Эрнст Кшенек на пути к серийной композиции

Abstract

The article examines the motives and aesthetical factors which impelled Austrian composer and music theorist Ernst Krenek to turn in his music to the serial method of composition. Basing herself on the utterances of the composer himself, as well as his autobiographical notes and books, the author of the article aims at reconstructing the logical path which brought Krenek to dodecaphony. Having at first had a negative attitude towards this type of technique, and having even expressed public criticism of Schoenberg, the composer gradually came to the idea of the historical inevitability of serial composition and became convinced of the radical novelty of serial thinking. The article examines the impact on Krenek of various historical figures: Franz Schreker, Ernst Kurth and Eduard Erdmann. An important impulse for the composer was provided by the works of Austrian writer and satiric poet Karl Kraus, whose thoughts about language turned out to be congenial to many significant musicians of that time (in particular, to Schoenberg). Attention is given to points of contact of dodecaphony and the Neo-Thomist teaching which comprised the foundation of Krenek’s religious worldview in the 1930s. Both the external factors (the political situation, the growth of totalitarianism) and the inner reason (the challenge to the craft of composition) of the composer’s turn toward serialism are discussed. Keywords: Ernst Krenek, Karl Kraus, Arnold Schoenberg, serial music, Neo-Thomism.