Vol. LXII, No. 1 JANUARY, 1977 THE MUSICAL QUARTERLY BERG’S MASTER ARRAY OF THE INTERVAL CYCLES By GEORGE PERLE HE, curious passage given below (Ex. 1) —a note-agai e lignment of ascending series of semitones, whole tones, minor najor thirds, and, in the solo violin, one irregular pattern eof Wozzeck, The text suggests a con- phor, rising figures to represent the idea of in Worzeck’s words as he confionts Marie after the and the Doctor, in the preceding scene, have taunted him w of Marie's infidelity: “Kine Siinde, so dick und breit — das miisst’ stinken, dass man die Engel zn Himmel hinausriuchern knnt’ (CA sin, so thick and wide—it must stink enough to smoke the angels ont of heaven”). But the obvious meaning of masks 3 second (and often more U Hf we delete the irregular fi jgued to the solo violin, we find cities, too, are ervallic structures, i. €., eyclie if comtinued, return to their initial pitch class, and these simultaneities are successively generated by intervals of Thus each instrument progresses the initial unison to a point at cycle of perfect fifths. The solo musical metaphor in Berg often one) more esoteric meaning. nents which, Copyright 9.177 by 6.2 ‘The Musical Quarterly nya _—=7, se Ye a —=¥ r (© 1991 and 1958 by Universal Eatin, copys Used ly pera, violin part, however, spoils this ideal design, not only in its wea and irregular ascent, but also in its interpolation of a “wrong” note We can probably date the composition of this scene from a letter that Berg sent to Schoenberg on July 27, 1920, in which he enclosed a complete chart of the interval cycles, written out on twelve staves ¢ for each of the twelve intervals — inued to the point where all twelve cycles again intersect at a single pitch class, wl now occurs at twelve different octave positions as opposed to the initial unison. The accompanying text, however, offers only the fol- lowing comment on this elaborate array of notes: “Lieber Freund, ich bin durch Zufall auf obige Figentiimlichkeit gekommen. theoretische Spielerei (“Dear Friend, I came upon the above oddity by chance. A theoretical trifle”) In fact, Berg's array of the interval cycles, far from being a mere “trifle.” reflects a significant and persistent feature of his musical language, from the second song of Opus 2, Schlafend triigt man mich in mein Heimatland, which still employs a key signature, through his last work, the twelve-tone opera Lulu. Perhaps we can attribute the diffdence of his letter to the composer's own failure to notice its larger relevance, but it may be due also to a certain reserve in putting forth his own theories and discoveries in discussions with the master. ‘The latter possibility is suggested hy the following passage in Berg's ergs Alaster Av letter to his wife on April 1, 1924: “Schoenberg was very nice, and again very friendly to me. But, unfortunately, at the expense of other friends whom he cut down, Above all, Webern and Polnauer, who, whenever he spoke to them abuuit his theoretical achievements, would always say, ‘Ves, I too have already [dane that}.’ Since he doesn't get that from me, he wants to show me all the secrets in his new works. (The “new works” are the Five Piano Pieces and the Serenade, transi- tional works to the twelve-tone system, and the Piano Suite, the first composition entirely based on an ordered series of the twelve pitch classes. Berg presumably refrained from pointing out that one of the themes in his own Altenberg Lieder, composed in 1912, twelve-tone series.) ‘The bass line of the opening bars of Opus 2, No. 2, isa segment of the cycle of fifths, Bach note is at the same time a component of a chord of the “French sixth” type (in respect to content, not fuune- tion). ‘The transposition by a semtitone af such a chord —as of any chord that may be partitioned int aitones — is equivalent, in terms of piteh-class content, to its transposition by a perfect fifth (Fx. 2), a property that explains much Tanguage of the piece than its key signature of six flats, ‘The opening progres- sion is reducible to a series of chords that simultaneously unfolds cycles of semitones and perfect fifths (Ex. 3). about the harmon This alignment of different interval cycles masks the repetition of a single familiar chord structure in Ex. 8. In the last song of the same opus such an alignment generates a series of “atonal” chords (Ex. 4). At another point in the last song (measures 12-15) parallel ee Ca pk Athan Berg, Briefe an seine Frau, Munich, 1965, p. 498,4 The Musical Quarterly and opposite semitonal cycles are combined to produce a strictly ordered progression of changes (EX. 5). “The String Quartet, Opus 3, composed in 1910, iy Berg's first Iargescale composition, In this first period of “atonality” Berg seems to have been more preoccupied —at least more obviously preoc: cupied — than either Schoenberg or Webern with what Seymour Shifrin, in reference to the twelve-tone system, has called the tempt to regain a normative procedure.”