Word: webern
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...found by Schoenberg's famous pupil, Berg, who frequently used tonality, and whose arch-romantic operas stand far closer to the nineteenth century than to Berg's twelve-tone colleagues. In time it became clear that the major influence on the succeeding generation of twelve-tone writers was Anton Webern, another Schoenberg pupil who has been the subject of a major renaissance in the past few years...
...other conductors don't want to do or can't do." Known to U.S. listeners-from his records only-as a master of the classical repertory, he is equally famed in Europe as the tireless proselytizer for modern music, the man who got hearings for Berg, Von Webern, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Milhaud long before their names had seeped into the record catalogues. Last week Conductor Scherchen was out plugging the work of another early comrade in music; in Frankfurt he conducted a series of packed performances of Igor Stravinsky's witty 18th century-styled opera, The Rake...
...Marteau created a mild sensation at its first performance three years ago. After an interval in which Webern's fame has grown tremendously, Boulez' piece has become more accessible, although it remains a rather tough puzzle. Certainly it has far more surface attraction than the Stockhausen recorded here: Boulez call for alto flute, xylorymba, vibraphone, guitar, viola, and several exotic percussion instruments. Four of the nine sections are settings of surrealistic poetry by Rene Char; the contralto Margery MacKay displays here an engagingly warm and sensuous voice. Practically all of the music moves at a furious tempo; this speed, coupled...
...Marteau one recognizes Boulez' individuality; it is far from being merely French Webern played at high speed. Many listeners will be charmed by the piece--few will be charmed by Zeitmasse ("Tempo"), for woodwind quintet (with English horn substituted for horn). Where Boulez is witty and Gallic, Stockhausen is ponderous and Teutonic. The piece is based on an exceedingly complicated schedule of ratios, educations, and formula borrowed from the forbidding world of electronic music. What the uninitiated listener hears is a strange web of sound, frequently frightening and dense as all five instruments sweep from one extreme of their range...
...Boulez, Tchaikovsky is "abominable," Brahms "a bore," Twelve-Tone Pioneer Arnold Schoenberg an arrested post-Romantic who "discovered the words but never found the proper syntax for them." Just about the only older composers for whom Boulez has a kind word: Schoenberg's late pupil Anton Webern, and France's 49-year-old Organist-Composer Olivier Messiaen, from whom Boulez sought composition instruction after giving Paris' traditionalist Conservatoire the back of his hand ("The composition professors were imbeciles"). From Webern, Boulez derived and refined Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique to its uttermost austerity, and from Messiaen...