Klangfarbenmelodie in 1911: Timbre’s Functional Roles in Webern’s Opp. 9 and 10

Abstract

Anton Webern’s pre-World War I aphoristic works sometimes appear to defy comprehension, but through the lens of Klangfarbenmelodie organizing principles of this music come into focus. Klangfarbenmelodie is a multifaceted principle of musical organization. It is how Klangfarbenfolgen—timbral progressions—are structured into music. This article explores timbral progressions in Webern’s music and some of the types of timbre-based musical logic that organize them. Timbre and pitch are simultaneous, codependent, and symbiotic. With the notion of timbre as the totality of musical tone, this article examines how timbral-registral space is employed to compose timbral trajectories like expansions, contractions, and crossing lines. In addition to drawing out timbral lines, the analyses focus on how timbre helps delineate pitch constructs, timbre’s role in structuring gesture and theme, and various types of timbral symmetry. Rather than a shift away from pitch analysis, this article proposes a repositioning toward the inclusion of timbre in analytic discourses.