* Iis explicit use of interval cycles in the quartet is central to this aim. Where a tonal composer right fill in registral or durational space with seale- or arpey figures, Berg often uses interval cycles for this purpose (Ex. bined interval cycles often serve to outline extended progres: (Ex. 7). Eee tater 18) Copyright © 1925 and o, Vienna, Used by permission. In the opening bars (Ex. 8) interval cycles alone define harmoni reas, generate thematic elements, and serve as means of progressi rhe chief motive, a, is a fivenote segment of the wholetone cycle plus one odd note. (I have called attention elsewhere to the im: portant use, by Schoenberg as well as Berg, of such collections, in which one note is displaced in what would otherwise be a complete whole-tone collection)? ‘The semitonal adjacency that results f 2 Seymuue Shifrin, Merspretives of New Sasi 1/4 (4969), 15: etl, Serial Composition and Atonaity, Yout ev. Wevke M, Nove from the |. Calif, 1968) pp. Hire pe pcan primes Po ft Homan ta 3 atte ath. wate LA” Fo Op Cat an AK YEE, Mat rm sang roe — Yate |p aay! le Ly pipet Contd Courtesy of Ms Berg's leur to Shoenberg, July 27, App te, 8 a oy SY -—f fer, pe 0. erg and Me, Lawrence A. Schoenberg.6 ‘The Musical Quarterly terpolation ofthis odd element is symmetrically expanded (0) along diverging semitonal cycles. ‘The final note of the head-amotif divides the octave ambitus of measures 1-2 into two tritones, each of which is itself evenly partitioned, by whole steps and minor thirds respectively. The minor third in viola and cello introduces a second thematic idea, ¢, formed by aligning segments of descending sein| nd perfect fourth cycles. ‘The symmetrical inflections at (@)- ig segments of inversionally comple tonal cycles, are a prolongation of ¢, In measure 5 the initial figure is wansposed of sen i nsfers that figure from the Wshole-tune cycle represented in its initial pitch level to the second of the two whole-tone cycles into which the twelve pitch classes can be partitioned, This second whole-tone collection i sustained Bellat in the second violin and confirmed F-sharp in the cello, The frst whole-one area returns in the follo bars, but Faharp remains, as a “dissonant” pedal, resolving, in meas ure 7, to Fnatural, the one note still required to complete the pri- nary wholetone collection after the entrance of the first violin in measure 7. In measure 9 all the voices except the cello again move into the second whole-tone collection, complete but for A-fat, which the cello provides on the following downbeat. er copyright © 1925 and 1958 by Universal Edition, Vienna, Use by permiian In place of the traditional interval nantes let us employ interval numbers to show the distance between pitch classes. We shall des: ignave “ascending” cycles by “P" (prime) ane “descending” cycles by (inversion). Pitch classes may be represented by pitch-class num- “en! . err) Berg's Master Array 1 bers, with,O for C, 1 for G-sharp, ete. The interval number of a P cycle is found by subtracting the left element of adjacent pitch-class numbers from the right, che interval number of an T eyele by sub: ting the right clement from the left, Thus, for example, the of ascend jor sevenths in Berg’s array may be named P-L or Fl, the cycle of ascending minor sevenths P-10 or 12, ete. fe we do not choose to define the P or I aspeet of an interva convenient to represent all interval classes by the integers 0 iG.) The harmonic language of Ex, 8 and its musical effect \ecounted for by an analysis that demonstrates the various kinds of compositional unfolding of interval cycles. These include a one-to-one alignment of nonequivalent cyclic intervals at ¢, ver- ticalized cyclic segn hed and augmented triads as sinuluaneities), the differentiation of harmonic areas through the two interval? eycles. complementary cycles “The larger significance of the last device is implied in the ex: position of the second nioventent of Opus 3. The primary collection of symmetrically related dyads may be represented by the follo alignment of P and I cycles: is well cl the on band d, oone alignment of inversioually Pl: Bh BC