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TONALITY AND ATONALITY IN ALBAN BERG'S

FOUR SONGS, OP. 2
by
Gary R. Tucker
Faculty of Music
Submitted m partial fulfilment

of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor o f Philosophy
Faculty o f Graduate Studies

The University o f Western Ontario
London, Ontario
August 1995
Gary R. Tucker 1995
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T O N A L I T Y AND
ATONAL I T Y
IN ALBAN BERG' S
FOUR SONGS,
OP.
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Y FXA S - i
(signature o f student)
( (signature
{signature o f witness )
Septem ber
(date)
18,
Ph.D .
1995
(degree)
Mus i c
(departm ent o f student)
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION
Chief Advisor
Examining Board
Advisory Committee
Coftd
The thesis by
Gary R Tucker
entitled
Tonality and Atonality m Alban Bergs Four Songs, Op 2
is accepted in partial fulfilment o f the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
-^ v V \V Chair of Examining Board
ii
ABSTRACT
Alban Berg composed his Four Songs between 1908 and 1910, they were
published in the latter year as his Op. 2. This was a critical period for Berg as for
his mentor, Arnold Schoenberg, and his colleague Anton Webern The latter two
composers both later remembered 1908 as the year all three of them abandoned
traditional tonality and began to write 'atonal' music. There are problems,
however, with the categories tonal and atonal. Webern denied that the shift
from one to the other really involved any radical change in how they handled pitch
materials in their music. In Bergs Four Songs questions of tonality and atonality
appear to be central: the first three of these songs are usually held to be still
(barely) tonal, while the last song is often termed Berg's first atonal composition.
In the present thesis the author examines issues of tonality and atonality through
an analytic study of pitch design in the Four Songs. Underlying this analysis is a
preference to regard tonality and atonality not as opposite principles, but as
complementary contexts in which pitch structure may be understood. Tonality, in
this view, involves structural designs that address specific pitch classes. Atonality
involves designs that invoice purely mtervallic properties of pitch materials. All
four songs in Bergs opus may therefore be seen to project both tonal and atonal
elements o f pitch structure. This approach has the effect of maintaining a sense of
continuity across the analyzed structure of all the songs.
The analysis itself begins with a general introduction to the pitch materials and
relationships of the songs. A separate chapter is then devoted to the analysis of
each song. These analyses are both detailed, often examining the same pitches from
iii
a number of viewpoints, and comprehensive, covering virtually every note in the

songs. The analyses stress not only Bergs adoption o f novel pitch resources but
also his awakening to new possibilities of structure in traditional resources.
Especially crucial in three of the songs is Bergs integration of the tonal and atonal
implications of whole-tone materials.
iv
ACKNOW LEDGEM ENTS

An analytical thesis which takes some one hundred and sixty pages to examine
eighty-five measures o f music might charitably be termed exhaustive Likewise
an author who spins the completion o f this thesis out over six years might
charitably be termed deliberate. It is, I think, a tribute to all those who have
helped me during this study that the less charitable termsmany of which have
certainly occurred to me have never crossed their lips. 1 therefore thank them all
primarily for their kindness and their great patience. It was never my intention that
I should give them such ample opportunity to display these virtues.
It has been a pleasure as well as an education to pursue this study under the
guidance of Dr. Richard Parks and Dr. Gail Dixon. They have always been sources
o f many stimulating ideas about my work. Moreover they have given me their
*.*'.ntiou, freely and without complaint, even during vacation and sabbatical
times a generosity far beyond the call o f their duties. I could not have wished for
more encouraging and benevolent mentors. I thank also Dr. Richard Kurth, who
read drafts o f the early chapters o f this thesis and responded with valuable
commentary and suggestions.
These early chapters were written at the University o f Western Ontario, in an
office I shared with Dr. John Doerksen, while we were both racing to complete our
doctorates. He won handily, despite my constant interruptions. Apart from many
hours of agreeable companionship, he has provided more stimulation to my
thinking about my work than I have hitherto acknowledged to him He has also
very kindly helped me with computer resources in preparing this thesis.
v
The latter stages of writing have taken place at Mount Allison University. My
new colleagues at Mount Allisons Mi ;ic Department have maintained a lively
interest in my work. I thank especially Dr. Willis Noble, the Music Department
Head. Dr. Noble has been unfailingly supportive of my study, and generous in
granting me time to finish it. Mount Allison has been a most congenial spot in
which to complete a not-always-congenial task.
It is, of course, my family on whose kindness and patience I have drawn most
heavily. My wife, Nancy, has shouldered all of the domestic duties, borne all of
the waiting, and listened to all of the complaints in seeing me through this project.
Without her loving support I certainly could not have completed it. My daughters,
Karen and Helen, have tolerated their fathers near-constant absence now for fai
too long They will all likely be as happy as I shall be to return to a familial
normal order.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION
u
A B S T R A C T .................................................................................................................. m
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
v
TABLE OF C O N T E N T S ........................................................................................... vh
ANALYTICAL CONVENTIONS
x
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
1
Historical B ackground............................................................................................. 5
The Dates, Manuscripts, and Published Editions o f the Four S o n g s ................ 7
CHAPTER 2 - TONAL AND ATONAL THEORIES AND BERG S PITCH
STRUCTURES ......................................................................................................10
What Might Tonality (and Atonality) B e ? ......................................................... 10
Schoenbergs Definitions ................................................................................11
Schenkers D efinition ....................................................................................... 14
Broader D e fin itio n s....................................................................................... 17
Two Kinds of T o n a lity .................................................................................... 20
Analyzing Bergs Tonality and Atonality ......................................................... 23
Harmonic T h eo ry .............................................................................................. 24
Schenkerian T h e o ry ......................................................................................... 25
Pitch-Class Set T h e o ry .................................................................................... 28
The Problem o f U n ity ............................................................................................29
CHAPTER 3 - BERGS FOUR S O N G S .................................................................30
Texts and Text E xpression.................................................................................... 31
M o tiv e s.................................................................................................................... 33
Formal Designs ..................................................................................................... 35
Pitch Materials and R elationships........................................................................ 36
Key Signatures and Accidentals ................................................................... 37
Prominent Pc Set Classes and their R elatio n sh ip s.......................................38
Tertian-diatonic C o lle c tio n s..................................................................... 41
vii
Whole-tone Collections .......................................................................

Whole-tone Dissonance: Almost-whole-tone sets ........................
Tritonal-quartal Collections: The Supersets o f 3-5 ......................
Quartal C o llectio n s.................................................................................
Other Notable Collections ....................................................................
Other Pitch Materials and Relationships
Perfect-fifth Dyads ..............................................................................
Bass Motion and Tonal R elationships.................................................
Interval Succession P atte rn s..................................................................
Musical C y p h ers......................................................................................
42
45
46
47
49
CHAPTER 4 - SONG 3, Nun ich der Riesen Starksten uberwand ...............

Text, Form, and M o tiv e s ...................................................................................
Harmonic D e s ig n ................................................................................................
Harmonic Pattern O n e .................................................................................
Harmonic Pattern T w o .................................................................................
A Schenkerian Interpretatic .......................................................................
Newer Harmonic R elationships..................................................................
Linear Design .....................................................................................................
Integrating the Harmonic and Linear Designs ...............................................
Section A
Phrase 1, mm. 1 - 3 ...................................................................................
Phrase 2, mm. 3 -5 (6 )...............................................................................
Section B, mm. (5)6-8 .................................................................................
Section A', mm. 8 - 1 2 ...................................................................................
Interval-Succession P attern s..............................................................................
54
54
56
58
59
61
63
64
68
CHAPTER 5 - SONG 2, Schlafend tragt man mich in mein Heimatland . .

Text, Form, and M o tiv e s...................................................................................
Ayreys Analysis ................................................................................................
The 4-25 Chord ..................................................................................................
An Overview of Pitch S tru c tu re.......................................................................
The Bass L in e ................................................................................................
The 4-25 Chords: Atonal D e sig n ................................................................
The 4-25 Chords: Tonal Design
...........................................................
Treble-Bass Models ...........................................................................................
Sectional Analysis .............................................................................................
Section A
Phrase 1, mm. 1 - 4 ....................................................................................
Piano Interlude, mm 4 - 8 .......................................................................
Section B, mm. 9-13 ....................................................................................
79
79
84
85
86
88
89
91
92
94
viii
49
50
51
52
69
72
73
74
75
94
96
97
Section A', mm 1 3 - 1 8 ..................................................................................101

The Linking of Songs 2 and 3 .......................................................................... 103
CHAPTER 6 - SONG 1, Schlafen, Schlafen, mchts als Schlafen! . .
.106
Text. Form, and M o tiv e s.................................................. ^
.
... .106
....................................... 109
An Overview o f Pitch S tru c tu re...................
Sectional A n a ly s is .............................................................................................. 114
Section A
Phrase 1, mm. 1 - 6 .................................................
.114
Phrase 2, mm. 6 - 1 0 ..........
115
118
Section B, mm. 1 1 - 1 4 ..........................................
Section C, mm. 1 4 - 2 0 ..................................
119
Section A'
Division 1, mm. 21-25 .......................................
122
Division 2, mm. 26-30
.
124
Deeper-level Structure and the U r s a tz
125
CHAPTER 7 - SONG 4, Warm die Lufte ......................................................... 128
Text, Form, and Motivic D esig n .....................................
...................... 129
Tonal D e s ig n ..........................................................................
131
Atonal Design ......................................................
Sectional A n a ly s is ...........................................................
137
Section A
137
Phrase 1, mm. 1 - 2 ...............................................................................
Phrase 2, mm. 3 - 4 ......................................................
140
Phrase 3, mm. 4 - 6 ................................................................................. 141
Phrase 4, mm. 7 - 8 ...............................................................................
142
Section B
Phrases 5-6, mm. 9 - 1 1 ............................................................................. 144
Phrases 7-10, mm. 1 1 -1 8 ................................................................... 146
Section C
Phrase 11, mm. 1 9 - 2 2 .......................................................................... 150
Phrase 12, mm. 22-25 .......................................................................... 151
CHAPTER 8 - CONCLUSIONS............................................................................. 157
APPENDIX - TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
LIST OF SOURCES CITED
161
............................................................................... 163
V IT A .............................................................................................................................170
ix
. . .
ANALYTICAL CONVENTIONS
A large part of this thesis is given over to analysis o f Bergs Four Songs. In my
analysis the following conventions apply
m(m)
= measure(s)
pc(s) = pitch class(es)

ic(s) = interval class(es)
RH, LH = the right- and left-hand components of the piano part,
usually corresponding to the parts upper and lower staves.
Depending on context I name pitch classes either by using integer notation
(0 to 11, 0 = C ) or by using their traditional letter names, in Roman capitals. I
name specific pitches in Italics in the manner illustrated below
Qvc-------
*
<*
y
"
-T
3 , - -T- -
-------
r .
: ... ~
.. . r T T
:
-
A 2 B 2 C,
C 3
c b
c1 b*
c2 b2
c3
c4 b4
c5
Again depending on context I name intervals either by using their traditional

names (minor second, perfect fourth, etc.) or by using integers (1 = 1 semitone,
2 = 2 semitones, etc.). I also use integers 1 to 6 for naming interval classes
ic 2, etc.).
( ic
1,
I often categorize pitch collections according to the taxonomy of pc set classes

developed by Allen Forte (see Forte 1973, 3-12, 179-181). When I find it relevant
to list the pc content of collections, I cite the pc numbers in normal order,
surrounded by square brackets, for example, 4-27 [3,5,8,11)7When I first introduce
a set class (mainly in chapter 3) I cite its prime form, with the pc numbers
placed in parentheses, for example, 4-27 (0258).
When discussing harmonies in traditional tonal contexts I also use roir.nnumeral and figured-bass terminology. When multiple figures are applied to a
chord symbol, I cannot show these vertically aligned in my text. I therefore array
them horizontally, for example, V6/5
In my musical examples I often accompany pc set names by horizontal brackets
which extend to indicate the compass o f the sets. Brackets normally embrace only
those pitches on the staff directly above or below them. 1 enclose labels for sets
spanning the whole staff system in visibly thicker brackets below the system.
When, however, a label clearly refers to a chord I avoid brackets altogether. I also
enclose the pitches of some sets in partial boxes and link some non-contiguous
pitches into sets by stems and beams.
In all examples I retain the accidentals which precede almost every note in
Bergs score. When applicable, 1 mark formal divisions in the songs by double
barlines. I also label formal units above the staff systems, for example, A B A ' .
Other conventions I use in my examples are variable; these I explain as I
present each example.
I assume that the reader has access to the score o f Bergs Vier Lieder fu r eirte
Singstimme mit Klavier, Op. 2 (Berlin: Robert Lienau, Vienna: Universal, 1928).
All musical examples from this score are reproduced with permission o f the
publisher.
Xi
CH A PTER 1
INTRODUCTION AND H ISTORICAL BACKGROUND
. . . I want to show you some more examples, partly to demonstrate again
how gradually the change came about, and that in fact its impossible io fix
a dividing line between old and new. Please understand, this reference to a
tonic is meant to show how much all these changes still took place within
the bounds of harmonic progression. Theres hardly a single consonant
chord any more. But though things had gone so far, we still find the very
important factor that governed music for centuriesthis exploitation of
relationship to a key. (Webern 1963, 50)
But things of this kind piled up more and more, and one day it was possible
to do without the relationship to the tonic. For there was nothing consonant
there any more
. This moment I can speak from personal
experiencethis moment, in which we all took part, happened in about the
year 1908. Now its 1933 so its 25 years agoa jubilee, no less!
(Webern 1963, 39)
In quoting from Anton Weberns The Path to the New Music, I have taken his
words out of sequence and have plucked the above passages from their immediate
contexts. Weberns own rather convoluted exposition has prompted this mal
treatment, and in any case I hope his overall context remains clear. Webern is
speaking here o f the break-up of tonality, (Webern 1963, 44) a breakup that
occurred, he remembers, around 1908.
In tracing this breakup, Webern respectfully focuses on works by his teacher,
Arnold Schoenberg. For Webern, Schoenbergs Op. 9 Kammersymphonie (1906)
and the two songs of Op 14 (December 1907 and February 1908) lie at the
extreme edge of tonality, while Das Buch der hangenden Garten (begun in March
1
1908) and the Op. 11 Klavierstucke (1909) are the first atonal pieces (Webern
1963, 44, 48-51). Webern could just as easily have discussed some of his own or
Alban Bergs early music, for 1908 was also a watershed year for them. Weberns
five Dehmel songs and his Opp. 1 and 2, all finished in that year, are also often
held to stretch tonality to its limits limits which he then exceeded in his George
settings, Opp 3 and 4, begun later in 1908 (Griffiths 1980, 272) Meanwhile
Bergs Seven Early Songs (the latest of which date from 1908), his Piano Sonata,
Op. 1 (from the same year), and the first three o f his Four Songs, Op. 2 (probably
begun in 1908), appear to have brought him to the same tonal-atonal boundaries.
Berg is then said to have crossed those boundaries in the fourth song o f Op 2 and
in his Op. 3 String Quartet of 1910 (Perle 1980a, 525).
The criterion Webern uses to distinguish between the tonal and the atonal in
Schoenbergs works is clear: the presence or absence o f the relationship to the
tonic. Yet Webern also emphasizes that things were not really that simple In
Schoenbergs progress and in his own and Bergs changes in the handling of
pitch materials were gradual and subtle, so that in fact its impossible to fix a
dividing line between old and new. The ambivalence o f Weberns statements
accords, I believe, with our experience o f the music he, Schoenberg, and Berg were
producing in the years around 1908. While the presence or absence o f a plausible
tonic might allow us to distinguish the tonal from the atonal works, the boundary
between these categories is actually blurred. When we experience these worksthe
supposedly tonal and the nominally atonal we sense that some o f the pitch
materials from the traditional tonal world are still present in both. Other such
materials are absent, replaced with newer elements whose coherence we must
account for in different ways. More fascinating still, we find older and newer
aspects o f pitch structure so closely interwoven that they are often projected by the
same notes, i or the listener this music offers an extraordinary richness o f possible
meanings. For the music analyst such richness offers an enticing and impressive
challenge.
O f the three composers, it is Berg whose music is most associated with the rich
confluence o f tonality and atonality, for almost all his works are thought to be
marked by this confluence. Over the past two decades an enormous amount of
scrutiny has been focused on Bergs music. The Berg centenary in 1985, the new
availability o f manuscript materials, the completion o f Lulu, the news about the
composers private life and private musical symbols these have all fuelled an
explosion o f Berg studies. This scholarly attention has helped to reveal not only
Bergs well known fondness for common-practice tonal references but also just
how accomplished was his handling o f newer pitch resources. The lions share of
this attention, however, has been paid to Bergs later masterpieces. Less regard has
been given to the composers early music, despite clear indications that it was here
that Berg developed procedures and materials he was to favour right up to his last
works.
It is especially surprising that Bergs Four Songs, Op. 2, have seldom been the
object o f detailed analysis surprising because these songs apparently stand right
at the borders o f tonality and atonality. As mentioned, the first three songs are
usually held to be at least marginally tonal, however much they betray a radical
questioning o f the traditional concept o f a tonal center (Perle 1980b, 4). The last
song, meanwhile, is accepted as Bergs first definitively atonal piece (Perle
1980a, 525). Berg himself even made such a distinction. When he sought
Schoenbergs advice on which of the songs he should send to Wassily Kandinsky
for inclusion in the 1912 Blaue Reiter almanac, he asked, Would you recommend,
in case you recall it, the last one, which is very m odem or one of the first, which
still bear traces of tonality? (undated letter [30 September 1912] to Arnold
Schoenberg; translated in Brand, Hailey, and Harris 1987, 23). Except for a few
familiar passages, however, these songs have been rather slighted in the recent
flowering o f Berg analysis.1
The present thesis is a detailed analytical study o f Bergs Four Songs. My
immediate purpose is to explore within these songs the workings o f pitch materials
and relationships at the boundaries o f tonality and atonality. My underlying
purpose is to probe these two categories, as they are variously construed and as
they might usefully be construed by those beguiled into analyzing this
transitional music. I shall therefore consider, in the second chapter o f this thesis,
the meanings o f tonality and atonality. I shall then address issues o f analytical
method. Such issues have been pre-eminent in recent studies o f the late-tonal,
early-atonal repertorymany o f which studies have focused on the Second
Viennese School. In particular, I shall consider the roles that harmonic theory,
Schoenbergs ideas about harmony, Schenkerian analysis, and pitch-class set
analysis might play in analyzing this music. This second chapter will then form the
theoretical basis for the analyses I present in subsequent chapters.
These subsequent chapters are six: one (Chapter 3) to consider the Op. 2 songs
as a whole, four (Chapters 4 to 7) to examine each o f the songs in detail, and a
final one (Chapter S) to embrace my conclusions. Berg seems to have meant the
Four Songs to form a cycle; they certainly exhibit some cyclic features. More
important for my present study, the songs share a limited stock o f pitch-structural
materials and procedures. I shall introduce and characterize these elements in
Chapter 3. In the subsequent chapters, I shall examine the songs individually, but
1Since Craig Ayrey's (1982) study of the second song, it has become something of
a favourite in analysis pedagogy: see, for example, Burkhardt 1986, S28-529; Straus
1990a, 84-88; Metz 1991; also Morgan 1991b, 85-86. Some general texts also mention
the fourth song, especially the often quoted passage in mm. 20-22: see, for example,
Simms 1986b, 67; 1993, 124; Watkins 1988, 49-50; Kostka 1990, 75-76. The only
published sources addressing aT four songs in detail, however, are articles by
Wennerstrom (1977) and Kett (1991).
not in the sequence in which they appear in the score. Rather I shall begin with
Song 3, then progress to Song 2, to Song 1, and finally to Song 4. As it turns out,
this may be the order in which the songs were composed. That fact is not,
however, of direct relevance to my order o f presentation. Instead a practical reason
guides this order: it allows me most readily to build some aspects of each analysis
on that which has gone before.
This cumulative sequence of analysis might indeed mirror a development in
Bergs compositional style or skill, and might therefore reflect back on the question
of the songs chronology. I do not think, however, that the analytical evidence
could be decisive here. In any case, historical questions are not o f chief concern
in this thesis. Nor do I trouble myself with a manuscript or sketch study of the
Four Songs It is, in fact, because such issues are not the main focus of this thesis
that I wish to summarize them now. In the balance of the present chapter I shall
therefore consider very briefly the personal background o f Bergs Op. 2 as well as
questions about the dating, m a :uscnpt sources, and publication o f the songs.
Historical Background
In the summer o f 1908 Alban Berg was twenty-three years old, and much of
his personal life revolved around two people.
The first was Arnold Schoenberg, whose pupil Berg had been since the fall of
1904. By m id-1907 he had completed Schoenbergs course in harmony and
counterpoint, and his efforts since then had been in free composition (Camer
1983, 12). On Schoenbergs testimony much of his efforts had been directed at
teaching Berg to compose something besides songs. Writing to Emil Hertzka (the
founder o f Universal Edition) in 1910, Schoenberg observed o f his pupils Berg and
Erwin Stein,
What I have achieved with these two in particular could so easily be

convincing. One (Alban Berg) is an extraordinarily gifted composer. But the
state he was in when he came to me was such that his imagination
apparently could not work on anything but Lieder. Even the piano
accompaniments to them were song-like in style. He was absolutely
incapable of writing an instrumental movement or inventing an instrumental
theme. You can hardly imagine the lengths to which I went in order to
remove this defect in his talent. (Quoted in Camer 1983, 10-11)
Berg had already, by 1908, much indulged his single-minded talent for song
composition. Even before coming to Schoenberg the teenage Berg had penned, in
sometimes crude notation, about thirty-five settings. He had composed another
forty-five or so during his first years of study with Schoenberg (Reich 1965, 109).2
Schoenbergs efforts had also, however, begun to pay
off.
As part of his training
in free composition, Berg had tried his hand at instrumental movements, mostly
unfinished essays in writing for string quartet and for piano. Two of his completed
*>
works had been performed at concerts of Schoenbergs pupils. In addition, Berg

had finished a pair of single-movement piano sonatas (leaving several others
incomplete); one o f the pair was to be published in 1910 as his Op 1 (see Hilmar
1984, 15-29).
By 1908 the second centre of gravity in Bergs life was Helene Nahowski,
whom he had met early the previous year and whom he was passionately
courting despite her familys opposition and at least one rival suitor. His early
2Except for the songs Berg revised in 1928 and published as Seven Early Songs, and
the first version of Schliesse mir die Augen beide, published in the Berlin magazine Die
Musik in 1930, these early settings remained unpublished during Bergs lifetime. The
manuscripts are preserved in the Austrian National Library in Vienna (Chadwick
1971, 123-125; Hilmar 1981,43-45). Forty-six of these songs have been published, in two
volumes, under the title Jugendlieder (ed. Christopher Hailey, Vienna. Universal, 1985).
3They were a fugue for string quintet and piano (1907; performed, along with three
songs, in November of that year) and a set of piano variations (1907-08; performed in
November 1908).
letters to her (mostly written during summers at the Bergs cottage) are full not
only of his passion, but also o f complaints of almost constant ill health, which he
combatted with an alarming variety of drugs. Berg suffered most from asthma,
which gave him many sleepless nights so that sleep, as a refuge from physical
and emotional torment, is something of a Leitmotiv in his letters:
. . . I think Peter [the poet Peter Altenberg] is right in saying, sleeps a cureall, however you bring it onby real tiredness, veronal or alcohol. Just to
sleep is everything. (Undated letter [Spring 1911] to Helene Nahowski;
translated in Berg 1971, 122)
Bergs published letters to Helene between 1908 and 1910 fail to mention that he
was also setting to music some poems pervaded by images of sleep: the refuge o f
dreamless sleep, sleep afflicted by restless, violent, or fevered dreams. The four
poems he chose are not by Altenberg: three are by a less celebrated contemporary,
Alfred Mombert, and one is by the great Romantic dramatist and poet Friedrich
Hebbel.
If in setting these poems Berg was venting a personal anguish, he was also
approaching the end of his young career as a Liederkomponist. After publishing the
four settings as Op. 2
1910, Berg returned only twice to the song form: in
1912-13 in his Op. 4 Altenberg settings, and in 1925 in his second setting of
Schliesse mir die Augen beide
The Dates, Manuscripts, and Published Editions o f the Four Songs

Berg was seldom careful about dating his early works, so the dates o f most of
them, including the Op. 2 songs, are uncertain. To be sure, Berg did leave at least
a retrospective dating. In 1927 Hermann Watznauer, a long-time family friend,
began a biographical sketch o f the (by now famous) composer. As part o f this
project Watznauer prepared a dated list of Bergs early songs, a list corrected by
Berg himself.4 In this list the Op. 2 songs are dated 1908-09, a date presumably
representing the composers own remembrance. It is not a remembrance trusted by
Bergs later biographers, almost all o f whom date the songs to 1909-1910.5 Only
Willi Reich (who at least knew Berg personally) holds that the songs were
composed in the summer o f 1908 (Reich 1965, 112). Presumably most reliable
are Stephen Kett (1989) and Jody Rockmaker (1990), both o f whom have
examined the surviving sketch materials for these songs m the Austrian National
Library in Vienna. Both conclude that Berg began the songs, as Reich says, in the
summer of 1908, but worked on them until early 1910. They agree also that Berg
first composed Songs 2 and 3,6 then Song 1, and finally (while sketching the Op. 3
String Quartet) Song 4 (Kett 1989, 69; Rockmaker 1990).
Although the Austrian National Library holds sketch materials and drafts o f the
Four Songs,7 it does not hold the complete autograph score. This is listed by some
sources as lost (Redlich 1957, 290; Camer 1983, 298), however, Jarman
(1979, 242) and Hilmar (1978, 33 n.12) place it in the possession of Bergs pupil
Fritz Heinrich Klein in Graz. Klein died in 1977, so this autograph score again
needs tracking down
Berg published the Four Songs and the Op. 1 Piano Sonata at his own expense
in 1910 with the firm of Robert Lienau, Berlin (Hilmar 1981, 48 no. 139). (The
4Watznauers biographical sketch, previously in manuscript, has been published with

annotations in Der umerbesserliche Romantiker: Alban Berg 1885-1935 by the
composers nephew, Erich Alban Berg (1985, 9-117). Two pages from the song-list are
also photo-reproduced in this source (152-153).
5See Redlich 1957, 290 (but also 40, 300); Erich Alban Berg 1976, 249; 1985, 194;
Perle 1980b, 2-3; Camer 1983, 98.
^Rockmaker judges on stylistic groundsthere are no surviving sketches for
Song 2that Song 3 predates Song 2 (Rockmaker 1990, 4).
7See Hilmar 1981, 45, 48-49, 75
works were also taken into the Universal Edition catalogue.) He designed
Jugendstil lettering for the covers of both works, and both were dedicated to
Helene Nahowski. In 1920 Berg financed a republication of the songs (together
with Opp. 1, 3 and 5) in a corrected version and with the dedication removed
(Hilmar 1981, 48 no. 140). This second edition was reprinted in 1928 (Hilmar
1981, 49 no. 141). Meanwhile the fourth song had appeared on its own (along with
submissions by Schoenberg and Webern) in the Blaue Reiter publication
(Kandinsky and Marc 1912,238-239): after seeking his teachers opinion, Berg had
decided to recommend to Kandinsky the song which was very modem over
those which still bear traces o f tonality.
CHA PTER 2
TONAL AND ATONAL THEORIES
AND BERGS PITCH STRUCTURES
This [pre-twelve-tone] music has been given the dreadful name atonal
music. Schoenberg gets a lot o f fun out o f this, since atonal means
without notes; but thats meaningless. Whats meant is music in no
definite key. What has been given up? The key has disappeared! (Webern
1963, 42)
When Berg sought Schoenbergs advice about his Blaue Reiter submis
sionone of the very few times he even mentioned ms Op. 2 settings in
writingit was, strikingly, the songs tonality on which he remarked. On the
written evidence, in fact, there were few composers for whom tonality and its
disappearance were such conscious preoccupations as they were for Schoenberg
and his two famous pupils. Berg and Webern inherited Schoenbergs view of a
historically inevitable break-up o f tonalitybut equally acquired Schoenbergs
abhorrence o f the term usually applied to the result: atonality. The apparent
inconsistency here suggests that the first task to be faced in theorizing about music
allegedly on the borderline between tonality and atonality is that of deciding just
what these two terms mean.
What Might Tonality (and Atonality) Be?

