by Donna McCabe
December 1992
Oakland, California usa

Schoenberg's Gurrelieder is an oratorio written primarily between 1900-1901. The first and second movements were completed at this time, with the final movement to be completed with men's choir and orchestrated in 1910. It is for this reason that the orchestration in the final movement is noticeably different that the previous two sections. After Schoenberg completed the final version of the Gurrelieder, he also completed work on the Harmonielehre, his book on harmony and counterpoint. This is no surprise that Schoenberg was writing this book at the same time as the Gurrelieder because of the intricate counterpoint used in the work.

The extended orchestra that Schoenberg used required notation paper with 65 staves, which he had to be special orderer at the time. The huge orchestra was used so that he had the ability to produce any chord within each tonal group. This can be heard clearly in the orchestral prelude as the theme passes smoothly from one instrument to the next. The orchestra in this oratorio is used as a body of solo instruments so that it never overpowers the soloists. The orchestration is warm and full, and reminiscent of Debussy.

There is an interesting note from a 1950 letter from Schoenberg to Thor Johnson of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra who was to perform the work. Schoenberg states: "One thing is very important: make the performance in English not in German. People do not understand German." (Arnold Schoenberg Letters, edited by Erwin Stein, p. 281). However, the recording done by the Boston Symphony Orchestra is sung in the original German.

There were several striking things in regards to this desire of Schoenberg. Although the particular performance I heard was sung in German, it was very clear by the music itself what Schoenberg was portraying. The entire first movement is an incredibly beautiful love story, where the emotions of the lovers King Waldemar and Tovelille are clearly expressed through Schoenberg's setting of the poems of J.P. Jacobsen. As Schoenberg says he was able to grasp the Schubert lieder without knowing the words, I felt that he wrote the Gurrelieder holding himself to that same level of achievement. Knowing the words after the fact, the details were clearer to me. But I agree with Schoenberg, I perhaps would have felt the piece even greater had it been performed in English.

The other thing that was interesting about Schoenberg's request for the work to be performed in English was that it was important to him that people understood his music. After the 1913 premiere of the Gurrelieder, Schoenberg received a 30 minute standing ovation, which he refused to accept. Schoenberg had been scorned on many previous performances. But the audience was able to comprehend his Gurrelieder. Yet Schoenberg believed that all his music was organic and unified, but apparently the Viennese public did not hear it as comprehensible. He was considered to have been writing intellectual games of some sort which common listeners were not able to understand. "The effort of the composer is solely for the purpose of making the idea comprehensible to the listener." (Schoenberg, Style and Idea, p. 285). Perhaps his music was not understood and is slowly become more and more understood.

Paul Craner made an interesting point in class that I believe fits well with Schoenberg's music. Paul said that well done work would be organic, but that an organic work is not necessarily well done or comprehensible. Schoenberg's ideas were usually comprehensible in that the grundgestalt is evident. It may be that Schoenberg was never understood or appreciated to his fullest talents because he put in such an effort for his works to be unified and organic. He took this idea to its limits with the 12 tone system which eventually proved to be academic, although there are beautiful and emotionally stimulating 12 tone works.

Schoenberg conception of music is that is it not entertainment, but rather the presentation of a musical poet's or thinker's ideas. The work of art is an outer manifestation of an inner process. (Carpenter, Schoenberg's Tonal Body, Theory and Practice, p. 34) Holding this true, we can believe that Schoenberg was extremely interested in the emotional affect of his music. And that what we as listeners to his 12 tone system are hearing is actually an inner process which may have been naturally and emotionally arrived at. Schoenberg believed that form, the overall structure in which music happens, has less to do with beauty than it does with comprehensibility. This is true of the Gurrelieder ; the by-product of the idea was beautiful.