CfD EE Fi: BhAAbG FEF E Where an alignment of parallel cycles will generate vertical dyads of the same interval (i. €, difference), an alignment of inver- sionally complementary cycles will generate vertical dyads of the same sum (i. e., axis of symmetry), In the present instance that sum is 8, as a representation in number notation will show (the sum of 20 is equivalent to 8, since itis ® plus the octave, 12): Pl: 11101234 Li: 10 987654 n of symmetrically related dyads “P/T ‘and the common sum the “sum of complementation.” In the opening bars of the second movement figures based on P/T dyads of sum 8 are embedded among other thematic and harmonic elements (Ex. 9). The inversional relations are not always literally expressed, but are sometimes subjected to octave displacements (i.8 ‘The Musical Quarterly complementation is sometimes assumed to determine pitch class, as in the twelve-tone system, rather than pitch) and rhythmic dis placements. Copytight © 1925 and 1958 by Universal Eiition, Views. U At measure 28-33 the opening episode culminates in reit ments of a motive derived from two sum-8 dyads (Ex. 10). ‘The ceadential passage which follows repeats the second of these sum dyads through descending octaves anid joins to it the remaining notes of the whole-tone segment of measure 5, the last two bars of the episode being entirely limited to the content of ment. At the conclusion of the exposition (measures 68-71) there is again a return to the same axis of symmetry in a chord made up of two sums dyads (Ex. 11). The same collection, however, may be reinterpreted as com prising two sum-2 dyads, and precisely this reinterpretation the development section (Ex. 12) The same sum is given by alternate dyads in the alignment of un- equal cycles of which c is a segment: P72; 507294161 8 3106 Hi: 876543 2101110 9@ ea eee Sums: 1717..- “This shared sum of complementation associates ¢ and d 507/789 B26165 4 Sums: 171 111 ‘An alignment of unequal cycles is similarly associated with an align- iment of equal cycles in measures 13:17 of the second movement: oe was 1; | 234 Z1OM/ W198 ——— Sums; 048 0/ 0 000 “The eyclic principle is still far from providing Opus 3 with a “structure,” if that term is taken to mean anything analogous to what we mean by “tonal structure” in reference to music in the inajor/minor system, The only extended passage in which every Mote can be referred to the unfolding of one or another interval cycle is measures 1-10 (Fx. 8), but even within this limited context Fe seetns to me an exaggeration to use the term structure to imply such an analogy. ‘The pai 1g of musical space into two whole: tone collections organizes pitches in one way, the alignment of Complementary cycles to generate P/1 dyads of sum 11 at and P/ ddyads of sum 1 at cand d organizes pitches in other ways. Obviou these three pitch structures are compositionally interrelated, but th felationship depends on “reflexive reference,” that is, thematic 25° ociations uniquely characteristic of the given work. If the surm-1! and sunrl dyads and the two wholetone partitions may be viewed as components of an overall precompositionally definable system. 3 1 believe they can, such a system does not yet govern the quartet nor any other of the works which we commonly call “atonal.” It was Schoenberg's hope that his twelve-one system would lay “the founda: {Gh Jouph Frank “Spatial Form in Boseen Literature” Critic: The Fownder ions of Atodeen Literary Judgient,e. Matk Schorcr et al. (New York, 1958) P- 388wo ‘The Musical Quarterly tions for a new procedure in musical construction to replace those structural differentiations provided formerly by tonal harmonies, The main subject of this paper is the significance of a convergence of the cyclic and the twelve-tone concepts as a means toward this end, but before we turn to this subject let us briefly consider the role of cyclic procedures in two “classical” works of the uventieth century by composers outside of Schoenberg's circle, one composed two years and the other eighteen after Berg's Opus 3. In Opus 3 the head-motif and the first simultaneity partition an octave by the interval-6 cycle and the resultant tritones by segments of the interval-2 and interval-3 cycles, respectively. Such demarca- tions and partitionings of musical space are basic to the musical lan guage of Fe Sacre du printemps, but there they occur in conjunction with diatonic elements. The latter, however, may also be explained in terins of interval cycles— more simply and coherently, in fact, then in terms of the