discovering his earlier works such as this. I have also taken the time to learn 12 tone series and do subsequently have more respect for him and colleagues!
His mammoth early work for chorus and orchestra, Gurrelieder, is even more overtly late-romantic. The concluding Hymn to the Sun is glorious.
@@genedryer-bivins8314 I really can't think of a work more under-rated than Gurrelieder. It's absolutely insane.
@@Eorzat マーラーで言う嘆きの歌等を初めとする初期の楽曲は余り相手にされないのが悲しいです。
Try Gurrelieder next
The original liner notes from the LP release indicated that this was recorded in the presence and with the approval of Schoenberg himself. He lived at the time in Los Angeles and taught at both the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.
How could that be if the recording was made in 1955, & Schoenberg died in 1951?
@@schlesmail1the description is an error. this was actually recorded in 1950
A lot of the notes seemed to be played on the G string.
Makes it sound spooky.
Why did people tell me Schoenberg wasn’t good? What in the hell were they talking about, this is highly experimental, technical and arousing
Because they're talking about his twelve-tone works. They probably didn't understand his twelve-tone method, why he transitioned to it, and, least of all, the fact that he composed tonal works like this one and Gurrelieder.
This music, its link to the poem, and the poem itself -- it's like a Venn diagram of brilliance, beauty, and profoundness
Wonderful work.
4:34 love this part
A classic recording. Thank you so much!
such a charming piece.
Very nice performance! Thank you for posting it.
The music is like watching a drama, the chord flow is really in late romantic style
Schoenberg used the 6 instruments well in this piece
So Beautiful! Schonberg.
21:14 cello excerpt
Amazing recording! Thanks for uploading.
6:49 no words
1:24 Bjork - Hidden Place
thanks
Are you at BVoDM ☺️
@@mytom265 ya
Wonderful music.
Schönberg is amazing.
Why do I appreciate this more after college?
Hahaha kinda same to me
life experiences? deeper understanding and sensitivity? stuff like that
Geniuses survive their teachers.
Lindo arranjo
Shoenberg, thank you for breaking all the rules - like the section from10:31 - but this is the greatest tribute to Brahms that I am aware of.
21:49 for my own reference. I'm studying,...
What is the rule he broke? I don't understand what you mean
@@gon9684 I've no idea! I can sense freedom of expression here; perhaps rules being broken,, but soon after this, the 12 tone rules take hold, but I don't cherish more freedom than in Bach's 24 preludes and fugues - atonal enough for me, without any rules.
Beautiful
Thanks. It seems so funny now to think they would ban it because of that chord- especially as it's nowhere near as discordant as some of the other chords in the piece. All of my compositions would probably have been banned haha.
Absolute masterwork
Absolutely incredible playing
"his first true masterpiece, which is perhaps his most enduring composition."
YES
Siempre será una de mis obras favoritas de toda la vida. La amo amo 😍😍
My first crush I could never have a relationship with, because she yet was and still is into one, is going to become mother in November. We still are in good terms despite the impossibility of any bond, and what's happening with her vaguely reminds me the original Poem by Richard Dehmel (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkl%C3%A4rte_Nacht#The_poem), althought the situation is different, I'd say the reverse one. But still, when I received the glad news, this Piece has been the first thing came to my mind.
Linda música 🎄🎄🎄🎅🎅🎁🎁🎁🌆🌃🚢🌆
I caught you Björk
I can't find what part she sampled
+Prosh Tiki 1:20 it's sampled as the chorus string melody in Hidden Place
+ANGUSRAZE 1:24 tbh
She said she started her musical passion after she left a classical music school at 15 and this is almost shocking lol
@@angusraze9638 I appreciate your honesty, honestly, but why specify that you're not lying here?
Amazing
Reminds me so much of Beethoven's Grosse Fuge!
How?
the greats jobs like that never dies
Verklarte nanananana nanana thank you thank you for the love
I can hear Bjork's Hidden Place
This was recorded in 1950, not 1955, in fact.
I listened to this to make sure I liked the Kammer Symphony much more. And I found stuff to dig about this🤷♂️I hadn't noticed before. Not a big fan of Late Romanticism but genius is genius.
It has the most beautiful happy ending
It must be from heaven
Exactly my point... Maybe my identification was wrong? I took the description from Early Works of Arnold Schoenberg, 1893-1908 (on Google Books), page 127, and followed the score. Could you recheck it? :)
satisfying version.
