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50
in
INTRODUCTION
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51
Webern's
Symphonie, Op. 21
LEJAREN HILLER
RAMON FULLER
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02
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
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03
Sectional Plan
The repeat signs, the general character of the music, and cer-
tain features such as the retrograde structure found in bars 25b
through 44 suggest the form, I: A : I : BA' :I. The A' section
is, in effect, a recapitulation of the A section. We shall there-
fore adopt the familiar terms "exposition", "development", and
"recapitulation" as names for A, B, and A' sections, respec-
tively. The exposition consists of bars 1 through 26; the de-
velopment comprises bars 25b through 44, and the recapitula-
tion, bars 44 through 66b. There is some overlapping of the
three sections, as the above bar numbers indicate. The tone
rows in the exposition and recapitulation appear i4 the following
order: 0-1, I-1; I-9, 0-5; 0-6, I-8; I-4, 0-10; I-9, 0-5; 0-6,
1-8. Each row is paired with the row which is its literal mir-
ror. Because of the canonic structure of this movement (see
below), there is considerable overlapping of tone rows. The
development section consists of rows 1-8, 0-8; 1-4, 0-12; 0-6,
1-10; 0-2, 1-2. It is differentiated from the other two sections
by its retrograde structure. The second half of the develop-
ment is an exact retrograde of the first half, the only exceptions
being the missing BIs in bars 31 and 33, and the grace-note
rhythms.
Canonic Structure
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04
FIGURE
0-1
I, "i ti"OP
2
w,-.r
I-i
0-5
3
I I . .. .
.. . . . center
Scenter
"1 B.
Pitc
~Canon Canon
C) ~ 4t. L
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05
FIGURE
0-12
LA A
'A -1--
I. S . .
I -t -----------
. - missing in first
B half of development
(b-)*
6
0-8
1-s
p Ao
I0-
9f I-x1
0-
, i z-
. b = ItI
g.has
... . LLL
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to an apparent dominant here, since the first four rows of the
development are a perfect fifth higher than the first four rows
of the exposition and recapitulation
Vertical Structure
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67
FIGURE
0o-0o 1- 1-8
0-8 80-12 0-2
- 0-6 l - 2
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TABLE
B6 0-2 0 2 0 2
B 0-3 0 0 0 0
C 0-4 0 0 0 0
C0 0-5 4 0 4 8
D 0-6 4 2 4 10
E6 0-7 0 0 0 0
E 0-8 0 2 0 2
F 0-9 0 0 0 0
F# 0-10 2 0 2 4
G 0-11 0 0 0 0
G# 0-12 0 2 0 2
A I-i 2 0 2 4
B6 I-2 0 2 0 2
B I-3 0 0 0 0
C I-4 2 2 2 6
C# I-5 0 0 0 0
D I-6 0 0 0 0
E6 I-7 0 0 0 0
E I-8 4 2 4 10
F I-9 4 0 4 8
F# 1-10 0 2 0 2
G I-l 0 0 0 0
G# 1-12 0 0 0 0
64
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09
TABLE
Exposition
Development
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70
Instrumentation
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71
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72
Rhythm
The durations of the tones were counted in an attempt to learn
whether there is any overall rhythmic scheme. We were unable
to find any such pattern. The results can be seen in Table 3.
We can only point out that (1) the exposition and recapitulation
are both double canons in rhythm as well as in pitch, and (2)
as George Perle has also pointed out*7, the two antecedent voices
are rhythmically similar in the development (identical except for
some grace notes), resulting in a four part rhythmic canon. In
summary, there exist the following primary ordering processes,
each associated with certain specified secondary processes:
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73
TABLE
2 160 0 12 172
3 0 0 36 36
4 48 0 0 48
5 0 0 0 0
6 12 16 24 52
7 0 0 24 24
8 16 0 24 40
9 0 16 0 16
10 0 0 0 0
11 0 0 0 0
12 4 16 0 20
13 0 16 0 16
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74
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75
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70
(3) How does one section of the message compare with another
in redundancy and information content? This question can be
dealt with by performing a set of calculations for each major
section of the message and plotting results on a graph. The
analyst must be careful not to subdivide the total "message"
into sections which are too short, since information theory
analysis is most valid for long (theoretically, infinitely long)
sequences.
1 Pitch.
2 Four types of intervallic relationships between pitches.
3 One aspect of rhythm, hereafter called the "attack in-
terval".
