The Zwolftonspiel of Josef Matthias Hauer: John R
The Zwolftonspiel of Josef Matthias Hauer: John R
The Zwolftonspiel of Josef Matthias Hauer: John R
148 149
essay begun on 9 November 1923, Schoenberg, reacting to Hauer's One could trace at least one analytical reception history moving from
article "Atonale Musik," assessed the situation as follows: Erwin Stein through Richard Hill and Rene Leibowitz to Luigi Rog-
He [Hauer) sought his solution in the cosmos. I limited my solution to noni, George Perle, Milton Babbitt, and David Lewin, and finally to
the human brain available to me; what was to be discovered here would Martha Hyde and Andrew Mead. 8
necessarily correspond to the cosmos, if brain and cosmos have any- Hauer's solutions, perhaps because the resulting music differs dras-
thing at all in common with each other. Either we are tied to universal tically from the Western notion of "artwork," have been less often
laws, in which case they are also at work within us, or our brain creates studied. 9 While Hauer unrelentingly explored the possibilities of the
independently of the cosmis laws, in which case it is superfluous to twelve-tone system (as he understood it) during the period between
search among the latter, since we can neither comprehend nor perceive 1919 and 1939, he arrived at what he considered to be his final solution
them. 3 only in the "Zwolftonspiel," the title he gave to virtually all of the
pieces he composed after 1940. 10 Rudolf Stefan reports that Hauer
Whereas Hauer, in the tradition of speculative music, was seeking may have created as many as one thousand of these pieces .11 Most of
the order of the cosmos in the twelve-tone system, Schoenberg, in the them are dated by Hauer, and it is therefore common to refer to a
tradition of Western art music, was using the twelve-tone system to specific work by its dates given.
create the coherence necessary to accommodate personal artistic ex- Hauer's Zwolftonspiele contrast strongly with the music of Schoen-
pression. While twelve-tone composition enabled Schoenberg to " ... berg and so offer a clear example of a distinctly different twelve-tone
compose as freely and fantastically as one otherwise does only in one's "logic"-a logic arising from a different aesthetic orientation. For
youth," Hauer began to move away from the entire notion of "com- Hauer, the "twelve-tone universe" was an object for a kind of "self-
position. " 4 Instead, Hauer demanded that music must arise through less contemplation"; he rejected the notion of music as self-
an "interpretation of the Melos" (Deutung des Melos), a process that expression, embracing instead the idea that music should reflect "the
amounts to an objective contemplation of the twelve-tone universe. 5 order of the cosmos." While I will take up some of these aesthetic
As a consequence, Hauer no longer "composed" music in the West- issues again at the end of this study, my main objective will be to sur-
ern sense. Schoenberg was fully aware of Hauer's aesthetic stance vey the many twelve-tone techniques that Hauer developed in the
when he made the following famous remarks in a letter to Rudolf course of his "twelve-tone contemplations," beginning with his ma-
Kolisch on 27 July 1932: nipulation of the row to produce harmony, melody, and rhythm. I will
I can't utter too many warnings against these analyses, since after all then examine the various textures that appear in the Zwolftonspiele,
they only lead to what I have always been dead against: seeing how it and finally I will consider some of the possible formal structures of
is done; whereas I have always helped people to see: what it is ... I these works.
can't say it often enough: my works are twelve-note compositions, not
twelve-note compositions: in this respect people go on confusing me
with Hauer, to whom composition is only of secondary importance. 6 The Row: Harmony, Melody, and Rhythm
Despite this fundamental difference-clearly perceived by both Let us first turn our attention to the Zwolftonspiel of 19. Februar
men-Schoenberg was able to pose a solution for the purposes of col- 1953. Example lA shows the first five bars of the piece, while 1B is the
laborating on a book on twelve-tone music: transcription of mm. 2-5 into integer notation (one beat in lA cor-
What I suggest is therefore, let us take what is common to our results responds to one column in lB) .12 The four-note sonorities in the right-
and regard it as "possibilities of achieving logical form by the use of 12 hand part lead one into the next in the following way: first, there is a
notes" ... Each of us has discovered the possibility of a new form of four-voice structure in which the pc's 0, 1, and 2 comprise the bottom
composition and we agree that it is advisable, not to say necessary, to voice; the pc's 3, 4, and 5 make up the next highest; 6, 7, and 8 the
proceed thus and thus. On the other hand, we differ in this and that next highest; and 9, t, and e the highest. Since we commonly define
respect. 7 pitch class under octave equivalence, there is not necessarily any sense
in which these voices must appear higher or lower than one another in
Schoenberg's twelve-tone solutions to the problem of "logical the registral dimension of the music. For purposes of the present dis-
form" have received much analytical attention since the mid-1920s. cussion, let us consider the structure as it appears in example 1 to be
