Anton Webern
The twelve-tone composer who compressed music into seconds
Related
Who he was
Anton Webern (1883–1945) was born in Vienna, studied with Schoenberg and became a core member of the Second Viennese School. He pushed twelve-tone technique toward extreme compression: a work often lasts only minutes, sometimes seconds.
His place
With Schoenberg and Berg, Webern brought atonality and twelve-tone music into the twentieth century. But he went further than either: motives are broken into single notes, and timbre, register and silence become structure. His music sounds "pointillist", yet follows an extremely strict line.
What to hear
Listen first for relations between points: do not expect a melody; hear each note's colour, register and length. Then hear silence: Webern's rests are not empty but structural. Finally hear symmetry and variation: the twelve-tone row works like a set of mirrors, and the music transforms within tiny material.
Key works
- Variations for Piano Op. 27
- String Quartet Op. 28
- Symphony Op. 21
- Six Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6
Influence
After Webern, total serialism (Boulez, Stockhausen) took him as a starting point; his pointillism also shaped electronic and contemporary music. He proved that music can be reduced to a few notes and still be complete.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 韦伯恩生平、第二维也纳乐派与十二音技术，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Webern"；本文为原创表述
- 《钢琴变奏曲》Op. 27 的听点，参通行韦伯恩研究；实例 why 为本站听辨提示
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.