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The thirty-one opus numbers that have come down to us from Anton Webern amount to less than five hours of music and include some of the most concise works in the history of music (for instance, less than five minutes for the Six Bagatelles op. 9). The extreme brevity achieved during his so-called “aphoristic” period (opp. 9 to 11) is a hallmark of Webern’s style throughout his oeuvre. Even his early works demonstrate his aptitude for concentrating time, as well as his struggle in writing longer pieces.
Between 1899 and 1908 — the date of the Passacaglia op. 1 (catalogued as M. 127 by Hans Moldenhauer) — Webern composed numerous piano pieces, short movements for string quartet, a few pieces for orchestra, and an important collection of lieder. Among these early works predating op. 1, several are worthy of mention: Langsamer Satz M. 78, the Quartet “1905” M. 79, the Rondo M. 115 (1906), and the Piano Quintet M. 118 (1907). These compositions reveal Webern’s progression toward an increasingly “extended” tonality. The tonal context is disrupted by foreign notes, chromaticism, and whole-tone scales (notably in the Rondo for string quartet) that amplify ambiguities and weaken tonal polarities. Motivic construction is central in these works, as seen in the three-note motif in the Quartet “1905” derived from Beethoven’s “Muss es sein?” This attention to motif, along with an early exploration of timbre — like the sul ponticello ppp tremolos with mutes in the central section of the piano quintet — foreshadows Webern’s fascination with unusual sonorities.
When Webern wrote his Passacaglia and the choral work Entflieht auf leichten Kähnen — the first two works to receive an opus number — he was in full command of his abilities. These pieces represent his final works in which an extended, yet discernible tonality remains. Characteristic of what Schoenberg describes as “floating tonality” in his Theory of Harmony, the Passacaglia exploits the key of D minor, a symbolic key for the Second Viennese School. The main theme contains a central B-flat, which serves as the basis of the harmonic derivations in the variations.
Opuses 3 and 4 are two collections of lieder set to poems by Stefan George (Arnold Schoenberg’s author of choice for his Second String Quartet op. 10 with voice and Book of the Hanging Gardens op. 15). Together, these collections contain ten of the fourteen lieder Webern composed around this time. As Pierre Boulez noted, Webern often used lieder to explore and refine his musical language, which he would then carry into his purely instrumental works. The Lieder opp. 3 and 4 are short, with little or no introduction or postlude, closely following the text. They display Webern’s preference for expressive, agogic changes (op. 4, no. 3, for instance, contains twelve tempo changes in just fifteen measures) and his frequent use of pianissimo. The vocal range lies within a normal tessitura, and the piano writing is primarily harmonic, somewhat similar to that in Schoenberg’s Lieder op. 15.
The transition from tonality to atonality, begun in the lieder, advances in opp. 5 to 7 (respectively for string quartet, orchestra, and instrument with piano, a sequence he repeats in opp. 9 to 11). These pieces represent a crucial step toward Webern’s subsequent, truly “aphoristic” works.
The first of the Five Movements op. 5 completes the break from tonality, with a lingering yet transformed reference to sonata form. Its concentrated approach is clear from the beginning of the first movement, where introduction, exposition, repetition, fragmentation, and conclusion all unfold within a mere six measures. The thematic material is reduced to a few motifs, and repetition is practically non-existent.
Webern’s instrumental mastery is equally evident in his Six Pieces for Large Orchestra op. 6, which he later revised for a reduced orchestra in 1928. The contrast between the large ensemble — comparable in size to that of Mahler’s Second Symphony — and the brevity of these pieces reflects Webern’s desire to use the widest possible sound palette. Each movement, aside from the “Funeral March” (dedicated to the memory of his mother and spanning over four minutes in a sustained crescendo), offers a tightly concentrated form, with gestures of introduction, development, climax, and conclusion (in no. 1) compressed within a polyphonic framework. There is a marked preference for ostinatos, a technique also prominent in Schoenberg’s Pieces op. 16 and Erwartung. Webern’s reduction of expressive gestures to tiny motifs becomes even more pronounced in his Pieces for Violin and Piano op. 7.
With the two Lieder op. 8 based on Rilke, a more lyrical poet than George, Webern introduced the combination of voice and small instrumental ensemble with carefully chosen timbres — an approach he employed even before Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire. This strategy features again in subsequent works.
The high point of this period, achieved with Bagatelles op. 9, Pieces op. 10, and Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano op. 11, corresponds to a period of artistic crisis in Webern’s life. With 1912 being an especially unproductive year, he composed opp. 9 and 10 between 1911 (op. 9, nos. 2 to 5; op. 10, nos. 1 and 4) and 1913 (op. 9, nos. 1 and 6; op. 10, nos. 2, 3 and 5).
During this period, Webern also produced several works without opus numbers, which trace his labored search for his own style. These include a short Bagatelle for voice and string quartet (inspired by Schoenberg’s Second Quartet) and eighteen orchestral pieces, of which only five were published in op. 10 (five others, titled Five Pieces “1913,” have been published since). These works reveal Webern’s anticipation of twelve-tone serialism, primarily relying on the chromatic total, which he saw as his only compositional resource at the time. His reflection about the Bagatelles is well-known: “Once the twelve tones had all been played, the work was over” (Path to the New Music). The Bagatelles follow this idea, though not in an overly literal sense; the chromatic total allows for an exposition and then an incomplete repetition (in nos. 4 and 5). Webern’s style emerges from this rarefaction, with each sound receiving attention and a maximal diversity of instrumental color achieved through varying performance techniques (as in no. 6).