Very nice interpretation! 😊
Cosa bonita, cosa hermosa, cosa bien hecha. Me encanta
The way this piece feels alive is just different. Most music sounds like some kind of construction, but this feels like it has life
Amazinf piece
I was impressed with the solemnness and ingenuity that I can not express every much in words. 🍎
From effulgent Tokyo in profound Japan
Which national are you watching this video ？
Sweden.
Italy, Florence precisely :)
Recife, Brazil
Occasionally Poland or Tunisia but usually Malta.
France
Lovely ending.
Oh oh this really has a viola! Two violas! Yay!
yay! my homework!
une composition merveilleuse toute en retenue sonore , en éclatements maîtrisés de création qui conduiront toute la musique atonale vers un univers musical nouveau , schoenberg brise et recompose une musique qui arrivait a un état d extinction transcendantale , après schoenberg la forme classique disparaîtra a tout jamais pour céder la place à une fantaisie expressionniste qui nous conduira vers des composteurs comme ligety , elliot carter , wollfgang rihm , part , iannis xennakis , boulez , luciano berio , hartmann , zimmermann et bien d autres , l abstraction musicale trouve la une naissance inespérée , suivra le woycceck d alban berg dont la forme vocale éclatera en une nuée moderniste et variée ,,
How many different styles in that piece ?
Beautiful performance. You get to hear just how Viennese this piece really is.
If the last few minutes don't take your breath away then do you really deserve to be breathing?
Very excited to see Gustavo Dudamel conduct this epic piece with the Los Angeles Phil in 2 days. Trying to wrap my head around it in preparation.
How was it?
@@sergiohman So beautiful! Had to remind myself to breath while watching/hearing it performed. Although I had listened to a recording in advance, there's just nothing like being there in person.
I percieve of Sch. as such an unhappy person.. I sung a piece of his in a choral.. Unhappy... but this early piece, wonder if he had already turned Brahms down, is a master piece of a type of music that he did no continue .. wonderfully played!
genious!
Nights north or in the tropics it is really classical music because it expresses beauty and emotion and needs no lirycs.
有人是看了「音樂家的無聊人生」之後過來的嗎？
台灣+1
This is fucking dark and gorgeous. I love the pacing and slow development. Dm is the perfect key for this piece. In places it sounds like a pissed off version of Debussy's string 4tet. Lol.
I just started reading Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony. I'm going to take it slow and absorb what I can. Chords are my favorite thing about songwriting. I tend to write folk-pop-electronica. Hopefully I can apply some of what I learn from Schoenberg.
D is a key very friendly to violins and other string family members. As much as Schoenberg is a lot about new harmonies, those are often arrived at as a consequence of the verticals coming from several independent horizontal lines, in short, extensive counterpoint... chord-happy or not, you will want to learn counterpoint, modal at least, and best, too, 18th century 'Bachian' style as well.
the infamous "non-existent" inverted or shall we say "transfigured" ninth chord at 3:38... :)
This chord in jazz is better used
I really like the melody, it's only, i Read in "Einstein for the perplexed" about Schoenberg and i don't understand whay the people don't like his Music 🥺
Even more gorgeous for the original string sextet version than for string orchestra. I hate to say it (for various reasons) but this is worth more (to me at least) than all the other Schoenberg compositions put together.
If the title is written "Verklärte Nacht" instead of "Verklaerte Nacht," why is this from "Schoenberg" instead of "Schönberg?"
Jack Albrecht You can google it, but I think he preferred to write it as “Schoenberg”. My guess is that he probably migrated somewhere non-german-speaking and so he changed the spelling of his name. But I could be wrong.
Schoenberg immigrated to the US in the 30s, in the wake of the rise of the Nazi Party, he 'americanised' his name, so to speak, I suppose.
@@howardchu2667 you are correct. Upon arriving in the US, he made the willful change to remove the umlaut from his name.
@@wavydoor726 Indeed. In fact, when he emigrated, he returned to Judaism publicly and legally changed the spelling of his surname.
imagine listening to this while vampires throw rocks at your house.
damn this shit goes hard
3:39 This specific chord caused a minor scandal at the time of the piece's publication, and some performers refused to program the piece due to this dominant with a ninth in the bass and the way Schoenberg resolves it in this passage.