Proper Names

Arnold Schoenberg [‘Rnld ‘Sq:nbWg]

Austro-Hungarian [‘Lstrq hAN‘gxriqn]

Los Angeles [lOs ‘xnGilJz]

Alexander von Zemlinsky [,xlig‘zRndq fOn tsem‘linski]

“Verklaerte Nacht” [fqr‘klertq ‘nAht] – «Проветленная ночь»

“Pelleas und Melisande” [‘peleQs unt meli‘zAndq] – «Пеллиас и Мелизанда»

“Gurrelieder” [‘gurq‘lJdqr] – «Песни Гурре»

Stefan George [‘stefqn gq‘Orgq]

“Erwartung” [qr‘wArtuN] – «Ожидание»

“Pierrot lunaire”[‘piqrou lui‘nRr]

Sprechgesang [‘Spreh,gqzAN]

“Die Jacobsleiter” [dJ ‘jRkOps,lQitqr] – «Лесница Якоба»

“Moses und Aron” [‘mLzqs unt Q‘rLn]

UCLA - University of California, Los Angeles

“A Survivor from Warsaw” [q sq‘vQivq frOm ‘wLsL] – «Уцелевший из Варшавы»

After you have read the text

1. Аnswer the following questions about the text.

1. What place does Arnold Schoenberg tаkе in world music?

2. When and where was he born?

3. When did Schoenberg start composing?

4. How did he study music?

5. When did his first acknowledged works appear?

6. What is the name of the first symphonic poem by Schoenberg?

7. When did Schoenberg begin to develop his own musical style?

8. What features does the composer intensificate in Chamber Symphony No.1?

9. What did Schoenberg try to connect in his String Quartet no. 1?

10. In what works did the composer return to his tonal style?

11. What works justify the term “expressionist” speaking about Schoenberg?

12. How did Schoenberg come to write longer instrumental structures?

13. What organization did he found in 1919?

14. What was the purpose of the Society?

15. Where did Schoenberg work since 1925?

16. What is the main idea of his opera “Moses und Aron”?

17. What happened to the composer in 1933?

18. Where did he settle for the rest of his life?

19. What works did Schoenberg write in the USA?

20. How do you estimate Schoenberg's creative work?

2. Learn the following information.

.

– Atonality, atonal music are terms used to denote certain practices in 20th-cеnturу music in which a definite tonal center or “key” is purposely avoided. Although the traditional principles of tonality had been considerably weakened by such composers as Debussy and Scriabin, they were not completely abandoned until Arnold Schoenberg’s “Three Piano Pieces” (op. 11) of 1908, in which, for all practical purposes, all vestiges of a tonal center are eliminated, each of twelve tones of the chromatic scale having equal rights and being equally admissible in vertical as well as in horizontal relationships. About 1915 Schoenberg began to feel that atonality needed a positive principle and a technique of its own. The twelve-tone technique was his answer to this problem. Although twelve-tone music is not necessarily atonal, atonality prevails in most compositions written according to that system.

– “Speech song” is a translation of German “Sprechgesang” or “Sprechstimme”. It is a type of half singing and half speaking introduced by Schoenberg in his “Pierrot lunaire” and “Glückliche Hand” (“The Lucky Hand”). It consists of a recitation with higher and lower inflections of individual words or syllables, indicated by special signs, but avoids exact intonation of pitch.

– “Erwartung” (“Expectation”) is a monodrama by Schoenberg, completed in 1909. Lasting about half an hour, the opera has only one character, a woman (soprano) seeking, in a dimly moonlight forest, her lover who has been taken from her by another woman. She comes upon his corpse, but refuses to believe that he is dead, even in the broad daylight. This drama is played out to an orchestral accompaniment in the near-atonal style which the composer developed in that period.

– “Pierrot lunaire” (“Pierrot in the Moonlight”) is a cycle of twenty-one short pieces, for a “singing narrator” and chamber orchestra (flute, violin, clarinet, cello, piano, etc.) by Schoenberg. It is based on poems by A. Giraud in the German translation of O.E. Hartleben. The poems, highly decadent and terrible (one of them describes Pierrot contentedly smoking his tabacco out of a human skull), are composed in a novel melodramatic style, accompanied sometimes by the full group of instruments, sometimes by only one or two.

– “Glückliche Hand” (“The Lucky Hand”) is a monodrama by Schoenberg (to his own libretto), composed in 1913, first performed in Vienna, 1924. The only singing character (baritone) is a disillusioned man whose somewhat surrealistic stream of consciousness centers around two pantomimic characters, allegorical male and female, who represent various kinds of love. In addition, there is a chorus of six men and women whose heads appear through holes in a backdrop, and who comment on the action in a speech-song style.

3. Choose the correct word.

1. The choir conductor (assumed, accomodated, expanded) the chorus to the orchestra. 2. Mravinsky's interpretation of the Symphony (unfolded, arised, tended) to be classical. 3. The young pianist played so perfectly that he (deserved, admired, believed) the first prize. 4. The music of the second movement reflects the (besieged, disruptive, cheerful) forces of the devil. 5. All the attempts of the author to publish his work were (combined, complicated, doomed). 6. Schoenberg estimated artistic (concessions, honesty, efforts) most of all. 7. Wagner began composing in his (teens, consolation, design). 8. Brahms (divided, employed, involved) many renowned musicians into the struggle against Wagner. 9. Schubert left (behind, alone, over) approximately 1250 works. 10. In speechsong the (ensemble, reciter, band) playes the main role. 11. In symphonic fantasy Tchaikovsky (set, integrated, linked) Dante's poem to music. 12. Stradivari's craftsmanship is (maintained, marked, acknowledged) all over the world. 13. Schoenberg did not want to write in (unconventional, partial, conventional) manner. 14. The composer suffered from the (distortion, discourse, passion) of his music. 15. Wagner (accomodated, permitted, insisted) on the performance of “The Nibelungs’ Ring” completely.

4. Select the correct meaning of the words.

1. constraint a) играть роль кого-либо

2. despair b) немедленно

3. settle c) с чъей-либо стороны

4. justify d) странность

5. immediately e) разрежать

6. gradually f) принужденность,

напряженность

7.оn the part of smb. g) oправдывать, подтверждать

8. rarefy h) положить на музыку

9. sequence i) последовательность

10. to play a part of smb. j) принимать участие

k) постепенно

l) чувство, смысл

m) поселиться

n) правда

o) отчаяние, безнадежность

5. Review text A in written form.

6. Give your impressions about Arnold Schoenberg.

7. Read and retell text B.