The Three Little Pieces op. 11 (1914) take this aphoristic tendency to the extreme, with movements lasting only 9, 13, and 10 measures. This approach is also seen in his brief Cello Sonata M. 202, a one-movement work without opus number.
This period in Webern’s career is profoundly fascinating while also tragic, given his need to compose without relying on tonal functions and with no material concept beyond the chromatic total — a challenge shared by Schoenberg, who was influenced by Webern during this time. The many unfinished drafts alongside completed opuses, as well as extended periods of silence, reflect the depth of this compositional crisis. Schoenberg captured the intensity of Webern’s approach in his preface to the Bagatelles, describing Webern’s mission as one of “expressing a novel in a sigh.”
The outbreak of war in 1914 naturally slowed Webern’s output, with only a few songs from Lieder op. 12 appearing in 1915. This marked the beginning of a decade-long period in which Webern struggled to plan anything greater than isolated compositions (as evidenced by their intertwined chronology), which were later grouped under single opus numbers. Opp. 12 to 19 are exclusively lieder, featuring a diversity of texts, taken for the first time from authors other than Schoenberg’s favorites.
Webern’s text choices now included Goethe (op. 12, no. 4; op. 19). He referenced Mahler with Chinese texts translated in Eberhard Bethge’s anthology The Chinese Flute (op. 12, no. 2; op. 13, nos. 2 and 3) and texts borrowed from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (op. 15, no. 2, op. 18, no. 2). He also set texts by contemporary authors such as Karl Kraus (op. 13, no. 1) and, notably, Georg Trakl (op. 13, no. 4; Six Lieder op. 14). Additionally, Webern used anonymous texts from folk songs and Latin religious sources.
Religious themes, essential to Webern’s worldview, became prominent in his later settings of poems by Hildegard Jone. In fact, Webern would compare the arrangement of movements in the Second Cantata, with texts by Jone, to a Missa brevis. His affinity for Goethe’s nature-focused themes and his own attachment to nature is also displayed in his Three Lieder op. 23 from 1934, built exclusively on Jone’s poems.
The second characteristic of this collection of lieder is the confrontation between voice and instrumental ensemble. While op. 13 employs a substantial ensemble, the instrumentation in subsequent works narrows to just four or five select instruments. Though Pierrot lunaire is the paradigmatic example, Webern’s instrumental combinations are distinctive, highlighting clarinets (bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet), solo strings, trumpet, and plucked strings (harp, guitar). The vocal writing favors large ranges and wide intervals, assimilating into the instrumental writing, as it does with the two clarinets in Canons op. 16.
In this period, Webern began serializing the twelve-tone “chromatic total,” starting with simple experiments in Lieder op. 17, without a marked stylistic break. Once adopted, the twelve-tone series opened the way for significant instrumental works, including his String Trio op. 20 and Symphony op. 21 (1928). Structured in two movements (a third was sketched but not finished), the Symphony uses an instrumental ensemble of soloists. The first movement, in a tripartite form with a reprise — sometimes described as a sonata form — is composed as a double canon in contrary motion, while the second movement unfolds in a theme and variations. For the first time, Webern conceived his twelve-tone series with special properties, centered symmetrically around a tritone. This symmetry plays a role in the serial structure of the movement. Combining rigorous counterpoint and Klangfarbenmelodie, Webern aimed to synthesize the possibilities of the new technique with forms inherited from the past: “We haven’t advanced beyond the classical composers’ forms,” he wrote. “What happened after them was only alteration, extension, abbreviation; but the forms remained — even with Schoenberg!” (Path to the New Music).
Webern expanded these techniques in his Quartet op. 22 and especially in his Concerto op. 24 for nine instruments (1934), where he employed isomorphic cells within the series (four cells of three notes). This technique occasionally brought a certain rigidity to the music. His exploration continued in subsequent works, like the three cantatas, Das Augenlicht op. 26, and opp. 29 and 31 on one hand, and on the other the Piano Variations op. 27, String Quartet op. 28, and Orchestral Variations op. 30. These works epitomize the use of symmetries built from reduced motifs, including the notable “B.A.C.H.” motif in the quartet.
The final two cantatas display correspondence between the pitch organization and the parameters of duration and intensity, which would become a focal points for the serial generation in the post-war period.
In his lectures later published as The Path to the New Music, Webern outlines the journey from early atonality to the adoption of the twelve-tone series, framing it as a development grounded in historical logic. He emphasizes coherence (of material) and intelligibility (of form) as criteria for analysis. His own evolution demonstrates a clear abandonment of tonality in favor of a “floating” tonality: “We couldn’t do a thing about the dissolution of tonality, and we didn’t create the new law ourselves, it forced itself overwhelmingly on us.” This transition next led him to abandon the chromatic total for the twelve-tone series. Yet, even in his final instrumental works, he retained the notions of classical form and thematic development.
Webern’s work — demanding and extreme in its choices — remains vital, not only because of the influence it wielded in the 1950s but also for its inventiveness, unique in the atonal context of the early twentieth century; for its groundbreaking exploration of timbral combinations; and, not least, for its use of silence.
Translated from the French by Peter Asimov
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