In his article Tonality in The New Grove, Carl Dahlhaus records no less than
seven separate meanings for the terms tonal and tonality (Dahlhaus 1980, 52).
There is little point, therefore, in asking what tonality is, what is its proper
10
11
definition. Indispensable as the word may have become, it has simply acquired too
many shades of meaning to be tethered exclusively, or prescriptively, to any one
o f them Further confounding matters, many writers who analyze early twentiethcentury music use the terms tonal" and tonality." and their antonyms, without
making clear just how they understand these terms
This clutter of meanings is confusing, but it actually simplifies my present task
Faced with the impossibility of arriving at the definition o f "tonality," I may
instead embrace a definition I need not defend a claim that my use of the term is
the sole correct one, only the claim that my choice is logical and suitable to my
purpose But which definition0 It will seem that I make my choice, and my defense
o f it, circuitously The stops on my circuit, however, will later prove to have been
useful
Schoenberg's Definitions
Given Berg's comments on the "traces o f tonality borne by three of his Four
Songs, his own understanding o f the word might seem to provide a natural model.
As luck would have it. Berg never spelled out what he meant, in this context, by
"tonality Schoenberg did. however, and such was his influence over Berg that it
would be startling if Schoenbergs thoughts on tonality were not substantially
echoed by Berg (as they obviously were by Webern).
Schoenberg defines tonality most clearly (though with typical prolixity) in his
essay "Problems o f Harmony. written in 1934
Now then, since tonality is not something which the -omposer
unconsciously achieves, which exists without his contribution and grows of
itself, which would be present even if the composer willed the opposite;
since, in a word, tonality is neither a natural nor automatic consequence c.
tone combination and therefore cannot claim to be the automatic result of
the nature o f sound and so an indispensable attribute o f every piece of
music, we shall probably have to define tonality as the art o f combining
12
tones in such successions and such harmonies or successions of harmonies,

that the relation o f all events to a fundamental tone is made possible.
(Schoenberg 1975. 275-276)
Schoenbergs base requirement for tonality is the same simple one we have already
learned from Webern: the relation of all events to a fundamental tone " The above
passage, however, leaves much unsaid about Schoenberg's views on tonality, and
it is worth probing these views more deeply
Schoenberg most fully develops his tonal theory in his Harmonielehre (1911) 1
This book presumably embodies the harmonic instruction Berg had received a few
years previously, and Schoenberg was actually beginning to assemble the book as
Berg was finishing his Four Songs. As presented in Harmonielehre. Schoenberg's
ideas on tonality are strongly marked by a dichotomy between innovative and
conservative elements
As we have seen, Schoenberg holds that tonality is neither a necessary nor an
eternally unchanging property of music. It emerges only artificially from the
composer's manipulation o f pitch material This is a bold view, quite at odds with
the one held commonly by Schoenbergs contemporaries On the other hand.
Schoenberg ties tonality not just to harmony but to a strongly functional view of
harmony that lies clearly in the Viennese tradition of harmonic theory The
mediating factor here between the innovative and the traditional is Schoenbergs
view of the historical evolution o f tonal harmony Tonality, maintains Schoenberg,
is expressed dynamically and thus creates the possibility of its own dissolution
Every chord, then, that is set beside the principal tone has at least as much
tendency to lead away from it as to retui, to it. And if life, if a work of art
is to emerge, then we must engage in this movement-generating conflict
Schoenberg 1922; 1978. The other principal source of Schoenberg's tonal theory is
his Structural Functions o f Harmony, finished in 1948 (Schoenberg 1969)
13
The tonality must be placed in danger of losing its sovereignty; the appetites
for independence and the tendencies toward mutiny must be given
opportunity to activate themselves; one must grant them their victories, not
begrudging them an occasional expansion of territory. For a ruler can only
take pleasure in ruling live subjects, and live subjects will attack and
plunder (Schoenberg 1978, 151)
In traditional tonality the rebellious forces were overcome by the centralizing
pow~r o f the tome Over time, however, the strength o f the mutinous agents in
tonal music has been growing By Schoenbergs own dayand certainly in
Schoenbergs own musictheir ultimate defeat, their subordination to the tonic,
is often far from assured.
Schoenberg the progressive confidently accepts this process as predestined. In
Harmonielehre he describes steadily more advanced harmonic materials, those
which push to the "frontiers o f tonality (Schoenberg 1978, 238) and beyond, and
he argues for their harmonic self-sufficiency At the same time, Schoenberg the
conservative always seeks legitimizing explanations for these advanced materials,
stressing their deriv^'.ion from common-practice chords, trying to accommodate
ever more disse.iant and chromatic sonorities within a functional harmonic system
grounded in consonance and diatonicism.
The tension between the progressive and the conservative increases as
Harmonielehre proceeds. At last, having failed to devise a new functional theory,
based on chromatic scale steps, which could encompass all vertical sonorities,2
Schoenberg resorts to a more desperate measure: he redefines tonality
Everything implied by a series of tones (Tonreihe) constitutes tonality,
whether it be brought together by means of direct reference to a single
fundamental or by more complicated connections. . . . A piece of music will
2See Schoenberg 1978, 234, 247, 330, and especially 387-389. The last passage was
added to Harmonielehre for the 1922 revised edition.
14
always have to be tonal, at least in so far as a relation has to exist from tone
to tone by virtue o f which the tones, placed next to or above one another,
yield a perceptible continuity. The tonality [itself] may then perhaps be
neither perceptible nor provable; these relations may be obscure and difficult
to comprehend, even incomprehensible. Nevertheless, to call any relation of
tones atonal is just as farfetched as it would be to designate a relation of
colors aspectral or acomplementary (Schoenberg 1978, 432)
Hence the contradiction with which we began this chapter: tonality (as Schoenberg
initially defines it) is bound for dissolution, yet atonality is impossible (according
to the second definition) This contradiction is one Schoenberg never rerolved, and
it is a problem to which we shall return.
Schenkers Definition
A more precise and restrictive concept of tonality was developed by
Schoenbergs Viennese contemporary Heinrich Schenker. For Schenker the
operations of tonality are both natural and subject to eternal laws: tonality is the
projection in time o f the nature-given tonic triad. Schenker specified, with precision
and consistency, the multi-level mechanisms for this projection
These are
controlled at the deepest, background, level through the treble unfolding and bass
arpeggiation that comprise the Schenkerian Ursatz 3
This is the paradigm of tonal structure Schenker develops in his mature treatise, Der
Freie Satz. It is not, strictly speaking, his definition of the word tonality . Schenker gives
his slightly idiosyncratic definition in the following passages from Der Freie Satz
I call the content of the fundamental line, counterpointed by the bass
arpeggiation, diatony (Diatonie) This is the fundamental, determinate melodic
succession, the primal design of melodic content. In contrast, tonality, in the
foreground, represents the sum of all occurrences, from the smallest to the most
comprehensiveincluding illusory keys and all the various musical forms.
(Schenker 1979, 1:5)
In the narrowest sense, diatony belongs only to the upper voice. But, in accord
with its origin, it simultaneously governs the whole contrapuntal structure,
including the bass arpeggiation and the passing tones. . . . I have used the term
tonality to include the various illusory effects in the foreground; yet the tonal
15
The explanatory power of Schenkers theory has been widely recognized;

Schenkerian analysis is at present the favoured approach for explaining pitch
structure in common-practice western art music. Moreover several theorists have
attempted to extend the reach of Schenkers concepts to music o f the early
twentieth century (something Schenkers bias against the music never permitted
him to do). Some have used Schenkerian tools to probe what they feel are the
more common-practice aspects of this music.4 Others have modified the tools
themselves to accommodate the innovations o f twentieth-century styles.5 The
success of these ventures, especially those of the second group, has been decidedly
mixed. It turns out that the power and precision of Schenkerian ideas hinge on the
base requirements they make of the musical language in order for a Schenkerian
tonality to exist. The requirements go beyond Schoenbergs.
1. That the diatonic scale is the only primary pitch series, to which chromatic
tones are always ancillary
2. That harmony is tertian and primarily tnadic, with even seventh chords as
unstable elements.
3. That ic 5 is the most important relational interval class between harmonies.
These prerequisites, in turn, permit some more advanced requirements for
Schenkerian tonality, ones recently outlined by Joseph N. Straus: a clear distinction
between consonance and dissonance, a systematic hierarchy among harmonies, a
limited number of standard prolongational types, and an obvious distinction
between harmony and voice-leading (Straus 1987, 2-7).
sparseness of diatony in the background and the fullness of tonality in the

foreground are one and the same. (Schenker 1979, 1:11)
4See, for example, Forte 1978; Baker 1983, 1986; Parks 1989; Schmalfeldt 1991.
5See, for example, Salzer 1952; Travis 1959, 1966; Cinnamon 1984; Larson 1987;
Forte 1988; Baker 1990; Pearsall 1991.
16
These conditions are generally met by common-practice music, but they are
seldom all met by music o f Schoenbergs time. Accordingly most early twentiethcentury music is not, in Schenkers light, tonal. Straus implies as much when he
later makes a distinction between tonal and centric.
Because a piece is not tonal, however, does not mean it cant have pitch or
pitch-class centers. All tonal music is centric, focussed on specific pitch
classes or triads, but not all centric music is tonal. Even without the
resources o f tonality, music can be organized around referential centers.
(Straus 1990, 89-91)
Strauss discrimination between tonal and centric helps caution those who
would warp Schenkerian ideas too far in having them encompass music for which
they were not originally developed. For Straus, however, centric is a branch of
post-tonal (for which we can read atonal)6. There is an implied gulf, a clean
break, between music which is wholly amenable to Schenkerian interpretation
(tonal music) and that which is not (atonal music). In contrast, we recall how
Webern was at pains to stress that its impossible to fix a dividing line between
old and new. It is this perception o f continuity, rather than Strauss sense of
difference, which 1 wish to underscore in my analysis o f Bergs Four Songs. For
my purpose, therefore, a markedly more inclusive conception of tonality would be
more appropriate.
6James M. Baker has recently adopted the term post-tonal to refer to . . music
in which structure is based on extensions or modifications of conventional tonal
procedures, a definition which excludes music which is strictly atonal (Baker
1993, 20). Here post-tonal becomes equivalent to Bakers earlier term transitional
(Baker 1983, 168).
7ln his 1949 essay My Evolution, Schoenberg makes the same point when
discussing the music he wrote in the years around 1908 (Schoenberg 1975, 86-87).
17
Broader Definitions
A few theorists have recently developed variants o f such a conception. Wallace
Berry, for example, proposes the following.
Tonality may be thus broadly conceived as a form al system in which pitch
content is perceived as functionally related to a specific pitch-class or pitchclass-complex o f resolution, often preestablished and preconditioned, as a
basis for structure at some understood level o f perception [italics in
original]. . . . The tonal system consists o f a hierarchic ordering o f PC
factors, with the tonic (final, axis, center, etc.) the ultimate point of
relationship which tonal successions ar? contrived to expect. In the tonal
period of conventional common practice the primary system consists of
hierarchically oriented degrees of the diatonic scale and the tertian
harmonies erected on these degrees. . . . In more recent styles in which
tonality is relevant a system may (but need not) consist of specific scalar
formulations (PC collections) o f these or other kinds, with derivative
melodic and harmonic configurations disposed in such a way as to express
and give primacy to a particular tonic or, in fluctuant contexts, particular
tonics. (Berry 1976, 27-28)
If Berry's definition seems little wider in scope than Schoenbergs initial one, it
is at least no longer tied to common-practice harmonic norms. A tonic or even
tonics may be projected by means other than those of traditionally functional
harmony. Additionally Berrys phrase
. . structure at some understood level of
perception implies that there may be many such levels. Tonality need not always,
or only, encompass an entire piece.
In his study o f the music o f Claude Debussy, Richard S. Parks has chosen to
extend the boundaries o f tonality still further.
. . . I use the term tonality to describe pitch materials, processes, and
contexts that project into prominence one or more pcs to a significantly
greater extent than (or at the expense of) other pcs. I assume that tonality
is a property that arises from a compositions internal conditions, though
external factors may facilitate its recognition (such as cognitive habits
18
acquired through experience with the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century

tonal repertoire). (Parks 1989, 3)
I believe Parkss definition finaib' opens the door to a conception of tonality
appropriate to my present study. Any privileging o f one or more pcs above
otherswhether achieved through common-practice harmony and voice-leading,
through newer means (as in Strauss centric music), or indeed through a
combination of the twomight be considered an example of tonality
Two questions immediately spring to mind. First: is this not simply
Schoenbergs final, desperate, definition repackaged? Second: what, if anything,
might atonality be? Both questions can be (perhaps must be) answered together.
In the view I wish to adopt, tonality and atonality need not be regarded as
exclusive properties o f different pieces: this piece is tonal, that one is atonal.
Rather, from the contimuum o f meanings generated by pitches and intervals, I wish
to construe tonality and atonality as alternative contexts in which to experience
pieces. Contexts in which we are primarily concerned with specific pc content are
tonal contexts. Such a concern only makes sense when we feel that a pc or pcs are
being consistently privileged, made salient above others. Exploring the tonality of
a piece will involve addressing this salience, how it is achieved; the levels at
which, and the degree to which, projected pcs are focal or stable, and the
correlation of pc salience with formal design.
Atonal contexts are those in which we are not primarily concerned with the
specific pc content of pitch collections but rather with the only other pitch-related
content they possess: intervallic content. The chief way in which a pitch collection
might manifest such an atonal structural property is through its set-class
membership, since pc set-class relations are grounded in interval-class content,
rather than pitch-class content. We may wish, then, to point out that a certain pitch
collection is related to another as a transpositional and/or inversional pc set
19
equivalent, as a member o f a subset or superset class, or perhaps as a member of

a complementary or similar set class.8
There are
other ways in
which atonal
structure may be displayed by pitch collections. Collections may be variants of the

same musical motive, for instance (in which case aspects of specific shape and
ordered interval content might lead us to consider more than just pc set-class
membership). Or, as we shall see in Bergs Four Songs, interval succession by
itself may be subjected to patterning and design.9
It should now be evident that the above conception of tonality is not the same
as that presented in Schoenbergs final definition. Schoenberg could not say, at the
end of Harmonielehre, how a piece could be tonal. He could only state his belief
that some kind of tonality must always be present and he could express his
revulsion at atonality, a term he felt to be both absurd and pejorative.10 Such
sentiments open no analytic avenues. I believe that, by contrast, the conception of
tonality and atonality I have adopted above may help me to address the richness
of structural relations I sense in Bergs
music and
the perception
of continuity
between the old and the new in this music.
8The essential bases for set-class relations are explored in Forte 1973, the principal
theoretical treatise on pc set classes.
9The notion of co-existing tonal and atonal contexts is also one earlier posited by
Parks (1985, 34-35). The features of tonal contexts Parks lists in this source are more
oriented toward common-practice tonality than is the case in the present study (and,
indeed, in Parkss later study of Debussys music [1989]). Baker also appears to recognize
contexts, in some way, when he writes as follows. It is my conviction that the important
question concerning a composition on the borderline between tonality and atonality is not.
Is it tonal or atonal? Rather, one must ask: In what way is this piece tonal? To what
extent and how do atonal procedures also determine its structure? (Baker 1983, 168)
Bakers criteria for tonal, however, are essentially Schenkerian.
l0This is also the burden of Bergs arguments against the term in his radio discussion
What is Atonality (Berg 1930): that it is (or was then) chiefly a term of abuse used
against his music and that of his colleagues.
20
Two Kinds of Tonality

It is still possible to assert that there are two kinds o f tonal pitch structures in
early twentieth-century music. There are those grounded in the common-practice
conventions of functional harmony and voice-leading structures that Schenker
might have recognized as toned. Then there are structures that produce pc salience
in newer ways, using pitch collections and relations no longer typical of traditional
tonality. Keeping in mind a distinction between these two kinds of tonality will
have its uses. Even more useful, however, will be subsuming both under the
umbrella term tonality, forat leasi in Bergs Four Songsthe line between
them appears very blurred indeed. As we shall see, the same pcs which are
projected in traditional ways can also be projected m newer ways. The same pc
collection types which have, in one context, traditional tonal functions can, in
another, be vested with newer tonal (as well as atonal) meanings. Clearly the
transition from common-practice tonal relations to newer ones only partly involves
the use of new pc materials. Just as important is the gradual recognition and
exploitation o f new properties in old materials.
A single example may serve to make concrete this last point. Example 2-1
presents six stages in the transformation o f a dominant-function harmony.11 The
chords in the first five stages are each resolved to a clear tonic harmony. The
functional status of chord 1, a straightforward V7 harmony, is obvious. In chords
17
2 and 3, this harmony is altered by chromatically lowering, then raising, its 5th.
1]This example was suggested by a passage in Dahlhaus's article Tonality in The

New Grove (Dahlhaus 1980, 54), as well as by Schoenbergs discussion of whole-tone
materials in Harmonielehre (Schoenberg 1978, 390-398)
12Chord 2 is one of the vagrant chords Schoenberg discusses in Harmonielehre.
There he presents a resolution analogous to mine: of II7/k5/*3 to V (Schoenberg 1978, 255,
example 189/). Among other resolutions he cities for this harmony is that which treats it
as a French augmented-sixth chord (255, example 189J). Schoenberg later illustrates an
inversion of my chord 3, with its resolution to 1 (355, example 288).
Example 2-1. Transformations o f dominant-function harmonies.
m.
m il- -I
......
" S--
-------
# ------------- -------------
^
3
1 k
&
9
^= rr.
1 m* =------------------------
L---------------- m ------------------------------
C:
1 -------
-------------------------------
*m - ,J......
-------------------------------
-------------------------------
4 -27
4-25
4 -24
5-33
6-35
111.2,5,7|
|11,1,5,7|
[3,5,7,111
[3,5,7,*),111
[1,3,5,7,9,111
&
>l
if
6-35
it
I
3-12
[1,3,5,7,9,11] [0,4,81
(I)
The addition of a 9th to chord 3 yields chord 4 ,13 and the main process of
transformation is complete when both raised and lowered 5ths are employed in
chord 5 14 Chord 5 is not just a (by now attenuated) dominant harmony, however;
it is also a whole-tone hexachord. Chord 6 strengthens this second interpretation
while presumably destroying the first. It is invariant in pc content with chord 5,
but, eschewing a root-projecting leap in the bass, it now executes a symmetrical
linear movement to another whole-tone harmony, an augmented triad.15 Even this
final chord might, o f course, be viewed as an altered tonic harmony. Conversely
the dominant chords as far back as chord 2 are also whole-tone sonorities, a fact
pointed up by their set-class labelling and pc inventories. All o f these whole-tone
sonorities have symmetrical properties. In the right circumstances, even chord 1
might function as an almost-whole-tone collectionan adjunct of the whole-tone
world rather than a staple common-practice harmony.
13See Schoenberg 1978, 391, example 320.

14o oenberg 1978, 392, example 322.
15Compare Schoenberg 1978, 397, example 327d.
22
As we transform chord 1 into chord 6, a series of qualitative changes gradually

takes hold:
1. from a diatonic background pitch series to a chromatic one, and hence from
properties derived from the asymmetries o f the former to properties exploiting
symmetrical divisions o f the latter;
2. from tertian harmony to harmony based (or baseable) on ic 2, and
3. from harmonic relationships grounded in root movement to ones mediated
principally by semitonal voice-leading.
At what point does the first set o f qualities yield to the second? It is impossible to
say. The process is not one o f sudden shift but one o f altering balances and dual
possibilities.
The above example is apt not only because Schoenberg derives the whole-tone
sonorities in just this way and recognizes the duality o f meaning they embody. It
is also pertinent because whole-tone collections appear in all of Berg's Four Songs
and play crucial roles in three o f them. Even apart from whole-tone collections,
most o f the pitch materials Berg employs are traceable to those o f commonpractice tonality. In Bergs use o f them, however, their traditional functions are
often ambiguous, their alternative structural possibilities cast into relief.
A distinction sometimes made between common-practice pitch relations and
newer ones is that the former have systemic functional meanings, ones extrinsic to
any particular piece. The latter, conversely, have only contextually determined
meanings. This distinction is not wholly accurate. The search for new musical
materials with systemic properties, for instance, seems to have been a driving force
in
the
popularity
of
symmetrical
constructs including
the
whole-tone
collections in much early twentieth-century music. Conversely it is the case that

all pitch relations fmd themselves in context, that our judgements about the
23
meanings o f pitch relations in actual pieces are influenced by the rhythmic,

textural, and formal settings in which these relations play themselves out.
When Berg noted his songs traces o f tonality, he presumably understood
something more traditional by the word tonality than the meaning I am adopting.
So also, presumably, do most theorists who analyze early twentieth-century music.
I think it a worthy reproach that my chosen definitions do not have the weight of
common usage behind them. I sense, however, that the dilemma in which Bergs
teacher found himself in Harmonielehreperceiving the historical development of
harmonic relations and their seamless progress to their (then) present statethat
this dilemma is one my chosen definition begins to solve.
Analyzing Bergs Tonality and Atonality

Early twentieth-century music is a problematic repertory for music analysis.
Almost since they were published, the works of Schoenberg and his contemporaries
have engendered uncertainty and debate about how best to understand their logic
(and about whether they have a consistent logic to understand). In studies o f this
music especially, it seems, the pre-twelve-tone works of Schoenbergquestions
of analytic approach have often loomed as large as those about the nature o f the
music itself.16 The underlying problem is that the music seems so transitional :
tied to the common-practice tonal past in many ways, flouting past conventions in
other ways. Is there any one set o f analytic tools capable o f doing justice to the
richness and obscurity of structural meaning this music embodies?
16Recent studies of analytic method in relation to Schoenbergs music include Wintle

1980; Forte 1981; Ogden 1981; Cinnamon 1984; Larson 1987; Lewis 1987; and Baker
1990.
24
The present consensus seems to be that there is no such single set o f tools, and
several recent studies have been multi-pronged in their approaches.17 My analysis
- o f the pitch materials in Bergs Four Songs follows this recent trend. I draw my
analytical concepts from three sources: harmonic theory (including Schoenbergs
version o f it), Schenkerian theory, and pitch-class set theory. The use I make of
each of these and the problems associated with each are worth considering in
some detail.
Harmonic Theory
Although there are certainly contrapuntal elements and closely worked motivic
designs in these songs, their basic texture is homophonic. Not surprisingly, then,
analysis o f harmonic vocabulary and grammar is an important feature o f my study.
One o f my main tasks here is to assess Bergs harmonies and their progressions
against common-practice harmonic norms. The concepts I use are those familiar
from harmony class: chord function, chord disposition and intra-chord voice
151
leading, and chord progression and inter-chord voice leading. If the results of
applying such concepts may be summed up in a single word, it is ambiguity. The
functional relationships the above concepts are meant to illuminate are certainly
perceivable especial!/ in the first three songs but they are often attenuated and
equivocal. I suspect that such ambiguity was deliberate on Bergs part.
It is at this point that Schoenbergs harmonic theory can be useful.
Schoenbergs teaching formed an obvious source for the harmonic vocabulary Berg
employed in his Four Songs. One can easily point to the passages in
17Among large-scale studies, see, for example, Baker 1986 (on Scriabin); Parks 1989
(on Debussy); and Wilson 1992 (on Bartok). See also Dunsby 1993, in which several
analytical models for early twentieth-century music are discussed and illustrated.
lsThe terminology and analytical notation I use will generally conform to that found
in Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (1989).
25
Harmonielehre relevant to most o f the chords Berg used. Beyond this, Schoenberg
can also be suggestive about the possible structural meanings o f Berg's harmonies.
Here caution must certainly be exercised. Schoenberg's freedom in assigning
traditional functions to highly modified chords and the internal inconsistencies in
his theory (upon which we have already touched) may make him unreliable as the
sole or chief guide to common-practice harmony. On the other hand, even
Schoenbergs inconsistencies are instructive. They partly stem, after all, from
Schoenbergs apprehension o f both the common-practice derivations o f advanced
harmonies and the alternative properties these same harmonies embody.
Schoenbergs attempt to confront the ambiguity o f contemporary harmony offers
one o f the best clues we have to how Bergs chords might function.19
Schenkerian Theory
The persuasiveness o f Schenkerian theory lies in its strongly linear model o f
structure, an intuitively attractive view o f music unfolding universal designs in
time. The controlling force in this model is embodied in the Ursatz paradigms. The
theorys appeal lies also in its power to tie small- and large-scale pitch structures
into a coherent whole, making objective and specific the bonds among structural
levels. The unifying force here is prolongation. Together the Ursatz and the
19In his study of the analytical value of Schoenberg's harmonic theory, Christopher
Wintle concurs.
1 suggest that while the Harmonielehre may not very usefully be usedas
Schenkers harmony book certainly mayas an analytical tool as far as a great
deal of the eighteenth and nineteenth century musical literature is concerned, it is
much more helpfully understood as a precompositional resume of tonal harmonic
practice; presented very much in terms of early twentieth century needs, and one
that forms an indispensable backdrop to the introduction into Schoenbergs music
of the time of those novel, nontonal features discussed in its last three of four
chapters. In other words, the main interest hereas also in die musiclies in the
integration of the old with the new, and not just in the old or the new considered
independently. (Wintle 1980, 51)
26
concept o f prolongation form the backbone of Schenkerian theory and o f its

success.
It is now usually assumed or discovered that Schenkers Ursdtze cannot be held
to govern the backgrounds o f much early twentieth-century music. Does
prolongation nonetheless exist in this music? This has become the crucial question
in the debate about whether Schenkenan analysis can aid our understanding o f the
music o f Schoenberg and his contemporaries. Joseph N. Strauss essay The
Problem o f Prolongation in Post-Tonal Music" (1987) has been a watershed study
in the debate.20 Strauss requirements for Schenkenan tonality, which I have
already listed, are more precisely requirements for Schenkenan prolongation As
Straus explains it, the conventions o f the common-practice musical language allow
us to judge pitch hierarchies systematically and on the basis o f pitch values alone
They allow us not only consistently to specify which pitches are being
prolongedstructurally active even when not literally presentbut also how
subordinate pitches are indeed prolongational. If these conventions no longer
govern the musical language, one should not claim prolongation but a less forceful
type o f pitch relationship.
If we wish to discuss middleground structure in post-tonal music, we will
have to retreat to a less comprehensive but more defensible model o f voiceleading, one based on association rather than prolongation. Associational
claims differ significantly from prolongational claims. Given thre<* musical
events, X, Y, and Z, an associational model is content merely to as vert some
kind of connection between X and Z without commenting one way or
another about Y. Assertions o f this type are relatively easy to justify and
provide the only reliable basis for describing post-tonal middlegrounds
20Strauss study was preceded by James M. Bakers Schenkerian Analysis and PostTonal Music (1983). Like Straus, Baker surveys earlier Schenker-inspired studies of the
post-tonal repertoire and finds that their uncritical dilution of Schenkerian concepts
usually renders their analyses overly intuitive and weakly defensible. For an even earlier
allusion to the problem ,f dissonant prolongation, see Benjamin 1977, 52
27
Musical tones separated in time may be associated by a variety of

contextual means, including register, timbre, metrical placement, dynamics,
and articulation. Associations of this kind draw togetherelements separated
in time and create coherence at the middleground. (Straus 1987, 13)21
In my study of Bergs Four Songs, I feel it necessary to investigate linear
design and pitch hierarchies, an activity for which Schenkerian analysis is a natural
prototype I am also, however, in agreement with the criticisms Straus and Baker
level at earlier Schenker-inspired analyses I believe the shortcomings in such
studies may be viewed as s mantic (? failure to make clear what constitutes
prolongation) and notational (a failure to specify what the symbols in quasiSchenkerian graphs mean, since they cannot possibly have their original
Schenkerian meanings). I seek to avoid these problem in my analyses in two ways.
First, I try to remain, in Bakers words, a strict constructionist (Baker 1983, 168),
that is, conservative in my application of Schenkerian concepts. As a result such
is Bergs musical language I produce only one truly Schenkerian graph, and even
that one only partly explains pitch design in the song it models. Second, since my
other voice-leading giaphs are necessarily only quasi-Schenkerian, I at least try
to make clear where my graphic conventions differ in meaning from orthodox
Schenkerian ones. Most often the claims I make for pitch hierarchies are indeed
"associational, governed wholly by context and I try to specify the contexts. I
shall also claim, however, to have found a true, if quite limited, prolongational type
in the whole-tone world.
21Straus writes further that With a few exceptions, theorists have virtually ceased to
produce prolongational analyses of post-tonal music (1987, 1) He overstates the case,
for his cautionary article has led some theorists to rethink, rather than to abandon, the
notion of prolongation in post-tonal music. Lehrdahl (1989), Momson (1991), and
Wilson (1992), for instance, all attempt to specify conditions in which something stronger
than Strauss association may be held to control pitch hierarchies in the music of
Schoenberg (in the case of Lehrdahl) and Bartok (for Morrison and Wilson).
28
Pitch-Class Set Theory

Many elements of pitch structure in Bergs Four Songs are addressable neither
in terms of common-practice harmonic norms, nor in those of Schenkerian analysis.
For these elements, concepts identified with pitch-class set theory prove
analytically valuable. It is moreover in the application of these concepts that
tonality and atonalityas I have construed themmeet. Investigating the tonality
of Bergs pitch collections involves addressing their specific pc content. In this
regard appraising Bergs harmonic language is again one of my chief interests. As
the common-practice functions o f Bergs harmonies become more equivocal, other
ways of comprehending these harmonies and their relationships present themselves.
Allen Fortes widely used taxonomy of pc set classes (see Forte 1973, 179-181)
offers an alternative to the functional chord labels of traditional harmonic analysis.
Furthermore Bergs pitch collections, both harmonic and linear, often reveal
intriguing new kinds of tonal relationshipsand new ways of mediating old
relationshipsbased on pc invariance.
Atonal relationships among pitch collections are often more abstract, and it is
up to the analyst to decide which degrees of abstraction to admit to analysis. My
own interests lean towards the concrete. I tend therefore to address only some of
the atonal set relations which pc set theory recognizes. Set-class membership,
governed by equivalence criteria, is naturally pre-eminent: it addresses Bergs
predilection for a certain (actually rather small) number of set types, both as
harmonies and as linear collections. Inclusion relations are also important, as they
suggest families to which Bergs set types belong. I also note a certain number
of class complement relations
22
among sets, when these seem to have some
By class complement relations I mean relations between sets from classes defined
as complementary (see Forte 1973, 73ff). Such sets need not be literal complements, that
is, they need not themselves partition the pc universe in a wholly pc-variant fashion. None
of the complement relations I have found in these songs is literal.
29
justification. Relations of order enter my study in a particular way, through the

analysis of Bergs interval-succession patterns. The composers later fondness for
such patterns is well known to Berg scholars. My analysis^ reveals the degree to
which the patterns are already a nascent feature of Bergs compositional design in
the Four Songs.
A fundamental concern in pitch-class set analysis is segmentation: before any
set relations can be appraised, the music must be parsed into defensible sets. For
the most part, I shall mount my defence as my analysis proceeds. Generally,
however, I focus on primary segments (see Forte 1973, 83) determinable by nonpc contexts: harmonies, of course, but also linear rhythmic units, phrasing units,
units delineated by register, etc. I also attempt to justify groupings of non-adjacent
pitches on contextual grounds independent of their set-class affiliation.
The Problem of Unity

With the mingling of three different analytic paradigms, will my portrayal of
Bergs Four Songs be fragmentary, unable to address the experience of the songs
as unified pitch structures? I have two answers to this question. The first is that
confronting ambiguity and multiplicity of structural meaning in these songs is one
of the aims o f my analysis. To this end, a variety o f approaches is appropriate and
any resulting lack of unity not necessarily a bad thing. The second is that I do, in
fact, integrate my approaches where possible. I use different analytical concepts,
for instance, to illuminate different facets of the same notes. Furthermore I believe
it important that my present study is both detailed (so that the analysis evaluates
essentially every note) and complete (so that passages o f music are not examined
out of context). I hope, then, that the overall pictures that emerge of these songs
are multifarious but not discordant.
CH A PTER 3
B ER G S FOUR SONGS
The instruction in composition that followed proceeded effortlessly and
smoothly up to and including the Sonata. Then problems began to appear,
the nature o f which neither of us understood then. I know it today:
obviously Alban, who had occupied himself extraordinarily intensively with
contemporary music, with Mahler, Strauss, perhaps even Debussy whose
work I did not know, but certainly with my music it is sure that Alban had
a burning desire to express himself no longer in the classical forms,
harmonies, and melodic forms and their proper schemata o f accompaniment,
but in a manner in accordance with the times, and with his own personality
which had been developing in the meantime. A hitch was apparent in his
creative activity.
I cannot remember what he worked on with me afterwards. Others can
report more reliably on this point. One thing is sure: his String Quartet
(Opus 3) surprised me in the most unbelievable way by the fullness and
unconstraint o f its musical language, the strength and sureness of its
presentation, its careful working and significant originality. (Arnold
Schoenberg, tribute [1936] to Alban Berg, quoted in Reich 1965, 28-291)
Just as Webern remembered 1908 as the watershed year in Schoenbergs
emancipation from common-practice tonality, so Schoenberg, writing shortly after
Bergs death, recalled 1908 as a pivotal one in Bergs development. After
Schoenberg had guided Berg through the completion o f his Op. 1 Piano Sonata that
year, a hitch appeared in his pupils progress. Schoenbergs next memory is o f
the striking assurance and originality o f Bergs Op. 3 String Quartet, written two
Schoenbergs tribute is quoted in its original German by Hilmar (1978, 40). The
English translation is also quoted by Camer (1983, 15).
30
31
years later. What he failed to recall is the work that occupied Berg right at the
point of his creative hitch: the Four Songs, Op. 2.
If Berg did have something o f a compositional crisis around 1908, it was likely
not just over issues o f tonality and atonality. He was still grappling, no doubt, with
the design of large instrumental forms and with the integration and development
o f motives on which Schoenberg placed so much importance. Perhaps Berg
welcomed the familiarity, as well as the small dimensions, o f the song genre in
which to work through some o f his compositional problems. He could then have
returned to large-scale composition with the surprising confidence Schoenberg
found in the Op. 3 Quartet.
In the present study o f Bergs Four Songs, I am concerned principally with
issues arising from their pitch structure. These are not, however, the sole theoretical
issues addressable in the sot gs. In this chapter, therefore, I shall briefly consider
general aspects o f the songs texts and their musical expression, as well as Bergs
handling of motivic and formal design. I shall then introduce still in a general
way, though at greater lengththe pitch materials and relationships characteristic
of these songs.
Texts and Text Expression