4 Pitch and attack intervals combined.
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77
7 Maximum
H(i, j)max,values (shown
and H(i, in dotted
j, k)max lines) and
H(i, j)max for H
H(i)max,
(i,j,k)
max are often so nearly equal that only one value is
shown, representing both. The pitch-attack interval
information plots are labeled H(x), H(y), H(x, y), H (y),
and H (x); these quantities, analogous to H(i), HAi,j),
and Hi(j), respectively, are defined later.
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78
FIGURE
10 PITCH INFORMATION
5.0
~y2 I--R. 75
q.60 V
14;(j) 1. 71
4 O.W0.610.,5
0.22
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79
FIGURE
PITCH REDUNDANCY
30.0
Z .0
cd
R ~i) 3.7
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so80
in the recapitulation.
Redundancy Plot
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harmonic or melodic. Melodic intervals can be classified ac-
cording to direction (up or down); all intervals can be
ically inverted and/ or expanded. Of the various possib
ods of obtaining interval alphabets for analysis, we chose the
following:
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82
Two problems arose in connection with the Type III and Type
IV interval calculations: (1) the ratios between the sizes of the
alphabet and the lengths of the sections are quite critical be-
cause of the increased size of the interval alphabets; and (2)
since harmonic intervals (i. e., the intervals between tones
attacked simultaneously) were considered equivalent to upwa
moving melodic intervals, we created a weighting in favor of
upward intervals. Table 4 shows the percentage of harmonic
intervals in each of the three sections. Alternatively, we could
have counted half of the harmonic intervals as upward melodic
intervals and half as downward melodic intervals. This would
have eliminated the weighting and retained the same size of
alphabet. However, it seems inconsistent to regard a set of
intervals in two different ways for no other reason than mathe-
matical neatness. On the other hand, we could have counted
harmonic intervals as additional symbols in the alphabet. This
would have further enlarged the alphabets so that sample sizes
would almost certainly have been too small for these alphabets.
Some further limitations arose because at least three general
classes of intervals are formed from temporally adjacent tones
in this music, namely:
(1) Intervals which belong to a motive. Both tones of
such an interval are found in the same canonic voice and
are played by the same instrument. Because other tones
often occur between the two tones forming a motivic in-
terval, many motivic intervals are not accounted for in
these calculations.
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TABLE
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84
FIGURE
3 5.90 ?90
o351
S-41
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FIGURE
A573
cr)
4.0
H 9.L P H',-".2
-7,33.27
H 3 .0H ;3 .q " H ,' .
z 1-'(.;(/)2.71 t2
,-4
1.0- 092
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Sb
FIGURE
C 2.
S 3.0
po
A,,9,,k)2.76 "],',)2.8
w 1.0
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87
FIGURE
so.92
S,.8 4.0
0 3.0
00 .
EXPOSIT
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Information Content Plots
In the Type III interval plots shown in Figure 14, the exposition
and recapitulation are nearly equal in all plots but two, while
the development is appreciably lower. In the H(i) and Hi. j(k)
plots, the three sections are quite close, and chi-square tests
show that their differences are not statistically significant.
The nearness of H(i, j, k) to its maximum value indicates that
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89
Redundancy Plots
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90
FIGURE
30.0
A#(i)2.71
2 24.3
00-0
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91
FIGURE
30.0
200
17.0
SR 8.7
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92
FIGURE
20.0
10.0
; R,/
R; 76 85
67
zE S R
0.0 R("i)4, 0.0 )0. EXPOS/ITON V yE L OPMENT RE(APIT(/LATIOA/
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93
FIGURE
20.0
i10.o 10o.9
R; 7.2 7
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94
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95
FIGURE
70 -(.,k)mx-
C.. r- 6.97 7------
0S535.09
i(,ik)539 587-"
SO
1)4447 i4'2iJ/2J0
rt) H ___40
Z Iy . /
z
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96
FIGURE
21 ATTACK-INTERVAL REDUNDA
R /(') 46.7
0o.o0
R (j'7 k)36.3 2 .) 35 8
R/Z(',,k)36.J
R (i',',)32.3
R, 28.5'
R ,) 25.3
0.0
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97
FIGURE
7.0 7.03
6.15
O
6.0 - 5.8s L_ 6.1s
5.66
H (x) * A
5 00
1>yIx)3.34, 34 1 3.27
ZH-
o4 2.43 2.40
" 2.0 92
-4 /(y) 1.66
4H Px(y) 1 35 125
1.0 1.19'
0 C -C 0.31
EXPOSITION DEVELOPMENT RE CAPITULAT/OA/
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93
Redundancy Plot
The most striking feature of this graph (Figure 21) is that the
exposition redundancies are much more closely spaced than
the redundancies of the other sections. This is probably due
to the smallness of the alphabet used in the exposition. The
exposition is highest in R(i) and R(i, j, k); the development is
highest in R(i, j). The recapitulation is lowest in all four kinds
of redundancy.
