Introduction to Schoenberg I: Verklärte Nacht

In my last post, I talked about how we all learn to love music, and that some music is more difficult to grasp than others. Much of the music that was the greatest struggle for me to come to grips with, is the music that I have come to love the most in the long term. On the other hand, much music that is all too easy to grasp, I now struggle to really maintain an interest in.

The music of Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951) is belongs without doubt amongst my greatest loves. As with much really great music, it is music I have learned to love.

Portrait of Arnold Schoenberg by Egon Schiele

However, with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had approached his music differently instead of prematurely banging my head against so many advanced compositions before I was ready. I made it much more difficult for myself by starting in the deep end. I got there in the end, but it would have been a much easier journey if I had been guided through his sound world in a more graduated progression.

The best place to start with Schoenberg is still his Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Schoenberg himself once wrote that this was being played in his own lifetime as a "Chaykovsky piece". It was written in 1899 – namely, in the Victorian era! Yet in both its subject matter and its musical language, there is much that is remarkably modern about it. The composition is a tone poem based on a work by Richard Dehmel:

Two people walk through a bare, cold grove;
The moon races along with them, it draws their gaze into it.
The moon races over tall oaks,
No cloud obscures the light from the sky,
Into which the black points of the boughs reach.
A woman’s voice speaks:  

"I’m carrying a child, and not from you,
I walk in sin beside you.
I have violated myself severely
I lost faith in finding happiness
And yet I had a strong yearning
For something to fill my life, for the joys of motherhood
And its duties; so I took the liberty,
So, shuddering, I allowed my sex
To be embraced by a strange man,
And, on top of that, I blessed myself for it.
Now life has taken its revenge:
Now I have met you, oh, you.  

She walks on in awkward steps,
She looks up; the moon is racing along.
Her dark gaze is drowned in light.
A man’s voice speaks:  

"May the child you have conceived
Be no burden to your soul;
Just look how brightly the universe glimmers!
There’s a glow surrounding everything;
You are adrift with me on cold seas,
But a special warmth flickers
From you into me, from me into you,
Which will transfigure the strange man’s child.
You will bear the child for me, as if it were mine;
You have produced the glow inside me,
You have made me like a child myself." 

He grasps her around her ample hips.
Their breath intermingles in the breeze.
Two people walk through the lofty, brilliant night. 

Zwei Menschen gehn durch kahlen, kalten Hain;
der Mond läuft mit, sie schaun hinein.
Der Mond läuft über hohe Eichen,
kein Wölkchen trübt das Himmelslicht,
in das die schwarzen Zacken reichen.
Die Stimme eines Weibes spricht:

Ich trag ein Kind, und nit von dir,
ich geh in Sünde neben dir.
Ich hab mich schwer an mir vergangen;
ich glaubte nicht mehr an ein Glück
und hatte doch ein schwer Verlangen
nach Lebensfrucht, nach Mutterglück
und Pflicht - da hab ich mich erfrecht,
da ließ ich schaudernd mein Geschlecht
von einem fremden Mann umfangen
und hab mich noch dafür gesegnet.
Nun hat das Leben sich gerächt,
nun bin ich dir, o dir begegnet.

Sie geht mit ungelenkem Schritt,
sie schaut empor, der Mond läuft mit;
ihr dunkler Blick ertrinkt in Licht.
Die Stimme eines Mannes spricht:

Das Kind, das du empfangen hast,
sei deiner Seele keine Last,
o sieh, wie klar das Weltall schimmert!
Es ist ein Glanz um Alles her,
du treibst mit mir auf kaltem Meer,
doch eine eigne Wärme flimmert
von dir in mich, von mir in dich;
die wird das fremde Kind verklären,
du wirst es mir, von mir gebären,
du hast den Glanz in mich gebracht,
du hast mich selbst zum Kind gemacht.

Er fasst sie um die starken Hüften,
ihr Atem mischt sich in den Lüften,
zwei Menschen gehn durch hohe, helle Nacht.

Although we think little of it now, but the sexual references in the text must have seemed strikingly modern to a contemporary audience. I also hope that readers find that this translation, which is my own improvement on previous ones, makes Dehmel's poem more accessible. The often printed translation by Mary Whittall reads particularly awkwardly.