For the purpose o f this study it might admittedly change little if Bergs Op. 2
were four short instrumental pieces (songs-without-words perhaps). It is
nonetheless intriguing that Schoenberg and his pupils carried out many o f their
developments during this time in the song genre, where they must also be
concerned with the musical expression o f their chosen texts. Like contemporaneous
songs by Schoenberg and Webern, Bergs Four Songs are worthy o f respect
equally as progressive tone-structures and as compelling examples o f lateRomantic / early -Expression! stic Viennese culture.
32
y
Berg chose his four texts from two sources. The first poem is by Friedrich
Hebbel (1813-1863); it is the fourth in a cycle o f eleven poems entitled Dem
Schmerz sein Rechi, first published in 1842. The remaining three texts are all from
Der Gluhende, a cycle of 87 poems by Alfred Mombert (1872-1942), first
published in 1896; tt,ey are poems 56, 57, and 70 in the cycle.3 The styles o f the
two poets are quite disparate. Hebbels poem is regular in metre and in rhyme
scheme. Its images are those conventional to Romantic poetry, abstract expressions
that directly address the poets mental states (Jener Wehen, des Lebens Fiille,
meine Ruh). Momberts verses stand far closer to the tortured fixations of
Expressionism. The text rhythms are jagged and the rhyme schemes irregular.
Mombert projects mental states through external, hallucinatory images. The
disquieting, ominous mood of the texts is heightened by Momberts obsessive
repetition o f words (in Song 2) or end-rhymes (in Song 3) All four poems,
however, have a common subject. All evoke sleep and, beyond sleep, death: the
longing for an eternal, dreamless sleep in Hebbels poem; sleep invaded by surreal
dreams in Momberts first two verses; and a nightmarish monodrama in the final
poem. 4
The foreboding atmosphere o f these texts is matched by the dense chromaticism
and oppressive dissonance o f Bergs music. Contrasts are again apparent, however,
between the Hebbel setting and those o f Momberts poems. In the latter, Berg
gives the erratic texts a prosaic declamation that contrasts with the more regular,
2The texts, along with my translations, are found in the Appendix to this thesis.
3See Kett 1989, 69. In the modem collected edition of Momberts works (Mombert
1963) the poems appear as nos. 58, 59, and 72
4Stephen Kett (1989, 70) reports speculation by Rosemary Hilmar that a painting, Die
Schlafenden (1897), by the Secessionist painter Josef Engelhart (1864-1941), might have
served as Bergs inspiration for the Four Songs. Berg apparently knew Engelhart and may
have been familiar with the painting, which was exhibited in 1909
33
formal phrasing of the Hebbel song. In addition Berg musically paints some of
Momberts sharp images (the mountain and ravine of Song 2, the tolling bells of
Song 3, the nightingales call of Song 4) in a way he cannot with Hebbels. Instead
he mirrors the world-weary fatigue of Hebbels verse in the languid semitonal
voice-leading that permeates his setting.
Motives
The emphasis Schoenberg placed on motivic integration, both in his own works
and in his teaching of composition, is well known. Bergs Four Songs are
obviously products of this emphasis: the musical material in each o f the first three
springs almost wholly from a few germinal figures. (I shall explain the nature and
use of these figures, and the different character o f Song 4, in my analyses of the
individual songs.) In addition the songs share a small inventory o f chordal types,
as well as characteristic bass progressions, cyclic features that might be considered
broadly motivic.
One clearly motivic gesture, a rhythmic one, is shared among Songs 2, 3, and
4 (see Example 3-1) It plays its chief role m Song 3, where it first fully appears
in mm. 2-4 applied to a repeated a b/eb1 dyad (Example 3-la). A basically
palindromic rhythm, it is the first of several symmetrical structures we shall
encounter in these songs. A version of the motive appears slightly earlier, as one
of the elements bridging Songs 2 and 3: the gtsture is begun in the bass at the
final cadence of the former song (Example 3-lb) and finished by the vocal
anacrusis of the latter (Example 3-lc). The figure returns in the closing measures
of Song 3, extended and with a written-out rallentando (Example 3-Id). This
rallentando may itself be an echo of how the pattern is treated in the middle of
Song 3, where it becomes a more relaxed chordal oscillation (Example 3-le).
Finally, two loosely related versions of the figure appear in Song 4, the first in the
34
Example 3-1. The rhythmic motive in the Four Songs.

a: Song 3, mm. 2-4.
b: Song 2, mm. 17-18.

fe -
g .... 4
. d
c: Song 3, vocal anacrusis.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1- - - - - - - - 1- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*
r*n r i
---------------- :
tj.3
!
Nun ich der
PPP
d: Song 3, mm. 9-12.
e: Song 3, mm. 6-8.
Rie-
35
Example 3-1 (cont'd).

f: Song 4, mm. 4-6.
g: Song 4, mm. 10-11.

*##
iJ l
81; -----3=*
nf
Reprinted by permission of Robert Lienau. Berlin
pianos imitation of the nightingale (Example 3 -If), the second attached to a pair
of perfect-fifth dyads (Example 3-lg). As Douglas Jarman points out, this shared
gesture adumbrates the rhythmic motives Berg was later to favour in his music.
Like a number o f such later motives, the present one is syncopated, using triplets
and tied notes to cut consistently across the beat. It is also relatively independent
of pitch content, although repeated notes feature in all o f its appearances (See
Jarman 1979, 148, 151).
Formal Designs
Ternary formal plans are common in songs, and a certain type o f ternary plan
is frequent in those written by Berg and his colleagues in the first decade of this
century. In the Four Songs both Songs 2 and 3 follow a design in which material
from the opening measures returns, compressed and varied but at the same pitch
36
level, in the closing passage. A case can also be made (has been made, as we shall
see) for viewing Song 1 as a similar ternary form. In this song, however, the
formal layout is more complex: its opening and closing measures are mutually
palindromic, and the entire song is more loosely so. (In my analysts 1 shall divide
Song 1 into four sections rather than three.) In all three songs, the correlation
between the outer and middle sections is the same: in the central measures Berg
retains the songs opening motives but redisposes and modifies them.5 In addition
he elides virtually all formal junctures. Song 4 departs from the previous designs.
A quasi-dramatic scena, it is through-composed (in the sense o f not being
partitioned into sections clearly based on returning material). Even here, however,
vestiges o f ternary design will be evident.
Mark DeVoto (1989, 44) notes that, as a whole, the songs comprise a
dimensional Bogenform: the two outer songs (30 and 25 mm. respectively)
bracket the two short inner ones (which collectively make up 30 mm ). Since, as
we shall see, several elements link the two inner songs as a unit, the whole can be
viewed as a structure o f three roughly equal parts (Kett 1989, 75).
Pitch Materials and Relationships

I have already noted that the Four Songs share a limited stock of salient pc set
types. 1 wish now to introduce and characterize the pitch materials commonly
found in these songs. I can then concentrate more readily, in the analysis o f each
song, on the specific uses to which Berg puts them.
5Mastering this kind of design was a part of Bergs course of study with Schoenberg.
Hilmar writes: In addition to learning the technique of variation writing, die pupil was
expected to write complete shorter compositions with a contrasting middle section. These
were composed by rearranging the order in which die motives occurred in the first section
of the piece or by introducing new variants. (Hilmar 1984, 13).
37
The chief source o f Berg's materials is, naturally, his teacher, Schoenberg. Most
of the harmonies and harmonic relations Berg favours in these songs are those
discussed in the later chapters of Harmonielehre: vagrant* chords (Chapter 14),
ninth chords (Chapter 18), whole-tone sonorities (Chapter 20), quartal harmonies
(Chapter 21), and hexachords and larger sonorities (Chapter 22). As Schoenberg's
tribute suggests, his own recent compositions were perhaps of equal value to Berg.
One could well point to Schoenbergs songs, especially those o f Op. 6 (composed
between 1903 and 1905) as models for Berg in the Lied genre Even closer in their
repertory of pitch materials are Schoenbergs first two String Quartets, (Op. 7,
1904-05; and Op. 10, 1907-08) and, above all, the First Chamber Symphony,
Op. 9 (1906) Webern later recalled the colossal impression this piece made on
him (Webern 1963, 48); it must have had a equally inspiring effect on Berg, to
judge from the clear echoes of its vocabulary in both Bergs Piano Sonata and the
Four Songs.6
Key Signatures and Accidentals

The first three of the Four Songsthose which, according to Berg, retain
traces o f tonalityhave key signatures: one, six, and seven flats, respectively.
Berg also, however, followed Schoenbergs practice o f writing accidentals before
almost every note. Is one of these practices meaningless? Referring to Song 2,
Joseph N. Straus holds that, possible symbolic value aside, . . . the key signature
seems to have no significance, since every single note in the song has an accidental
in front o f it. . . . Let us then put aside thoughts of E b minor and see how the
music is organized (Straus 1990, 84). 1 disagree with Strauss assessment;
6In 1913 Berg wrote an (unpublished) analytical essay on the Chamber Symphony.
Over the next two years, he also seems to have prepared an arrangement of the work for
piano, four hands; this arrangement is lost (Camer 1983, 299-300).
38
redundant Bergs notation m?j be, but meaningless it is not. As we shall see, there
is clear evidence to tie pitch relationships in these three songs to the keys o f
D minor, Eb minor, and A b minor, respectively. Any analysis which ignores these
ties fails to do justice to crucial aspects of the musics pitch design. At the same
time Bergs democratic application of accidentals cuts across the traditional
privileging o f diatonic pitches and suggests alternative relationships grounded in
the chromatic scale.7 Such relationships are also, I think, indisputably present.
Bergs notation, then, reflects the multiplicity o f pitch-structural meaning displayed
by these songs.
With more justification Jim Samson writes, In the final song Berg abandoned
a key signature and with it tonality (Samson 1977, 124). Pitch design in this final
song is certainly less bound to common-practice conventions than it is m the
previous settings. It may, however, be impossible to decide whether or not Berg
has actually abandoned a key signature here. As we shall see, the opening
measures of this song are mostly grounded on a bass pedal, a perfect-fifth dyad
Cl|/G lj. Such a pedal suggests a C-based tonality for which Berg might have
thought a null key signature appropriate.
Prominent Pc Set Classes and their Relationships

Figure 3-1 summarizes my appraisal o f the more important classes o f pc sets
found in these songs and charts the set-class relationships which emerge from
Bergs treatment o f them. The figure maps several kinds o f data.
7In Harmonielehre, Schoenberg betrays increasing impatience with common-practice

pitch notation. It is evident to him that, as pitch materials become consistently chromatic,
traditional notation ceases to be either practically clear or theoretically explanatory. That
enharmonic notation, for instance, produces twenty-one pc names . . derives from our
imperfrct notation; a more adequate notation will recognize only twelve note names and
give an independent symbol for each. (Schoenberg 1978, 387; see also 233, 332)
39
Figure 3-1. Prominent pc set classes in the Four Songs.
(9-11)
7-21
3-11
4-2 Os
5-21
3-2
4-27
3-3
6-20s
6-Z44
(8- 8 )
(7-20)
4-8
5-20
(8-18)
3-4
6-Z6 J
4-18
4-Z15-.
5-32
4-21 s
5-34
(8-25)
(7-33)
4-25s
5-33
4-24
5-28
(9-5)
- 3-5
3-8
6-34
6-35
7-28
(8-Z29)
4-Z29-J
7-26 -
5-26
7-35
5-35s
6-32s
._________________________________________________________________I
1 Prominent set classes and class complement relations. I list mainly classes of
cardinalities 3 to 6. Naturally a number o f larger sets are also prominent in
these songs. In my analysis, however, their importance derives either partly or
wholly (for those in parentheses) from tneir class complementation o f smaller
sets. For this reason 1 do not list them in separate columns but cite them over
the classes they complement.
40
2. Symmetry. Classes whose symmetry I judge to be projected in the songs are

each marked by an s after the class name. There are certainly other classes
in the list that have symmetrical properties, but Bergs disposition o f sets in
those classes does not capitalize on their symmetry.
3. Inclusion relations. I indicate these by lines connecting class names; dashed

lines indicate relations between classes o f non-adjacent cardinalities. I map only
those relations I consider to be exploited in the music. (By exploited here I
mean that I have found instances where I discover one set to be a readily
segmentable subset o f another.)
4. Z-related set classes (See Forte 1973, 21-24) Two pairs o f these classes are
linked in the figure by brackets: 4-Z15/4-Z29 and 6-Z6/6-Z38. In both cases 1
judge that Berg has exploited the pairing of sets m these classes.
5. Set mutation. An arrow in the figure indicates the mutation o f one set into
another by a pc change o f a single semitone. Again, 1 chart only such shifts as
I judge to be significant in the music itself.
This list is clearly selective: it cites only a portion o f the set classes discernible
in these songs. I am persuaded, however, that the list embraces all o f the songs'
most significant classes. Many o f the classes cited are embodied prominently m
more than one song. Those restricted to just one song are quite notable in that one.
The features that the figure maps directly are, under my definition, atonal. The
presence o f the same set classes in different pitch environments and the emergence
o f such purely intervallic features as symmetry, class complement relations, and
Z-pairings is evidence for the importance in these songs o f non-tonal paradigms
In the abstract, symmetry is not an unusual property of pc set classes: 81 (that is,
39%) of die 208 classes of cardinalities 3 to 9 are symmetrical to some degree. Sets of
these classes display pc invariance under particular transposition and/or inversion
operations.
41
of structure: in Allen Fortes term set consciousness (Forte, 1978, 133). It is

crucial to note, however, that these same materials, and even some of the same
relationships, also participate in projecting the songs tonal designs. Most o f the
listed set classes, for instance, are represented harmonically (although several are
additionally found in linear collections). Many such classes are obtainable as, or
easily denvable from, common-practice harmonieswhich is how they are
presented in Schoenbergs Harmonielehre.
The lines in this figure which trace inclusion relations trace (often inter
marrying) families of set classes. Family relationships are germane to the songs
pitch structure, and it will benefit my later analysis to characterize the most
important of these families. This introduction will encompass nearly all o f the
figures set classes
Tertian-diatonic Collections
The most conventionally tonal of set classes is the tertian triad, class
3-11 (037). It is also an uncommon type in these songs. Only at the beginning and
ending of Song 1 and at the closing cadence of Song 3 do we find pure triads,
though these few chords are clearly o f great formal and tonal weight. On the other
hand, many of Bergs harmonies are 7th and 9th chords. Of particular note are
tetrachord 4-27 (0258) and its superset 5-34 (02469). Class 4-27 has four guises
in common-practice harmony In its original form9 it is a half-diminished 7th (for
example, VI i7) oras in Song 3 a minor triad with an added sixth above the
root (I+ ^6) In its more common inverted form it appears as the major-minor 7th
(for example, V7) and German 6th (Ger.+6/5) chords. The enharmonic equivalence
9That is, in a form equivalent to the prime form under transpositionas opposed to
one equivalent under inversion plus transposition, which I am terming the inverted form
(see Forte 1973, 7ff).
42
of the two latter harmonies led Schoenberg to label this sonority vagrant, a chord
whose enharmonic re-interpretation can induce shifts of tonal focus (Schoenberg
1978, 254-255) Oscillations between V7 and G er+6/5 are common in late
nineteenth-century music, and we shall find that part of the tonal plan for Song 3
rests on this technique.10 Another part o f Song 3s design, however, plays on a
distinction between the original and inverted forms of class 4-27 This division
is also preserved in the opemng measures of Song 1, and 1 shall use the
distinguishing labels 4-27 and 4-27i in analyzing both songs.
In Song 1, class 4-27 is further associated with pentachord 5-34, a pivotal
sonority in both the opening and closing sections of that song. Though this types
common role is as a V9 chord,11 it appears here in tonic and subdominant
functions. Example 3-2 cites the first of these appearances ui order to show the rich
inclusion relations in this pentachord. The chord in this example, [0,2,4,6,9],
embraces not only the tonic major triad (3-11
[2,6,9]) and I7/* chord
(4-27i [6,9,0,2]), but also an original set 4-27 [4,6,9,0], O f equal importance, it
also encompasses a completely different type o f sonority, whole-tone tetrachord
4-21 [0,2,4,6].
Whole-tone Collections
The most conspicuous family of set classes m these songs is the whole-tone
family: class 6-35 (02468T)12 and its subset classes 5-33 (02468), 4-21 (0246),
10A few years before Berg, Schoenberg also showed an interest in exploiting the
V7 / G e r.^ 5 equivalence. His songs Traumleben (Op. 6, no. 1), from 1903, and
Lockung (Op. 6, no. 7), from 1905, provide examples of two different tonal designs
hinging on the double interpretation of this sonority.
11With this function it shows up in Bergs Op. 1 Piano Sonata as the opening chord
of the second theme area, m. 29
12T = pc 10.
43
Example 3-2. Song 1: m. 5, 5-34 harmony.
4-2771 4-2?
3-11
5-34
4-21
[0,2,4,6,91
10,2,4,6)
9
7
d:
4-24 (0248), 4-25 (0268), and 3-8 (026). It will emerge that the pitch structures of
both Songs 1 and 2 are mostly governed by whole-tone collections, and the design
of Song 4 is partly so. Before composing these songs Berg had already explored
whole-tone materials in a few recent works, notably in Nacht and Schilflied
(both 1908), from the Seven Early Songs, and in the Op. 1 Sonata. The set which
more than any other lies behind the whole-tone passages o f these earlier pieces
(and their models among Schoenbergs works) is the augmented triad, set class
3-12 (048). Intriguingly, however, this type is nearly absent from the Op. 2 songs.
Its place is taken by one of the other whole-tone trichords, class 3-8 (026). Figure
3-1 indicates the centrality of trichord 3-8, which has inclusion links not only to
the larger whole-tone classes, but also to several other important set types,
including class 4-27.
As we saw in Example 2-1, many of the whole-tone collections are derivable
as extended and altered common-practice chords. The realm o f whole-tone
harmony may be very different f'om the common-practice one, however. It may
be governed by the radical symmetry o f set class 6*35, o f which there are just two
members, and by the varying degrees of symmetry inherent in all of its subsets.
44
Although this symmetry offers an important principle of structure, it is not one

Berg often exploits in these songs. Only classes 4-25 in Song 2 and 4-21 in Song 4
are deployed in ways which directly expose their symmetry. In fact, Berg seems
more interested in overcoming a well known effect of whole-tone symmetry: the
stasis o f whole-tone harmony.
To create a sense of tonal motion within the whole-tone idiom, we shall find
Berg using two tactics. The firstone which is also found in Nacht and in the
Sonatais to exploit both o f the members o f class 6-35: [0,2,4,6,8,10] and
[1,3,5,7,9,11], I shall term these members the whole-tone fields and label them
WT-0 and WT-1 respectively. Allowing that a field may be represented by any of
its subsets, we shall find that Berg employs systematic oscillations between the two
fields as a basic principle o f design in Songs 1 and 2 This oscillation is not a
wholly new invention; it actually links the whole-tone collections back to commonpractice tonality. It turns out that movement between almost any two whole-tone
collections o f opposite fields will involve at least one pair o f pcs separated by
ic 5 the interval class that underlies fifth-relations in the common-practice
idiom 13 Whole-tone field oscillation can be used, then, as an instance o f these
fifth-relations, with many whole-tone chords construed as altered common-practice
harmonies. The bond to fifth-relations is especially strong if one places the
ic-5-related pcs in the bass, as Berg usually does. There is still a defect in this
bond, however: field oscillation does not in itself privilege one field over another,
to match the inequality that always underlies fifth-related functions (for example,
V and I). It is notable, then, that in both Songs 1 and 2 we shall find Berg
inducing inequality, using metrical accent and duration to emphasize one field over
the other. He then provokes changes in the patterns o f emphasis to define formal
,3The sole exceptions involve semitonal oscillation between small dyads: [0,2] - [1,3]
and [0,4] - [1,3] (and movements transpositionally equivalent to these).
45
units within each song. In Song 4 Berg continues to employ sets from both fields,
but now the temporal oscillation o f fields, and its tonal implications, are gone
Instead o f being separated in time the fields are now presented simultaneously, but
segregated in register.
Whole-tone Dissonance: Almost-whole-tone sets

We shall see that in Song 2 Berg pursues the oscillation of whole-tone fields
using pure whole-tone sonorities (indeed mostly just one such sononty). In Song 1,
however, he introduces his second tactic for generating directed motion: the use of
almost-whole-tone collections, in which all pcs save one belong to a single field.
One such collection is set class 4-27. A superset not only o f trichord 3-11 but also
o f class 3-8, this tetrachord plays a mediating role between the tertian-diatonic and
whole-tone harmonic idioms. More prevalent is a group of sets generated by
trichord 3-5 (016). Their behaviour is exemplified by one of Song l s crucial
passages, quoted in Example 3-3. In this passage, the voice (doubled by the RH)
Example 3-3. Song 1: mm. 5-6.

Schla
fen!
3-5 [0.5,6]
3-8
w
4-Z15
4-18
[0,2,5,6] [5,6,9,01
1 5-32 10,2,5,6,9] ,
^10
d:
4-21
[0,2,4,61
i 5-34 10,2,4,6,91
I
46
executes an appoggiatura motion, a falling semitone, which ends the songs

opening vocal phrase. In the RH this motion transforms trichord 3-5 [0,5,6] into
3-8 [0,4,6]. When we add the bass D l| to this movement, we see that almost-wholetone set 4-Z15 [0,2,5,6] resolves into whole-tone tetrachord 4-21 [0,2,4,6], From
the viewpoint o f common-practice harmony, however, this is no resolution: the
appoggiaturas second tone, el| *, is scarcely less dissonant than the preceding f \ l .
It is, conversely, a true whole-tone appoggiatura, a prolongational device defined
by the whole-tone pitch framework. In this framework major seconds are harmonic
and consonant. Only pitches producing almost-whole-tone sets are dissonant, and
only semitonal movement can reliably be felt as linear. Berg plays upon these
principles to transform a familiar prolongational device into one which still
functionsbut only in relation to the whole-tone context. The effect of this device
may be quite localized, but it echoes consistently throughout Song 1. It will show
up later, for instance, in transformations of set-class 4-Z29 (0137) into 4-24, 5-28
(02368) into 5-33, and hexachord 6-34 (013579) into 6-35.
The overall chord of resolution in Example 3-3 is the same pentachord
5-34 [0,2,4,6,9] that we met in Example 3-2. The whole-tone dissonance of this
almost-whole-tone harmony is offset by its previously discussed prominence as a
superset of tertian-diatonic collections 3-11 and 4-27.
Tritonal-Quartal Collections: the Supersets of 3-5

The other pentachordal harmony in Example 3-3, that which resolves to set
5-34, is 5-32 [0,2,5,6,9], As represented here, 5-32 (01469) might rank as an
almost-almost-whole-tone class, but it turns up later with other associations. The
disposition in which set 3-5 appears in the example, the union of a tritone and a
perfect fourth, is its normal guise in these songs. It is in this disposition that we
shall find it as a subset of the two all-interval tetrachords, 4-Z15 and 4-Z29; of
47
tetrachord 4-18, and thence o f pentachords 5-28 and 5-32. We have just met these
classes as adjuncts o f whole-tone collections (and o f 5-34) to which they resolve.
Very quickly in Song 1, however, a few o f them achieve some independence, no
longer always resolving. In this independent role classes 4-Z15, 4-Z29 and 5-32
return at the end o f Song 4, preserving their former dispositions with the tritoneplus-fourth formation in the pianos RH. The prevalence of these tritonal-quartal
classes at both the beginning and the end o f Op. 2 has led to repeated assertions
that all four songs are derived from a single chord (Redlich 1957,41), that chord
being either class 5-32 or its subset 4-Z15.14 Such statements are exaggerated, I
believe: I find no evidence, for instance, that these two collections play any
substantial roles in Songs 2 and 3. Class 3-5 does re-appear in Song 3, however,
as a subset of another tetrachord, 4-8 (0156). Sets o f this tetrachord in turn
generate a pair of complementary hexachords, 6-Z38 (012378) and 6-Z6 (012567),
a pair which underlies the songs linear design.
Quartal Collections
Schoenberg
devotes
the
brief penultimate
chapter
o f Harmonielehre
(Schoenberg 1978, 399-410) to quartal harmonies, among which he includes only

chords constructed in perfect fourths. He traces his own usage of such chords to
Pelleas und Melisande (1902-03) and to the First Chamber Symphony. Despite
having experimented with them in the Op. 1 Sonata, Berg makes scant, though
striking, use of quartal harmonies in the Four Songs. The same hexachord,
6-32 [7,9,11,0,2,4], built in fourths above bass tone B l|, will turn up repeatedly in
the central measures o f both Song 1 (mm. 18-19) and Song 3 (mm. 6-8). Its effect
14Redlich, Samson (1977, 122), and Wennerstrom (1977, 12) all claim class 5-32 as
the songs nexus sonority. Kett (1989, 71-72) opts for tetrachord 4-Z15, which he holds
to unify the entire cycle.
48
is curious. In neither case is it assimilated harmonically into its surroundings,

which are not quartal. Berg does make the chords in Song 1 the focus of multipart
voice leading based on semitones and held notes, following Schoenbergs advice
in resolving quartal chords. (As it happens, the chord built on Bl) is the same
quartal hexachord Schoenberg illustrates in Harmonielehre [Schoenberg 1978,
406].)
Quartal collections are more widespread here in linear form (as they are in the
Piano Sonata and in Schoenbergs Chamber Symphony). Almost distinctive enough
to rank as a shared motive are the bass progressions in ascending perfect fourths
(and a few descending fifths) found in all four songs. There is again a commonpractice idiom behind the harmonic progressions Berg erects above these basses:
the falling-fifths harmonic sequence with applied V7 chords The rudimentary
progression in Song 3 (mm. 4-6), only three chords long, uses just these harmonies.
In Songs 2 and 4, however, Berg develops a feature inherent in such sequences,
the fact that some upper notes may descend in patterns of semitones against the
rising bass pattern.15 The structure o f Song 2 is almost wholly governed by such
interval cycle patterns, arising from its opening sequence of applied V7/b5 (class
4-25) harmonies.16 Another bass cycle, nearly identical to those in Song 2, turns
up towards the end of Song 4 (mm. 20-22). Here it is accompanied by a
descending array of trichord 3-5 harmonies, generating an oscillation of 4-Z15 and
4-Z29 tetrachords. Only in Song 1 (mm. 11-14) does Berg tamper with the quartal
bass pattern itself, interrupting the progression with a single semitone. The
15One example of such a pattern, familiar from analysis classes, is found in the
middle section (mm. 21-24) of Chopins Mazurka in G minor, Op. posth. 67, no. 2. See
Burkhart 1986, 364.
16The term interval cycle is George Perles. Perle (1977a) has investigated Berg's
enduring fondness for such cyclessuccessions of single interval typesand traced it
back to Song 2.
49
interruption allows Berg to construct a rising, rather than falling chord sequence
atop the bass, a sequence fashioned from combined whole-tone and class 4-27
harmonies.
Other Notable Collections

1 have described nearly all of the significant set classes and relationships of
Songs 1, 2, and 3. Virtually all betray ties to the conventions o f common-practice
tonality. We shall discover that in Song 4 Berg moves noticeably beyond these
conventions, though he partly does so by recasting materials from the earlier songs.
A ready example is provided by set class 4-20 (0158). We first meet this tetrachord
in Song 3 (mm. 3-4) as a major-major seventh chord (VI ). When the same class
returns in Song 4 (m. 1 and mm. 10-11), Berg disregards its traditional function.
Instead he now exploits its intervallic symmetry, especially in its latter appearance,
where he generates an intricate pattern of inclusion relations linking it to two quite
non-traditional classes, 6-Z44 (012569) and 7-Z18 (0123589).
Even tertian triad 3-11 is recast towards the end of Song 4. In a chain o f final
cadences for this song (mm. 22-25) Berg combines triads segregated between the
RH and LH o f the pianoto construct another sequence o f non-conventional
sonorities linked by ties of class inclusion and complementation: 5-21 (01458),
6-20 (014589), and 7-21 (0124589).
Other Pitch Materials and Relationships

Perfect-fifth Dyads
Aside from features o f pitch design directly attributable to set-class materials,
these songs exhibit other representative elements and relationships. Song 1, for
instance, opens with the oscillation o f two bass notes D l| and A l|, which (with some
neighbour tones) serve as a double pedal throughout the opening section (mm. 1-9,
including the measures cited in Example 3-3). This pedal returns at the songs end,
50
but also reappears in the central measures of Song 3, transferred to the treble. It
will emerge that pcs A l| and D l| have cryptic significance, but the principle of
grounding chords in perfect fifths is also o f influence in Song 2 { B \ > I in m. 11)
and especially in Song 4, whose tonal structure is fashioned around recurrent
perfect-fifth dyads. Apart from their inverse association with quartal collections,
perfect fifths are naturally icons o f common-practice tonal stability. This feature
may explain their prevalence in Song 4, in an environment mostly devoid o f other
common-practice referents.
Bass Motion and Tonal Relationships

