Webern: Songs with orchestra

Day 304

Webern: Songs with orchestra

Four songs op 13

Six songs op 14

Five sacred songs op 15

Five canons op 16

Three traditional rhymes op 17

Three songs op 18

Heather Harper (op 13-14)

Halina Lukomska

Instrumental ensemble

Pierre Boulez

I’m reasonably familiar with most of Webern’s orchestral and instrumental music but the songs are largely an unknown quantity - I have almost certainly one or two of them before but I have never explored them. These songs all date from the years 1914-1924 when Webern seems to have gone though some sort of artistic crisis and was able to compose very little. Although the list here of songs looks quite extensive each of these sets has only a few songs and nearly all of the songs are very short in duration - several less than a minute long. So there is probably only 30 mins or so concentrated listening here.

This music is now over 100 years old but I still find it extremely challenging to listen to. There are a few moments of near lyricism but otherwise this is tough and abrasive music which gives very little for the listener to relate to. Following these pieces with the score allows some sense of how the music is constructed - you can see some of the canonic passages work even if you can’t always hear it. But it would idle to pretend that this is anything but tough repertoire. The vocal writing is instrumental in style and I can’t imagine that can be satisfying to sing.

So a tough listen - I can’t imagine that I will be returning to these songs again.