traditional modes and scales. With the single exception of interval 5, every interval from 1 through 6 will partition the space of an octave into equal segments. A seven-note segment of the interval-5 cycle, telescoped into the compass of an octave, divides the octave into unequal intervals —“wholesteps” and “half-step: ‘The traditional nomenclature for the identification of such scales will not serve us here. is required instead i a means of identifying the piteh-clavs function of tonic to any given pitch class or 1 the octave that frames a given diatonic collection. I suggest that e: transposition of the “whitenote” collection be identified as a given seveninote segment of the cycle of fifths, wi ive integers repre- senting the number of sharps and negative integers representing, the number of flats within the segment (see chart, top of page 11)- If we wish to specify, in addition, the intervallic ordering of the collection, it suffices to identify the tonic or octave-boundary pitch class, The two will not necessarily be identical, and it is often con- venient to cite progressions from one diatonic collection to another in Sacre without recourse to either. Support is given to our interpretation of diatonic collections Le Sacre du printemps as telescoped cytlic segments by the presence of similarly derived collections of less and mote than seven elements. + Arnold Schoenberg. “Composition with Twelve Tones.” Siyle and Idea (New York, 1975). p. 218 Berg’s Master Array a +6 _-———— +5, ———_ +4 +3, +2 +1 —___— 0 ———_ Ch Gh Db Ab Eb Bb FC GD AEB Ff Cg Ge De Ad ER -1T 2 A four-note segment of the cycle, enharmonically equivalent to Dp-Ab-Eb-Bp. is given w the flute between rehearsal nos. 8 and 9. At no. 9 the oboe, joined by the clarinet in D two bars later, takes the overlapping fournote segment Eb-Bb-F-C. The alto flute simul- taneously unfolds a gapped +1 diatonic collection whose missing note, B, is then introduced as a pedal (110s, 10-12). A six-note segment of the cycle may he expanded into a diatonic collection by the ad- dition of either of two notes that differ from each other by a semi- tone. The first six bars of “Rondes printanitres,” for example, are limited to a hexachordal scale, F-Ab-Bp-C-Dp-Ep, that may be con- verted into the ~5 diatonic scale by the addition of G-flat or the ~4 diatonic scale by the addition of G-natural. The twenty-five bars that follow (nos. 49-58) alternately employ both of these scales. In “Danse de la terre” an interval2 cycle is combined with two different diatonic scales. The aggregate collections may be summarized, in respect to their content only, as follows: a" Fe Gs B)C D EFPG AB (=e rPAniTTC DE Ff,Ab Bb C'Db Fb FG ‘The tonic note of the bassoon solo in the opening bars, A, forms a structural minor third with C, as part of a hexachordal collection encompassing the C to B segment of the cycle of fifths. The same A2 ‘The Musical Quarterly then serves as a pivotal note to the minor third below. The addition of another minor third at measure 15 completes one of the three partitions, C-A-FY-Df, of the interval cycle (Ex. 18). Each interval is delineated in a different way, the C-A framing the diatonic scale-degrees, 9-2-1 (C-B-A), the A-Ff framing a segment of the interval-I cycle, the F§-D4 stating the principal cyclic interval directly and completing a second tritone, A-Dg. ‘The figure that folds this symmetrically partitioned tritone is the principal motive of the “Introduction.” Its first appearance is at the conclusion of the first entry of the bassoon (C-F§, measures 4f.); a third and fourth statement are given to the clarinet in D (ASE at measures 2011. E-Ag at measures 46ff.); a final, reiterated statement is given to the clarinet in A (E¢-B, measures 57ff.). This last helps to establish the logic of the new pitch level of the recapitulated bassoon solo at measures 66fl. ‘The “Jeu du rapt” is based on combinations of the interval-S cycle with various diatonic scales. This material is even explicitly announced at one point (no. 45), in the alignment of a segment of the cycle of fifths with all three partitions of the interval-3 cycle: AE B FRCS Gr Ds At F CA FE DE/A Fey DEC A ApFD B/FD B GF Dp BhG E /BpG — E Db Bb The immediately preceding bars (from no. 44 on) are based on a scale “discovered” by Stravinsky's teacher, Rimsky-Korsakoff,* the sym- metrical “octatonic” scale whose alternate elements unfold two of the three partitions of the interval-S cycle: A-B-C-D-Fb-F-GpAb. A second of the three nonequivalent transpositions of the octatonic