Some of the features detailed above might prepare us to expect another of the
ubiquitous aspects o f tonal design in these songs. In his study o f what he terms the
creeping chromaticism o f Bergs music, Mark Devoto comments One comes to
suspect that when the bass does not move by [perfect-fifth] motion, it will by and
large move chromatically, as part o f a longer line than the immediate tonicizing
root-motion; or it will move by a combination of the two, namely by tritone, that
interval being the perfect fifth minus the chromatic step. (DeVoto 1991, 64-65).
The tonal plans o f all four songs in Op. 2 are laid out in patterns of perfectfourth / perfect-fifth, semitone, and tritone relations. Song 1 begins and ends on its
tonic D l| minor; its two climactic harmonies (mm. 16-17) are built above basses A b
and Gl| (and C# is the principal bass tone in mm. 10-14). In Song 2, the tonic Eb
is associated both with its dominant, B b (itself also associated with E l|), and with
A i|. The tonic A b of Song 3 quickly gives way to its dominant, E b, but encloses
within this movement a central tonicization of D I). And the tonal plan of Song 4
comprises a progression from C l| to B l|, principally by way of F 0. The prevalence
of ics 1, 5, and 6 here yields a close integration of linear design with the songs
harmonic vocabulary, in which we have already noted the importance o f tritonal-
51
quartal collections. (The interval array o f class 3-5 (016) encapsulates ics 1, 5,
and 6.) The above plans also instantiate a central dichotomy of pitch design
running through these songs. This is the dichotomy between conventional tonality
based on fifth-relations (especially the tonic-dominant relation, upon which Songs
2 and 3 clearly rest) and pitch relations based on symmetrical partitionings of the
chromatic scale (since the tritone bisects the octave). More perhaps than any other
general feature, the tensionor symbiosisbetween these two principles is what
animates the richness o f tonal meaning we shall find in these songs.
Interval-Succession Patterns
The wider tension (or again symbiosis) which runs through this music is the
one between the tonal and atonal contexts of pitch relations. Amid the tonal
designs of Bergs Four Songs we shall observe in its infancy a group o f atonal
resources that Berg was to favour greatly in his later music, interval-succession
patterns. These systematic orderings o f intervals come in two varieties. We have
already encountered the first variety, the interval cycle, patterns moulded from
combinations of single interval types. Such patterns, we have seen, are principally
found in Songs 2 and 4. If Berg was later to develop an abstract understanding of
interval cycles (see Perle 1977a, 1) these early examples point clearly to the origins
of his ideas. The cycles are a natural outgrowth not only o f such common-practice
idioms as the falling-fifihs harmonic sequence but also o f those pc set classes
disposable as symmetrical arrays of one or two interval types (such as 4-21, 4-25,
6-32, and 6-35).17
An associated type o f intervallic pattern is the wedge. Wedges are consistently
expanding or contracting successions of intervals, either within a single voice or
17We also find cycles, using both quartal chords and whole-tone sonorities, in the
exposition of Bergs Piano Sonata (mm. 24-27, mm. 49-50).
52
between pairs of (often semitonally cyclic) voices. Again this atonal pattern has its
roots in tonal design, and more especially in Bergs highly chromatic voice leading
Devoto (1991, 63-64) has traced a short contracting pattern in Schilflied, from
the Seven Early Songs; similar rudimentary patterns turn up in the Piano Sonata
(for example, in m. 37). Wedge patterns in the first three of the Four Songs are
equally
elementary,
slight developments o f the more
general creeping
chromaticism that characterizes Bergs voice-leading. In Song 4, however, Bergs

attention to the wedge is more systematic. The central measures o f this song
(mm. 10-18) are plotted around an intricate complex of wedge-shaped and parallel
interval successions, the real precursor to those highly developed wedges that
pervade Bergs later music. 18
Musical Cyphers
Even before the uncc /ering o f secret programmes in some of Bergs most
famous works19 his music was known to harbour personal cyphers The Four
Songs have their share o f such cyphers, some o f which are referred to in the
published literature on Berg. Schoenbei_, seems to have been the object of most of
the encrypted homage. Bryan Simms, for instance, writes
The songs of Bergs opus 2 also contain a hidden tribute to his teacher
Arnold Schoenberg. The first song is in an extended D minor, the favored
key o f Schoenbergs earliest works; . . . The second song uses a key
signature suggesting E b minor, . . . The note E b (Es in German) may be
understood symbolically to refer to the first letter o f the name Schoenberg
This symbolism is carried into the third song as well, which progresses from
a statement o f an A b triad (>45 in German: Arnold Schoenberg) . . . through
I8On Bergs use of wedge patterns see Jarman 1979, 2 Iff; 1987; DeVoto 1991.
19About these programmes see Perle 1977b; Green 1977; Dalen 1989, Jarman 1989
On other aspects of Bergs musical cryptography see Stadlen 1981.
53
a progression in D minor, to an E b triad at the end, thus thrice referring to

Bergs mentor. (Simms 1986a, 162)20
Although I have not made cypher detection an aim o f my analysis, I have
uncovered in these songs a few Schoenberg signatures, pitch collections
containing the musically
encodable notes of Schoenbergs name (A...D
SCH...BEG). Two o f these one bridging Songs 1 and 2, the other in the central
measures o f Song 3 are complete signatures (set 8-14 [7,9,10,11,0,2,3,4]).
Anotherjust the pitches for A...D S (set 3-5 [9,2,3]) lies at the end o f Song 4.
I have resisted the temptation to view any appearances o f set class 6-Z44 (the
Schoenberg signature class; see Forte 1978, 135-145) as having cryptic
significance, but 1 do expect that other cyphersespecially those referring to
Helene still lie buried in these songs.
None of the materials and procedures I have surveyed in this chapter is
unfamiliar to those who have studied Bergs later music. What is indeed
remarkable is the consistency with which Berg continued to reuse and recast the
same musical idioms right up to the time of Lulu. While cataloguing these idioms
is useful and fascinating, however, it does not address the more critical issue of
how Berg uses them. Appreciating the integrity o f Bergs tonal and atonal designs
demands close analysis o f the entire songs. Fortunately they are o f modest
dimensions, so analyses which are both detailed and complete are entirely feasible
These analyses will occupy the following four chapters.
20Jarman (1979, 18, n. 1) also links Bergs early predilection for D minor to his
relationship with his fiancee. Adorno (1991, 48) speculates that a passage in mm. 5-6 of
Song 3, featuring the vocal pitches a \|1 - b b 1 - b l| (in German, A, B, H), refers to Alban
Berg / Helene.
CHAPTER 4
SONG 3, Nun ich der Riesen Starksten iiberwand"
O f the four songs in Op. 2 Nun ich der Riesen Starksten liberwand has
received the least attention in the published Berg literature The consensus seems
to have been that whether or not this song was the first to be penned, it is the least
advanced, the song with the least to offer an analyst tracing Bergs development
of new pitch resources The songs premises do indeed appear more traditional, its
harmonies more clearly tertian than those of the groups other songs. The
progressive whole-tone materials crucial to the other songs are barely apparent
here. There is, however, a great deal more o f interest in the pitch materials of this
song than its relative neglect hitheito would promise. My analysis will uncover a
finely wrought ambiguity in how this song projects some traditional tonal
functions. It will disclose an inextricable interplay o f common-practice and
innovative tonal relationships, m which apparently traditional elements function in
quite new ways, and some ostensibly new materials project traditional functions.
Finally it will reveal a specifically atonal Lvel o f design m Bergs use of
intervallic patterns.
Text, Form, and Motives

Momberts poem describes a fragmentary, disjointed dream, one that begins in
struggle and ends in aimless wandering. In between, there is respite, as the poet is
guided home by a white fairy-tale hand to the ponderous sound o f bells. Both
the poem s images and its emotional curve are mirrored in Bergs music. The song
54
55
comprises four vocal phrases, and its ternary formal plan is related to the text as
follows.
A
phrase 1
phrase 2
mm. 1-3
mm. 3-5(6)
phrase 3
mm (5)6-8
A'
phrase 4
mm 8-12
Nun ich der Riesen Starksten uberwand,

mich aus dem dunkelsten Land
heimfand1
an einer weiften Marchenhand
Hallen schwer die Glocken.
Und ich wanke durch die Strafien
schlafbefangen.
As he does m the other songs, Berg elides the formal and phrase divisions here.
Because of the songs tonal design, for instance, I posit that Section B begins at
the downbeat of m. 6, though both the vocal and the piano material in m. 5 lead
seamlessly into this section. Section A' is marked by a truncated return, in the
piano, to the songs opening material at its original pitch level. Thr section begins
on the fourth eighth-note beat o f m. 8 with the material in the RH making the
elision.
Two motivic gestures dominate the songs material. The first is the stark (der
Riesen Starksten) four-note motive heard first in the pianos octaves in m. 1. This
motive recurs through mm. 1-4 and again in the A' section. The second gesture is
the unbalanced (und ich wanke) syncopated chord pattern found in the piano RH
in mm. 2-4 and again m mm. 9-12 (already illustrated in Examples 3-la and d).
These two figures also appear in the central measures but in altered, less ominous
guises. The descending tntone o f the first motive is broadened into a perfect fifth,
which tolls (halier schwer die Glocken) in the piano RH in mm 6-8. Above this
gesture the vocal phrase uses the dotted rhythm of the original motive. Meanwhile
1Lines 2 and 3 of the text are given as they appear in the song. A comparison with
the original poetic text (in the Appendix) will show that Berg has altered the position of
the word mich. This alteration gives line 2 three initial unstressed syllables, in imitation
of line 1. Berg then uses this imitation in setting these two lines.
56
the piano maintains the syncopated chord pattern throughout mm. 4-8, but with a
more stable, even rhythm (illustrated in Example 3-le),
Virtually the entire fabric of the song is woven froin these two gestures.
Moreover each of the gestures contributes in a distinctive way to the works pitch
structure: the first forms a linear skeleton for the song, the second, aided by the
vocal line, projects the songs harmonic foundation To explain how these two
processes operate, I shall first consider them separately, beginning with the latter.
Harmonic Design
The harmonic basis o f this song is summarized in Example 4-1. These are the
harmonies projected by the second motivic gesture, the syncopated chords Above
the chords is an outline o f th3 salient vocal pitches. The examples conventions are
as follows.
1. The piano harmonies are arrayed in the inversions in which they appear in the
song, though most bass notes (and some other notes in section B) are altered
in register to clarify voice leading. The chords are numbered, for reference,
between the piano staves.
2. In mm. 6-8 the piano actually has five chords (the first struck four times),
alternating between two different harmonies. In the example, I have omitted the
second- and third-to-last chords as being mere repetitions.
3. The two bass notes in parentheses are not part of the chordal gesture, but it will
shortly prove useful to acknowledge their presence
4. The grounds for choosing which vocal pitches to include are various: almost
all are pitches which appear on accented textual syllables or in strong metric
positions, are relatively long in duration, or are made salient by changes in
melodic direction. (I shall later give more detailed consideration to the vocal
lines structure.)
Example 4-1. Song 3: harmonic plan.
57
58
5. Underneath the staff system the chords are assigned two groups o f analytic
labels: (1) set-class names with pc content indicated and (2) figuredbass / roman-numeral labels. The labels in both groups take account o f vocal
pitches directly above the piano chords. (The double suspension to chord 4, in
the piano RH, is not included in its set-class la b e l)
It is the traditionally tonal aspect of this chordal sequence which faces us in the
figured-bass 1 roman-numeral analysis. This analysis suggests two primary
harmonic patterns at work in the sequence, the first operating within the second.
Harmonic Pattern One

The first pattern involves the songs central modulation. After opemng in
A b-minor the music briefly tonicizes D minor. Section A' brings the harmony
abruptly back to A b-minor, though the song ends on the dominant. Schoenberg
discusses techniques for modulating by a tntone in chapter 15 of Harmonielehre
(Schoenberg 1978, 276-285), but Bergs progression is a good deal more compact
than any o f those his teacher presents as models. It is also richer in tetrachords and
more chromatic in its voice leading.
Bergs design hinges on a pair of harmonies, chords 2 and 3, which reappear
in the A' section as chords 9 and 10. Chord 2 pivots between the A b-minor and
D-minor regions, its pivotal role signalled by enharmonic respelling, when it
returns as chord 9 this role is gone. This harmony acts as a precursor to chords 3
and 10, into which it mutates by the descent of a single semitone (d$ l/e b 1 to d \ 1).
Chords 3 and 10, the truly pivotal chords in this progression, are enharmonically
equivalent V
and Ger.
+ 6 /5
harmonies. We recall from Chapter 3 that such
equivalence underlies the vagrancy o f this sonority and hence its usefulness for
provoking quick modulation. Here Berg first uses the V7 form, chord 3, as a
secondary dominant; it resolves to the new regions own V7 (chord 4 a double
59
suspension cushioning the already smooth voice leading), which in turn settles on
the tonic o f D minor (chord 5). In the A' section, the vagrant sonority (chord 10)
is re-interpreted. Approached as before, it is now quitted as a G er+6/5, keeping the
music albeit inconclusively in the A b-minor region.
H arm onic P attern Two

The above pattern, not unconventional for its time, operates within another one.
For this second pattern Berg draws on an older tonal gesture: the cadential six-four
(V6-5/4-3). There is some irony in Bergs treatment o f this figure. Cadences are
normally expressions o f tonal confirmation. In this song, however, the overall
harmonic plan is an elaborated six-four gesture, but the effect is o f tonal ambiguity.
The cadential figure actually comprises a triple voice-leading resolution (again
including the vocal pitches): v l,98/6'5/4",i. This resolution is played out over three
chords in strong formal positions: chord 1, chord 8 (which reiterates chord 1), and
chord 11. The triple resolution o f chord 1 (and chord 8) to chord 11 is then much
expanded by the intervening chords, which mainly add neighbour tones to the
central six-four figure. Most notably, they chromatically encircle the static bass E b:
with its upper neighbour (Fb / E l|) in chords 2 and 3, with its tonicized lower
neighbour (Dlj) in the B section, and again with the upper neighbour at the
beginning o f m. 9 (The El| in parenthesis) and in chords 9 and 10.
The salient property o f this prolonged cadential gesture is its failure to resolve
finally to I, the harmonic sequence elaborates only that part o f the cadence which
2Not materially affecting this pattern is the b b1 which the vocal line adds to chords
9 and 10 (and which is echoed in the piano LH in m. 10, omitted in Example 4-1).
Schoenberg regarded the Ger.*6^ as an altered 9th chord, normally built on scale degree
II, whose root is tacit (Schoenberg 1978, 246-247). Berg could be held to have formed
the pentachord of chord 10 simply by adding this root, B b. Nothing about the function of
chord 10that of dominant preparationis thereby really changed.
60
projects the dominant function. In doing so it questions the centrality o f this tonic:
is not E b a stronger tonal centre here than A b ?
Two considerations, I believe, make the answer: No, n o f quite. The first is that
the tonic triad is indeed projected at the song's opening, if not in block harmonic
form. The initial vocal notes clearly arpeggiate the A b-minor triad (arching from
i
y
cb to c b ). Less transparently, the same triad is also outlined in the piano's linear
gestures in mm. 1-2: A b (the initial tone), C b and E b (RH and LH, respectively, on
the last beat o f m. 2).
Schoenberg's Harmonielehre raises a second consideration. Discussing chords
in second inversion, Schoenberg holds the common view that, in cadential patterns,
the tonic six-four harmony is functionally adjunct to the dominant to which it
resolves. Yet he also perceives an ambiguity in this chord, since it still sounds the
pitch classes o f the tonic triad.
There is then in the six-four chord a conflict between its (outward) form, its
sound, and its (inner) constitution. Whereas its outward form indicates, for
example, the 1st degree, its constitution, its instinct demands the Vth degree.
(Schoenberg 1978, 76)3
With more orthodox cadential six-four figures we might easily ignore Schoenberg's
perception o f ambiguity. I think it is apt, however, in the present case. It is striking
that the only block tonic harmonies present in the song are the second-inversion
chords, 1 and 8, and that these are placed in formal positions where we might
expect tonic harmony to confirm the A b-minor tonality. Capping as it does the
Schoenberg's dual view of the six-four chord is reflected in the dual derivation he
presents for the cadential six-four figure . He invokes first the suspension dissonance (the
usual derivation), then an imagined practice of inserting a 1 chord just before the cadential
V, placing the former in second inversion for a smoother bass line. (Schoenberg 1978,
143-144)
61
opening arpeggiated triads, chord 1 seems especially tonic-oriented, and thus
especially dichotomous in its implications.
Dichotomy appears to be the point in this cadential pattern. The relative weights
o f A b and E b as tonal centres seem finely balanced, with the balance tilted slightly
in favour of the former. In fact, Berg maintains this balance right up to the songs
final gesture. In mm. 11-12, the piano LH proceeds by leaps to a lower root for the
final V harmony. It does so, however, not by a chord tone (we might expect 2?bj)
but by the briefest final iteration o f A b j subtly reminding us that the closing
chord is dominant, not tonic.
A Schenkerian Interpretation
In Example 4-2, much o f the information so far derived from Example 4-1 is
reformulated in a Schenkerian graph. A conservative view of this progression,
Example 4-2 does not address the ambiguity o f chords 1 and 8 (the chords are
again numbered between the staves)4 The graph does, however, clarify the
structural descent, from 3 to 2, which underlies the vocal line; the prolongation o f
this descent through the cadential six-four gesture; the decoration of the static E b
bass through chromatic neighbour tones (flagged notes); and the further expansion
o f the cadential figure through ancillary linear motion. We can see, for instance,
that the Kopfton (cb 2) quickly becomes, in chord 1, a suspension resolving to the
final b b 1. Before it resolves, it receives one central linear expansion, the vocal
4It might address this ambiguity by positing an alternative bass A b for chords 1 and
(possibly) 8, this bass being transferred from an inner voice. In such a reading the chords
are "consonant," rather than cadential six-fours (see Schenker 1979, 90, n. 2; Forte and
Gilbert 1982, 52). Overall, then, one would assert (rephrasing my assertion of dichotomy)
that chords 1 and (again, possibly) 8 are simultaneously consonant and cadential six-fours.
I omit the consonant-six-four assessment from my graph as being decidedly the weaker
of the two readings for these chords. Note, for instance, that the actual bass for the
chords, e b, lies below the previous a bnot above, as one would expect for a consonant
six-four.
Example 4-2. Song 3: harmonic plan, voice-leading graph.
62
63
ascent through cl| \o d \
and back, supported by chords 5 to 8.
We should notice that, in initiating this central expansion, the voice adds b i)1
to the first D minor triad (chord 5). Similarly, the voice augments the songs only
A b-minor triads (chords 1 and 8) with another non-triadic to n e ,/l|1 Why is this9
Probing this question leads us to consider a less traditional view of tonal
relationships among some o f this songs salient chords.
Newer Harmonic Relationships

Returning to Example 4-1 let us now consider the pc set-class labels assigned
to some chords We find that, including the vocal pitches, the chords involved m
the songs modulation pattern are mainly forms o f set class 4-27. Chords 1 and 5,
the opening sonorities o f the A b-minor and D-minor regions, both represent this set
class in its original form Mediating between these two are chords 3 and 4,
inversionally equivalent forms o f the same class (labelled 4-27i). Especially
intriguing are the symmetrical patterns o f pc invariance among chord 1, chord 3
(whose central role in the modulation we already know), and chord 5 I make the
symmetry evident in Figure 4-1, a table o f pcs shared among the three harmonies.
Pc 11 (C b / B I)) is the only one common to all three chords It has a symmetrical
relationship with pc 5 (F 1)), which just chords 1 and 5 share. We can see from the
table that these two pcs a tritone apart exchange chord positions each pc has a
turn at being the third above one chordal root and the added raised sixth above the
other. (It is worth noting how the opening vocal phrase also projects pcs 11 and
5 by spanning the octave c b 1 - c b2 and closing o n /lj V) Chord 3 mediates between
chords 1 and 5 by sharing their respective roots (also, of course, a tritone apart):
p~ 8 (A b /G fl) with chord 1, and pc 2 (D l|) with chord 5
In tonicizing D minor, then, Berg is not just expanding a neighbour-tone o f the
dominant-function E b. He is also exploiting a newer set of pc relationships around
64
Figure 4-1. Pc invariance among chords 1,3, and 5

Chord 1
4-27
Chord 3
4-27i
Chord 5
4-27
[3,5,8,111
[8.11,2,41
[9,11.2,5]
11 - Cb
->
(3 above root)
11 - B h
>
6
u
O
i
t
>
5-FI|
(3 above root)
00
00
5 - F t|
( #6 above root)
11 - B l|
above root)
(root)
2 - Dl|
>
2 - Dll
(root)
the tonic A b relationships grounded in a symmetrical partitioning o f the octave

into tritones, the tritones into minor thirds. These newer relationships, projected m
symmetrical patterns o f pc invariance, seem to gain force even as the traditional,
root-based chordal functions become more ambiguous
The harmonic materials discussed so far are mostly embodied in but one of this
songs motivic patterns. A second, linear sequence o f motives also courses through
the songs piano part, forming for it a kind o f horizontal skeleton. Turning now to
this sequence, we shall discover yet another interaction o f traditional and newer
elements of pitch structure
Linear Design
The skeleton formed by statements o f the songs linear motive is laid bare in
Example 4-3. Again a key to the conventions used in this example is in order.
Example 4-3. Song 3: linear plan.

B
&
't .
.3-5 17,0,11
.4 -8 17.8,0,11
6-Z38 10,1,2,3, L2L
i 1
b* >
12.3,7,81, 1
6-Z38 17.8.9.10,2.31 .
7*7-6 17,8,9,10,11,2,3)
.4-8 12,3,7,81
iJ
. 4 - 8 It0.11,3,41
.6-Z6 19,10,11,2,3,41
4-8 17.8.0.1]_____ ,
ife-Z38 10.1.2.3,7.81
A
II
4-8 12.3.7,8 f . 1
fe-23^.1L 8<9J0<2 ^ 3 l_
7-6
17,8,9,10,11,2.31
5-20 13,4,8.10.11
12
66
1. Although the example shows no rhythms, bar-lines are included (with double
bar-hnes added to mark the formal divisions).
2. Only the piano part is considered; octave doublings in the piano LH are
omitted.
3. Notable pitch collections are bracketed and labelled with set-class names and
pc content.
The linear design is launched by the stem four-note motive sounded in octaves
in m. 1. The most arresting part of this motive is the downward thrust of its perfect
fourth and tritone. As Example 4-3 shows, the pitches of the four-note motive
belong to set 4-8 [7,8,0,1], its descending subset to trichord 3-5 [7,0,1J. Although
this trichord type will have a central place in songs one and four, my focus in the
present song "'ill be on larger collections initiated by the tetrachordal motive.
At the beginning of m. 2 the two strands of the piano part go their own ways
rhythmically. Both, however, extend the 4-8 motive by two rising semitones to
form hexachord 6-Z38 [0,1,2,3,7,8], The LH does so in quarter notes. The RH uses
sixteenths, then exploits the final e b1 of this hexachord to launch a second, which
is again of class 6-Z38, [7,8,9,10,2 "*], but now extended by a further semitone to
produce heptachord 7-6 [7,8,9,10,11,2,3], Beginning in m. 3, the LH once more
presents the 4-8 motive, extending it now, not by semitones, but by a rising perfect
fourth and falling perfect fifth. The set thereby formed is 6-Z38s complement,
6-Z6 [9,10,11,2,3,4],
What is notable here is not just the class-complement relation between the two
hexachord types, but also the pitch levels at which all the statements in the A
section are made. Consider first the pitches on which the hexachords, and the RH
heptachord, begin and end (these are supplied with stems in Example 4-3). The
initial statements begin on the tonic A b and end on the dominant E b. The RH
heptachord then spans Eb to the mediant Cb. Finally the basss 6-Z6 statement
67
continues the line from C b to the tonic o f D minor at the beginning o f the songs
middle section.^ So the complete chain o f statements departs from the tonic A b,
outlines the tonic triad, and ends on the tonicized D t|.
The trio o f different hexachords here is also marked, as were the three set-class
4-27 harmonies, by an intriguing pattern o f pc invariance I outline this pattern in
the table in Figure 4-2. In both set classes 6-Z38 and 6-Z6 tetrachord 4-8 is found
twice as a subset. In this song only one o f those subsets is musically prominent as
Figure 4-2
Pc invariance among the linear hexachords.

Hexachords
Set-class 4-8 subsets
6-Z38
[0,1,2,3,7,8]
[7,8,0,13
[2,3,7,8]
2.
6-Z38
[7,8,9,10,2,3]
12,3,7,8]
[9,10,2,3]
3.
6-Z6
[9,10,11,2,3,4]
110,11,3,4]
[9,10,2,3]
the motivic tetrachord: the first one listed foi each pair. Note, however, that for the
central hexachord, the two possible 4-8 subsets are [2,3,7,8] and [9,10,2,3], The
former, it turns out, is shared with hexachord 1, the latte*' with hexachord 3. So the
central set 6-Z38 may be held to mediate between the
er links o f the chain not
only through its boundary pitches but also through its shared 4-8 subsets.
In the A' section (mm. 8-12), the linear pattern is recapitulated, though with
some changes and with rhythmic ce >pression. This time the first statement o f set
6-Z38, now only in the LH, is also extended by an extra semitone, to e \ . The
second, in the RH, is enlarged, as before, to cb *. The third, however, is truncated:
5The further RH repetition of the 4-8 motive in mm. 4-5 is also bounded by the
dominant and tonic pitches (stated enharmonically) of Ab minor.
68
the last two notes o f the 4-8 motive are simply repeated before the line descends
to b With the b n ef A b, at the end of m 11, the LHs final statement forms
pentachord 5-20 [3,4,8,10,11] 6
We can see that the initial and final tones of the statements in this section again
outline the tonic triad. This time, however, they also include the dominant tones
upper neighbour (e I)) rather than its lower neighbour (D I]) Overall, the song's two
chains o f linear gestures trace the same tonal design that its chordal sequence
generates harmonically. Four statements form the skeleton of the A section, leading
from A b to D l|. Another three underlie the A' section, leading this time from A b to
its concluding dominant E b.
It happens that yet another hexachord 6-Z6 turns up in the centra, measures to
link these two groups. Formed by the repeated RH bell tones and their chromatic
ascent in mm. 5-8, this hexachord restates the pc content o f its LH predecessor:
[9,10,11,2,3,4] In fact, the last three notes of the LH collection, E l|, Al| and Dl|
(mm. 4-6), are taken up as the opening pitches o f the central set We shall later see
that this central figure held another meaning for Berg
Integrating the Harmonic and Linear Designs

In Examples 4-1 and 4-3 the harmonic and linear aspects of this song are
mostly disassociated, an approach which the dual mctwic structure of the work
allows It is obvious, however, that the two motives (and the two examples) often
6Set class 5-20 is a subset, not of hexa ord 6-Z6, but of 6-Z38 An A l| (pc 9) would
be needed to form a set of class 6-Z38. It so happens that a !|1 is sounding, however
briefly, in the RH just as the final LH collection is beginning
7One could also hold that the backbone of this piece is formed simply by the fo_r
sequential statements in the LH, the first pair tracing a pattern A 1 - E b , C b - D I | ; t h e
second, Ab - E l|, C b - E b. Note how the final pcs of the four statements j uxtapose E b and
its lower and upper neighbours. Since the LH line is, after all, the songs bass line, the
relationship of this pattern to the harmonic design is to be expected.
69
engage the same notes Ultimately we need an integrated picture of how Berg
deploys pitch materials in this song
Example 4-4 presents such a picture It also supplements the points discussed
so far with more detailed attention to the vocal line and with consideration of some
other noteworthy pitch collections. The conventions of Example 4-4 r e as follows.
1. The example embraces every pitch in the song; I omit or
some note
repetitions and octave doublings in the piano LH. Again I exclude rhythms,
though I place the notes in their proper rhythmic alignments. I include the
songs text.
2 I carry figured-bass / roman-numeral labels and set-class labels over from
Examples 4-1 and 4-3. I augment these by other set-class labels for new
features to which 1 shall be drawing attention.
3. Most labels cover collections of contiguous pitches; I again bracket these.
4
Beams mark collections of non-contiguous pitches in the vocal line. As in

Example 4-3, I give stems to the pitches bordering the linear hexachord (and
hexachord-denved) statements.
5 The chord numbers used in examples 4-1 and 4-2 appear again between the
piano staves
We have already met the most significant features o f pitch structure displayed
m this graph My comments on the graph serve briefly to place these features in
context and to mention other points of interest in the songs pitch material. In
making these comments 1 shah follow the formal and phrase divisions of the song
Section A
Phrase 1, mm. 1-3
The songs opening phrase drives forcefully towards the last beat of m. 2. This
beat marks a pou of urival in the piano: the end of the first linear hexachoid in
70
i' I
I I*
.1 1u
E
. .
>

iC
TTi1
r-na,
-rtilt
ifTi
I *4; I t
Hi
I*.
Nv
I.
>
i t :
>
9a
*
>s
Example 4-4. Song 3: integrated graph.
>
lit:
Q
C
00
'
*u0 *~
Jt ^
kr*
"2*i
&
_Ml
Example 4-4 (cont'd.).
A'
10
7-20 17,4,5,7,10,11,0'
Nlu-^hen-band, hi! - Ian schwer die Glok
undich
ken;
6-76
8 14 [7,9,10,11,0,2,3,41 (AD SCHBUG)
wan
durch die Gas - sen
W 1hi',i>i b*
1.
14-8 I2,3.7,B!(
[6-238 [7,6,1,10,2,3! |
I 7-6 [7.8.4,10,11.2,1]
liJ
=4 8 [7,8,0,1]_______
lb-Z3B [0 1.7,3,7,8)
I 7-6 [0,1,7,3,4,7.81__
i 4 -2 7 1
[9 , 11 ,2 51
I 6-12 I
( 7 .'* , 1 1 , 0 . 2 , 4 |
5-35
1,1
14-8 [10,11,3,41
I 5-20 13.4.8.10.11]
17. 9 , 1 1 . 2 , 4
> 7-35 [11,0.2,4 5,7,9|_______
*6
1
i 9-5
[3,1,8,111 13.4,8,10,11! [8,10,11,2.4;

U,3,4,S,7.8,9,10,11]
Piano part: 6-8 [;,B,9,l0,ll,2,3.4| i
.'I4
V
(I)
Reprinted by permission o f Robert Lieuau, lkrlin
II
Nfi
11
VI
tier.
72
the LH, the heptachord in the RH. The piano lines trace the tonic tnad, opening
on Ab, arriving on Cb and Eb.
Their arrival in turn launches chord 1, the
ambiguous V(I) / 4-27 [3,5,8,11] harmony. The end of m. 2 is also the goal of the
initial vocal phrase. Example 4-4 shows that the vocal pitches on accented text
syllables in this phrase arpeggiate the same tetrachord 4-27 [3,5,8,11].
(In
addition, the vocal anacrusis which opens the song is a trichord of class 3-12 (048).
Although this whole-tone type is anomalous to these songs, it serves as a link with
the whole-tone environment of Song 2.)
Phrase 2, mm. 3-5(6)

It appears that the tonal aim o f the first phrase is to establish, in both linear and
harmonic terms, the V(I) / 4-27 collection. The aim of the second is to make the
transition to the D-minor / 4-27 harmony at the beginning of m. 6. This transition
is played out harmonically in chords 1 to 5, which operate above the hexachord
6-Z6 statement in the piano LH. Chords 1 to 3 are creeping harmonies,
connected in sequence by the lowering of a single pitch class: 4-27 [3,5,8,11] >
4-20 [3,4,8,11] > 4-27i [8,11,2,4], Chords 3 to 5 are then linked in a falling-fifiths
sequence.
The arched contour of the second vocal phrase (mm. 3-5) loosely copies that
of the first. It also extends the correlation of the vocal line with its supporting
harmonies. The central gesture of this phrase is again an arpeggiation: an A b -minor
tnad upwards, a G|l-minoi triad back down, as the enharmonic shift is made. If we
augment these two triadsthe first with the preceding/1]1 which appears to launch
8We additio ly see that the sixceenth note3 in the RH [m. 2] bridge its two
statements of he chord 6-Z38 with two versions of tetrachord 4-5and diet the addition
of the final co 1 hese 16ths produces a collection of the complementary set class, 8-5
73
the phrase, the second with the phrases final All1 - el)1, we again produce the
tetrachord 4-27 [3,5,8,11] o f chord 1, then set 4-20 [3,4,8,11], echoing chord 2.
Section B, mm. (5)6-8

