An opera in three acts based on the play by Georg Buchner that recounts the downfall of an already down-trodden individual.
As music became more complex and more chromatic, some composers from the Austro-German tradition questioned on what basis music could continue to be composed, without the structural underpinning that the western tonal system had provided to previous generations. Arnold Schoenberg felt that a new system needed to be devised that would replace the system of major and minor keys that had underpinned music for 400 years. As a response to the chromaticism already inherent in his music and that of his pupils, he devised the twelve-tone system which he publically announced in 1921.
The basic principle of the system is that all twelve chromatic pitches are equally important. Each note must be sounded in order of the “row” decided by the composer before that pitch can be sounded again. The purpose of this procedure was two-fold: firstly to ensure there is no unintended sense of tonality and secondly to replace the loss of tonality as a unifying and musically generating source with a new method of order and unity. The row or sequence of tones then determines the intervallic and harmonic structure of the entire work or movement.
Twelve-note music is referred to as a “method” and not a “style” since different composers have used this same method to different ends. After its formulation and adoption by its “inventor” Arnold Schoenberg, he returned to writing music using strictly classical models. His forms, rhythms and structures were not modern. The method provided Alban Berg with the technical freedom to create his greatest works and he essentially returned to writing romantic works, albeit with expressionist leanings.
Anton Webern took a radical approach to the use of this method. He started writing miniatures that are the sound equivalent of looking at crystals under a microscope or the effect of turning a kaleidoscope. They celebrate and are fascinated with structure itself and the permutations. Webern referred to his music as the investigation of “natural law as related to the sense of hearing”.