I tend to habitually write for an audience that I assume is fairly well acquainted with the world of art music. Yet, as with most music writers, I tend to forget that much background is merely assumed. In the case of Verklärte Nacht, the novice to so-called "classical" music needs a bit of background experience. The reason is that the musical language is highly chromatic, which tends to blur the sense of the work being in a clear key. This movement towards key sense (tonality) being blurred can be seen as the musical parallel of the movement in the visual arts towards greater abstraction. Stylistically Verklärte Nacht is the equivalent of early works in a more Romantic style by Kandinsky such as his Couple Riding:

Despite being a Victorian era work, Verklärte Nacht is more chromatic and less tonal than the vast majority of top 50 popular chart music. In that sense alone, Verklärte Nacht is more modern than what is sold to kids grow up today as "modern" music. Even the songs that children learn to sing in kindergarten and primary school are going to be conventionally tonal. Though a rather controversial thing to say, I must say I find it fascinating – even frightening – that most popular music (pop, rock, country etc) is, in a fundamental way, more conservative than some compositions from the Victorian era.

That said, Verklärte Nacht is still fairly old fashioned as far as art music goes. Despite Schoenberg's grossly exaggerated reputation as a modernist firebrand, this early work is only as modern as late Wagner, Richard Strauss, or Mahler. One critic even said that it sounded like someone had smeared Wagner's Tristan before the paint had dried. The idiom is really very much in the late 19th century Romantic style. If you have also listened to music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, or Britten—all similarly highly chromatic - then Verklärte Nacht should provide few difficulties. In fact, I can think of plenty of music by both Prokofiev and Shostakovich that is a great deal more modern and challenging than this.

The real problem with Verklärte Nacht is that it is such a poor introduction to Schoenberg's middle period or later works. Recordings of this work abound, often coupled to works that are far too "advanced". In fact, I tend to agree more with the way Mariss Jansons has coupled it with the Chaykovsky Pathétique Symphony. The Serenade for Strings by Chaykovsky would also be a fair alternative, although it is arguably not Romantic enough compared to the Schoenberg. Another good coupling is with Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss.

Verklärte Nacht is extremely well represented both on recordings and in the concert hall. Personally, I think it is rather too well represented—there is even one unfortunate version on period instruments. I have grown a little tired of hearing this Chaykovsky piece myself. I thought of reviewing as many different recordings of the work as I could lay my hands on, in order to come up with a recommendation, but I am afraid I found myself unable to stomach the thought of having to listen to the work so many times. However, as with Chaykovsky, I can still enjoy it as a guilty indulgence once every few years, especially if I encounter it on the radio or in concert. It rather feels like too much of a chocolate overdose.

If you do buy a CD of Verklärte Nacht please avoid couplings with Pelleas, the chamber symponies, or the Variations for Orchestra. My favourite recording of the string orchestra version has always been the studio recording that Karajan made with the Berlin Philharmonic. It is unfortunately coupled with Karajan's catastrophic misrepresentation of Pelleas: avoid at all costs! If you download the FLAC format version from the Deutsche Gramaphon website you can just buy Verklärte Nacht, while mercifully skipping Karajan's truly awful Pelleas. Another alternative may be the live Verklärte Nacht by Karajan on Testament coupled with the Brahms First. Another string orchestra version worth mentioning includes the recording by Dimitri Mitropoulos on Music & Arts. Amongst string sextet versions the Hollywood String Quartet recording has legendary status, and comes appropriately coupled with some Schubert.

In starting a series of introductory posts on Schoenberg, I felt obliged to start with Verklärte Nacht. However, I must reiterate that this work is generally a poor introduction to Schoenberg's sound world. Fortunately, this little bon bon is still a sweet appetite whetter, and for that reason alone, I think mildly adventurous listeners should start here.

Lastly, it should be said that Schoenberg's later compositions are much more emotionally and intellectually engaging. Yes, you read correctly: emotionally engaging. Far from Schoenberg's later works being less romantic, they are more romantic. It is just that you need a bigger heart to feel it. Most people lack that, and tell us more about themselves by claiming otherwise about Schoenberg. It is just people close their minds to the advance in musical language. Once you open your heart to Schoenberg, these fools sound like people who go to a performance of Classical Greek tragedy in the original tongue and complain it made no emotional impact on them because the language was "all Greek." All it does is tell us about the breathtaking ignorance of the person who utters such nonsense.