The middle section of this song is both a contrast to and a continuation of
material in the outer sections. Two features make it conspicuously different. First
is its white-key, diatonic atmosphere, which contradicts the heavily flat and
chromatic environment of the surrounding sections. Second is the stasis of its
harmony, which simply oscillates between two different chords. On the other hand,
the motivic material of the outer sections is retained, transformed, in these centred
measures. In this regard, mm. 4-5 constitute a seamless elision between sections.
In the vocal line, the descending tritone (cW -
) o f m. 2echoing that in the

^
1
pianos 4-8 motiveis broadened in mm. 4-5 into two perfect fifths (</# - g$ \
b\\l - e I]]) before being transferred back to the piano (as o l|1 - ^/l|1) in mm. 6-8.
Meanwhile the nervous chordal pattern o f mm. 2-4 is rhythmically pacified in
m. 5. As the harmonies in this measure prepare the tonic of the new key region,
the voice pre-emptively begins its new phrase, rising again stepwise through the
perfect
fifth
e l|1 - b \ l .
We have already considered the integration o f the D-minor / 4-27 harmony

(chord 5) into the harmonic structure of this song. Also notable because
apparently so anomalous in its tertian surrounding-is chord 6, with which the
D-minor harmony alternates. This is one o f the two appearances in these songs of
the quartal hexachord, 6-32 [7,9,11,0,2,4], formed o f superposed perfect fourths
above a bass B t|. The bass oscillation o f D l| and B l|, in chords 5 - 7 clearly mirrors
the vocal expansion of Al|1 - d\\2 which these chords support. The pianos quartal
pentachord, 5-35 [7,9,11,2,4]which in its second iteration is no longer augmented
74
y
by a vocal cl| also complements the white-note heptachord (7-35 [11,0,2,4,5,7,91)

formed by the aggregate material in section B.
Section A ', mm. 8-12

Though many of the materials from the A section reappear in the final four
measures, their rhythmic redistribution results in a different alignment between the
harmonic and linear patterns. The return of the V(I) / 4-27 harmony (chord 8) is
delayed, so that all four final harmonies occur within the last linear statement of
the piano LH. One effect of this realignment is to create space for the transitional
material in the RH in mm. 8-9. We have already seen that the repeated bell-tones
in mm. 6-8 and their chromatic ascent through to the end of m 8 produce a
bridging statement o f hexachord 6-Z6 [9,10,11,2,3,4]. If we now carry this rising
figure to its conclusion in m. 9 we find another reason for its presence it encodes
Schoenbergs name. It turns out that the repeated a lj1 - d \ 1 has all along been
outlining the name Arnold; the rising chromatic extension now encodes
Schoenberg.
Like the song as a whole, the A1 section is abruptly launched (on the fourth
eighth-note beat of m. 8) by another anomalous whole-tone sonority, tetrachord
4-25 [0,2,6,8], Brusquely interrupting the uneasy diatonic calm of the B section,
this chord again recalls the harmonic environment of Song 2 Otherwise it is not
integral to the harmonic design of the present song (hence its omission from the
graph of Example 4-1).
The closing measures are marked by a several other class complement relations.
When chord 2 (set 4-20 [3,4,8,11]) returns as chord 9, it is augmented by pc 10
to pentachord 5-20 [3,4,8,10,11]the same collection formed by the I Hs final
linear statement. Meanwhile the vocal line in the A' section is designed arc ind an
interval-succession patten, (to be explored shortly), expanding in dyads from a
75
major third to a perfect fifth. The principal notes in this pattern constitute 5-20s
complement heptachord 7-20 [3,4,5,7,10,11,0], Complements may also be found
for the 4-8 motive which has echoed throughout this' piece, as well as its
descending 3-5 subset The songs aggregate pitch material, from the point at
which the LHs final pentachord begins (and the voice begins its final gesture) to
the works conclusion, comprises a nonachord o f type 9-5; the aggregate of just the
piano material, an 8-8 octachord.
Interval-succession Patterns
Apart from examples o f equivalence and non-literal complementatioi \mong
some set classes, most of the features I have discussed so far are tonal ones:
chordal progressions, salient pcs, pc invariances among collections. Even a casual
perusal of Example 4-4, however, will suggest that Berg was also considering the
purely intervalhc disposition of his pitch materials as a source o f structural design.
In Example 4-5 I pursue this suggestion. The example charts my assessment of
plausible interval-succession patterns (mostly) in the linear material of this song.
It will be apparent that some of the conventions of my previous graphs also apply
to this example. Here, however, brackets and beams embrace pitch collections
notable for their interval successions. Since these patterns operate against a
background of the chromatic scale, the intervals are labelled by integers (measuring
numbers of semitones). With a single exception, none of the interval-succession
patterns in this song is developed nearly to the degree Berg was later to favour. A
few of the patterns might even be discounted as being inherent in normal linear
movement. To my mind, however, Example 4-5 traces an embryonic stage in
Bergs awareness of chromatically based interval design.
The patterns emerging from the example are o f both kinds outlined in
Chapter 3: interval cycles and wedges. The former comprise both uni-intervallic
76
2 -0
&
Ir i"| |I 1
*Ti
J!
cc
<
Reprinted by permission of Robert I.icnaii. Berlin
Example 4-5. Song 3: interval-succession patterns.
,4! <N
iji
77
successions and some repeated two- or three-interval arrangements. Berg favours

four intervals in uni-intervallic sequences here: interval 1, principally in the final
notes o f the hexachord and related statements; interval 3, among the salient pitches
of the opening vocal phrase (mm. 1-3); and intervals 5 and 7 (which belong to the
same interval class, ic 5). These last intervals are conspicuous in both voice and
piano from m. 3, throughout the B section, to m. 9 (interval 5 also forms the basis
for the B sections quartal chords). Meanwhile the vocal line in sections A and B
is marked by several pairings of intervals 1 and 2. There is as well the opening
formation 4-4-1, which is curtailed to 4-1 at the end o f the first .jhrase and is
replaced by 3-3-3-1 at the beginning o f the second.
In the main, there is just one wedge pattern: the 4-5-6 expansion which marks
the songs bold tetrachordal motive.9 This figure gives rise, however, to the works
only extended interval design, that of the final vocal phrase (mm. 8-11). Frequent
changes of melodic direction here bifurcate the vocal line Both its upper and lower
strands mostly proceed chromatically (interval 1), while the A-5-6 wedge figure is
worked out in note pairs between the strands and expanded to encompass interval
7 (an expansion mirrored in the LH) It must be admitted that even this, the songs
most developed intervalhc pattern, is a rudimentary one. We shall uncover a more
systematic attention to intervalhc succession in Song 2, and a true flowering of
such designs in Song 4.
At the outset of this chapter, I mentioned that Nun ich der Riesen Starksten
uberwand is the least advanced of the Op. 2 songs, the song that seems most
allied to the common-practice tradition. The necessity in my analysis, however, for
several analytic graphs points to a multiplicity of possible meanings embedded in
the pitch materials of this song. We have seen that Bergs handling of traditional
9I have also posited a single contracting pattern, 4-3-2, in the vocal line m m 4
78
tonal processes here is marked by ambiguity. At the same time we find newer
processes: some which partition the octave symmetrically, others which build
patterns from interval successions, still others (pc 'set equivalence and
complementation) which emerge more abstractly from intervalhc congruence What
these new processes share is a basis in the chromatic scale, rather than the diatonic,
as a primary pitch series. As we have also seen, however, the old' and new
types of pitch structure cannot be separated. Bergs use of the complementary
hexachord classes 6-Z38 and 6-Z6 might seem new, for instance, but these
hexachords are first used to outline the tonic triad. Andto choose just one other
examplethe songs first block harmony functions both (ambiguously) in a
traditional way and as part of a pattern of class 4-27 collections In Song 2, the
subject of the following chapter, Berg explores the convergence of the old and
the new in a different way, blending common-practice relationships with those
traceable to the whole-tone scale.
CHAPTER 5
SONG 2, Schlafend tragt man mich in mein Heimatland
We tum from the least familiar of these songs to the most familiar. Even before
Craig Ayrey published his analysis of Schlafend tragt man mich in mein
Heimatland'" (Ayrey 1982) this song had gained some currency in discussions of
Berg's early music. Hans Redlich may have been the first to draw attention to the
systematic pitch design of its opening measures and their close relationship to a
passage in Song 4 (Redlich 1957, 42-44). George Perle later cited both passages
as the earliest examples o f Bergs interest in interval cycles (Perle 1977a, 3;
1985, 161-162). Ayrey's study, however, brought the whole piece into focus, and
the songs austere harmonic design has since made it a ready subject for analysis
seminars in early twentieth-century music. Furthermore in a reflection o f both the
aim and the influence of Ayreys essaythis song is usually taken to embody the
confluence of, or the dichotomy between, tonal and atonal methods of pitch
structure. It is confluence, rather than dichotomy, upon which I wish to lay
emphasis in my following analysis.

In Alfred Momberts Der Gluhende cycle Schlafend tragt man mich directly
precedes Nun ich der Riesen Starksten iiberwand, set by Berg in Song 3.
Schlafend tragt man mich is again a dream ffagment, the poets return home
again its central image. Here, however, the dream is almost devoid o f action: the
sleeping poet is borne home from afar . . iiber Gipfel, iiber Schliinde, / iiber ein
79
80
dunkles Meer. The repetition of iiber and the echoing of the phrase in mein
Heimatland are both hypnotic and obsessive, and the landscape images are
ominous. Momberts languid dream is an incipient nightmare
Although the overlapping flow of motives smoothly elides the musical phrases,
Berg's setting may again be parsed as a ternary form, allied to the text as follows.
A
phrase 1
mm. 1-4
interlude
phrase 2
mm. 4-8
mm. 9-13
A'
phrase 3
mm. 13-18
Schlafend tragt man mich

m mein Heimatland.
Feme komm ich her,
iiber Gipfel, iiber Schliinde,
iiber ein dunkles Meer
in mein Heimatland.
As in Song 3, section A' is again defined by the return o f material from the songs
initial measures. The voice drifts into an expanded restatement of its opening
phrase in m. 13 and finds its original pitch level one measure later. The piano then
quickly recapitulates its opening chords in mm. 15-18, compressing their rhythm.
As will become clear, the E section displays elements of contrast tc the two outer
divisions, yet it shaies with them its underlying motivic materials.
It is again possible to trace most of the material in this song to two motivic
gestures. In this case both gestures are melodic, and both are fairly malleable. They
are also commingled at times (especially in the songs middle section) and are
related in their pitch structures.
The songs opening phrase, reproduced in Example 5-la, exposes both motives
The first to enter is not immediately recognizable as melodic because it sits atop
the pianos chords. The initial five notes of this figure from / b 3 to g \>2form its
core, to which various continuations are appended. In its original appearance, in
alternating half and quarter notes, the continuation is of descending semitones. The
sor ^s B section embraces two more statements o f the motive, transferred to the
81
Example 5-1.
a: Song 2, mm. 1-4.
pp ^
.....
Schla- fend
tragt man
l____ I
rfT
....
mich
in mein
1^______ i
ie___ |
Hei - mat - land,

i f _______ I
lL
J
gwo------
a&s
V
pp
Pp
b: Pitch structure o f motives.

4 -2 5
15,7,11,1]
I 3-3 [ 7 , 10.111
|10,11,0,3,4,7] /
6-Z 44
(SC [H] B [E] G)
3-3 10,3,4]
10-5
3-8 [0,4,6]
[321
c: mm. 4-9.
4
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
82
voice and rh y th m ica lly compressed, the first is transposed down an octave
(mm. 9-10, doubled by the piano LH), the second is lowered a further semitone
(mm. 11-12). This vocal sequence is shadowed by two more statements in the
piano RH (mm. 10-11 and 12-13) In the figure's final appearance (piano RH,
mm. 15-18), both its pitch level and its rhythm are borrowed from the vocal
statement in mm. 9-10
The second motivic gesture encompasses the opening vocal phrase This phrase
is then variously fractured to generate a collection of smaller elements (biacieetfcJ
and labelled a through g in Example 5-la) which echo throughout the song
The pianos interlude (s*;e Example 5-lc) is built from sequential entries of
elements f (mm. 4-5) and a (mm. 4-7), the latter of which is truncated to b
in a canon between the hands (mm. 7-8). Discernible in mm. 8-9 are elements e
and c (in the RH) and d and g (in the LH). These mixed motivic elements
also generate most of the material in the B and A' sections not already derived
from die songs first motive.
The two large motives betray careful and related intervalhc designs Moreover
some of the features they share serve to introduce a crucial aspect of the songs
pitch structure. Example 5-lb isolates the pitch content of both motives in their
initial appearances. It is possible to read the pianos pentachordal motive as a
central tertian triad bordered by semitonesa feature that will prove influential to
harmonic design in the B section. If, however, we segregate the accented tones in
this figure (the beamed notes)1 we obtain whole-tone trichord 3-8 [0,4.o], from
field WT-0. Meanwhile the vocal phrase may be partitioned into four elements
(those already labelled c, d, e, and g in Example 5-la) Elements c and
e are inversionally equivalent dyads: both are members of ic 4 These leaps
1These are the pitches in half notes in mm. 1-3: they are set to accented text syllables
in the central vocal sequence (mm 9-13).
OF/DE
m
sI
PM-1 3Vi'V i PHOTOGRAPHIC MICROCOPY TARGET

NBS 1010a ANSI/ISO #2 EQUIVALENT
I.O
U- 128
125
jso
PSBi
- 1 ^ 12.2
a
1m
l.l
II- -
kbu
1.8
^
125 111,4 j| j^
PRECISION 8*1 RESOLUTION TARGETS
83
alternate with two descending trichords, the first of whole tones (d), the second
of semitones (g). Together the two dyads constitute whole-tone tetrachord
4-25 [5,7,11,1], from field WT-1. The boundary pitches of the stepwise elements
form another trichord of class 3-8, [6,10,0] from WT-0. We note further that the
3-8 trichords of the two motives combine to yield another tetrachord of class 4-25,
[4,6,10,0], The interaction here of the two whole-tone fieldsand their
representation by set class 4-25 and its only trichordal subset, class 3-8will prove
to be central features of this songs pitch organization
Example 5-lb discloses another feature in this initial appearance of the two
motives The first three notes of each motive state trichords of set class 3-3;
sounding
together
as
they
do,
these
trichords
form
hexachord
6-Z44 [10,11,0,3,4,7]another literal encryption of Schoenbergs name We r..ay

make two comparisons with the encoded signature already found in Song 3. First,
two of the pitches in the present signature are misspelled C b and F b take the place
of the expected B l| and E I) (the H and E in Schonberg). The spellings Berg has
chosen do make sense in the context of the songs key, E b minor In fact, Berg
appears to have been thinking both in terms of traditional key functions andsince
the signature is surely intentionalin terms of pc content. Second, this signature
seems confined to Schoenbergs last name, without the preceding A I)-D i) to outline
the word Arnold Song 1, however, ends with a bass oscillation on just these two
tones (indeed, they are focal pcs in that song), so the full signature is again
present, bridging the two songs. (We may note in passing that the decachord
formed by the combined pc content of both motives lacks only these same two pcs.
And, before turning away from musical signatures, we may look ahead to the two
final bass notes of Song 2: A I) and E b, Schoenbergs initials.)
2C b is the sixth degree of the scale F b is the flattened fifth degree in the opening
V7/b5 chord.
84
Ayreys Analysis
This chapter is not a critique of Ayreys analysis of Schlafend tragt man mich
(Ayrey 1982). As the only detailed and complete published analysis o f any of the
Four Songs, however, Ayrey s study deserve some comment here
This is
especially so since I have found many of Ayreys observations perceptive and

influential to my own inquiry, and because issues of tonality and atonality also
form the basis for his analysis.
In a crucial way Ayreys approach prefigures my own, for he finds a
juxtaposition of tonal and atonal contexts in this song.
Is the song a mutation of functional tonality in which features of the
progemtal system are perceptible or even present as a high-level structure,
or is it a primal example of new techniques of tonal organization. . ? Both
readings, I think, are valid and in this particular case create a tension of
harmonic meaning that is definitive. The first Mombert song of Op. 2 is part
of the limited repertory, but unique in Berg, that can tolerate a double
historical focus: its ambiguity is in fact an essential strategy in the play of
interpretants constituting the peculiar multivalence of the piece as a
signifying structure (189-190)
Ayrey s premises diverge from mine, however, in that he construes tonal and
atonal differently. Although he does not make explicit his understanding of these
terms, his analysis implies a Schenkenan perception of tonality. Implied in turn is
a breach between what may be tonal and what must be atonal.
It turns out that the true tonality Ayrey finds in this song derives solely from
its connection with Song 3 (a connection I shall explore towards the end of my
own analysis). Within Song 2 itself the pitch organization is not explicable as
tonal, for the harmonic vocabulary is insufficiently traditional. Ayreys analysis
seeks therefore to find an alternative structural paradigm. The model he develops
is hierarchicaland embodied in fore-, middle-, and background graphsbut its
controlling structure is atonal rather than Schenkerian (198-199). Although there
85
are traditional aliusions, these are structural puns7; they serve to articulate the
pitch structure without generating i t 3
Despite his finding that the structural determinants ~of this song are not
traditional, Ayrey claims prolongational status for the hierarchical features he
describes The contextual nature of these features might better fit them to be
considered (in Straus s term) associational In addition, Ayrey does not often
make explicit the contextual bases for hts analytic decisions Some of these are
easily inferred and appear quite sound; others seem more obscure or inconsistent.
As my own analysis proceeds, I shall refer to aspects of Ayreys model, as well
as to the more fragmentary analyses of others. All of these studies agree in finding
the key to the songs pitch structure in its predominant chord type Likewise my
present attempt to chart tonality and atonality in this song will begin by
considering the characteristics of this type, set class 4-25
The 4-25 Chord

We have already met set class 4-25 (0268) as a feature of pitch design in this
songs motives. What has brought the piece to the attention of theorists is that its
harmonic life is also rooted obsessively in this single set type, the properties of
which deeply influence the songs pitch organization. We recall from Chapter 2
that Schoenberg considers 4-25 a vagrant sonority (Schoenberg 1978, 255-256
and example 189), its chief traditional roles are as an altered dominant chord
(V7/t*5) and as a French augmented sixth (F r+6/4/3), but it is also a whole-tone
collection. Tetrachord 4-25 is an especially symmetrical set type: it may be
formulated as a pair of dyads of ic 2 or of ic 4 related by a tritone (ic 6).
Example 5-2 illustrates some results of this symmetry. Set class 4-25 has only six
3The lei.n structural pun is one Ayrey quotes from Benjamin (1977, 58-59). Straus
(1987, 15) later uses the term middleground pun for the same concept
86
Example 5-2. Properties o f set class 4-25 (0268).

a:
b:
fl\i n<li ^
1
12,4,8,10]
W T-
[1,3,7,91
[0,2,6,81
rtp i c;i i
4
15.7.11,11
5
14,6,10,0]
6
[3,5,9,11]
1
[2,4.8,101
:j
1 2
1 2
[2,4.8,10]
12,4,8,10]
|1,3,7,9[
[1,3,7,91
pc-variant members; these are illustrated, in a chromatically descending sequence,

in Example 5-2a. I have numbered the variant sets from 1 to 6, listed their pc
content, and indicated to which of the two whole-tone fields they belong. As
Example 5-2a shows, a set of class 4-25 is invariant when transposed by a tntone:
lowering the set a further semitone from chord 6 returns chord 1. Likewise, as
shown in Example 5-2b, transposition by a semitone and by a perfect fifth in the
same direction again produces invariant sets.4 Berg puts these properties to work
in Song 2
An Overview of Pitch Structure

Example 5-3 is a profile of this song's overall pitch design; some details of the
points it raises will be fleshed out in later examples The present example has five
main components:
1. A complete bass line. I have stemmed bass pitches to which I shall be drawing
attention.
4Douglas Jarman notes that set-class 4-2S shares these symmetrical properties with
only two other tetrachord classes: 4-9 (0167) and 4-28 (0369)both also construable as
pairs of identical dyads related by a tritone. Berg later used 4-9 and 4-28 as Basic Cells'
in his opera Lulu (Jarman 1987, 285). See also Perle 1989.
87
KLT
*>
Reprinted by permission of Robert I.ienau, Berlin
Example 5-3. Song 2: overview.
KIT
88
2. Harmonic pitches above many bass notes. Most are in their proper registers; a
few notes in section B have been shifted for graphic clarity. The few pitches
which are not part of whole-tone collections are shown as cue-size notes.
3. A listing of the harmonies set-class names. In labelling the many 4-25
harmonies, I have used the bold-italic numbers (1-6) from Example 5-2. I have
also omitted pitches for the majority of these chords (but usually included them
for chords of sets 1 and 2). Just below the labels for non-whole-tone sets in
mm. 9-12 1 have named (parenthetically) their conspicuous whole-tone subsets.
4 Below each whole-tone set number, an indication of whether the set comes
from field WT-0 or WT-1
5 A few roman-numeral and figured-bass analytic labels. Those whose status is
especially conjectural are in parentheses.
In Example 5-3 tonal and atonal contexts, and traditional and whole-tone
materials, are cast in complementary roles. Much *>f the pitch organization of this
song hinges upon the inherent symmetnes and invariance profiles o f set-class 4-25,
yet Berg exploits these to support a recognizably traditional background design. To
assemble a model of this design we shall make three quick passes through the
example, focussing first on the bass line, then on atonal aspects of the 4-25 chords,
and finally on their tonal implications.
The Bass Line

As in Song 3, much of the bass voice leading here is composed of perfectfourth / perfect-fifth and stepwise movement (both slurred in the example). This
bass line implies a tonal structure that once again lies within common-practice
conventions. Moreover these implications are supoorted by other aspects of the
songs design: tonic and dominant bass pitches reliably appear at contextually
89
important locations. This being so, we may propose that the bass line unfolds the
following tonal programme.
The songs A section presents a two-octave coupling (marked by a dotted slur)
of the opening dominant, B b j to the b b in m. 7. (The latter pitch appears just where
a close canon between the piano lines breaks down.) This coupling motion is
mediated by another, single-octave coupling: of the E\\ in m. 4 (at the end of the
first phrase) to the e \ at the beginning of m. 7 (where the harmonic rhythm
changes for the first time). The bb of m. 7 falls stepwise to a tonic eb in m. 9, at
the beginning of the second vocal phrase. The rest of the B section sees e b earned
through another coupling to Eb in m. 12, this descent mediated by a stepwise fall
to B b in the previous measure. In the A' section is another stepwise descent to B b t
(m. 15), at which point the songs opening circle of fifths returns. Combined with
more semitonal motion, this circle carries the line swiftly through a final octave
transfer of the dominant before concluding on the tonic Eb.
Overall, then, this bass line implies two dominant-to-tonic motions The fust
is extended by registral couplings across the A and B sections. The second is
prepared and quickly traversed in the A' section. At the background level,
presumably, lies a single such motionthe most basic of all common-practice
resolutions.
The 4-25 Chords: Atonal Design

Berg does not support the bass design with a common-practice harmonic
language. Instead, many of the chords are whole-tone sonorities, and most are sets
of class 4-25. Some of these 4-25 chords may be held to project traditional
functions. More obviously, however, Berg exploits the symmetrical properties of
this whole-tone tetrachord.
90
The set names in Example 5-3 reveal two clear patterns in Bergs deployment
of 4-25 harmonies. First, it is in the A and A' sections where these harmonies are
ubiquitous. As in Song 3, Berg uses harmonic vocabulary to define the songs
ternary form. Part of the formal contrast provided by the B section springs from
its release from an exclusively whole-tone harmonic idiomwhile part of its
affinity to the outer sections results from retaining strong vestiges o f that idiom.
Second, Berg orders the 4-25 harmonies in consistent chromatic sequences
across the outer sections. A complete downward cyclerunning through all variant
sets and returning to set 1is arrayed above the circle-of-fifths bass pattern which
spans the opening phrase (mm. 1-4). In the piano interlude the sequence is
reversed. It now ascends through an entire cycle, again reaching set / in m. 7. At
this point a transition into section B begins: the pattern is again reversed but also
destabilized. The harmonic rhythm quickens in mm. 7 and 8 from two chords per
measure to three, yet the underlying sequence is retarded. Two chords o f set /,
related by an exchange of dyad pairs, begin and end m. 7; two analogous chords
of set 2 (separated by the songs first non-whole-tone harmony) occupy m. 8.
Instability overtakes the sequence as section B begins, and it breaks off after chord
3 just as the bass achieves the tonic.
As the vocal line wanders back to its opening gesture in m. 13 the sequence of
4-25 chords also resumescuriously with set 4, where it had broken off. Delayed
by repetition, the sequence again reaches chord 1 at the beginning o f m. 15. The
compressed return of the opening bass pattern then carries the harmonies rapidly
through a final, descending cycle The songs closing chords are sets / and 2,
duplicating its opening pair.
91
The 4-25 Chords: Tonal Design

The reliance on a single set class and the patterned disposition of its sets are
forceful elements for atonal order. It is clear, however, that Berg also employs the
4-25 chords to support the tonal design implied by the bass. We recall from
Chapter 3 that the correlation of the two whole-tone fields carries an analogy to the
fifth-relations o f common-practice harmony, Berg exploits this analogy as he
guides chord 4-25 through its chromatic transpositions. Adjacent chords lie
alternately in each of the whole-tone fields, and Berg uses rhythmic accent to
produce imbalances between the fields. Throughout the first two sequences
(mm. 1-7) he clearly favours WT-0the field to which the dominant B b belongs.
Sets of this field occupy the initial two thirds of each measure. Set 1 is accorded
special prominence as the boundary set of the sequences. In its initial statement,
above B b j, set 1 can plausibly be held to function as V7/b5 in the key of E b minor.
The reappearance of this set, identically disposed, above the b b at the end o f m . 7
again
suggests
register
transferand
also
transfer
of
dominant
functionbetween the two chords. Berg then keeps the set active through its
medial appearances in m. 4 and at the beginning o f m. 7 (the E I] and e l| bass tones
symmetrically dividing the overall bass ascent across the two sequences).
In m. 8 the accent is shifted for the first time to chord 2, a set from field WT-1,
and a set that includes the tonic Eb. We might well expect that Berg will now
enhance the tonics prominence through a continued focus on WT-1. To a degree,
this expectation is met: what whole-tone components there are in the B section
pertain almost exclusively to WT-1. As we shall see, however, these components
are alloyed with reminiscences of triadic harmony and clouded by close imitation
between voice and piano.
Although WT-0 reappears at the end o f m. 13, only the basss return to B b j two
measures later brings this field back to rhythmic prominence. As the final sequence
92
recapitulates and compresses *he coupling motion of mm. 1-7, chord 1 reclaims the
role of dominant. The role of closing tonic is this time claimed by another 4-25
chord, a final appearance of WT-1 set 2. This altered seventh chord cannot wholly
provide a traditional tonic resolution. As we shall discover, much of its function
is projected outside the song, to the beginning of Song 3.
Treble-Bass Models
The Schenkerian paradigm of tonal design is a two-voice, treble-bass
counterpoint (mediated, of course, by harmony). By comparison the model we have
just fashioned in Example 5-3 lacks a hierarchical treble structure matching the
bass scheme with which we began. Can one be found here, matching the one we
found for Song 3 (see Example 4-2)? Not, I think, with certainty. Faced with this
songs peculiar harmony and its pc invariances, our judgements about privileged
pcs in the treble can in some cases only be suggestive. In Example 5-4 I offer not
one but two suggestions. Although both models look superficially Schenkerian, I
must stress that salient pitches in both are contextually associated, not traditionally
prolonged. The first model, Example 5-4a, is the one I confess to favouring. The
second is essentially that proposed by Ayrey (1982, 198-199).5
It will be noticed that the A section looks the same in both models. Here I think
7/k 5
-
the basic pattern is clear: the retention of chord / (V
) through register transfer.
5The background (stemmed) bass and treble notes in Example 5-4t are equivalent to
those in Ayrey's background model. His graph includes the harmonies mediating ''ese
notes, and it does not include functional chord symbols.
A comparison of Ayreys middle- and foreground graphs with my Example 5-3 is a. so
instructive. Ayreys account of how whole-tone scale segments are projected lineariy
throughout the song seems especially detailed and powerful. However, the contextual data
often fail clearly to support Ayreys judgements here. Given the 4-25 patterns Berg is
using, linear whole-tone patterns are always detectable among groups of alternate chords.
Except in a few passages (notably mm. 4-7), however, Berg does not arrange his chords
clearly to stress such patterns.
93
Example 5-4. Song 2: treble-bass models.

B
1
a:
A'
9
11
12
15
17
i2
?2
f e
t|*
b:
8>-----
wm
A
!
!>S
9
7
1.5
7
5
ek
V âk
Both models also mark the outer-voice descent to the tonic in m. 9 as a signal
event (one distinguished on the surface by double chromatic approaches to the E b).
At this point the models diverge. Example 5-4a stresses the recapitulationnow
in both treble and bassof the previous tonal motion in mm. 15-18. This model
is the more tonally conservative, matching the background harmonic motion with
an overall treble motion, \>2 - \ (and associating the upward registral shifts of both
dominant chords T./ith downward shifts of b2). Model 5-4b, by comparison, projects
94
something of the symmetry of set-class 4-25 to the outer lines. As the bass rises
a perfect fourth so the treble falls, chromatically, a perfect fifth, and the voices
begin and end with the tritone intervalthe axis of class 4-25s symmetry. We
might object, however, that this model fails to suppor* aM prominent treble pitches
with significant events in the bass. Ultimately, 1 believe, we do not have to choose
between these two models. They capture complementary elements of pitch
organization projected by the 4-25 harmonies, elements which coalesce and sustain
each other.
Sectional Analysis
Examples 5-3 and * \ have exposed in some detail the overall contexts in
which the pitch materials of this song operate. Numerous local components remain
to be added, however, especially for the more complex harmonic environment of
the B section. Incorporating these details will be the task of analytic graphs for
each of the songs four formal units.
Section A
Phrase 1, mm. 1-4
This songs initial phrase has been thoroughly scrutinized in many other
sources6all agreeing on its structure and significanceso it requires little
elaboration here. Example 5-5 tracks the pitch content of these measures and
includes some of the findings from Example 5-lb about the songs two motives.
Nowhere in the Op. 2 songs have theorists found the confrontation between
tonality and atonality (however defined) more starkly embodied than in this phrase.
Read against the norms of common-practice harmony the progression here is a
6See Redlich 1957, 42-44; Perle 1977, 3; 1985, 161-162; Jarman 1987, 285-286;
Straus 1990, 84-88; Metz 1991, 3-5, Morgan 1991b, 85-86.
95
Example 5-5. Song 2; mm. 1-4.

