Total Serialism and the Darmstadt School

[Franco]

I'm going back to George Perle's books: the first one is a classic text on 12-tone method of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern and his other book Twleve-Tone Tonality fleshes out his own method which is also based on 12-tone composing but not a serial process.  I've also ordered his book called The Listening Composer, his last I think, which sums up his look at 20th C. composition.  One point he stresses and one in which I am in total agreement is that the total serialism school took the most superficial aspects of Schoenberg's method and brought it to its logical end, a dead end.

There is much more to Schoenebrg's method than serialism and in fact the serial aspect is not important.

When I lived in NYC I called Perle and inquired about lessons, but he was semi-retired and not taking students, at least not any who came without a recommendation, and instead pointed me to one of his students.  I wish I had followed through since I really think his was the kind of process I would have been simpatico. 

His compositions are good too.

[karlhenning]

Most interesting, Franco, thanks.

[petrarch]

I'm going back to George Perle's books: the first one is a classic text on 12-tone method of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern and his other book Twleve-Tone Tonality fleshes out his own method which is also based on 12-tone composing but not a serial process.  I've also ordered his book called The Listening Composer, his last I think, which sums up his look at 20th C. composition.

Yes, all three books are quite good. One highlight of The Listening Composer is the analysis of Varèse's Densité 21.5.

[San Antone]

Listening and enjoying very much Luigi Nono's Variazioni Canoniche, for Chamber Orchestra (based on the series Schoenberg used for his Ode to Napoleon). 

Michael Gielen, Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra - Baden-Baden



This Gielen recording is from 1989.  The score and orchestral parts were lost for 35 years until Nono recovered the parts and reconstructed the score.  Just the second performance (first performed at Darmstadt in 1950) of this important work occurred July 12th 1985, also led by Michael Gielen.

[San Antone]

Excellent introduction to the music Karel Goeyvaerts.  (No composer thread as of yet.)

Karel Goeyvaerts: The Serial Works Nos. 1-7



His Sonata No. 1 for Two Pianos is an important work in the history of serialism.  He later abandoned total serialism in favor of a kind of minimalism.  Here's some mproe info on that from his Wikipedia article:

After withdrawing from the musical world for a while, he accepted a position in 1970 at the Institute for Psychoacoustic and Electronic Music (IPEM) in Ghent, which led to several other prestigious appointments in Belgium. His works from after 1975 take on aspects of minimalism, the best-known examples being his series of five Litanies (1979–82) and his final work, the opera Aquarius (1983–92). Though minimalism is ordinarily thought of as a reaction against serialism, for Goeyvaerts both techniques were merely subcategories of a non-dynamic, "static music" (Delaere, Beirens, and Staples 2004, 32–33). Analyses of his early serial compositions (especially the electronic Nr. 4, met dode tonen [with dead tones] and Nr. 5, met zuivere tonen [with pure tones]) reveal how close the connections actually are (Sabbe 1977). Goeyvaerts died suddenly in 1993.

I agree completely with the bolded text, and have thought that these two styles are rarely seen as complementary instead of as reactionary.

[Karl Henning]

I agree completely with the bolded text, and have thought that these two styles are rarely seen as complementary instead of as reactionary.

Nice!

[ritter]

Listening and enjoying very much Luigi Nono's Variazioni Canoniche, for Chamber Orchestra (based on the series Schoenberg used for his Ode to Napoleon). 

Michael Gielen, Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra - Baden-Baden

Great you bring this up, sananatonio!  I've owned this disc for years, and must say I find this and other early Nono works rather beautiful in their rigour and strict application of the then new language... very enjoyable indeed!

Excellent introduction to the music Karel Goeyvaerts.  (No composer thread as of yet.)

Karel Goeyvaerts: The Serial Works Nos. 1-7



His Sonata No. 1 for Two Pianos is an important work in the history of serialism. 

Is that CD available on the market? I bought a Goeyvaerts album which turned out to be of his later minimalist period:

[asin]B00CTLSZ9G[/asin]

I did not like it at all!!!!!  But I would want to get to know his earlier work, having his been such a prominent  name in Darmstadt...

[San Antone]

Great you bring this up, sananatonio!  I've owned this disc for years, and must say I find this and other early Nono works rather beautiful in their rigour and strict application of the then new language... very enjoyable indeed!
Is that CD available on the market? I bought a Goeyvaerts album which turned out to be of his later minimalist period:

[asin]B00CTLSZ9G[/asin]

I did not like it at all!!!!!  But I would want to get to know his earlier work, having his been such a prominent  name in Darmstadt...

His later music is varied and depending upon the piece, you may feel differently about what you hear.  Some of the Litanies I find very good indeed.  The CD of Serial works 1-7 is definitely available as a MP3, but I am not sure about a CD; maybe you can find a copy from a third party seller.

[not edward]

Great you bring this up, sananatonio!  I've owned this disc for years, and must say I find this and other early Nono works rather beautiful in their rigour and strict application of the then new language... very enjoyable indeed!

For all its strictness, there's something about many early Nono pieces that just sounds "Italian."

Just as there is with almost everything Dallapiccola did (and many works of Maderna, Berio, Castiglioni and Donatoni).

[Dax]

It's a pretty barren area in the view of many.

However Jean Barraque is one of the very few composers who seems to have managed to turn it to his advantage.

[Karl Henning]

For all its strictness, there's something about many early Nono pieces that just sounds "Italian."

Just as there is with almost everything Dallapiccola did (and many works of Maderna, Berio, Castiglioni and Donatoni).

Yes. There is still room for the individual.

[ritter]

For all its strictness, there's something about many early Nono pieces that just sounds "Italian."

Just as there is with almost everything Dallapiccola did (and many works of Maderna, Berio, Castiglioni and Donatoni).

Fully agreed.... 

[Abuelo Igor]

Listening and enjoying very much Luigi Nono's Variazioni Canoniche, for Chamber Orchestra (based on the series Schoenberg used for his Ode to Napoleon). 

I kind of credit a radio broadcast of the piece, as recorded in the Donaueschingen festival, for the beginning of my disappointment in the whole 12-tone movement, but it was a long time ago and I was very young. But another such negative landmark for me was a live performance of "Prometeo", so maybe Nono just isn't for me.

[7/4]

worth checking out...I sat through all sorts of serial music over the years at concerts.

[Karl Henning]

Quite a bit of the new music I have listened to in concerts, has not been music which compelled me to desire a second hearing.

By no means was all of that non-invitational music serial.