Peripetie- Schoenberg

EARLY 20TH CENTURY

-Movement in the arts

-Aim was to express feelings as intensely as possible

-Artists used distortion and unnatural colours

-Often dark and moody

SCHOENBERG was a pioneer of expressionism and atonal music along with Berg and Webern.

'Peripetie' translates into English as a 'sudden reversal'

composed in 1909

Hard to find people to play as it was of such an experimental nature and required so many people to play.

Debuted at the London Proms in 1912. 

Fourth of Schoenbergs 'Five Orchestral Pieces'

Requires an orchestra of 90+ players.

The instruments play very HIGH/LOW in their tessitura (note range) 

Orchestra includes:

-strings/woodwind/large brass section/percussion

ALSO

• Cor Anglais
• Bass clarinet
• Contrabassoon
• Tam-tam

The piece is in free rondo form.

A-B-A-C-A

More of a return of a mood than a melodic motif/idea.

The piece is entirely ATONAL (does not have a key)

Instead, the work is based on a HEXACHORD 

A lot of dissonant harmonies are used. 

TEXTURE:

Mostly polyphonic. (occaisionally monophonic/homophonic)

Complex textures are built up with the use of imitation and inversion.

DYNAMICS:

There is a wide range of dynamics from ppp > fff

Most dynamic changes are SUDDEN which lead to extreme contrasts. 

RHYTHM:

-COMPLEX

-VARIED

-LAYERED (creates polyphony)

-CHANGE SUDDENLY

METRE:

Changes betweeen 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4

TEMPO

Marked as sehr rasch- very quick.

KLANGFARBENMELODIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 (term used to describe the melody moving through different instrumental parts)

-Klangfarbenmelodie creates different timbres- adds another dimension.

-Cymbal is played with a cello bow.

-Double basses play tremolo very close to the bridge.

Made of many sharp, fragmented motifs.

>>>>These are combined together, augmented and inverted.<<<<

Melodies are very DISJUNCT (large leaps between notes) 

octave displacement is used. 

HAUPSTIMME- most important voice

NEBENSTIMME- second most important voice.