A
1
2
I
I
*9 ------
........ ;
\tm......i
v
....... . '^r"--------- ;l_-----.......S*

I\tm
jj? ' '
. rm
! ..
3-8
- W ^ r r
1Tm .------ t p - -
3-8
3-8,
!
i
..
V
, i3-8 i
i 3-8
-^>--------Li
-----------fr r = r r
m
------------ a---------------.
3-8
3-8
13 -8 1
i
T
Ll, L 1
i--------- t~
b* |
/
I 5*28
----
- --
^ -------------- ----------~
1
3J
I 5-33
W T-
1
i7
et:
i7
l>
5
V ^
t5
V
0
i7
tS
=, V
etc.
Reprinted by permission o f Robert Lienau. Berlin
series o f applied V7/1,5 chords, only a slight variation on the applied V7 sequence.7
At the same time, Perle (1977, 3; 1985, 161-162) found in this phrase the earliest
example of those atonal interval cycles which were to become a mainstay of Bergs
music. We have already found fledgling interval-succession patterns in Song 3, but
the formations pursued here are a good deal more rigorous As Perle notes, the
chromatic sequence of 4-25 chords can be read as a projection of three uniintervallic cycles: descending semitones in the upper voices; rising perfect fourths
7Though Redlich (1957, 42-43) identified the applied dominant nature of the chords
here, most subsequent writers have curiously labelled them French sixth chords.
96
(descending perfect fifths) in the bass, and, embodied more abstractly in the chord
type itself, the whole-tone scale
Admittedly the pitches in these cycles are not always consistently disposed.
Even in this fact, however, there hides a certain balance in the seven-chord
sequence Up to its midpoint, chord 4, the pianos treble motive imposes irregular
voice leading on the upper parts, while the bass is consistent in rising perfect
fourths. At chord 4 the bass changes direction and the RH voice-leading becomes
uniformly chromatic (see Straus 1990, 86-87). The patterns mid-point is further
marked by the appearance of the median set 4 in the leaps of the vocal line.
(Although this set, [5,7,11,1], lends support to WT-1 in a predominantly WT-0
neighbourhood, it notably lacks two WT-1 pcs: A I) and E bthe cryptic pcs that
later underpin the songs final harmony )
Set-class 4-25s only trichordal subset, class 3-8, naturally makes numerous
appearances in most of the RH chords (and sometimes in the full piano part) as
well as in the songs motives Conversely the only dissonant tone in the wholetone environment here is the initial vocal c b . As we have seen, this tone is crucial
to the Schoenberg signature shared between the opening motives.
Piano interlude, mm. 4-8

In the pianc mteriude Berg propels the music with growing intensity towards
the next vocal entry in m. 9. Increases in dynamic level and tempo animate this
passage (Berg sets mm. 5-14 in a faster Tempo II and accelerates even from this
tempo in mm. 6-8 ) Borrowing motivic elements from the opening vocal phrase,
Berg drives them through an ascending sequence, develops a close canon in
Metz (1991, 7) connects the design of this phrasein which the last chord is
invariant with the firstwith the word Heimatland ("homeland). Straus (1990, 87)
further suggests that the opening vocal c b , a non-chord tone, is away from home.
97
mm. 6-8, and gradually splinters the motives from m. 6 onwards (see
Example 5-lc).
If the previous harmonic sequence could be ascribed common-practice
functions, its reversal in the interlude cannot: nsing-fifths sequences of altered
chords find no place in traditional tonality. Berg does, however, project ascending
interval patterns here quite clearly. Jarman (1987, 286) points out that the
partitioning of 4-25 harmonies here differs from that in the opening phrase. There
the chords seemed disposed as pairs of tritones; here they are pairs of majorthird / minor-sixth dyads. In Example 5-6 the stemmed (and beamed) notes are
those belonging to the 4-25 chords. We can see that throughout most of the
ascending sequence (mm. 4-6), major-third and minor-sixth dyads alternate within
each hand and between the hands, each successive measure shifting this alternation
a whole tone higher. By the middle of m. 6 disruptive elements begin to unsettle
the pattern. As the short-lived canon at the minor ninth develops between the
hands, the disposition of the dyads becomes clouded. The main body of the canon,
in m. 7, marks the arrival of the sequence back at set I. From this point on the
distortions of harmonic rhythm, the dissolution of the canon, and the further
fracturing of motives serve to augment the musics intensity. Extra pitches, which
have been present from the outset, begin seriously to obscure the clarity o f the
4-25 chords. Mostly these extra tones are other members of the whole-tone scales,
but in m. 8, the first non-whole-tone sonoritya tertian triad (in cue-size notes in
the example)makes a passing appearance.
Section B, mm. 9-13

Berg marked the central measures of Song 3 by simplifying his harmonic
vocabulary, turning from chromatic creeping sonorities to diatonic and repetitive
ones. In the B section of Song 2 he does the opposite, complicating and obscuring
98
r>.Ln
99
the harmonic idiom, a process he began in the piano interlude. Example 5-7 maps
the co-existence in these measures of some conflicting patterns of pitch
organization.
In mm. 8-9 the songs initial motives are reassigned Borrowing the pianos
five-note gesture, the voice condenses it rhythmically and states it twice in
sequence. Its two statements are intertwined with two others in the piano RH. (The
boundary pitches o f the motivic statements are beamed together in Example 5-7.)
All four statements are smoothly linked. The voices first one lies at the motives
original pc level, and its second overlaps with motivic material from the following
A' section. This latter statement also shares its boundary pcs with the surrounding
o
piano statements.
The rhythm o f these statements defines a new harmonic rhythm. Replacing the
original half-quarter pattern dissolved in mm. 7-8 is a pattern o f dotted-quarter
values which confounds the triple metre. Moreover, where the harmonic shifts
previously embodied the two different whole-tone fields, they now feature though
not with perfect claritytwo different harmonic genres. The first half of each
measure retains strong whole-tone components. Except at the borders o f the section
(mm. 9 and 13), however, the whole-tone collections are impure. They are also all
confined to field WT-1, the tonic-containing field. (In Example 5-7 all full-size
notes are those belonging to whole-tone collections. These subset collections are
labelled parenthetically below the bracketed set names.) In the measures second
halves whole-tone content is either absent (in mm. 10, 12) or less strongly felt (in
mm. 9, 11). Instead, guided by the central triads of the five-note motive, Berg uses
tertian triads (sets o f class 3-11)an ironic way to add complexity to a harmonic
palette! Though sounding vaguely traditional, the triads are usually mingled with
9The boundary pitches of the vocal statements also project the contrary meanings of
the words they set: Feme / her (far / here); Gipfel / Schlunde (mountain / ravine).
100
ffi
CN
101
other pitches, and they are certainly not tonally functional in their present context.
They are therefore divorced from the strongly directed bass line with its octave
transfer of the tonic E b. The one cmcialtime when all components coalesce is
at the initial bass resolution to e b in m. 9. The interludes sequence of major thirds
comes to a (staggered) resolution above this tonic, approaching E b-G dyads both
from above (RH and voice) and below (LH). This dyad seems to imply both an
incomplete tonic triad and, as set-class 2-4 [3,7], whole-tone field WT-1.10
Section A ', mm. 13-18

As in Song 3, the A' section o f Song 2 features not simply the reversion to
opening material, but also its temporal realignment. In Example 5-8 the main
feature o f this realignment is evident. The vocal line restates its original gesture but
in expanded form. Much of its material now appears before, rather than during, the
pianos recapitulation o f its falling-fifths sequence.
In fashioning the closing vocal phrase Berg again exploits the symmetry o f setclass 4-25 at the tritone. When the opening vocal gesture returns in m. 13 it is
down a tritone from its initial position. Because of this, the b i| - g l|1 sixth at the
9
1
beginning of m. 14 inverts the songs opening leap, cb - glj . The phrase then
continues at its original pitch level (and restates its original text).
Set 4, around which the vocal line builds its expanded presentation, mirrors the
harmony with which the piano resumes its focus on set-class 4-25 in mm. 13-14.
Field WT-1 predominates rhythmically in these two measures, and until m. 15 the
4-25 chords are expanded by other whole-tone members (the cue-size notes in
Example 5-8). The basss arrival on ffbj in m. 15 launches the restatement o f the
10Ayrey (1982, 1">2-193) refers to this measures almost explicit Eb major chord,
which he takes to represent feme, as opposed to the songs whole-tone Heimatland.
J Hik
-fw 1
>4
-t*s-
'!
:#
Ji
-J
q
"I
I',
-Tlij
#*
iii
"J
II 11
I11:
ill
TS-
M
rf* !
A!
Reprinted by permission of Robert Lienau, Berlin
Hi*
103
opening chordal sequence.11 This sequence also returns the initial five-note motive
to the pianobut now with the compressed rhythm given to it in m. 9 by the
voice. Despite the lhythmic change field WT-0 still predominates through mm. 15
and 16, and only gives way in the final resolution to chord 2 in m. 17.
The Linking of Songs 2 and 3

The songs final chord 2, though appearing over a tonic bass, does not yield a
typical tonic resolution; rather it is one o f the features that Berg uses to bind Songs
2 and 3 into something of a central unit for the Op. 2 cycle. The other features are
clearly evident. The final measure of Song 2 has but two of its three beats; the last
beat is supplied (after a fermata) by the anacrusis of Song 3. Into the space
bridging the songs Berg introduces the unbalanced rhythmic figure that will play
a central role in Song 3 (see Examples 3-lb and c)
Song 3 also generates much of the functional meaning for Song 2s final
harmony As Song 2s opening chord 1 can be read as V
of Eb minor, its
closing chord 2 serves as V7/b5 of Song 3 s A b minor, to which it resolves in the

11
1
latters opening phrase. In addition, Berg drops the vocal a l| from chord 2 in
m. 18. The remaining trichord, set 3-8 [1,3,7], is a more traditional incomplete V7
Furthermore trichord 3-8 is a both whole-tone subset o f Song 2s tetrachord 4-25,
as well as a subset of Song 3s central harmonic type, tetrachord 4-27.
1'Berg scholars generally agree that there axe two misprints in the piano RH part in
m. 15: the b l|1 in the third cuord should be a | 1, and the c l|1 in the final chord should be
c b1. (Berg corrected the second, but not the first, of these mistakes in his own copy; see
Kett 1989, 87, n. 23.) I have corrected both in Example 5-8.
12This function in turn casts another light back on chord / as it occurs in m. 16 of
Song 2, with E l| in the bass. This chord might now assume the other functional guise of
set 4-25, as a (misspelled) French sixth.
Having examined the manuscripts, Rockmaker speculates that the idea of

coupling Songs 2 and 3 is one that occurred to Berg only after he had already
sketched the songs. He then added the distinctive motive and dominant-sounding
harmony at the end of song 2. and changed the ending of song 3 so that there is
a return to the harmonic center of song 2 (Rockmaker 1990, 5-6). This would
explain why Berg does not integrate the motivic and harmonic designs o f the songs
more closely. Afterthought or not, however, the linkage and the strong dominant
(and weak tonic) emphasis we have already noted in Song 3 suggest that E b may
indeed serve as an overall tonal centre for the pair. Example 5-9 embodies this
suggestion in a background sketch. This sketch focusses on the harmonic outlines
and avoids an (I suspect vain) attempt to trace a connecting Urlinie for the songs.13
Example 5-9. Overall tonality of Songs 2 and 3.

Song 2
15
3 |*
17
Song 3
11
n.
r
1.5
ek
u
V
^6
k{
I=V
8
5
IV
,3Both Ayrey (1982, 192) and Kett (1989, 82) also produce outlines of the pairs
overall Eb tonality.
105
Douglas Jarman (1987, 285) terms Song 2 perhaps the most ingenious and the
most forward-looking of [Bergs] early works, noting its characteristically
Bergian combination o f rigorous technical procedures and emotional spontaneity .
The alliance of symmetrical interval patterns and cycles with overt tonal
referentsand with operating tonal functionswas certainly to become a crucial
resource in most of Bergs later music, and Song 2 marks a turning point in his
development o f this resource.
O f more immediate concern for this study is Bergs exploitation of whole-tone
fields as analogues for common-practice tonal relationships. While Song 2 exposes
the prospect of affiliating whole-tone and common-practice designs, it also betrays
two related limitations. First, my graphs for this song label only three local
common-practice harmonic functions: tonic, dominant and secondary dominant It
seems that whole-tone chordsor at least a single whole-tone chord type cannot
clearly invoke more diverse functions. Second, tne fact that major seconds are
harmonic in most whole-tone chords severely restricts the possibilities for non
harmonic tones. In the outer sections o f this song only one note, the opening vocal
cb
can count as a whole-tone dissonance. To be sure Berg introduces much
more dissonance in the songs middle section, considerably obscuring the wholetone chords and their field relationships. Only in this way, it appears, can he
provoke heightened tension in the whole-tone harmonic design. He seems,
however, to have no systematic way of integrating the use of non-whole-tone
sonorities into his whole-tone language. As we examine Song 1 in the following
chapter, we shall see that Berg overcomes the latter limitation, if not the former.
He also considerably broadens the sonorous palette with which he blends wholetone and traditional relationships.
CHAPTER 6
SONG 1, Schlafen, Schlafen, nichts als Schlafen!
If Jarman finds Song 2 the seminal creation o f Bergs early years, Rockmaker
favours Song 1: This song, not the middle two, seems to me the real turning point
in Bergs development. (Rockmaker 1990, 8). I am inclined to agree with
Rockmaker, for Bergs management of pitch resources here strikes me as markedly
more sophisticated than that we have just witnessed. In just one respect Schlafen,
Schlafen is, of all the Op. 2 songs, Bergs most conservative tonal design: it
begins and ends on the same clear tonic triad. Most of this songs harmonic plan,
however, is once again dependent on whole-tone sonorities (a greater variety of
them this time) and on whole-tone field oscillation. Moreover Berg now integrates
a third consistent group of sonorities into this mix, while making expressive use
of the only true prolongational device the whole-tone system appears to offer.

When Berg wrote to Helene in 1911 Just to sleep is everything, he was
paraphrasing a sentiment he had recently set to music: Schlafen, Schlafen, nichts
als Schlafen!or perhaps in opening these songs with Friedrich Hebbels text,
Berg was echoing his own insomniac sentiments. Certainly Hebbels romantic verse
is made to appear more tormented than it is by the Expressionist lyrics with which
Berg follows it. Even on its own, however, its vision o f the poet shrinking from
life, enshrouding himself in a dreamless, lethal sleep is an uncommonly morbid
106
107
one. Berg sets HebbeFs text to a listlessly rocking six-eight motion, turning it into
a sort of Expressionist Wiegenlied.
Like the two miniatures that follow it, Berg's expansive setting has the features
of a ternary form. More to the point, however, the images of HebbeFs poem
describe an arch shape: mortal sleep and closed eyes at its beginning and ending,
life's abundance at its apex. Berg matches this design with another step in his
assimilation of symmetrical means: his earliest attempt at a formal palindrome. The
palindrome here is not Bergs strictest, but he pursues it on several fronts. As Kett
points out, the songs dynamic and textural shapes are roughly symmetrical about
a climactic point in mm. 16-17. The dynamic levels progress from ppp to / to
pppp, the number of simultaneously sounded tones from one to eight and back to
one. There are also strong palindromic elements in Bergs layout of pitch materials
In this regard he fashions the palindrome most strictly at the songs extremities: the
final five measures are approximate mirror images of the opening five.1 Morgan
shows, however, that a symmetrical pitch arc can be traced more loosely through
the entire song. This arc is carried principally by the piano RH in mm. 1-10
(doubled by the voice) and mm. 23-30. In the central measures it is transferred to
the voice, which ascends from d Ij1 in m. 10 to the climactic f \ 2 in mm 16-17,
subsiding back to its final d \
in m. 24
^ e t t graphs the pitch palindrome formed by mm. 1-5 and mm. 26-30 (1989, 75). He
also illustrates the dynamic and textural symmetries of this song in a graph (1989, 74).
2Morgan graphs this arc in his study of Berg's use of retrograde and circular forms
(1991a, 134). In connection with Morgans graph we might note basic symmetnes of
overall tessitura in this song. The piano spans four octaves from its initial low D \ to its
highest
in mm. 16-17, then five octaves to its final D l|, A similar motion is present
in the voice, which rises a single octave from an initial / V to the climactic f \ 2 before
falling to its final d ll1 (its line being then continued by the piano postlude, whose RH
returns to the initial f \ !).
108
Mapping the songs palindromic constituents onto its harmonic and motivic
ones produces several likely formal plans for this song. As Morgan describes it,
The music o f Op. 2, No. 1 is . . . fundamentally multivalent (and thus
fundamentally Bergian), incorporating features attributable to several possible
formal models: ternary, tension-release, continuous variation, and retro? ade
(Morgan 1991a, 136). In my analysis I partition the song not into three sections but
into four, as follows.
A
B
mm. 1-6
mm. 6-10
mm. 11-14
mm 15-20
A'
phrase 1
phrase 2
division 1
division 2
mm. 21-25
mm. 26-30
Schlafen, Schlafen, Nichts als Schlafen!

Kein Erwachen, keinen Traum!
Jener Wehen, die mich trafen,
Leisestes Erinnem kaum,
DaB ich, wenn des Lebens Fiille
Nieder klingt in meine Ruh,
Nur noch tiefer mich verhiille,
Fester zu die Augen thu!
Sections B and C can be held to constitute the central portion o f a ternary design.
Again Berg elides the formal boundaries, indeed some different sites for these
boundaries are valid.^ As we shall see, I base my appraisal o f the songs form on
Bergs disposition of pitch (and predominantly harmonic) materials.
The musical fabric of this song is again strongly motivic, but it is not this time
allied to a pair o f motives. Instead a single three-note gesture and especially its
last two notes generate most of the songs substance. The gesture is reached at
the end of the first vocal phrase (reproduced in Example 6-1). As Camer puts it,
Song 1 may be described as a study in the emotional effect of downward
appoggiaturas as the musical symbol of a sigh. (Camer 1983, 98). The sigh first
3Rockmaker (1990, 9) and Morgan (1991a, 134) both assign a ternary form to the
song, but begin the A' section in m. 24, at the piano postlude. Ketts judgement is slightly
different: A (mm. 1-10), B (mm. 10-19), A' (mm. 19-24), Coda (mm. 24-30).
109
Example 6-1. Song 1: mm. 1-5, vocal line.

Sehr langsam
3-5 111.4.5]
PP
&
f
Schla-fcn.
Schla- ten.
mchts ab>
Schla - fen'
i3-5
|0,5,<>!
Reprinted by permission o f Robert Lienau. Berlin
i i3-8
[0,4,t>J
appears in m. 5 and thereafter echoes through the song. More generally the
semitonal motion it embodies, presaged in the phrases wedge pattern, pervades
almost all of the songs surface voice leading. Those linear motions that are not
semitonal are derived from the gestures other component, the tritone leap, and
from its precursors, the minor sixth and perfect fifth.
4
The motives tritone and appoggiatura are also vital to the harmonic life of
Song 1. Together they form a linear statement of trichord 3-5 [11,4,5], As we have
already seen in Example 3-3, however, the appoggiatura is supported in the piano
RH by a harmony of the same set type, 3-5 [0,5,6] (added to the vocal staff in the
present example) This sonority resolves with the appoggiatura to trichord
3-8 [0,4,6]a whole-tone class now familiar from Song 2. It will emerge that these
two trichord types, and the resolution of the first into the second, lie at the heart
of Song 1s harmonic construction.
An Overview of Pitch Structure

I present my account of this songs overall pitch design in Example 6-2. The
conventions of this example are as follows.
4The two-note sighing gesture in m. 5 is technically a suspension figure, though in
many of its later appearances it is an appoggiatura For simplicity I shall term all
statements of this figure appoggiaturas.
110
JBT
*T
CC-
(V)
Example 6-2. Song 1: voice-leading graphs.
(V)
-i* ~
V
f
r^.
**y
LTl * T
CO
<*&
cK
TV
Example 6-2 (cont'd).

A'
ie
16
7 26
(5-33)
W l-
(0)
7 28
(5-13)
( 1)
5 20
20
4 27 b-32 5-12 M l 4-11 4 24 6-12 5-12614 5-25

(3 HI
(5-3Jl | i-(j)
(i)
(II
(ti)
21
5-26
(4-24)
(I)
22
24
2 )
27
26
2B
(4-27)
5 125- 144 184 24 ^-42*5-114-/294 /1 5 4 -2 I4 V 2 9 5-2H5-11 42155-29
5 30 4 27
0 8) (4 2 4 )0 8)
(3 8)
(4 21)
(1)
(181
(I (1)
0 (1)
(I)
(0) (t)
tk*
i *
,< 0
,J * . *t*
7-26
(5-3 3)
WT- (0)
7-28
(5 it)
6-32
(I)
<<
4 24 6-32
5 26
r>-34
(4 24)
(4-21)
in
o)
IV
Reprinted by permission of Robert l.ienmt, Berlin
4 24
5 3 ) 4 / 2 0 4 21
(3 8 )
4/20
(I I!1
5 li
(i)
in
(V )
(I)
(V )
(I)
(V )
(I)
(4 77)
5-20
4 27
0 8)
(3 8 )
(t)
(I)
29
5 3S1II
112
1. The example has two voice-leading graphs, labelled a and b. The first is
a surface-level graph. It includes nearly all of the song's pitches, principally
omitting some note repetitions in mm. 8-10 and 16-17 and most octave
doublings. Graph 6-2b delves somewhat below the surface. I obtain it mainly
by paring away the many surface-level appoggiatura motions and (in section C)
by removing chordal notes that cloud some chromatic linear patterns. All
pitches m the former graph which do not make it to the latter are given as cuesize notes. In turn, the cue-size notes in Graph 6-2b could, 1 surmise, be
expunged in a yet deeper-level account (My analysis does not, however,
require such a deeper-level graph.)
2. In both graphs I indicate voice-leading motions by slurs.
3. While I indicate the song's main formal sections, as usual, by double barlines,
I also use single barlines to mark further divisions, including those in the A and
A sections.
4. Below each graph are set classifications of the songs harmonies. For many
non-whole-tone sets, I indicate the largest whole-tone subsets in parentheses.
1 also designate the field to which each whole-tone set (or subset) belongs. As
with the note sizes, I employ smaller type to indicate those sets which do not
(or, for Graph 6-2b, would not) survive to the next graphic level.
5 I use stems and (broken) beams to link the few most prominent pitches in the
treble and bass lines into pc collections.
6. Below Graph 6-2b I include roman-numeral / figured-bass labels for some
chords. I set in parentheses those whose functional status I feel is uncertain.
Graph 6-2a confirms immediately that the surface voice-leading in this song is
heavily semitonal, in the opening and closing sections it is almost exclusively so.
For its part the bass line recalls that of Song 2 in combining semitonal motion with
motion by fifths and fourths. Perfect fifths- -at times altered to tritonesoccupy
113
the bass rocking motion in the outer sections (some of these appear in the graphs
as the bottom two chordal voices). Perfect fourths occur in the B section, in a
rising-fourths pattern reminiscent o f those in Song 2
Do these bass motions, like their counterparts in Song 2, invoke a commonpractice tonal design? One thing certainly leads us to expect so: the song begins
and ends on the tonic triad. The opening pedal tones, D t| and A l|, further imply in
their rocking motion a local tonic-dominant relationship between some of the
harmonies they support A few other chords in Graph 6-2bthose at the ends of
the B and C sectionsalso admit fairly secure functional definition. When,
however, most of the pc collections from mm. 5-10 reappear in mm. 22-25, the
absence of their former bass tones seriously impairs the clarity of their functions;
these must now be imputed to them by analogy. And assigning any traditional
functions to many of the central five- to seven-note sonorities appears futile. V
are left with a rough profile in which the tonic function, underpinned by the pe^ u
dyad, commands the song's opening section. This gives way in m. 11 to a possible
dominant chord, whose bass C # is then transferred by the rising-fourths pattern to
cjf in m. 14. Disarraypresumably deliberateovertakes the plan throughout the
C section until subdominant harmonies in mm. 20-21 prepare the (conjectural)
return of the dominant. Repeated local resolutions to (again conjectural) tonic
chords foreshadow the ultimate settlement on the (happily not conjectural) tonic
triad.
I believe this plan, fragmentary as it is, is influential in our perception of
Song 1. Much fullerand moreover integral to the foregoing planis the songs
whole-tone design. Extending the technique he develops in Song 2, Berg again
5Not surprisingly Devoto features Song 1 in his study of Bergs creeping

chromaticism. He presents a graph of the songs bass motion, one which illustrates the
contrast between tonicizing motions and chromatic creeping, the former marked at various
places by chords supported by a perfect fifth in the lower voices. (DeVoto 1991, 68)
114
centres his harmonic vocabulary around whole-tone collections. Again field

alternation patterns help to describe the songs formal areas. Again a clouding of
the whole-tone idiom and a breakdown in field patterns generate the tension
required for the songs climactic measures. What is new is that the non-whole-tone
elements are now reliably configured , they are principally members o f the tritonalquartal family. Their relationship to the whole-tone structure is now clearly
defined: they originate as adjunct, mainly almost-whole-tone sets, generated by the
songs appoggiatura motive. And they begin to manifest structural relationships of
their owna process we shall see Berg continue in Song 4.
Sectional Analysis
The confluence of traditional, whole-tone, and tritonal-quartal elements in this
song is an intricate one and is best understood through a close analysis o f the
songs formal divisions. The graphs in Example 6-2 are detailed enough to serve
for much of this analysis, though they will need to be supplemented at times with
locally specific examples.
Section A
Phrase 1, mm. 1-6
We have noted that the songs motivic basis is established at the end of its
opening phrase. Like the initial phrase o f Song 3, this one appears strongly driven
towards its end, the motivic appoggiatura gesture in m. 5. In common-practice
terms, however, the entire phrase is simply an ornamented tonic function, grounded
in the pedal D !| and, above that, the slightly decorated^ l|. The driving force behind
the phrase is only evident when we weigh its whole-tone materials, as we began
to do in examining the appoggiatura figure in Examples 3-3 and 6-1. We saw in
the former example that this appoggiatura only retains its prolongational status in
relation to the whole-tone harmonic framework. The RH resolution o f trichord
115
3-5 [0,5,6] to 3-8 [0,4,6] is augmented by the bass >l) to a resolution of tetrachord
4-Z15 [0,2,5,6] to whole-tone tetrachord 4-21 [0,2,4,6], We now observe from
Example 6-2 that the task of the preceding measures is to'prepare this gesture by
advancing smoothly from the tertian-diatonic opening to the whole-tone
environment. After the D minor triad come two different versions of tetrachord
4-27: one in inverted form, 4-27i [2,5,8,10], the second in original form,
[9,11,2,5]. As a superset of both trichords 3-11 and 3-8, 4-27 mediates between the
tertian-diatonic and whole-tone idioms. We then arrive at the goal harmonies and
the appoggiatura figure. The overall chord to which this figure resolves, pentachord
5-34 [0,2,4,6,9] appropriately sums up both the tonal and the whole-tone aims for
this phrase. It is a tonic chord, if a rather extended one (I9/l*
). It encompasses the
tonic triad, two inversely related versions of mediating class 4-27 (4-27i [6,9,0,2]
and 4-27 [4,6,9,0]), and whole-tone tetrachord 4-21 [0,2,4,6], Its whole-tone
content lies in field WT-0, the tonic-containing field. We see, in fact, that the
phrase has already initiated a regular oscillation of fields through the preceding
4-27 chords. The goal pentachord is preceded by the tntonal-quartal pentachord
5-32 [0,2,5,6,9], A superset of trichords 3-5, 3-8, and 3-11, this sonority will
assume its primary role as the closing harmony of Song 4.
Phrase 2, mm. 6-10

The opening phrase securely establishes the tonic region while exposing the set
families and relationships upon which this song is based. Its successor languidly
extends these elements within a narrow compass, a brief piano interlude then
accelerates towards the song's awakening in m. 11. Example 6-3 expands the
116
summary given of this phrase in the main graphs and takes account of the rhythmic
interplay of elements here 6
In m. 7 Berg takes the appoggiatura gesture to a higher levelin two senses
of the word higher. He transposes the entire gesture up a semitone (excepting the
bass A lj, which becomes the stable pedal tone). As the RH trichord 3-5 prepares
again to resolve to 3-8, the bass oscillation produces in turn both all-interval
tetrachords, 4-Z15 and 4-Z29: overall, pentachord 5-28. The resolution this time
is to whole-tone pentachord 5-33 [1,3,5,7,9] from field WT-1. Measure 8 sees the
gesture lowered again, so m. 7 stands as an upper neighbour to its surroundingsa
higher-level semitonal gesture derived from the appoggiatura figure.
Echoes of this semitonal motion resound in the following measures, quickening
in harmonic rhythm. By mm. 8-9, however, the rocking bass pattern is slightly
altered: the oscillation of A t| and Dl| now underlies the main RH chord changes.
The implications of this shift are twofold. It signals, on the one hand, a subtle
move towards independence for the tritonal-quartal harmonies. The resolutions
of tetrachord 4-Z29 [6,7,9,1] (and in m. 10, of pentachord 5-28) are not now to a
whole-tone chord but to its Z-mate, 4-Z15 [0,2,5,6] (which itself continues to
resolve, as before, to 4-21 [0,2,4,6]). This juxtaposition of the all-interval
tetrachords, presaged in m. 7, plays upon a specifically intervallic, atonal
correlation. On the other hand, these same 4-Z29 chords, built above the b ass^ l|,
f AA/ U
are this songs clearest dominant-function harmonies (V " * ' *) and their resolution
over the basss falling fifth its clearest tonicizing motions. Indeed it is only by
analogy with the 4-Z29 chords in mm. 8 and 9 that one can posit dominant
functions for the 5-28 harmonies in mm. 7 and 10-11and for similar chords in
the songs closing section.
6In my set labelling in Example 6-3 I take no account of the d # 1 lower neighbour
tones in mm. 6, 8, and 9, nor of the brief >l| passing tone in the bass at the end of m. 10.