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99
px(y) = x, y / x (7)
where x, y is the number of occurrences of a particular
attack interval with a particular pitch, and x is the num-
ber of occurrences of this particular pitch in the section.
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100
S = K(xy) (9)
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10 1
FIGURE
70.01
42.4
50.0
Rx(y) 4 7. 8
E1 40.0
36.0
SQ
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102
FIGURE
_ 7T.0 10.83
Z 10.0 Type 10.16 9.6
O I 9.8
8.0 r 9.0
8. 39 ryp
SType 7.31 7.20
0 69
-e I224
z
0
2.0
0 1.0
EXPOSirION DEVELOPMENT-
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103
FIGURE
13.0
12. 4
12.0 PITCH-ATTACC 11 713
INTERvAL.
S 9.0 9.2#
S 8.0 PITCH 7 8.2
70
S6.0
5.28
50 #.88
O ATTraK 3.57
S 3.0 JINPRVAL
2.0
O 1.0
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104
Redundancy Plot
Information Rates
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105
TABLE
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106
are similar in shape to the first-order plots of information
content for a given parameter. Thus, the variations of infor-
mation rate among the sections are due not so much to differ-
ences in average rate of symbol occurrence as to differences
in the probability distributions.
Information Totals
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107
Let us now compare the interval structures of the tone row and
Stage 2 from another point of view. We see in Table 7 that one
tone row playing at a time would have a less rich intervallic
structure than actually exists in the three four-part canons.
Of interest is the treatment of the minor second which consti-
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108
TABLE
Stage 1 Stage 2
Row H Row H(i) Expbsition Development Recapitulation
max H(i) H(i) H(i)
Pitch 3.58 3. 58 3.66 4.60 3. 75
Type I
Interval 2.81 1.69 2.65 2.59 2.39
Type II
Interval 3.46 2.59 3.45 3.45 3.27
Attack
Interval 1. 66 2.43 2.40
Type I Interval 0. 96 0. 90 0. 70
Type II Interval 0. 86 0. 86 0. 68
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109
TABLE
Stage 1 Stage 2
Tone Row Exposition Development Recapitulation
Unison 0. 000 0. 039 0. 085 0.045
8 TYPE II INTERVA
Stage 1. Stage 2
Tone Row Exposition Development Recapitulation
Unison 0. 000 0. 039 0. 085 0.046
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110
tutes over half of the intervals of the tone row. Although re-
maining the most heavily weighted interval in all three sections,
its probability is considerably lowered in the canons - less so
in the recapitulation than in the other sections. All the inter-
vals except the minor third and unison are in fact closer to the
tone-row probabilities in the recapitulation than in the other
sections. Thus the tone row interval structure seems least
affected by contrapuntal interference in the recapitulation. This
is also reflected in the Type I interval first-order information
values, since the recapitulation has a significantly lower in-
formation content than the other two sections (see above).
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11 1
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112
TABLE
First
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113
TABLE
10 A CHI-SQUARE CALCULATION
FOR THE EXPOSITION PITCH STRUCTURE
Pitch
fo
f e
f -f (f0 -f )2 (fo-fe )2/fe
o e o e o e
C$ 21 19. 7 1. 3 1. 7 0. 1
Bb 21 19. 7 1.3 1.7 0.1
G 20 19.7 0.3 0. 1 0.0
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114
R E F E R EN C E S
1 Rene Leibowitz, Schoenberg and his School (trans. Dika Newlin), New York,
1949, p. 212. This and the other published analyses cited are intended asillus-
trations of compositional principles rather than complete descriptions.
2 George Perle, Serial Composition and Atonality, Berkeley and Los Angeles,
1962, p. 133. Perle gives a reduction of the first movement through half of the
development.
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115
11 L. Hiller and L. M. Isaacson, Experimental Music, New York, 1959, pp. 22-35.
14 For more details concerning these equations, see Cherry, On Human Com-
munications, pp. 167-184.
16 That is, the probability of obtaining a higher value of chi-square than was ac-
tually obtained. This is more fully explained below.
17 See, for example, H. Arkin and R. Colton, Tables for Statisticians, New York,
1962, pp. 15-16 and 121.
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