Glenn Gould has made the assertion that it was Schoenberg who destroyed music. (Glenn Gould, A Schoenberg Retrospective). Prior to Schoenberg, he says, both upper and lower class people attended concerts regularly. But he believes that Schoenberg alienated his listeners by setting a firm division between composer and audience by introducing such dissonance and apparent complexity. This, he say, is the reason why the lower class began to flock away from the concert hall and became increasingly more interested in other forms of music (motion pictures, popular music). The dissonance that these people could not understand in Schoenberg's music was readily accepted in science fiction movie soundtracks. At that time, perhaps Schoenberg's ideas of unity and form were not comprehensible to listeners. It could be considered a classic case of an artist not being understood. There is no question in my mind that Schoenberg had deep emotional feeling about his works and that they were manifestations of his inner feelings. But I think he was extending a language that many people did not want to extend. I would imagine that it would have been difficult for any type to immediately follow from the extremely expressionistic Romantic era. Schoenberg was a composer trapped this. His ideas and music are better understood today and regardless of the popular opinion of the time, his music has survived and he has become an established figure in music history. For his expansion of tonality, composers owe him much. To his teachings through writing, I personally owe him a great deal for taking the mystery and the elitism out of composing. In making the audience less comfortable, he has managed to free up the tradition and heritage of tonality, allowing it to be accessible to me.

"The relaxation which a satisfied listener experiences when he can follow an idea, its development, and the reasons for such development is closely related, psychologically speaking, to a feeling of beauty. Thus, artistic value demands comprehensibility, not only for the intellectual, but also for emotion satisfaction." (Style and Idea, p. 215).

The Gurrelieder opens with an E flat major chord that has an added sixth. This is the grundgestalt of the piece. The beauty and apparent simplicity of this is that this chord is that it is ambiguous because we are in E flat major, yet the added sixth to the chord could make the chord a C with a diminished seventh (C E flat G B flat). This ambiguity is also emphasized due to the doubling of the C in the strings and flutes (which in this case is not the base but the sixth of the chord). This chord is the germ of the theme which is first stated in measure 7 (C E flat B flat) by the trumpet and is restated throughout the orchestral prelude. (See example one.) In the six measure introduction, the C is further emphasized by the arpeggiated chord in both measure 4 and 6. The fifth of the E flat chord is never stated in the chord. But the underlying sustained fifth of E flat and B flat, which is held almost continually until measure 23, establishes E flat major. The theme is repeated by the trumpet in measure 9 and 10.

Measures 11 through 13 are the first variation on the trumpet theme stated in measure 7. This is one spot where it is evident why Schoenberg employed such a large orchestra; the theme passes through the horn section extremely smoothly. The theme and first variation can be seen in example 2. The elongated variation begins with the opening leap from C to E flat which is enough to establish the theme. This technique, reminiscent of 16th century counterpoint, where the motive is imitated in strict counterpoint for the first few notes, then begins to become free to strengthen the harmony. Schoenberg integrates the two motives together here, first by the leap down from C to E flat, then continues along with the exact pitches of the arpeggiated base line both in measures 4 and 6. The arpeggiated strings and flutes, which sound as a constant mass above the theme, also emphasizes the same pitches on the down beats (C E flat G C E flat A). This is constant also until measure 23.

The second variation on the theme comes in during measure 14 with the G to F motion. The original theme on C E flat B is then reinterpreted and the motion of the initial falling sixth is removed. Instead of travelling from C to B, rather we move here from G to F, a whole step down instead of the previous 9th down (see example 3). The G to F emphasizes the 3 to 2 in E flat major. The one and four-seven chords are joined via common tones of E and G which is immediately followed by the lone F in the motive. This technique of moving to remote regions, or establishing dissonant chord progressions through common tones is straight from Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony book. This phrase is also played by a horn as was the statement of the original theme.

This far, the original theme is played, starting on the sixth degree (C) and passed through to a lower octave in measure 18. Here is the first time that the pedal stops for the trumpet to begin the theme once again. The order is then changed, first we hear the second variation in measure 19, then the first variation for 3 measures. This is the final hearing of the motive on C E flat G C E flat A before a departure from E flat major.