B
11
10
Sdila
fen!
kei -
Kein Er - wa
nen Traum!
(711 #!
4 -/1 5
.5 -3 2
(3-8)
WT-
4-21
. . 5-34
(4-21)
4-27
4 -/1 5 4-Z29
.
. 5-28
(4-25)
1
(0)
. . 5-33 _
11.3.5,7.0]
10,2,5.6] 10,2,4.6]
(V)
Reprinted bv permission o f Robert Lienau. Berlin
4 -/2 9 4 -/1 5 4-21
16.7.9,1]
(3-8) (3-8)
(3-8)
*7
1
4-24 4 -/1 5 4-21
mo
d:
4-21
(1)
<j
t'l
t
<
5-28
5 28
(4-25)
(4-25)
(1)
(1)
4 -/2 9 4 -/1 5 4 21 5-28 4 -/1 5 4-21

(3-8)
(3-8)
(0
q
%
Jl 10
k 7
I
(4-25) (3-8)
(1)
0
0
9
*
(V)
(V)
(V)
117
118
After m. 7 the pure whole-tone content o f this passage is restricted to four more
appearances of tetrachord 4-21 [0,2,4,6] in m. 8, 9 and 10. These, however, are the
stable tonic-supported chords; they are moreover products o f a kind of double
appoggiatura motion from the 4-Z29 harmonies. They, and the tonic-containing
field WT-0 thereby receive the tonal emphasis the appoggiatura imparts. Only at
the first chord of m. 11 is the pattern of stress on WT-0 broken.
The interplay o f materials in this songs A section is especially striking. Berg
does what composers traditionally do in opening sections: he establishes the pre
eminence of the tonic pitch class while projecting its relationship to the dominant.
He manages to do so both in the realm of conventional root movement and in the
opposition of whole-tone fields. The sense of pull between these fields is then
enhanced by the ever-presentand truly functioning appoggiatura figures,
projected in trichord 3-5. Common-practice, whole-tone and tntonal-quartal
materials are integrated and all bent towards the same expository end.
Section B, mm. 11-14

With the first chord of m. 11 and its vocal anacrusis the song begins to drive
towards its textual and palindromic climax. Several features mark mm. 11-14 as
a new formal division. Most conspicuous is an awakening out of the narrow
registral confines of the opening section. While the piano breaks into multi-octave
flourishes in sixty-fourth notes, the voice delivers the next two lines of text in a
nsing sequence. Both parts continue to draw on the three-note motivic gesture,
albeit with growing freedom.
Example 6-2 discloses that the rising sequence is also harmonn Again the
principal harmoniesthose to which the appoggiatura figures resolve are wholetone or almost-whole-tone ones, and again they alternate between the fields. Now,
however, field WT-1 receives the stronger emphasis. As Graph 6-2 a shows, the
119
harmonies pertaining to WT-0 resolve, in appoggiatura motions, to those o f WT-1.

Accordingly they can be pared away and the sequential pattern clarified in
Graph 6-2b: two parallel motions from pure whole-tone chords, 6-35 and 5-33, to
chords o f class 4-27.
The voice leads this sequence in its overall ascent o f just a tone, from a l|1 in
m . l l to
in m. 14the latter subject both to a complex appoggiatura
decoration and to a pc exchange with an inner voice. The surface bass motion,
meanwhile, echoes the rising-fourths passages in Song 2, as does the basss overall
octave transfer from C# to c |f These two boundary tones support harmonies that
can both be ascribed dominant function: the initial hexachord 6-35 only by analogy
with earlier WT-1 sonorities, the final 4-27 harmony more conventionally (VII117).
Section C , mm . 14-20
The end of section Bs sequence provokes a greatly accelerated march to the
songs climax in mm. 16-17 and a rather more gradual retreat. In m. 15 the vocal
and bass lines rapidly diverge, the voice reaching the apex of its range at the
beginning of m. 16 As it lingers over this climax for the next two measures, it is
supported by the songs thickest sonorities, heptachords o f classes 7-26 and 7-2S.
These opulent harmoniespresumably symbolic of the abundance o f lifeare
made even richer by subjection to several rapid octave transfers.7 The effect of the
transfers then echoes in the succeeding measures as the withdrawal from the climax
is presented first in the higher register, then in the lower.
In these measures the regular fluctuation o f whole-tone fields is lost; some
chords indeed have no salient whole-tone content. As in Song 2, Berg employs
7I have omitted these transfers from the graphs of Example 6-2 so as not to obscure
my account of die songs overall design. Their absence, however, itself obscures the fact
that both voice and piano reach the apogees of their ranges in mm. 16-17.
120
disruption of the whole-tone designand here o f functional designas an agent

of instability and of contrast with the songs outer sections. These qualities are
again gained, however, by recycling familiar elements, bringing them into new
alignments. The climactic piano harmonies in mm. 16 and 17 aptly combine sets
of class 3-5 in the LH with those o f whole-tone tetrachord 4-24 in the RH (see
Example 6-4). The whole-tone content of these two repeated chords lies in different
fields, now equal in emphasis, since the heptachords are carefully balanced in
rhythmic stress.
As harmonic patterns become clouded in this section interval-succession
patterns come to greater prominence. These have been latent in the voice-leading
since the opening vocal wedge pattern. After m. 14 they appear more prevalent,
alth ou gh
still with the rudimentary quality they had in Song 3. Hidden in
Graph 6-2a, for instance, is a brief succession of whole tones and semitones
sounded in octaves by the piano RH in mm. 14-16. This formation, derived from
the appoggiatura figure, is illustrated (in single notes rather than octaves) in
Example 6-5. The most developed figure is the wedge that dominates the musics
Example 6-4. Song l:mm. 16-17, heptachord structure.
4-24
4-24
3-5
3-5
121
Example 6-5. Song 1: mm. 14-16, interval-succession pattern.
withdrawal from the climax in mm. 18-20, drawing attention to itself by being
repeated in two registers. Embedded in dense chords, this semitonal pattern is
mainly a three-voice one: a falling treble line set against rising bass and middle
lines. Graph 6-2b clarifies the pattern and emphasizes its one symmetrical
harmony, the quartal hexachord 6-32 [7,9,11,0,2,4] made salient first by its metric,
then by its registral placement. (This hexachord duplicates the one found in the
central section of Song 3.)
The whole-tone allegiance of hexachord 6-32 is notably impossible to judge
because o f the even balance of its pc content. Balance between the fields is also
maintained as the wedge concludes in the high register with a WT-0 tetrachord,
4-24 [10,0,2,6], then in the lower one with 4-24s WT-1 superset 5-26 [7,5,9,10,1],
This pentachord is also the first harmony since m. 14 to which a traditional
functionIV9/7/i5 can be imputed. Its arrival in m. 20 is signalled by the return
of perfect-fifth bass oscillation, now a fourth up from its original position at the
songs opening. The pentachord additionally has an atonal interest as the class
complement of one o f the climactic heptachords, 7-26. (The other heptachord, 7-28,
finds a number o f such matches in the 5-28 chords of the songs opening and
closing sections.)
122
Section A'
Division 1, mm. 21>25
Disagreement about where to locate the beginning of~the closing section is
understandable, as the musical patterns here are smoothly joined. I choose the
transposed reappearance in m. 21 o f pentachord 5-34the goal harmony o f the
initial phrase as the clearest token of the songs return to former material. Like
the A section, this final one is divisible into two units, though these do not quite
match an expected partition into final vocal phrase and piano postlude. The former
of these divisions, mm. 21-25, recapitulates the second phrase o f section A; the
latter, mm. 26-30, recallsin retrograde formthe opening passage.
Example 6-6 offers a two-stave reduction of mm. 21-26 for comparison with
its A-section model, already cited in Example 6-3 .8 Transfer o f opening material
up a perfect fourth has already commenced slightly before section A': with the
pedal fifth under the subdominant 5-26 harmony in m. 20. Since m. 21 is a nearly
exact transposed copy of mm. 5-6, its 5-34 pentachord may now be read as a
continued subdominant function (IV9/7/l1). At the same time, m. 21 ushers back the
regular shift of whole-tone fields as well as the appoggiatura figure and its setting
within trichords 3-5 and 3-8. This last fact becomes crucial in the following
measures. While the vocal line continues in a transposition o f earlier material, the
piano part gradually resumes its original pitch level. In mm. 22-23 it is only the
central 3-5 and 3-8 trichords that match their original versions in mm. 7-8.
Beginning with the anacrusis to m. 24, however, the entire pc content is lifted from
mm. 8-10.
With the return o f field oscillation, and o f the harmonic collections of
mm. 5-10, do we also regain the clear dominant-to-tonic resolutions found in these
8As in Example 6-3 I ignore a few local neighbour tones in my set analysis of
Example 6-6: occurrences of d $ l in mm 23-25, and the gll1 in the RH in m. 23. In
addition, I omit some octave doublings in the RH.
PM
fN
cc
CO
CO
a
CD
r
o
a:
iT
IV
?l*<
*N <
i/^l*
E
a.
<
3
2n . >
-C
C
l
at
ac
124
earlier measures? Alas, no, for Berg makes a small but decisive revision to these
harmonies. The fundamental root motion from A lj to D t|, formerly in the bass, is
relocated to the treble in mm. 23-25. While it remains strongly suggestive there,
it fails to support these chords as firmly as beforehence the hesitant parentheses
around all of the roman numerals in this passage.
Division 2, mm. 26-30

The underlyii r palindrc me motion of the last five measures is most clearly
seen in Graph 6-2b. Reversing the songs initial course from the tertian-diatonic
to the whole-tone, these closing measures return from the whole-tonethis time
the purely whole-tone pentachord 5-33back through two chords of class 4-27,
to the concluding tonic triad Even apart from the first pentachord the reversal is
not exact. The first 4-27 harmony, [9,11,2,5], matches that found in m. 4, but is
now augmented by a bass E l|. The second one replaces its model with a harmony
more amenable to resolution to the tonic chord: [5,7,10,1], a chord whose wholetone allegiance is to the dominant-containing' field WT-1, and whose bass is the
leading tone, C |1. Berg declines, then, to provide this songs closing measures with
a strongly grounded dominant-fiinction chord but does initiate a final resolution in
terms of whole-tone fields. He also seeks an additional resolution suitable to the
appoggiatura figure. As shown in Graph 6-2a, each of the closing palindromic
chords is now heavily decorated with semitonal neighbours, all resolving in
appoggiatura gestures. The final triad is preceded by a pentachords worth of such
neighbours: a black-note 5-35 chord, which yields a wholly linear resolution to the
white-note tonic triad
125
Deeper-level Structure and the Vrsatz

In Graph 6-2a it is a truly prolongational device, the semitonal appoggiatura,
that supports most of my judgements about structural pitches (the normal-size
notes) and expansionary ones (the cue-size notes). My assessments in Graph 6-2b
do not have quite the same foundation. The most likely models for deeper-level
expansion are those which invoke the oscillation of whole-tone fields, since this
oscillation continues to rely on semitonal motion. In fact, surface-level
appoggiaturas already render field WT-0 subordinate to WT-1 in mm. 11-14. 1
extend this process in Graph 6-2b. I have asserted, for instance, that the WT-1
harmony in m. 7 is readily felt as a neighbour-chord to those harmonies that
surround it. Similarly I judge WT-1-related chords in mm. 8-10 and 24-25 to be
ancillary to their WT-0 neighbours Here context, in the form of metrical
placement, aids my judgement (see Examples 6-3 and 6-6)
Context must take the lead from here on, however, for the songs harmonic
language will permit no more prolongational judgements. Extending the role of
semitonal motion, I assert that the 4-27 harmonies in the opening phrase, and their
palindromic counterparts in the closing measures, are o f passing quality Their role
is to associate the tertian-diatonic and whole-tone idioms represented at the
boundaries of these passages. Likewise the semitonal wedge patterns in mm. 15
and 18-20 may be counted as transitional, linking the climactic heptachords to the
surrounding whole-tone (and functional) materials. Finally, m the only linear design
mediated by whole-tone rather than semitonal movement, the chords of mm 12
and 13 connect those built above another conventional tonal device, the octave
transfer in the bass.
This amalgamation of the conventional and the unconventional appears to hold
even in this songs macroscopic design. Song 1 holds the promise that a
conventional Schenkerian background might be concealed behind its foreground
126
innovations. Aside from the songs beginning and ending triads, there is also a
tantalizing clue in the vocal line, which opens on scale degree
and closes in
m. 24 on L The octave transfers around the climactic point hint that the vocal
climax itself is but a registral transfer o f the Kopfton.
This promise founders, however, on the lack o f traditional support for 2. In both
the opening and closmg sections E I) is governed by its whole-tone field allegiance,
not by membership in a dominant harmony. In the repeated resolutions to the
tonic-containing field WT-0 in mm. 23-25, E l| appears with the tonic rather than
before it. Berg does associate E I) with field WT-1 by placing it in the bass in the
third-to-last chord of the palindromic pattern (see Graph 6-2b). Its resolution to the
tonic is then ornamented by the neighbour-tone C # of the following chord.
Adapting this resolution to the Schenkerian paradigm, however, requires
transferring this 2 to the treble voice, still leaving it bereft of conventional
harmonic support.
My own Ursatzor at least treble-bass modelis not a Schenkerian one: it
is not the product of deeper-level prolongation. Instead the notes marked out by
stems and beams in Example 6-2 are again contextually distinguished. They mostly
lie at the boundaries of formal sections, and they are associated with the songs
pivotal harmonic events. The linear collections formed by associating these
pitchesset 3-8 [5,9,11] in the treble, set 3-5 [1,2,7] in the basssymbolize, in
my estimation, the consistent interplay throughout this song between the wholetone and tritonal-quartal families of sets.
Having examined these songs out of the order in which they are performed, we
should remember that the rich materials of Song 1 are here being exposed to the
listener for the first time. They recur as cyclic elements in the succeeding songs:
the whole-tone procedures and perfect-fourth progressions in Song 2; the D minor
127
tonal region, the Alj-Dlj oscillation, and class 3-5 and 4-27 sonorities in Song 3.9
It remains for Song 4 to reassemble almost all o f the cycle's elements and to cast
them into new alignmentssufficiently new so that Berg himself perceived a break
with the other songs.
9Cuhously I have not found a complete Schoenberg signature hidden in the tones of
Song 1, where we might have expected it. Berg seems to have been content to outline his
teachers first name in the A f| -D i| dyad and to supply the last name at the beginning of
Song 2.
CHAPTER 7
SONG 4, W arm die Lufte
In making a distinction between Warm die Lufte and the preceding songs of
Op. 2
Berg was right, of course: Song 4 truly is different. Momberts tex. ~
longer, more dramatic, and even more enigmatic than the poems of Songs 2 and 3.
In Bergs setting the formal plan, the motivic design, and the relationship between
voice and piano are in clear contrast to those of the other songs. Bergs handling
of pitch materials is also distinctive. Even under my definitions of tonality and
atonallty, Son 4 seems to have a more atonal nature than its predecessors. It is
not that the pitch materials themselves or the kinds of relationships into which
Berg brings them are wholly novel; we have met already most of the formative
elements we shall meet in Song 4. It is rather that the atonal contexts in which
these elements can project meaningintervallic symmetries, interval-succession
patterns, set-class relationships now seem to predominate. By comparison the
consistent references we have seen to traditional tonal functions are now much
attenuated. The task for my present analysis is not only to interpret the atonal
patterns which abound in this song, but also to seek whatever tonal order may be
gleaned from its materials. Warm die Lufte is usually termed Bergs first
atonal compositiona work different in kind from the tonal songs that precede
it My analysis aims to specify what the differences really are, and particularly to
show that they are differences not of kind, but of degree.
128
129
Text, Form, and Motivic Design

In Warm die Lufte Mombert turns the qualities o f his poetrythe prosaic
syntax, the surreal images projecting mental anguishto dramatic ends. This poem
makes no reference to sleep, though in the context of these songs we may read it
as a nightmare. It does, however, deal starkly with solitude, treachery, and finally
death, the black shadow that has been hovering behind all of the earlier songs.
True to the Expressionist spirit, it is a sunny spring day, savoured in the first verse,
which inspires the bleak dramatic scene o f the second: the dusky mountain forest,
the damp trees, the fevered girl in grey crying in misery. This scene prompts the
curious moral/aesthetic reflection of the third verse: it is her betrayal and death that
give the world such deep beauty.
The general model for Bergs setting may be Schoenbergs Erwartung, written
in the summer of 1909, a work whose dramatic themes are eerily similar to
Momberts.1 Emulating Erwartung, Berg sets Momberts poem as a tiny
monodrama. The vocal declamation is rhythmically free and widely ranging; it
closely mirrors the emotional contours of the text and is seldom tied to the
accompaniment patterns. The pianos gestures are equally dramatic, especially at
the approach to the songs climax and its aftermath, where a violent double
glissando (m. 15) provokes an equally violent cascade to a percussive low B \>2
(m. 18). In Warm die Lufte Berg foreshadows his future career as a dramatic
composer.2
1Several writers have remarked on the influence of Erwartung on Bergs Warm die
Lufte: see Adorno 1991, 49; Simms 1986a, 161; DeVoto 1989, 44.
2Some writers have observed similarities between passages in this song and passages
in Wozzeck, Der Wein, and Lulu. Mary Wennerstrom notes that the songs opening
sonority [of set class 5-20] matches that of Wozzeck, while the whole-tone oscillation of
the songs opening phrase foreshadows the operas final measures (Wennerstrom 1977,
19). Glen Watkins connects the perfect-fifth dyads of mm. 10-11 and the double-glissando
figure of m. 15 with passages in Lulu and in Der Wein (Watkins 1988, 46).
130
Aiming for the operatic, Berg foregoes both the ternary designs and the motivic
patterns o f the first three songs. There is no overt return o f earlier material
anywhere in the piece, nor do the songs phrases share surface motivic gestures.
There does, however, remain a vestige o f the formal procedure found in Songs 1
and 2, a sense that familiar elements are clouded in the central, climactic measures
and restored in the final passage. Berg also preserves in his music the division o f
Momberts poem into three stanzas. The most immediate sign o f this division is
the single-note texture with which the piano bridges the stanzas, in mm. 8-9 and
mm. 18-19. Accordingly I have partitioned Song 4 into three sections, as follows.
phrase 1
phrase 2
phrase 3
mm. 1-2
mm. 3-4
mm. 4-6
phrase 4
mm 7-9
phrase 5
phrase 6
phrase 7
mm 9-10
mm 10-11
mm. 11-13
phrase 8
phrase 9
mm. 13-14
mm. 14-15
phrase 10
mm. 15-18
phrase 11
mm. 19-22
phrase 12
mm. 22-25
Warm die Lufte,

es spriefit Gras auf sonnigen Wiesen
Horch!
Horch, es fiotet die Nachtigall...
Ich will singen:
Droben hoch in diistem Bergforst,
es schmilzt und sickert kalter Schnee,
ein Madchen in grauen Kleide
lehnt an feuchtem Eichstamm,
krank sind ihre zarten Wangen,
die grauen Augen fiebem
durch Dusterriesenstamme.
Er kommt noch nicht. Er laBt mich
warten...
Stirb!
Der Eine stirbt, daneben der Andere lebt:
Das macht die Welt so tiefschon.
Of more analytical value than the broad sectional partitions are the phrase divisions
of this song. These, as we can see, generally follow the poems verse structure.
Most phrases are demarcated in the voctl line by rests. They also display their own
textures and typical figures in the accompaniment, notwithstanding that Berg elides
131
phrases by carrying some figures over from one phrase to the next. Phrases in the
B section are bound more closely than those in the outer sections. This is
especially so in phrases 7-10 where Berg develops an accompaniment pattern in
the piano that drives through the vocal phrases.
Tonal Design
Much of my analysis of this song, especially my detailed scrutiny of its phrases,
will highlight atonal properties. It is clear, however, that Berg handles pitch
materials here in a manner that continues to thrust some pitch classes into
prominence. In Example 7-11 plot the configurations of pitch salience I perceive
in this song. This graph has the following conventions.
1. The notes I include are mostly those 1 consider, on contextual grounds, to be
locally prominent. Almost all of the vocal pitches featured, for instance, appear
on accented text syllables (which I have included) and in strong metrical
positions. In the piano part I cite all of the bass pitches, in order to show some
patterns of voice leading. Above the bass, the pitches are usually those made
salient by long duration, repetition, rhythmic accent, or registral placement.
Although I do not reproduce rhythms, the notes are placed approximately in
correct rhythmic alignment.
2. I link repetitions o f pitches by ties when the notes are adjacent or nearly so.
Dotted ties and dotted lines associate some pitches across longer spans and link
some pcs through changes of register. In addition, I use slurs to associate
pitches in some voice-leading patterns similar to those in the other songs.
Example 7-1. Song 4: tonal plan.

B
10
*1
13
12
14
'4-25 14.6,10.0] 1
H
Worm
die I flt-te,
One
-gen
Wk-
Horch!
^ in
Horch
:
hoch Berg- n-hmilrt glil-
fid- NecHligill
Sehnee
8---
M*d-
Gicb-knak Wtn-genAug-fie
.........
*5* :V
C
15
17
16
18
19
20
21
23
22
25
24
**xr
-sum-
*Er...nieht
D u nucht well
Er lU lw ikcn*
cbdn.
lie!
e*
4-25 14,6,10.01
4-229 4-/15
4 229 4-215 4-729 5-32

12.3,6,9,111
B:
Reprinted by permission of Robert Lienau, Berlin
iU6 4l i7a
I I
V_V
5-32
:2,1.6,9,111
1 io 4?
Mo
|47647
I 6 17
4Mo7
l i t
*
I
. V ,V^V
I I
5-32
5-32
(2,3,6,9,111
12,1,6,9,111
4Mo7
t
I
4Mo7
I
I
OJ
M
133
3. This graph does not address pc set-class membership (an atonal attribute). I
therefore cite only a few set names, some of which mark multiple appearances
of the same sets. It is only towards the end of the song that any o f its
harmonies accept functional labels. Neither the labels I posit there nor the setclass names just above them embrace pitches from the vocal line.
As represented by Example 7-1 this songs tonal organization does not show
the kind o f coherence found in the other songs. Its patterns of pc association
mostly lack the strong connection with common-practice harmonic norms which
underlies the other songs innovations. Song 4 is not, however, tonally chaotic. Its
overriding tonal pattern appears to be one which associates three perfect-fifth
dyads, C \\ /G l|, F #/C It, and B l| /F )t, as well as their lower pcs alone. In median roles
appear tritone dyads B b/E l| and A Ij/E b, whose pcs may also appear separately. We
recall that, in the other songs, perfect-fifth dyads always maintain their traditional
function as elements of tonal stability, especially when, as in the opening and
closing measures o f Song 1, they appear in the bass. Here they are again primarily,
though not exclusively, found in the bass, and Berg may well have intended them
to carry more than a vestige of that same stability. There is additionally a sense of
tonal progression in this song from the initial dyad built on Cl| to the final one
built on fill j.
The opening C l| dyad persists as a pedal through much of section A (mm. 1-3
and 5-6). It is interrupted at m. 4 for a chromatic ascent in the bass from / # to b !|,
during w h ich /|t3 also appears in the piano as it imitates a nightingales song. That
song ends on e b1 which tone is then coupled with a I) as the first section concludes.
The same a I) then remains atop the pianos sustained chord (whose bass note is
A l| j) in mm. 10-11, as dyads on C l| and F (I recur in the RH. Repeated movements
from the former dyad to the latter are spread over three registers, the last of which
returns the pair to the bass.
134
The arrival on the F t dyad at the beginning of m. 12 launches a complex of

interval-succession patterns (to be examined later). Those in the RH, placed over
a chromatic descent in ihe bass, are grounded on two stable tones, c l|1 and f t 1.
These patterns culminate in the double glissando of m. 1S, which takes the bass to
the nadir of its descent, a brief B \ j, and (after a pause) the beginning o f its reascent, C k At the other registral extreme appears a # 3 which quickly becomes b b3.
Over the course o f the next three measures this tone plummets six octaves. In the
first part of its descent it is embedded in RH chords which also include the A/E b
dyad, as well as G b (= F #). By m. 17 the descent is much accelerated, as C l| /E If and
Gb/Bb dyads march violently down the keyboard. These two major-third dyads
form a collection we have heard before: whole-tone tetrachord 4-25 [4,6,10,0], It
was with this same tetrachord that the voice opened the song in mm. 1-2. We also
recall (from Song 2) that this set can be partitioned into two tritones. Doing so
now associates the top dyad notes B b and E !| and, beneath them, C I; and G b
(again, = F#).
The plunging dyads end in the songs lowest pitch, B b2 Two measures of
percussion on this pitch then lead to the only passage which could easily belong
to the other songsbecause the pianos material has clearly been borrowed from
two of them. We shall later examine the set-class aspects of mm. 20-22, which
have attracted some attention. What interests us at this point is that the pianos
chord sequence here combines features of earlier songs to which I have assigned
conventional harmonic meanings. In the bass is the rising-fourths cycle from the
opening of Song 2, with most of its pitches merely shifted down an octave. When
we met it before, this cycle was supporting harmonies (of class 4-25) explicable
as a sequence of applied dominant functions (see Example 5-5). Now the
harmonies are pairs of all-interval tetrachords, 4-Z29 and 4-Z15chords first
paired in mm. 8-10 of Song 1 (see Example 6-3), where they were readable as
135
dominant-to-tonic resolutions (V ^7/*6/* - 1**I0/ ^7/#). The present merger o f these two
patterns now implies another sequence o f applied dominants, oscillating between
two altered forms, and leading to the chord built on B \ in m. 22the most
conventionally directed tonal motion o f the song. The status o f the sequences goal
harmony as a local tonic is then enhanced by three more cadential gestures to the
same chord, spread again over three registers. This repeated harmony is grounded
in a perfect-fifth dyad, linking this passage into the songs broader tonal design.
Above that dyad lie pcs A t|, E b, and now D i|, a trichord whose presence I take to
be a final cryptic reference to Schoenbergs name (AD S).5
The elements of this tonal plan are not novel In addition to the dyads and the
sequence of applied harmonies, the large-scale associations between F # and B l|
(V - I?) and C I] and F (1 (compare Song 3 s movement between A b and D I]) are both
familiar. The setting into which the elements are placed, however, is not. The
overall progression, apparently from a projection of C b to one of Bl), lacks the
reference to conventional tonal models which buttressed the other songs. Except
in mm. 20-22, the salient dyads and tones are no longer embedded in harmonies
and progressions which support their meanings according to some consistent norm
(either tertian-diatonic or whole-tone). In the vocal line it is mainly the boundary
pitches of some phrases that participate in the tonal scheme, other pitches, even
those in its closing phrase, seem independent of it. (Example 7-1 does reveal that
there are rising stepwise patterns in both the opening five measures o f the vocal
line, and in its central approach to the climax [mm. 10-16], the latter in opposition
to the basss voice-leading.) In sum, there is indeed a perceptible tonal context to
Song 4. Its tonality is moreover projected by familiar elements. Both the harmonic
3Other writers have remarked on aspects of this songs apparent tonal plan. See
Wennerstrom 1977, 19; DeVoto 1989, 44-46; and Kett 1989, 84.
136
placement of those elements and their large-scale relations, however, are

unsettlingly unfamiliar and somewhat uncohesive.
Atonal Design
The same senses of familiarity and novelty, of manifest order and overall
incongruity pervades Song 4 s atonal design. One marker of incongruity is that 1
am discussing the song's atonality separately, as a context running parallel to, but
lacking integration with, its tonality. We shall find, in fact, that integration is not
entirely lacking. Neither, however, shall we find it to reach to levels of the
previous songs
A few writers have remarked that, for all its disparities with the first three
songs, Song 4 also recapitulates and transforms many of their elements 4 The truth
of this remark can be gauged by tallying the songs notable set materials. It turns
out that the set-c/ass inventory for the entire cycle, presented back in Figure 3-1,
closely matches that for Song 4 alone. Only the hexachord pair 6-Z38 / 6-Z6, from
Song 3, and pentachord 5-34, from Song 1, fail to reappear with some distinction
in this final song. Moreover my assessment of the salient collections here leads me
to cite but a few classes not found in Songs 1 to 3: pentachord 5-Z18 and its
complement, 7-Z18; pentachord 5-21, its superset 6-20, and its superset 7-21; and
semitone-bearing trichords 3-2, 3-3, and 3-4.
Though most o f this songs important set materials are not new, Berg often
deploys them now in new contexts. Even so, some familiar procedures govern this
deployment. The first is the arranging of symmetrical collections so as to project
their symmetry. In Chapter 3 1 already mentioned an example of this procedure,
Bergs partitioning of set-clas^ 4-20 in two different symmetrical arrays: the first
in this songs opening sonority, the second in mm. 10-11. Bergs second procedure
4See Wennerstrom 1977, 18-19; Simms 1986a;, 162; Kett 1989, 83.
137
is the devising of interval-succession patterns We have seen how, in mm 20-22,

Berg reworks the pattern o f Song 2 with its bass cycle of perfect fourths
Intervallic formations elsewhere in the song show that Berg was in fact
experimenting with a variety o f ways to contrive meaningful patterns. Bergs final
procedure is one we first encountered in the climactic heptachords of Song 1. the
merging o f materialsthere, whole-tone and tntonal-quartal materials; see Example
6-4 originally heard separately. That passage illustrates how such combinations
will betray themselves in Song 4. In part we shall recognize their constituent
materials from earlier appearances. In addition, Berg is careful, when combining
these materials, to keep them distinct m register
Sectional Analysis
I have refrained from immediately subjecting samples of the above procedures
to analytic scrutiny. I shall also refrain from proposing an integrated plan for
Bergs deployment o f atonal resources. A salient feature of Song 4 is indeed a
variety and something o f a disunityin its atonal structure. Shared elements do
integrate the songs formal sections: whole-tone materials pervade section A and
the all-interval tetrachords section C. Even within these sections, however, details
of atonal design often change from phrase to phrase. The procedures cited above
are best appreciated, then, by examining individual phrase units, though those in
the B section can be grouped for analysis
Section A
Phrase 1, mm. 1-2
In each o f the other songs o f Op. 2, the opening phrase serves as a
Grundgestalt, exposing the songs motivic and harmonic building blocks Despite
the lack o f motivic unity in Song 4, its initial measures preserve something o f this
function, for the set-class materials they disclose resonate m later phrases (see
138
Example 7-2a5). These measures can be read as compounding three strands of

material segregated by register. In the bass lies the first strand, the pedal dyad
CI|/GI|. Above it the other two strands are whole-tone, but they now present
collections from both fields simultaneously. In each hand of the piano part sounds
a held tone and a quarter-note ostinato pattern: set 4-21 [11,1,3,5] from WT-1 in
the LH, trichord 3-8 [8,0,2] from WT-0 in the RH. The voice allies itself with the
RH strand. In its set 4-25 [4,6,10,0] the pitches are arrayed in an expanding wedge
pattern, an interval succession of 4-6-8 semitones.
Underlying the mixture o f whole-tone materials here is another interval pattern,
one whose symmetry is revealed by Example 7-2b. If the RH ostinato is made to
embrace the initial vocal b b its trichord accretes to form another set of class 4-21
[8,10,0,2], Raising the held/l| in the LH by one octave then completes the pattern:
two mirrored tetrachords of class 4-21. Continued grafting of the vocal line onto
the RH produces a complete whole-tone heptachord 6
Aside from the whole-tone materials, other collections are exposed in these
measures. The complete opening sonority is a pentachord of class 5-20, a class we
first met towards the end of Song 3. Though this set type will play no role during
Song 4, it will reappear in the closing five notes o f the vocal line (see
Example 7-9). More important for its later use is set-class 4-20, whose
symmetrya vertical array of 4-3-4 semitones is projected by the initial pitches
of the whole-tone pattern Meanwhile the aggregate o f all the pianos material in
5In this and subsequent examples in this chapter, the main graphs present both pitches
and rhythms but omit the other musical markings of the score. The vocal text is also
included.
6Kett (1989, 83) has also partitioned these opening measures between the two wholetone fields. His reading has been disputed by Anthony Pople (1993, 392-393), who hears
the opening instead as an amalgamation of the Cl|/Glj dyad and a decorated Db -major
chord. Christopher Wintle (1994, 310-312) has leapt to Ketts defence.

