Quartet Op 22 Webern

Question 1

Texture

Answer 1

• Texture is extremely thin (even at the climax bar 22) -> the rests prevents more than 3 parts playing at the same time
• the music is mostly monophonic but fundamentally polyphonic

Question 2

Forces

Answer 2

• violin, clarinet, saxophone and piano
• achieving widest range of timbre from small amount of players
• rapid change between arco and pizz (22-23)

Question 3

Harmony

Answer 3

• no harmony -> notes tend to occur individually
• 3 or more notes together -> dissonance
• the first “chord” of bar 2 clashes in a major second interval

Question 4

Tonality

Answer 4

• Atonal and serial

- Can be transposed up and down

Question 5

Rhythm

Answer 5

• Triple time, can’t really be heard
• Frequent changes in time signature (bar 3 and 4)
• Bar 22 music sounds more continuous
• Very precisely noted

Question 6

Melody

Answer 6

• Prime row (6-10)
• Ritardando
• Interval of tritone, harmonically unstable eg. prime row F# to C