scale, Bp-C-Dp-Eb-EW-FE-G-A, is the source of the six bars between ON, A. Rimsky-Koraakofl, My Musical Life (New York, 1936). p. 72. Berg's Master Array 13 nos. 42 and 43.7 The same scale minus one note* is combined with a +1 diatonic collection in the first five hars of the section (nos. 37-38): (A) Bb C Dp Eb Ey Fk G ABCD E FG Much use is made of the octatonic scale in the last two sections of the work, “Action rituelle des ancétres” and “Danse sacrale.” From no. 193 to the conclusion, with the exception of the last three bars, the pitch-class material is reducible to a single actatonic scale, plus (from no. 195 on) one “odd” note, F-natural. The descending octatonic’ scale, C-Bh-A-G-FE-E-Ep-Cf, is explicitly and repeatedly unfolded through segments assigned to the first and second horns and the three trombones. Inversional complementation, a concept that plays no role what- ever in Sacre, is the very basis of Barték’s use of cycles. It can be traced as far back as the second of the Fourteen Bagatelles (1908) 1 achieves its fullest realization twenty years later in the Fourth tet. The following symmetrical tetrachords, shown at thei ary transpositional level, function as basic cells in the Fourth tet (Ex. 14)? Any tetrachord may be bisected into its component dyads in three different ways. Where a tetrachord is symmetrical the three pairs of dyads may be represented, in pitch-class mumber notation, by equa tions showing invariant differences (i. €., intervals) or invariant sums. Cell xo may be partitioned into two semitones (3-2=1~0), two whole steps (3 1 =2—0), and two symmetrically related dyads, non- equivalent as intervals but equivalent as sums (3+0=2+1=3), An- other disposition of two whole steps is found in cell ywe (4— 10), which may be alternatively analyzed into two major thirds (4— 1 Sce Arthur erger, “Problems uf Pitch Organization in Si of New Music, 14 (1963), 2 ‘ Sviahin' Seventh Semata ia based on a smiarly le (E-FEG-A-TLC-DY, ©The subscript klemtifies the lowext note, and therefore the pitch level, of a form af each cell; two auch pitch-class numbers are assigned to cell z 10 ‘ts pitch-clas coutent in invariant under tramsposition at the ritone, inky. Perspectioes4 ‘The Musical Quarterly 0=2-10) or two symmetrically related non-equivalent intervals (+ 10=2+0=2), A principal thematic idea of the piece is the progression uf xe into yie. Since the two cells do not have a common axis of sy! metry (and cannot have a common axis, regardless of their respective transpositions, the sum of complementation being odd for any trans- Position of cell x and even for any transposition of cell y), the pro: Bression of x into y cannot be symmetrical, However, a nonsym- ‘metrical progression may be symmetrically reflected in a comple- ‘mentary progression, and this is precisely what occurs in the Fourth Quartet. Cell xo is replaced by x (the significance of the interval-3 transposition is explained below), and cell yio is replaced by ys (a transposition that intersects with three of the four elements of The sum of complementation of the two progressions together is 0, Tepresenting an axis of symmetry that is equivalent to the keynote of the piece, C, and the only pitch class that is shared by all four tetrachords of the two progressions: 01 23/100 24 o1w9/ 20108 Cells x and y are characterized by a special property. Both are segments of interval cycles, the one a segment of the interval-l cycle and the other of the interval-2 cycle, Either cell may be transposed terms of its cyclic interval — cell x hy semitones. cell y by whole tones — just as the diatonic scale may be transposed in terms of cyclic interval, the perfect fifth, to generate a hierarchical ordering among transpositions of a given collection. Where Stravinsky bases transpositional relations between diatonic collections in Le Sacre du printemps on such a hierarchical ordering without alluding to conventional forms of traditional diatonic music, Barték often ex- Ploits transpositional relations between nondiatonic collections in a Way that implies a certain analogy with key relations in diatonic tonality. The first movement of the Fourth Quartet, for example, is a sonata-allegro whose formal components are to some extent defined and differentiated by means of such hierarchically ordered transpositions. The first stabilization of cell x at a new pitch level Occurs at the conclusion of the exposition (measures 46-49), and this new pitch level involves a shift of +1, so that the original content of xe is minimally altered. The development section