'4 - 2 5
[4.6,10,Oi
Warm
8 -Z 1 5
5 -2 0
b:
4*
TO
.
i
- ----
------[f* -----
i 4 -2 1
18,10,0.2]
' 4 -2 1
[11,1,3,5]
. i *
^ -------------
. !
_ !;
---------------------------------- -- ----------
4 -2 0
these measures forms a set of class 8-Z15; we have already found i*s familiar
complement, 4-Z15. to be conspicuous in the songs closing section.
140
Phrase 2, mm. 3-4

In m. 3 the pianos whole-tone ostinati evolve into diatonic, then chromatic
lines, rising in two streams of parallel sevenths. We see from Example 7-3b that,
beneath its chromatic surface, the piano material o f m. 4 continues to be wholetone in nature: most of the metrically accented pitches in this measure (the circled
notes) form a set of class 6-35. The vocal phrase, however, has only a slight
whole-tone affiliation. Example 7-3a clarifies the basis o f this phrase: an interval

Hfs
ip
......
1
...
HTs
L^..
--------------------------
-----------------------------
\^m--------------------
|3 - 5 ____________________ ,
b:
HTs
n rr
HTs
T3
1
Es spriefit
i ^
----------
,_3J>
1rm
nrnr
Gras
auf
son - m - gen
I 5 -2 2
7 -2 2
3 -4
6 -3 5
4 -2 1
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
4 - 2 4 [9,11,1,5]
141
pattern in which two trichords of set 3-5 in rising sequence beget two others. (The
whole-step relationship of the sequential sets is then reflected in the phrases final
interval.) The inclusion of c\\2, however, augments the later trichords in this pattern
to tetrachords o f class 4-18, as shown in Example 7-3b. The interval succession
now throws up intriguing class complement relations. O f principal interest are the
complementary set classes 8-18 (the combined material in the smaller sets) and 9-5
(the entire vocal phrase, as well as the combination of the initial vocal trichord
with its accompaniment). Of additional note is the symmetrical layout of
pentachord 5-22 around the vocal triplet figure at the end of m. 3, a figure which
Berg transforms in the following measure; this pentachord is also embedded in its
complement, a heptachord of class 7-22.
Phrase 3, mm. 4-6

Measures 5-6 see the return of the Clj/Glj dyad, absent in the preceding
measure. The atonal organization in this phrase, however, is generated by two set
types which emerge in the piano towards the end of m. 4. Whole-tone tetrachord
4-24 is embodied in the goal pitches of the previous rising dyad streams, and
trichord 3-4 is formed of the RH material when the nightingales song commences.
From Example 7-4 we see that this bird song, trilling mostly on two notes, is
crowned with a flourish in which each o f the hands is assigned another 4-24
collection, again merging the two whole-tone fields. The second of the
nightingales sets, [3,5,7,11], has already appeared in the final notes o f the vocal
phrase Leading into this vocal set is another chain of trichords, this time adopting
class 3-4.
142

T5
T4
1
if.
1 '
'
......
Hordi
Horch'
es fl6-tet die Nadi - ti-gall

14-24
---- ------ 1
13-4
r 3
a
---------- r f ---------- ~
N
------------------------
jii
-24
19,11.1,51
3
_^j.
=4
L.H.
-j
Phrase 4, mm. 7-8

With the piano part reduced to a remnant o f the nightingales call, the fourth
vocal phrase brings closure to the poems first stanza (see Example 7-5). Aptly its
overall line comprises a set o f class 8-25, complementing both the tetrachord with
which it opened the song and that formed by combining the boundary pitches of
its present phrase with the pianos a \>!e fc>1 dyad: [1,3,7,9]. The vocal phrase is again
rich in atonal patterns, especially those associated with its single repeated pitch,
g lj1. Between the two appearances of this pitch lies whole-tone pentachord
5-33 [10,0,2,4,6], composed of overlapping sets o f tetrachord 4-21. (The second
of these, on the syllable sing-, mirrors the undulating wedge pattern o f the songs
opening phrase, with each of its intervals diminished by a whole tone.) The central
pentachord lies embedded in its complement, set 7-33, while the phrases opening
and closing notes revive trichords 3-4 and 3-5. The presence o f the pianos two
pitches brings about other intriguing collections: in m. 7, pentachord 5-Z18 (whose
143
'8 - 2 5
'7 - 3 3
15 -3 3
110,0,2, 4,6]
'4 -2 1
13 - 4 ^
Jp
' 9
n m
" m i"
.............
'4 - 2 5
'
4-21
2 - 4 - 6
1
r 1-5
*f * S
'
' r t * >:
Ich will sing
>
-------
r--------"
gen
11,3,7,9]
--------------
>
. .
l H l ________________ I
complement will shortly gain prominence) and in m. 8, another set of class 9-5
(complementing the voices closing trichord).
In this phrase and throughout section A whole-tone collections have again been
paramount. Moreover Bergs use of sets from both whole-tone fields is a procedure
harkening back to Songs 1 and 2. The new compounding of these sets, however,
has robbed them of the tonal analogy they projected before. Without the systematic
alternation of fields there can no longer be the sense that they represent the fifthrelated functions of conventional tonality.
144
Section B
Phrases 5-6, mm. 9-11
The central section of Warm die Lufite is launched with a pair of phrases both
closely bound and intricately plotted. Following the single thought expressed by
the poem, Berg elides the vocal phrases here, and he sustains one of the harmonies
introduced in the first phrase throughout the second. The phrases are also allied by
their set structure, at the heart of which lie classes of sets related by inclusion:
4-20, 5-21, 6-Z44, and 7-Z18. I chart the atonal composition of these phrases in
Example 7-6.
In the first phrase (mm. 9-10) a contrary-motion pattern in the piano introduces
two of the pivotal set classes, 5-21 and 4-20, the latter represented by set [9,0,4,5],
The initial vocal pitches augment these sets to those of classes 6-Z44 and, again,
5-21. The vocal phrase, meanwhile, is the product of yet another pattern of
overlapping trichords, this time of classes 3-3 and 3-8.
More elaborately wrought is the second phrase (mm. 10-11). Here another
symmetrical partitioning of set 4-20 [9,0,4,5]one using perfect-fifth dyadscan
be held to underpin both the vocal line and its accompaniment. If, as demonstrated
in Figure 7-1, we array this tetrachord as a pair of dyads, pcs 9/4 and 5/0, we may
obtain two sets of class 6-Z44 by appending semitones both below the pcs of the
first pair and above those of the second. Adding one further semitone to each
pattern then yields heptachords of class 7-Z18. In mm. 10-11 the pianos central
tetrachord is provided by its sustained harmony. Adding the treble fifths generates
first set 6-Z44 [0,1,4,5,6,9], then heptachord 7-Z18 [0,1,4,5,6,7,9].7 In the vocal
line the same tetrachord arises in a symmetrically centred pattern (notes 2, 4, 5,
and 7 of the phrases eight-note sequence). Adding the other central tones yields
7Note also that the RH pattern of dyads comprises a tetrachord of class 4-9, a
symmetrical set type identified by Perle as Basic Cell I of Lulu. See Perle 1985, 87fF;
1989
145

13-3
*3-3
'3-3
Drobcn
I 5-21,
6-Z44
1
113-8
1 3-8
1
hoch in dii - stern Berg-foist, es
|4-20
,4-20
(9,0,4.51
I 6-Z44
I 7-Z18
5-21
17-Z.18 10,2,3,4,5,8,9]
16-Z44 10,3,4,5,8,9! 1
4-20 |9,0,4,5|
schmilzt und glit-zcrt kalter
Schnee.
|9,0,4,5j
[0,1,4,5,6,91
[0,1,4,5,6,7,91
Figure 7-1. Song 4: the symmetrical pattern in mm. 10-11.
7-718
6-Z44
Piano
6-Z44
Z7-Z18
Voice
146
the hexachord, 6-Z44 [0,3,4,5,8,9], while the vocal phrase as a whole forms the
heptachord, 7-Z18 [0,2,3,4,5,8,9],
Phrases 7-10, mm. 11-18

We have witnessed in Songs 1 and 2 Berg's tendency to use increasingly
complex textures and rhythmic compression to build excitement in driving towards
central climaxes. Song 4 illustrates again his fondness for these techniques. In
mm. 12-15 Berg generates an intricate web of interval-succession patterns in the
piano. These accompany (though they do not really interact with) vocal phrases
again fashioned from interlocking trichords and tetrachords. Example 7-7a discloses
the set structure of the vocal phrases, citing both the generating sets and some
resultant patterns of set-class repetition and complementation. The example also
maps the set-class profile of the piano's material, mainly its harmonies. As in
Songs 1 and 2, part of the climactic force of these measures appears to stem from
their mingling of familiar and novel sonorities. We can see that the set-class
inventory here does not show the economy characteristic of other passages.
(Alternative segmentations of the piano's material also fail to produce this
economy .) On the other hand, most of the vitality and logic of these phrases derive
from the remarkable complex of intervallic patterns with which the piano hastens
to its climactic double-glissando. Example 7-7b outlines the intervallic design of
these measures: an ordered composite of parallel and wedge patterns coursing in
1 1
ft
semitones around the stable c !| !f% dyad. Another, less developed pattern then
succeeds the glissando. Here the prevalent major sevenths and minor ninths of the
previous measures become opposing streams of minor ninths, the treble stream
8My graph of these patterns is adapted and extended from one presented by Perle
(1977, 4; see also Perle 1980, 5). DeVoto also charts the design of these measures; see
DeVoto 1989, 46; 1991, 70-/1)
Example 7-7a. Song 4: mm. 11-18.

11
11
12
I TTI
ein
M id - then
in
g n u n KJei- de lehnl an fcucbtem

14 - 1 7 ___________ |
F.icb-ttatnin, bank
i 4 17 14,7,6,11)____________ |
,_____
LZJ2__________________________ i liiJ ________________ I I___
1 4-17 14,7,0,111
9*e
'
7
, 5-21
, 6-16
6Z4?
,9 5
Reprinted by permission o f Robert I.ienau. Berlin
.3 8
|
|
.
1 3-4 1
M
.
, 5 28
Ji9 3
.._]
5-17 i
Example 7-7a (cont'd ).
r
^
&
Example 7-7b. Song 4: mm. 12-17, interval-succession patterns.
14 9
aee
r
o
sr
.3
Q.
150
falling in octaves, the bass stream rising by semitones. Finally, in mm. 17-18, the
semitonal complexity disintegrates into a precipitous whole-tone descent to the
sepulchral B b 2
Section C
Phrase 11, mm. 19-22
Phrase 11, whose tonal design has already drawn our attention, has also drawn
most of the interest of theorists in Song 4. This interest has mainly been expressed
in comparisons: comparisons o f the pianos material with the opening of Song 29
and with passages by two of Bergs French contemporaries.10 As we have seen,
the piano recapitulates in these measures elements of both Song 2 and Song 1 (see
Example 7-8). From Song 2 it borrows the basss cycle o f rising fourths and the
tactic o f setting this cycle against one of chromatically falling trichords. However,
those trichords are not, in as Song 2, from class 3-8 but are sets of class 3-5
(introduced as an adjunct to class 3-8 in Song 1). Hence the pianos harmonies
now oscillate between tetrachords 4-Z29 and 4-Z15. (Pairing these chords,
incidentally, yields sets of type 7-Z18, returning a heptachord class we have met
in mm. 10-11.) Trichord 3-8 is still not absent from the new sequence: the lowest
three pitches o f each tetrachord belong to this class.
Classes 3-8 and 3-5 also turn up in the vocal line. The text here divides
semantically into opposing clauses, one stressing death, the other, life. The firsi
clause (as far as stirbt ) is sung to a trichord of class 3-8, as are the overall lines
9See Redhch 1957, 42-44, and especially Perle 1977a, 3. See also Simms 1968b, 67;
1993, 124; and Kostka 1990, 75-76.
10Hans Stuckenschmidt (1965) pointed out the curious identityeven to exact
pitchesof the pianos chord progression with one in Debussys Pour la danseuse aux
crotales, from Six epigraphes antiques (1914). Both Glen Watkins (1988, 49-50) and
Mark DeVoto (1991, 69) have countered by noting its nearly equal identity to a few
measures in Ravels Le gibet, from Gaspard de la nuit (1908)
151

19
20
21
22
3 -8
3 -5
Der Ei - ne
Stub'
suit*.
da - na- hen dcr An
Lie
dre
Id*
_-tc
t ic
3 -8
4 -Z 2 9
4 -7 1 5
4 -/2 9
7-Z18
7-Z 1C
(4-/15)
5-32
4 -7 1 5
7 718
Reprinted by penrission of Robert Lieaau. Berlin
main words (Stirb, stirbt, and lebt). Stressed syllables o f the second clause
are set to a 3-5 trichord. Finally, the settings for the basic oppositional words of
this passage (Der Eine stirbt,. . . der Andre lebt), embody, when combined with
their accompaniments, set types complementary to the harmonic tetrachords
Phrase 12* mm. 22-25

The pianos chordal sequence reaches itsand in the tonal plan, the
songsgoal on the downbeat o f m. 22 (see Example 7-9). To the expected
tetrachord 4-Z15 on this beat Berg makes the addition o f F$ above the bass B \
152
22
23
24
25
3-11
3-5
nuchl
die Welt
tie f
3-11
3-11
3-11
i6-20
3-5
(AO S)
5-32
3-11
6-20 11 5-32 i
10.1,4.5,8,9112,3,6,9,111
>1 | ,5-32 (2,3,6,9,111

!10,1,2,5,61
[2 .3 ,6 ,9.11
Reprinted by perm ission o f Robert Lienau. BerLn
Aside from the tonal importance of this pitch (in yielding the B l|/F # dyad) it also
produces pentachord 5-32 [2,3,6,9,11], aptly closing the cycle with a sonority first
heard at its opening (in m. 5 of Song 1).
Set class 3-11, present as the B-major triad formed by the bottom three pitches
of thic pentachord, continues to play an intriguing atonai role m the three
concluding cadences to the 5-32 harmony. This role is partly obvious. Berg renders
the cadences in three different registers, in each case preceding the 5-32 chord by
a harmony clearly partitioned between the hands into 3-11 triads. The LH triads
are built in succession on E I), on A ij, and (implicitly) on D t|, carrying further the
153
rising-fourths cycle of the preceding phrase. Those of the RH are in each case
located on roots four semitones above those of the LH Because Berg omits the
expected LH A I) in the last cadence, but adds a treble g b to the first, the three
cadential approach chords are linked in a set-class inclusion / complementation
alliance: 5-21 6-20 7-21.
(The final vocal phrase may also be held to
embody trichords 3-11 and 3-5 in the folds of its undulating line )
Set class 3-11 also plays a more obscure role in the design of these final
cadences, and it is Schoenberg who draws our attention to that role Earlier in this
study I noted that the theory embodied m Schoenbergs Harmonielehre is an
obvious source for many of the harmonic idioms in Bergs Four Songs. Since
Schoenberg was compiling the book while he was advising Berg on the songs
composition, it is not wholly surprising to find him citing in Harmonielehre
(Schoenberg 1978, 420) a few of the harmonies from Song 4. Those that captured
Schoenbergs interest are the 5-32 pentachord in m 22 together with the
immediately following 6-20 chord (omitting Bergs added g\>2). Schoenberg cites
this pair late in his final chapter, Aesthetic Evaluation of Chords with Six or More
Tones, where the discussion turns on how little weight conventional root
relationships carry in this evaluation. What then, he asks, underlies the apparent
logic of Bergs chord sequence0
Why it is that way and why it is correct, I carnot yet explain in any detail
In general, it is self-evident to those who accept my vie w concerning the
nature of dissonance. But that it is correct, I firmly believe, and a number
of others believe it too. It seems that the progression of such chords can be
justified by the chromatic scale. The chord progression seems to be
regulated by the tendency to include in the second chord tones that were
missing in the first, generally those a half step higher or lower.
Nevertheless, the voices seldom move by half step. (Schoenberg 1978, 420)
154
Schoenbergs opinion follows from his well known prediction, made earlier in
Harmonielehre, of a new epoch of polyphonic style where harmonies will be
a product o f the voice leading: justified solely bv the melodic lines! (Schoenberg
1978, 389). Although the pitch voice leading between Bergs chords is not
semitonal, he now observes, the pitch-c/ass voice leading apparently is
Though Schoenberg delves no deeper into Bergs contrapuntal logic, we may
confirm his intuition by doing so. Figure 7-2 expands in tabular form on
Schoenbergs observation It relates the hexachordal sonority Schoenberg cites (and
also its heptachordal expansion) not to the previous, but to the following 5-32
chord The results are equivalent to Schoenbergs but we are now co*
ering as
Figure 7-2. Song 4: mm. 22-25, patterns o f pc voice leading in piano harmonies.
1 a:
6-20
(7-21)
5-32
3 4
i
2 3
6-20
(7-21)
5-32
3 4
6-20
3 a
5-32
5-21
1 2
11 0
[0,4,7]
11
[11,3,6]
(6) 7 8
11 0
i' ^
11
[0,3,7]
2 3
5-21
1 2
s.
2 3
8 9
s
9
5-32
5-32
(6) 7 8
I
9
6
2 3
n
b:
3-11
Sets
Pitch-Class Content:
Full Sets:
[11,2,6]
[1,5,8]
11
[2,6,9]
[10,2,5]
10
'n
6
9
10
5 6
6
11
[11,3,6]
[10,1,5]
11
[11,2,6]
155
a unit the first of the final cadential motions. The table then goes on to chart the
other two cadences.
With sonorities of five to seven pcs, semitonal relationships between those in
successive chords are bound to be plentiful. What is intriguing here is that in each
cadence the most consistent patterns of semitonal pc movement (consistent in that
the movement is all in the same direction) involve trichords of class 3-11. In fact,
in the first and last cadences, two such patterns (labelled a and b) may be
traced. Notablyand running counter to Schoenbergs observation set 3-11
[11,3,6] is also shared between the chords in cadence 1. (Reference back to
Example 7-9 further reveals that the total pc content of the first cadence constitutes
a set of 3-11 s complementary class, 9-11.) If some of the first sonorities we
examined in this song cycle were tonal and clearly derived from triads, the last
represent the transformation o f the triad, its appearance in an essentially atonal
guise.
In the final section of Song 4 Berg seems to achieve an integration of structure
characteristic of the earlier three songs: a sense that the tonal and atonal designs
not only co-exist but support each other. Such an integration is also perceptible
elsewhere in this piece: most readily in the opening vocal tetrachord and its return
in m. ! 7, and in the perfect-fifth dysds o f mm. 10-11. Elsewhere, as I perceive it,
the co-existence is shakier. Whether because of the dramatic text or because Berg
was aiming at new ways of handling pitch materials, neither the tonal and atonal
designs alone, nor their synthesis have the integral quality found in Songs 1-3. The
elementsfamiliar elementsare all present, the overall force unifying them
appears absent.
Herein, perhaps, lies the real distinction from the other songs. Calling those
songs tonal and Song 4 atonal avoids the evidence that they all share much
material It avc ls the evidence that they all exhibit levels of structure which
156
engage both specific pcs and, apart from pc content, certain intervallic properties.
That they all do so does not make them wholly equivalent. It does, however, bring
us closer to a perception of continuity across the break-up of tonality .
CHAPTER 8
CONCLUSIONS
Der Meister des kleinsten UbergangsThe master of the smallest
transitionwas Theodor Adornos term for his onetime teacher Alban Berg
(Adorno 1968; 1991, xv). In the context of the present study, Adornos phrase is
apt. My aim has been to demonstrate that in Bergs Four Songs the transition
between tonality and atonalitymore precisely between tonal and atonal
contextsis quite small indeed. The tonal and atonal realms of pitch design m
these songs are inextricably interwoven, and they most often support, rather them
oppose, each other.
That this is so, we have seen, is owing in the first instance to the pitch
materials out of which Berg fashions his designs. These materials are particularly
rich in association: the whole-tone collections, the sets of the tritonal-quartal
family, and common-practice sonorities (especially the ascending perfect-fourth
bass cycles, perfect-fifth dyads, and seventh and ninth chords). Most of these
materials have strong links to the familiar world of tertian-diatonic harmony. Many
of them equally display intriguing properties when set against the symmetries of
the chromatic scale. By exploiting both sets of associations, often simultaneously,
Berg bridges the gap between common-practice tonal and atonal levels of structural
meaning. The clearest instance here is provided by Song 2, where we have found
that Berg capitalizes on both the intervallic symmetry of tetrachord 4-25 and its
harmonic function as an altered dominant chord The gap is also bridged by the
repeated emergence, in different songs and in different contexts, of the same
157
158
materials: the whole-tone collections in Songs 1, 2, and 4; the tritonal-quartal sets

in Songs 1, 3, and 4; elements projecting ic 5 in all four songs.
If it were simply a matter of materials, however, it might have sufficed to have
examined isolated passages from these songs. Studies o f Bergs musical language
often deal in such excised passages. Musical meanings, however, are meanings in
context, and it is in the context of the entire songs that Bergs materials play out
their meanings. My analyses of these songs have intentionally been both detailed
and complete. I have sought to demonstrate that (with the exception of Song 4) the
interplay of Bergs materials yields tone structures that are multivalent and yet
coherent. It is in witnessing this coherence that we see how tonal and atonal
designs can be mutually supportive rather than mutually exclusive. The first three
songs are grounded in traditional tonal idioms: an encompassing tonic triad in Song
1, tonic-dominant relationships in Songs 2 and 3, and again an encompassing tonic
for the pairing of these central songs. It is this background that affords the overall
coherence within which other relationships operate. And it is the diminishing of
this framework that results in the diminished coherence I find in Song 4.
What of the cycle as a whole: is there an overall coherence here? Apart from
its limited inventory o f materials and structural procedures, I think not. I certainly
disagree with the assertion that the entire cycle is linked through a reliance on one,
ubiquitous sonority. If a thread runs through this cycle it is probably a
developmental one. My analyses imply a tendency on Bergs part to move away
from materials and procedures linked to the common practice towards those with
fewer ties to the past. Just as we can trace this tendency in the successive chapters
of Schoenberg's Harmonielehre, we can trace it from the seventh chords o f Song
3, through the whole-tone oscillations o f Songs 2 and 1, to the complex sonorities
and interval-succession patterns of Song 4. As I intimated in Chapter 1, such a
159
development may lend support, if not decisive support, to the view that Berg
composed the songs in this order
My analyses also flesh out an aspect of these songs of which Berg scholars
have long been aware. It is commonly asserted that Berg developed in his early
works the stylistic principles that distinguish his later music. Of Song 4, for
instance, Perle writes The special quality that marked Bergs musical language to
the end of his life, the conjunction o f an emotional intensity that is typical of full
blown romanticism with the most rigorous and abstract formalism, is already fully
asserted in this final number o f Opus 2. (Perle 1980, 6). A close appreciation of
the Four Songs and of Bergs other student works provides an invaluable basis
with which to approach his later masterworks. And a detailed appreciation of the
interplay of tonal and atonal pitch designs in these works is especially invaluable,
given Bergs widespread reputation for fusing tonal and atonal principles even in
his dodecaphonic works.
This reputation of Bergs makes him a natural subject for an examination of the
confluence of tonality and atonality. 1 believe, however, that the present study has
implications apart from the concerns of Berg scholarshipimplications for the
wider study of pitch structure in early twentieth-century music I suspect it is futile
to argue for the general adoption of the se definitions of tonality and atonality
which underlie my theory of their interaction in Bergs songs. Alternative views
are far too deeply ingrained for that. 1 can hope, however, to have demonstrated
the utility of adopting these definitions. In much early twentieth-century music,
materials and relationships from the common practice are closely mingled with
those that fail to conform to the tonal tradition. Many of the elements of pitch
design found m the works o f Scriabin, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartok, and their
contemporarestertian-diatonic and whole-tone elements, but also octatomc and
other materialsadmit multiple structural implications A concept of tonality which
160
is aligned only with the tertian-diatonic tradition, and which severs tonality from
interaction with atonal levels o f order, fails to do justice to the rich experience this
music yields. I believe that an understanding of such richness is more likely to
emerge from heeding Weberns assertion that its impossible to fix a dividing line
between old and new
APPENDIX
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
1.
Schlafen, Schlafen, Nichts als Schlafen!
Kein Erwachen, keinen Traum!
Jener Wehen, die mich trafcn,
Leisestes Erinnem kaum.
Dafl ich, wenn des Lebens Fiillc
Nieder klingt in meine R u h \
N ut noch tiefer mich verhulle,
Fester zu die Augen thu !
To sleep, to sleep, nothing but to sleep!

No awaking, no dreaming!
O f those sorrows that befell me.
Barely the faintest memory ,
So that I. when life's abundance
Echoes down into my rest.
Shall enshroud m yself all the deeper,
And close my eyes even tighter!
Friedrich Hebbci
from "Dem Schmerz sein Recht"
2.
Schlafend tragt man mich
in mein Heimatland.
Feme kom m ' ich her,
liber Gipfel, iiber Schlundc.
liber ein dunkles Meer
in mein Heimatland.
Sleeping I am earned
to my homeland.
From afar I come,
over mountain, over ravine,
over a dark sea
to mv homeland
3.
Nun ich der Ricsen Starksten libcrwand.

aus dem dunkelsten Land
mich heimfand
an einer weiben Marchenhand
Now I overcame the strongest o f giants.

out o f the darkest land
found my way home
led by a white fairy-tale hand
Halien schwer die Glocken.

Und ich wanke durch die StraCen
schlafbefangen.
Heavily the bells resound

And I totter through the streets
captured by sleep.
161
162
4
Warm die Liilte,
es sprieCt Gres auf sonnigen Wiesen
Horch!
Horch, es flotet die Nachtigall...
Ich will singen:
Warm the breezes.

grass sprouts in sunny meadows
Hark!
Hark, a nightingale pipes...
1 w ill sing:
Droben hoch in d us tern Bergforst,

es schmilzt und sickcrt kalter Schnee,
ein Madchen in grauen KJeide
lehnt an feuchtcm Eichstamm,
krank sind ihre zarten Wangen,
die grauen Augen fiebem
durch Dusterriesenstamme.
Er kom m t noch nicht. Er lafit mich
warten ..
High above in the gloomy mountain forest,

cold snow melt and trickles,
a girl in a grey dress
leans against a damp oak trunk,
her tender cheeks are sick,
her grey eyes stare feverishly
through the giant, gloomy tree trunks.
H e's still not coming. He's letting me
wait ...
Stirb!
Der Eine stirbt, daneben der Andere icbt:
Das macht die Welt so tiefschdn.
Die!
The one di~s, while the other lives:
That makes the world so deeply beautiful.
Alfred Mombcrt
from Der Gliihende"
LIST OF SOURCES CITED

BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Aidwell, Edward; and Schachter, Carl. 1989. Harmony and Voice Leading. 2d edition.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Adomo, Theodor W. 1968. Alban Berg. Der Meister der kleinsten Obergangs.
Osterreichische Komponisten des XX. Jahrhunderts, vol. 15. Vienna: Elizabeth Lafite.
Adomo, Theodor W. 1991. Alban Berg. Master o f the smallest link. Translated by Juliane
Brand and Christopher Hailey. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Ayrcy, Craig. 1982. Bergs Scheideweg. Analytical Issues in Op. Hn " Music Analysis
1/2: 198-202.
Baker, James M. 1983. Schenkerian Analysis and Post-Tonal Music. In Aspects of
Schenkerian Theory, pp. 153-186. Edited by David Beach. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Baker, James M. 1986. The Music o f Alexander Scriabin. New Haven Yale University
Press.
Baker, James M. 1990. Voice Leading in Post-Tonal Music: Suggestions for Extending
Schenkers Theory. Musical Analysis 9: 177-200.
Baker, James M. 1993. Post-Tonal Voice Leading. In Models o f Musical Analysis:
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V ITA
NAME:
Gary Richard Tucker
PLACE OF BIRTH:
Grand Falls, Newfoundland
YEAR OF BIRTH:
1956
POST-SECONDARY
EDUCATION AND
DEGREES:
Mount Allison University

Sackville, New Brunswick
1973-1977 B. Mus.
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
1977-1982 M.A.
Lincoln College, Oxford University
Oxford, England
1980-1983 (post-graduate research)
London, Ontario
1987-1995 Ph D.
HONOURS AND
AWARDS:
Social Sciences and Humanities Re

search Council of Canada Doctoral
Fellowships
1980-1983
William Lyon MacKenzie King
Travelling Scholarship
1980-1981
170
171
British Government Overseas Research
Student Support Scholarships
1981-1983
George A Proctor Memorial Awards
(U W O.)
1988, 1990
Ontario Graduate Scholarships
1988-1989
RELATED WORK
EXPERIENCE:
Teaching Assistant
1977-1979
Assistant Editor
Studies in Music from the University o f
Western Ontario
1978
Lecturer
1984-1994
Lecturer
York University
1986-1987
Lecturer
Mount Allison University
1994 to date

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a number of viewpoints, and comprehensive, covering virtually every note in the

ACKNOW LEDGEM ENTS

Whole-tone Collections .......................................................................

CHAPTER 4 - SONG 3, Nun ich der Riesen Starksten uberwand ...............

CHAPTER 5 - SONG 2, Schlafend tragt man mich in mein Heimatland . .

Section A', mm 1 3 - 1 8 ..................................................................................101

pc(s) = pitch class(es)

Again depending on context I name intervals either by using their traditional

I often categorize pitch collections according to the taxonomy of pc set classes

What I have achieved with these two in particular could so easily be

As part of his training

works had been performed at concerts of Schoenbergs pupils. In addition, Berg

1910, Berg returned only twice to the song form: in

The Dates, Manuscripts, and Published Editions o f the Four Songs

4Watznauers biographical sketch, previously in manuscript, has been published with

What Might Tonality (and Atonality) Be?

tones in such successions and such harmonies or successions of harmonies,

The explanatory power of Schenkers theory has been widely recognized;

sparseness of diatony in the background and the fullness of tonality in the

. . structure at some understood level of

acquired through experience with the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century

equivalent, as a member o f a subset or superset class, or perhaps as a member of

structure may be displayed by pitch collections. Collections may be variants of the

between the old and the new in this music.