Mimi Ezust <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>One correction: Someone mentioned Berg's violin concerto as either
>atonal or serial...  forgive my vagueness.  I've been reading on the
>run.
>
>This piece is neither.

Well, it depends on how you look at things.  The row he uses is rather
tonal: G, Bflat, D, F sharp, A, C, E, G sharp, B, C sharp, E flat, F.

When you look at the row you will notice the extensive use of the interval
of the 3rd, both major and minor.  You will also notice that clever old
Berg, chose his row in such a way to highlight the open strings of the
violin, G, D, A and E.  The last four notes of the row are also the first
four notes of Es ist genug which is the chorale he quotes in the piece.

In short, the entire piece is not strictly serial from beginning to end,
but the bulk of it is.  We get the sense of tonality from his choice of
the row and its emphasis on the intervals of the third, and with every
other pitch, the fifth.  There is also, as I recall, a folk tune quoted
in the piece.

This "ambiguity" was probably what prompted my doctoral committee to
include the piece for score identification...sneaky...but I recognized
the chorale tune.

Karl

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