Webern's Path to the Serial Variation

Abstract

AMONG THE triumvirate of early Viennese atonalists, Anton Webern alone seems to have adopted the atonal manner without reservation, without tonal nostalgia, as Robert Craft has said. For whereas both Schoenberg and Berg continued in their mature works to draw at times upon their romantic heritage-enlisting expressive melody, thick textures, and spacious forms Webern more steadfastly sought new paths. Especially is this true in his middle and late serial works. His iconoclastic attitude is clearly revealed in three important variation cycles, written when he was at the height of his powers. These are the second movement of the Symphony for small orchestra, Op. 21 (1928); the Variations for Piano, Op. 27 (1936); and the Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30 (1940). In these significant compositions he exhibits a serial atonality that is a closed system, cut off from past styles, complete and self-sufficient. In them he also shows a convincing mastery of the variation form, characterized especially by his imagination in applying fresh techniques. His first variation set stands apart: the early Passacaglia for Orchestra, Op. 1 (1908), a work that antedates slightly Schoenberg's introduction of free atonality, and that precedes the serial method by fifteen years. But the Passacaglia is important in its own way. Accordingly, it is with this piece that a study of Webern's variations must begin.1