A.Webern - Drei Lieder op. 18
Anton von Webern: 1883 - 1945
Performers: Christiane Oelze, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez.
Three Songs for guitar, e-flat clarinet and soprano (1925).
I - 00:11
II - 01:13
III - 02:33
Schoenberg invents the 12-tone technique in 1921, and was taken very early on by his pupil Anton Webern, whose song “Mein Weg geht jetzt vorüber”, from his 5 Geistliche Lieder op.15 (1922), would already be constructed according to this technique. However, during these few years of experimenting, Webern had not yet fully developed the full potential this technique could had (retrograde, cells, inversions...) therefore he applied it in a somewhat rudimentary way in this op.18, hearing the tone row repeatedly, but in different octaves, dynamics and rhythmic context. The instrumentation of this work is very unusual and unbalanced, but its roots lie in the rural quality of timbres that Webern was so fond of, even in the poetry that he chose. The instrumentation is also influenced by Gustav Mahler (who also writes a song cycle on Der Knaben Wunderhorn), who had a frequent and characteristic use of the E-flat clarinet and also had a guitar part in his 7th symphony.
The first two texts are based on German and Austrian folk poetry while the third is a Marian Antiphon, and the second poem acts as a bridge between the first and the third, since it introduces the religious theme for the last text.
These songs were not heard publicly during the composer's lifetime, due to the highly challenging writing for the clarinet and soprano. Robert Craft conducted the songs' premiere on February 8, 1954, in Los Angeles, with Grace-Lynne Martin as the soloist.