Schoenberg's Transformation of Musical Language (review)

Abstract

Schoenberg's Transformation of Musical Language. By Ethan Haimo. (Music in the 20th Century.) New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. [x, 430 p. ISBN-10: 0521865425; ISBN-13: 9780521865425. $90.] Bibliographical references, index, illustrations, music examples. In Schoenberg's Transformation of Musical Language, author Ethan Haimo posits a thesis regarding the conventionally accepted periodization and related labeling of Schoenberg's musical output. Finding the traditional three-part division (tonal; atonal; twelve-tone) to be inadequate, and the label to be so broad as to be meaningless, Haimo proposes three new periods, each with subdivisions. In this book he addresses a musical transformation-and the significance of that transformation-that the conventional tonal-atonal division has previously obscured. To begin, Haimo traces those elements that remain more or less constant in Schoenberg's music from circa 1899 to circa 1908, i.e., spanning what would traditionally be considered the tonal phase of his output and the first part of the atonal phase. In a carefully constructed and copiously illustrated argument, he makes an excellent case for considering these works to be part of a single stylistic span, demonstrating how the traditionally problematized repertory of 1908 (such as the Second String Quartet, op. 10 and the song cycle Das Buch der hangenden Garten, op. 15) is connected to Schoenberg's earlier works. One of the novelties of Haimo's approach- and one that is sure to be controversial for some readers-is that he does not try to explain the works of 1908 without reference to their predecessors, nor does he try to explain them as vestigial tonal works; instead he establishes the traits of Schoenberg's musical language from the turn of the century and traces their evolution through 1908. Although it has become commonplace to see a sudden break with past conventions in Schoenberg's works of 1908, Haimo thinks otherwise, and the evidence that he presents shows that conventionally-cited symptoms of such a break, such as the cessation of centric tonal function, actually occurred somewhat earlier in Schoenberg's output. Therefore, Haimo reassigns the break with the past to the so-called athematic works composed in 1909, such as the third of the Three Piano Pieces, op. 11, the fifth of the Five Orchestra Pieces, op. 16, and the monodrama Erwartung, op. 17, the first works to present an interruption in Schoenberg's otherwise unified artistic outlook. In reassigning this break, Haimo also recognizes the significant variety of musical approaches evident in the works formerly lumped together as atonal. With his new division of Schoenberg's output, Haimo confronts a hidebound model and proposes a more meaningful one that illuminates rather than obscures the richness of Schoenberg's music. As Haimo explains in the book's preface, it is his intention to trace the evolution of Schoenberg's musical ideas in order to explain the transformation of his musical language from 1899 to 1909. To that end, he offers neither comprehensive analyses nor complete coverage of Schoenberg's music composed during this time period; instead, he presents a complex of historical, biographical, and analytical evidence to illustrate the remarkable transformation, while confronting conventional assumptions and analytical methods that, as he illustrates, often stand in the way of a complete understanding of the essence of Schoenberg's musical style. Key to his argument is the concept of incremental innovation, a process in which each new work introduces some new trait along with many traits carried over from the past. It is the abandonment of this process in the athematic works of 1909-works in which there is more that is new than old-that inspires Haimo to locate the break with tradition at that juncture. After the first chapter, in which Haimo lays out his revisionist thesis, the book evolves in chapters that examine specific works, or groups of works, in light of their aesthetic origins and musical style. …