Measure 23 is noticeable when the the pedal on E flat and B flat is changed to become a B flat octave. With this change, and the harmonic changes of the strings and flute ostinato, we arrive in the dominant B flat major. Here the second variation of the motive is emphasizing D to C sharp; again 3 to 2 in B flat. Example 4 clearly shows Schoenberg's use of common tones to join the B flat and A-seven chords. Moving chromatically down through B flat to A-seven and eventually to B natural in the second half of measure 26, we arrive at a strong G flat chord.

In measure 27 there is a third variation, which has grown out of the opening E flat major chord with the added sixth. The idea of the sixth has been varied to the D flat B flat G flat motive (there is the same ambiguity as the opening chord, this is a G flat chord, yet the melodic interval it falls is a sixth) placed in counterpoint with the second variation. Here there is a joining of the second variation (one with only the falling whole step) with the third variation (which includes a sixth) played by the oboe. This generates a conglomerate theme of its own. These can be seen in both example 5 and on the reduction in measure 27 and 28 marked in green highlighter. Note also how the green and yellow highlighted notes interact showing the integration of both the second and third variation. The third variation is also incorporated into the ostinato strings and flutes (also marked in green and displayed in example 5). The chords that the strings and flutes play are identical to those in the ostinato in measure one, transposed down a half step. The chromatic chords lead us to the key change at measure 40 to D flat major.

Again we are given chromatic descending chords which lead us to the key change to D flat major at measure 40. Schoenberg immediately incorporates the original theme into the first and second measures so that it is firmly established. But this time, the theme that had previously always begun on C is now transposed down a half step to B flat (as was the ostinato in measure 27; the original motive also ended on B flat). Here the B flat to A is also six to five, this time in D flat major instead of E flat major. D flat would be considered a remote region to arrive at, yet through the six to five relationship and the counterpoint of woven phrases, it does not sound like it is so remote and I don't feel that it really causes so much centrifugal force.

Almost immediately we move away from the four measures in D flat major to E major (one half step away from the original E flat major). This quick change can be compared to the entirety of the Gurrelieder, which has an extremely short second movement. Again we get the unvaried theme immediately, this time started on A natural (one half step away from the previous statement of the unvaried theme on B flat in measure 40).

It is during the next measures that the counterpoint of the original motive gets interwoven more complexly. The theme is always stated in the same rhythm and always with the pitches (A C sharp G). The arpeggiated chords are emphasizing the pitches A C sharp E sharp A C sharp F sharp (was C E flat G C E flat A in measure 4). These four pitches are varied throughout this section of the piece (seldom do we hear any pitches other than these).

The third variation (that of the rising sixth) is worked into the complex counterpoint at measure 49, for example (this time C sharp A F sharp instead of D flat B flat G flat). This three note motive gets varied only through pitch, yet the rhythm always remains constant; it is strong enough rhythm to identify the theme. It is transformed again in measure 50 where there is the dotted quarter, eighth, quarter rhythm with the pitches A F C sharp. Please see example six.

The counterpoint becomes more and more complex in this section until the chromatic descent beginning at measure 54. Through a similar mixture of variation 2 and 3 as seen before in measure 32, the chromatic descent bring us firmly back to the original motive, this time on G sharp (again a half step lower than the last time when it was on A). This section marks the return to the first section of the prelude. This time, however, the theme is played not by the horns, but by the strings who were, up until this time, left shimmering above all the other pitches. It is during measure 72 that we begin to get the finest interweaving of the original motive, along with its first variation. This is shown clearly on my reduction with green and pink highlighter. The steady open fifths return to the bass reminiscent of the opening measures.

After four statements of the theme and its first variation we arrive at the coda, which is in the initial key of E flat major. Initially the original pitch of the motive was on C, then on B flat, A natural, and G sharp. The motive is then transposed an additional half step lower to its final destination of G natural. (See example 7 for theme motion throughout piece.) It is played again by the horns as it was in the beginning. This leads us through a final chromatic descent to the third variation ( B flat D flat F) which descends to the opening chord of Waldemar's love song on G seven.

