grgr (20): schönberg & webern

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

 "schönberg, indeed, is considering the twelve-tone system in the practice of 
 composition as a mere pre-formation of the material. he 'composes' with the 
 twelve-tone sets (...). doing so, conflicts constantly arise between the 
 characteristics of the material and the operating modus that was put on it. 
 webern's late music shows the critical consciousness of this conflict. his goal 
 is it to bring into balance the claims of the sets with those of the work 
 itself. he aims to fill in the gap between regulary disposed material and 
 freestyling composition. but this is indeed the most intervening renunciation: 
 composing is questioning the beeing of composition itself. schönberg rapes the 
 set. he composes twelve-tone music as if there were no twelve-tone music. 
 webern is realizing the twelve-tone technology and does not compose anymore: 
 silence is the rest of his mastership. In the difference of these two has the  
 implacability of the contradictions, into which the twelve-tone technology 
 unavoidably gets, grown into music." 

 (m.o.p.a.t. from adorno's "philosophie der neuen musik" [1949], p. 106)

        nichtidentisch: kfl