Uploaded August 2011 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Though the Violin Concerto uses twelve-tone technique, its neoclassical form demanded a mimesis of tonal melody, and hence a renunciation of the motivic technique used in his earlier work in favour of a thematic structure. The basic row of the concerto is:
A--B♭--E♭--B--E--F♯--C--C♯--G--A♭--D--F
It is in a three movement quick-slow-quick form, traditional for concertos:
1. Poco allegro—Vivace. Opinion is divided about the form of the first movement. According to one authority, it is in sonata form, while another asserts it is a large ternary form, concluding with a cadenza and a coda. It employs a wide variety of row forms, often in families associated by hexachordal content.
2. Andante grazioso
3. Finale: Allegro. The last movement is a rondo with an unusually dynamic development. It only gradually becomes clear that the underlying character is that of a march. There is a second cadenza just before the end, which rounds off the whole work in cyclic fashion.
"Among the orchestra works of Arnold Schoenberg (and even within the symphonic repertoire in gereral) the Concerto for Violin is without doubt one of the most difficult. Furthermore this work is an exceptionally successful one, and the place which it assumes within its category seems to me one of extreme importance. I will not hesitate to assert that we are dealing with one of the greatest violin concertos ever composed (a position which I think it shares only with the Concerto for Violin by Beethoven) and I believe therefore that sooner or later it will assume the role which is due to it in the repertoire. To begin with, the difficulties of the Violin Concerto are to be found in the solo part. This part seemed at first unplayble (significantly enough Schoenberg himself used to say that it would take a violist with six fingers to master it). Whereas we have used the concept of idiomatic expression applied to the violin part, we might say not that such a concept seldom applies to the orchestra treatment. Certain typical orchestral features are to be found throughout the work. On the other hand, one must observe that, for the most part, the orchestra is treated in very unusual fashion. The main characteristic of the orchestral treatment is one of atomization. This process of atomization exterts itself in practically every dimension. Melocic lines are seldom given to the same instrument or instrumental group for any length of time. More ofteh, they shift from one instrument or instrumental group to another and, often too, they are conceived in an organ-like 'mixture,' this mixture itself being subjitted to constant variation." Rene Leibowitz
Though the Violin Concerto uses twelve-tone technique, its neoclassical form demanded a mimesis of tonal melody, and hence a renunciation of the motivic technique used in his earlier work in favour of a thematic structure. The basic row of the concerto is:
A--B♭--E♭--B--E--F♯--C--C♯--G--A♭--D--F
It is in a three movement quick-slow-quick form, traditional for concertos:
1. Poco allegro—Vivace. Opinion is divided about the form of the first movement. According to one authority, it is in sonata form, while another asserts it is a large ternary form, concluding with a cadenza and a coda. It employs a wide variety of row forms, often in families associated by hexachordal content.
2. Andante grazioso
3. Finale: Allegro. The last movement is a rondo with an unusually dynamic development. It only gradually becomes clear that the underlying character is that of a march. There is a second cadenza just before the end, which rounds off the whole work in cyclic fashion.
"Among the orchestra works of Arnold Schoenberg (and even within the symphonic repertoire in gereral) the Concerto for Violin is without doubt one of the most difficult. Furthermore this work is an exceptionally successful one, and the place which it assumes within its category seems to me one of extreme importance. I will not hesitate to assert that we are dealing with one of the greatest violin concertos ever composed (a position which I think it shares only with the Concerto for Violin by Beethoven) and I believe therefore that sooner or later it will assume the role which is due to it in the repertoire. To begin with, the difficulties of the Violin Concerto are to be found in the solo part. This part seemed at first unplayble (significantly enough Schoenberg himself used to say that it would take a violist with six fingers to master it). Whereas we have used the concept of idiomatic expression applied to the violin part, we might say not that such a concept seldom applies to the orchestra treatment. Certain typical orchestral features are to be found throughout the work. On the other hand, one must observe that, for the most part, the orchestra is treated in very unusual fashion. The main characteristic of the orchestral treatment is one of atomization. This process of atomization exterts itself in practically every dimension. Melocic lines are seldom given to the same instrument or instrumental group for any length of time. More ofteh, they shift from one instrument or instrumental group to another and, often too, they are conceived in an organ-like 'mixture,' this mixture itself being subjitted to constant variation." Rene Leibowitz
![Arnold Schoenberg, Herzgewächse, Op. 20 [Lucy Shelton, Da Capo Chamber Players, Oliver Knussen]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Pz98sU_rPK8/mqdefault.jpg "Arnold Schoenberg, Herzgewächse, Op. 20 [Lucy Shelton, Da Capo Chamber Players, Oliver Knussen]
Herzgewächse was similar to Erwartung in that it is not musically organized by a strict development of an evident theme. It experiments with instrumental color and range, But perhaps most interesting about Herzgewächse, particularly in connection with Pierrot Lunaire, is the relationship of music to text, a relationship made even more evident by the fact that Schoenberg was beginning the text for what would become the unfinished project Die Jakobsleiter. Schoenberg was beginning to explore more deeply the possibilities of expressing in a mixture of language and music the theological and philosophical. He began to search for a link between music and words that would relinquish a dependency on visual props or the creation of mental pictures. But in Herzgewächse and to a lesser extent Pierrot Lunaire, the notion of the poetic still reigned as the dominant connecting link between music and language. Herzgewächse was not performed immediately after its composition, but only in 1927-1928, partly due to the unusual ensemble employed and the demands made on the vocalist. In the article The Relationship to the Text, Schoenberg argued, following Schopenhauer, that music, because of its power and character, must never attempt to illustrate text or depict that which texts represent linguistically. Rather, as in the case of a Schubert song or Schoenbergs own songs, Op. 2 and 3, the direct contact with the sound of the first words out to be sufficient to permit the development of a musical statement by the composer without any reference to the literal meaning or poetical context of the poetry being set. The sounds of words rather than the mental pictures they generated, or their grammatical or sense content, triggered a so-called direct comparison. The real essence of the poems no the illustration of content was unlocked by music, and essence unreachable and imperceptible without the aid of music. As Schoenberg concluded, music and text relate to each other that is to sy they complement each other on an extremely high, spiritual level, evident only in retrospect as a result of the integration of the two media at the hands of the composer. But in the ordinary sense, in terms of declamation or tempo or loudness, or in terms of narrative description, music and text had to diverge if, in fact, music was to retain its autonomy and power and if the higher realm of connectedness of music and language was to be achieved. In this tantalizing but somewhat inconsistent theoretical exposition, Schoenberg embraced an idea that language needs to be purified if it is to be, as Kraus suggested, the mother of ideas in the arts. If language performs its ethical imperative to speak its truths in the broadest sense a spiritual unity that can be revealed by art and music will emerge. However, the kind of ordinary language we hear in daily life or read in newspapers as an insufficient model. What the painter and the composer must do is to take off from language and generate works in whose expression and through whose perception a higher realm of human experience is created and revealed. Language as a given text provides a hint of the aesthetic idea. That hint is often hidden from the view of the composer who approaches the text in the ordinary way. It is in this framework that would should listen to the connection between the Maeterlinck poem and the music of Herzgewächse, particularly where the poet describes moods and the evolution of sentiment (e.g., sinking to rest, listless melancholy). It is neither the metaphoric nor the literal leaning of Maeterlincks poem that connects to the music or justifies its presence. The text has been transformed and has become an integral telement of the musical discourse.")