Waldemar's love song, sung to Tovelille in the castle of Gurre begins "Now dusk mutes every sound on land and sea." This text was established long before the King ever sang it; by the original motive and grundgestalt of the orchestral prelude. The piece is about dusk, and how everything becomes quiet at that time. The motive itself is a falling phrase, and over the course of the piece it falls from its initial height of C to its final resting place in G (as do the ostinato strings and flutes fall). It is interesting that the theme remains in the horns and woodwinds until the return to the beginning section at measure 68. Here it is played by the strings.

The strings have been above the orchestra throughout the piece, and when they get the theme it is like the strings are the only part of the sun left glimmering above the land at dusk.

Twilight has been exceptionally portrayed through the orchestral prelude. Waldamer's entrance is smooth and natural and his song is the vocal extension of the orchestral prelude.

The idea of centrifugal force was an interesting idea that Schoenberg used to justify the position remote regions in tonality. But to him, tonality was a necessary conflict, a literal battlefield of these centripetal and centrifugal forces. Throughout this course I have been reminded of a centrifuge, where the literal function is to spin a liquid at such a high speed that the impurities are disseminated to the sides while the pure substance remains in the center. Using this model, I visualize a test tube of blood in a centrifuge. The impurities are spun out to the sides of the tube and then either rise to the top or fall to the bottom when the centrifuge stops spinning.

This metaphor can be extended to Schoenberg's view of monotonality, and that the idea in music consists primarily in the relation of tones to each other. In the center we have monotonality and all the pitches that fit within that particular region. The other tones, when moving to remote regions through common tones, are those impurities that are spun away from the center. If we were literally looking down on this tonality as it was spinning, the center would appear to remain still, whereas the impurities that are being spun away are clearly moving in circles around the monotonality. The further away the region, the faster it would appear to be spinning; the harsher the dissonance, the more remote in Schoenberg's Chart of the Regions.

Extending this analogy even further, it might be said that Schoenberg used the 12 tone system to eventually become his monotonality, this way no regions were further away than the center region (all encompassing) and he could expose the fact that it was really an illusion that the "impurities" were moving any faster than what was in the center of the centrifuge.

I would not go so far as to say that all of tonality is an illusion because of the organicism of the harmonic series. The first thirteen overtones create the major scale. But the harmonic series does not fit into our tempered scale, yet tonality makes it appear so. The 12 tone system was Schoenberg's ultimate extension of monotonality. It creates all tones to be equal, which designs a unity that is not present in the scales.

In conclusion, this piece is strangely reminiscent of Debussy's Prelude l'apres-midi d'un faune for orchestra, written in 1894. The impressionistic orchestral passages and the continual variation of the flute theme in the Debussy are the reasons for my marking their similarity. The flute theme spans the interval of an augmented fourth, yet there is an important leap in it which also falls a sixth.

In some respects, it also foreshadows Ives' Unanswered Question, completed in 1908 (seven years after the completion of the first two section of the Gurrelieder, although it had not yet been performed). Perhaps the real connection that I am hearing is only through the orchestration techniques and the continual repetition of a short theme. Yet all three works have in common the distinct motives which are continually played over and under an ostinato from the orchestra. But the Gurrelieder is similar to the Unanswered Question in the way that the trumpet (coincidentally in both pieces) has the last word; we don't end with the strings in the Gurrelieder prelude, rather with the trumpets. The stillness of night has not come, and all is not quiet in the castle of Gurre.

The organicism of the opening E flat major chord with the added sixth becomes the idea for the entire prelude to the Gurrelieder. The organicist believes that art needs to take on the appearance of nature. It, however, is nature experienced through the soul that creates an organic and beautiful work. Art should be a means of opening up areas of feeling, rather than merely an illustration of an object or process. Schoenberg portrays the beauty of nature in the twilight, and the deeper emotions of forbidden love between Waldemar and Tove through his music. The Gurrelieder is an organism, and the ideas and emotions it expresses, however universal they may be, are embodied in a form distinctly Schoenbergian. This is one love story that made cry, and will make me listen to Schoenberg in a new manner.