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IN THEIR OWN WORDS. . .

Schoenberg on Atonal Harmony (1911)

In 1911, shortly after he began composing atonal music, Arnold Schoenberg completed Harmonielehre (Theory of Harmony), in which he deals primarily with earlier, traditional principles of tonal harmony. In the nal chapters of this book, he addresses aspects of the enriched harmonic language of the late nineteenth century, including the use of whole tones and fourth chords, and in the very last chapter, titled Aesthetic Evaluation of Chords with Six or More Tones, he talks about harmonic practices in recent musicworks that would soon be called atonal. Schoenberg could never accept this term, which seemed to him illogical on both semantic and musical grounds, although he was not successful in nding an alternative designation. His discussion of large atonal chords suggests that their use comes from the artists sense that they are correct, although he admits that no theory exists for their use. He concludes with a discussion of tone-color melody, another resource for modern music.
. . . Every chord that I use corresponds to a necessityto a necessity from my need for expression, perhaps also to the necessity of a relentless (although unconscious) logic in harmonic construction. I am rmly convinced that such logic is present hereat least to the same extent that it is present in the earlier type of harmony. As evidence for this I can say that changes in initial inspiration, coming from external formal thinking to which the consciousness mind is often inclined, will usually spoil that initial inspiration. That proves to me that the inspiration is compelling, that the harmonies there are part of this inspiration, and that these cannot be changed. Generally in the use of chords with six and more tones, there is an inclination to soften the dissonances by a wide separation of the individual chord tones. That this produces a softening is obvious because the image of what dissonance iswidely separated overtonesis thus imitated in a satisfying way. In this sense the following passage from my monodrama Erwartung can be understood:

Eleven different tones appear in this chord. But the delicate instrumentation and the wide spacing of the dissonant tones give the chord a very gentle effect. But one thing more: the separate groups of notes are placed together so that earlier forms can be seen in them. For example, at the rst entrance I believe that the ear expects this resolution:

That it does not come can do no more damage here than when the resolution is omitted in simple harmonies. And the second chord [Erwartung example, beat 2, lower parts] can

be understood in connection with the resolution in (a) below. The chord of resolution in the example above (show below as b) can be understood as in (c): an adding together of two ninth chords with different bass tones, the two having a diminished 7th chord in common.

Such a derivation is not always on the mark since this reliance on older forms will not alwaysor only in an extended sensebe successful. For in another circumstance I might write such chords in a much closer position. And in a string quartet [Op. 5/1] by my student Anton von Webern we have the following passage:

Franz Schreker in his opera Der ferne Klang writes this, among other things:

Here, to be sure, many of the chords come from the movement of voices, but a similarity with the earlier examples still exists in that the chord-shaping capacity of dissonances does not depend upon the possibilities or needs for resolutions. Also, in some of the piano pieces [Op. 6/10] of the Hungarian composer Bla Bartk we nd these chordal sensations, as here:

An interesting case is seen in the following example [Op. 2/4] from a composition of my student Alban Berg:

Why it is this way and why it is right I can only say provisionally. In general, it is obviously so for those who accept my view on the nature of dissonance. I rmly believe in its rightness, as do a number of others. The chromatic scale seems to be responsible for the progression of such chords. The chord progressions appear to be controlled by the tendency to place in the second chord those tones that are missing in the preceding one. These are usually a half-tone higher or lower, but within the individual voice itself, these semitone steps rarely occur. I have also noted that doublingoctaves rarely are seen. This perhaps occurs since the doubled note would take on greater weight than the others and become a sort of fundamental tone, which it is not. Perhaps also from an instinctive (perhaps exaggerated) reluctance to recall even distantly the earlier chords. The same reasoning appears to explain why the simple chords of earlier harmony do not appear in this environment. But I believe that this also has another cause. I believe that they would seem too cold, too dry, too expressionless. Or perhaps there applies here what I mentioned in an earlier passage, that these simple chords which are imperfect imitations of natureseem to us to be too primitive. Something is missing from them, the same thing perhapsperspective and depththat is lacking in Japanese painting as compared with ours. It could be that perspective and depth of sound is what is missing for us in the simple three- and four-note chords. And just as in a picture one part cannot have perspective and another part lack it without spoiling the effect, so too these empty chords cannot stand next to those that are rich, luxurious. The exclusive use of one or the other unifying idea will insure the correct effect. It is striking and conclusive that I, and those who compose similarly, distinguish strictly as to when a ve- or six-note chord, or even one with more notes, should appear. It would not be possible, without damaging the effect, to remove a note from an eight-note chord, or to add one note to a chord of ve tones. Also the register is obligatory. If a note is moved, the meaning changes, the logic and usability ends, and coherence is lost. Obviously, laws are at work here. What they are, I dont know. Perhaps I will know in a few years. Perhaps one of my disciples will discover them. For now, we can only describe. But I will forgo a further description and instead conclude by mentioning another idea. A tone has three qualities: pitch, color, and volume. A tone is now measured only in one of these threein what we call pitch. Measurements in the other dimensions have been till now virtually unknown, and their organization into a system has not been attempted at all. The value of tone color, the second dimension of a note, thus languishes in an even more undeveloped and unordered state than the aesthetic valuation of the aforementioned harmonies. Still, we continue to link or juxtapose these sounds purely on the basis of feeling, and it has never occurred to anyone to demand a theory to establish laws behind these usages. We cannot have a theory yet, even provisionally, and we see that things continue without one. Perhaps we could differentiate more nely if attempts at measuring this second dimension could produce tangible results. Perhaps not. In any event, our attention to tone color becomes ever sharper, and the possibility to order and describe it moves ever closer. With this, restrictive theories also approach. Preliminarily we judge the artistic effect of these relations only by feeling. How this relates to the essence of natures sounds we dont know, but we suspect it does, and we write series of tone colors without concern, successions that still somehow satisfy our feeling for beauty. What system underlies these series? I cannot completely accept a differentiation between tone color and pitch, as it is customarily called. I find that a tone defines itself by its color, of which pitch is a dimension. Tone color is thus the larger region, and pitch only a district. Pitch is nothing more than tone color measured in a different direction. If it is possible to create shapes from tone colors that are distinguished according to pitch, what we call melodies (successions whose coherence resembles that of ideas), then it must also be possible to create such successions from tone colors in the other dimension, from that which we simply call tone color per se, whose interrelation has a kind of logic that is

entirely equivalent to the logic that sufces in pitch melody. This seems a futuristic fantasy and may be one. But I rmly believe that it can be brought about. I rmly believe that it is capable of enormously enhancing the sensual, spiritual, and intellectual delight that art affords. I rmly believe that it will bring us to the stuff of dreams and expand our contact with that which seems inanimate by giving life from of our lives to that which seems dead since we have so slender a connection with it. Tone color melodies! What rened senses can perceive them; what highly developed spirit can nd pleasure in such subtle things! Who dares to ask here for theory!
Source: Arnold Schnberg, sthetische Bewertung sechs - und mehrtniger Klnge, in Harmonielehre, 1911, revised 1922. Translated by Bryan R. Simms.