Schoenberg: 'Peripetie' from Five Orchestral Pieces

Question 1

Instrumentation

Answer 1

• The work requires a large orchestra of at least 90 players (made up of strings, woodwind, a large brass section and percusion).
• The instrumentation changes rapidly throughout, creating many contrasts in timbre.
• Performers are frequently required to play at the extremes of their range-either very high or low.

Question 2

Instrumentation 2

Answer 2

• Unusual effects are used, for example, the cymbals are played with both a mallet and a cello bow, the double basses play a tremolo very close to the bridge that supports their strings.
• Cor Anglais- a lower version of the oboe
• Tam-tam- a large gong.

Question 3

Performance Markings

Answer 3

• H - Stands for Haupstimme, (most important part)
• N- Stands for Nebenstimme, (Second most important)
• a 2 or a 3- All 2 or 3 bassoons should play the same notes
• Divisi- The players on this line divide into groups
• Pizz- short for pizzicato means pluck the strings
• Arco- Bow the strings

Question 4

Performance Markings 2

Answer 4

-Bell up- The brass player points the bell of their instrument upwards, to produce a loud, strident sound
-1 solo- A single person plays this line
-Tutti- Everyone joins in again
+ - Hand-stopped- the horn player inserts their hand further than usual in the bell.
Tremolo- The note is rapidly repeated

Question 5

Melody

Answer 5

• ‘Peripetie’ is made up of many short, fragmented motifs that are combined in different ways. First 18 bars, 7 different motifs are quickly introduced.
• Melodies are disjunct(many large leaps) and sound very angular, Schoenberg uses octave displacement, unexpectedly moving individual notes of the main melody into different octaves.
• Motifs are developed by the use of techniques such as inversion(a melody is turned upside down) and rhythmic augmentation(the note becomes twice as long).

Question 6

Rhythm, Metre and Tempo

Answer 6

• The metre changes between 3/4, 2/4 and 4/4.
• The tempo is Sehr rasch- very quick.
• Rhythms are complex and varied and change quickly.
• Schoenberg layers a number of different rhythmic patterns on top of each other to create a complex contrapuntal texture.

Question 7

Tonality and Harmony

Answer 7

• The piece is atonal. It uses a lot of dissonant harmony.

- Chords and melodies are often built from hexachords(groups of six notes).

Question 8

Texture and Dynamics

Answer 8

• The texture is largely contrapuntal, with occasional monophonic and homophonic moments.
• Complex textures are built up through the use of techniques such as imitation and inversion. (The final climax of the piece is created from three different canons that are all heard at the same time).
• There are frequent sudden changes of dynamics, leading to extreme contrasts between ppp and fff.

Question 9

Structure

Answer 9

• This piece is in free rondo form, with five sections (ABACA)
• Called free rondo as it is very different to the traditional rondo heard in the Classical period, when different sections are clearly contrasted.

Question 10

History

Answer 10

• Composed in 1909
• Schoenberg was an important figure in the expressionist movement.
• He was a Austrian composer who founded the Second Viennese School, a group of composers who wrote Expressionist music.