150 151
essay begun on 9 November 1923, Schoenberg, reacting to Hauer's One could trace at least one analytical reception history moving from
article "Atonale Musik:," assessed the situation as follows: Erwin Stein through Richard Hill and Rene Leibowitz to Luigi Rog-
He [Hauer] sought his solution in the cosmos. I limited my solution to noni, George Perle, Milton Babbitt, and David Lewin, and finally to
the human brain available to me; what was to be discovered here would Martha Hyde and Andrew Mead. 8
necessarily correspond to the cosmos, if brain and cosmos have any- Hauer's solutions, perhaps because the resulting music differs dras-
thing at all in common with each other. Either we are tied to universal tically from the Western notion of "artwork," have been less often
laws, in which case they are also at work within us, or our brain creates studied. 9 While Hauer unrelentingly explored the possibilities of the
independently of the cosmis laws, in which case it is superfluous to twelve-tone system (as he understood it) during the period between
search among the latter, since we can neither comprehend nor perceive 1919 and 1939, he arrived at what he considered to be his final solution
them. 3 only in the "Zwolftonspiel," the title he gave to virtually all of the
pieces he composed after 1940. 10 Rudolf Stefan reports that Hauer
Whereas Hauer, in the tradition of speculative music, was seeking may have created as many as one thousand of these pieces. 11 Most of
the order of the cosmos in the twelve-tone system, Schoenberg, in the them are dated by Hauer, and it is therefore common to refer to a
tradition of Western art music, was using the twelve-tone system to specific work by its dates given.
create the coherence necessary to accommodate personal artistic ex- Hauer's Zwolftonspiele contrast strongly with the music of Schoen-
pression. While twelve-tone composition enabled Schoenberg to " ... berg and so offer a clear example of a distinctly different twelve-tone
compose as freely and fantastically as one otherwise does only in one's "logic" -a logic arising from a different aesthetic orientation. For
youth," Hauer began to move away from the entire notion of "com- Hauer, the "twelve-tone universe" was an object for a kind of "self-
position. " 4 Instead, Hauer demanded that music must arise through less contemplation"; he rejected the notion of music as self-
an "interpretation of the Melos" (Deutung des Melos), a process that expression, embracing instead the idea that music should reflect "the
amounts to an objective contemplation of the twelve-tone universe. 5 order of the cosmos." While I will take up some of these aesthetic
As a consequence, Hauer no longer "composed" music in the West- issues again at the end of this study, my main objective will be to sur-
ern sense. Schoenberg was fully aware of Hauer's aesthetic stance vey the many twelve-tone techniques that Hauer developed in the
when he made the following famous remarks in a letter to Rudolf course of his "twelve-tone contemplations," beginning with his ma-
Kalisch on 27 July 1932: nipulation of the row to produce harmony, melody, and rhythm. I will
I can't utter too many warnings against these analyses, since after all then examine the various textures that appear in the Zwolftonspiele,
they only lead to what I have always been dead against: seeing how it and finally I will consider some of the possible formal structures of
is done; whereas I have always helped people to see: what it is ... I these works.
can't say it often enough: my works are twelve-note compositions, not
twelve-note compositions: in this respect people go on confusing me
with Hauer, to whom composition is only of secondary importance. 6 The Row: Harmony, Melody, and Rhythm
Despite this fundamental difference-clearly perceived by both Let us first tum our attention to the Zwolftonspiel of 19. Februar
men-Schoenberg was able to pose a solution for the purposes of col- 1953. Example lA shows the first five bars of the piece, while 1B is the
laborating on a book on twelve-tone music: transcription of mm. 2-5 into integer notation (one beat in lA cor-
What I suggest is therefore, let us take what is common to our results responds to one column in lB) .12 The four-note sonorities in the right-
and regard it as "possibilities of achieving logical form by the use of 12 hand part lead one into the next in the following way: first, there is a
notes" ... Each of us has discovered the possibility of a new form of four-voice structure in which the pc's 0, 1, and 2 comprise the bottom
composition and we agree that it is advisable, not to say necessary, to voice; the pc's 3, 4, and 5 make up the next highest; 6, 7, and 8 the
proceed thus and thus. On the other hand, we differ in this and that next highest; and 9, t, and e the highest. Since we commonly define
respect. 7 pitch class under octave equivalence, there is not necessarily any sense
in which these voices must appear higher or lower than one another in
Schoenberg's twelve-tone solutions to the problem of "logical the registral dimension of the music. For purposes of the present dis-
form" have received much analytical attention since the mid-1920s. cussion, let us consider the structure as it appears in example 1 to be
150 151
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