commences at Ce Bal KL ergs atister array a measures 49-50 with a transposition of the original xe/yso progression hy +2, which produces the analogous alteration of the “tonic” ver- sion of cell y. At the conclusion of the development section (measures 85.02) a linear version of cell x at +3—a “remote” relationship in terms of shared pitch-class content —is transposed by successive de- 1g semitones to the “tonic” version of cell x, at which point the recapitulation begins. Cell z is not a cyclic segment, but it establishes another, more comprehensive principle of relation between different transpositional levels. Like the chord which marks the end of the exposition of the second movement of Berg's Opus 3 (Ex. 11), it may be partitioned into two tritones. Any such four-note collection may be interpreted 1 terms of either of two axes of symmetry separated by the minor thitd. A division of cell z into two semitones is represented by the equation 3-7=2—1, a division imo two perfect fourths by the equation 7-2=1—8, but in each instance the minus sign may be wed by the plus sign to give us the equations 8+7=2+1=3 and 7+2=14+8=9, In one interpretation the axis of symmetry of cell tars is identical with that of cell xe, the complementary relations of both deriving from P and I semitonal cycles intersecting at Cf/D and G/Ab. The transposed cell 217s may be interpreted as presenting the same complementary relations in dyads of sum 3: 18 , woul mt 97 av 5 4 In the other interpretation 2y2 and 21/3 both derive their com- plementary relations from P and I cycles intersecting at E/F and Ag/B. They may thus be associated with x: and xs, the minor third 910 78 an on™ 9) HE 5 4g Bartok assigns pivotal functions to cells zara and 2u/s, interpreting each to imply either sum of complementation. Ultimately it is sum 9 that prevails, with E/F as a dominant axis of symmetry. Wherever there is inversional symmetry based on the semitonal scale one of two “modes” is expressed, the one producing only add intervals, the other only even, and the “mode” occurs in one of its16 ‘The Musical Quarterly ergs master atay Stiles eene Slectangey six “keys” — the six even or six odd sums that represent the different waigles8ass wWlze2 8553 transpositional levels of the collection of symmetrically related in- : tervals. In the array given on the facing page, parallel semitonal Sele e ele cycles are horizontally aligned to prixluce the twelve transpositions ale ae g/g 235 gat of each interval and opposite semitonal cycles are vertically aligned oe \ to produce the six collections of symmet cally related odd intervals -gle a elaeneaza and the six collections of symmetrically related even intervals. Par- 32/3 223 4/3 $23 354 ! allel or opposite cycles of interval 2 may be read from the same array : hy taking every alternate dyad of a row or column, parallel or op- enenes wlene ae pinite cycles of interval 8 by taking every third dyad, etc. (The com- egies :/3 33 7 Tinuation of each row is found by taking the same row again, the con- ’ tinnation of each column by taking the tritone transposition of the fleeaeraan Cel fee ee fen ter same column, i.e. the other column of the same sum.) We can thus te ce er E/R e328 5 interpret the sum and interval array as an extension of Berg's array Of the interval cycles, in which each interval cycle is paired with a a jlesnaas Gila ee a a transposition of itself in the rows and a transposition of the inver- Sele eet oes gjee ss gn ¢ sionally complementary cycle in the columns. is impossible to overestimate the role of inversional com + eee By, Ao ion in the “attempt to regain a normative procedure.” To ‘ geass g\s 2322 fextent inversional complementation is employed in post: | it totally defines pitch and interval relations within oF) = g _— fa given context!” A first prerequisite to an understanding of its wjseeeaas al[33 Be ‘e is the dismissal of analogies that have been made — by ~ = Schoenberg among others — with inversional procedures in earlier 2 2 tnusic, ‘The inversion of themes and motives in diatonic music occurs tleage222 tlaagei22ea in a prior harmonic context whose functional relations are not in- sand is not measured in terms of a single unit but rather as ° 2 jn termes of diatonic intervals which differ in dimension." Inversional iidjsss32e g)aas 7 a tw Suis of inversional comple ponudiaonie nonserial music neue a =e se of ela Banbk,” Music Review, Sjag3a38 WISS43338 XVI (1955), $0; Leo Treitler, imic Procedures it the Fourth Quartet of gin ae Srranisnion in Bartéks Fourth Sting Quartet” (Ph.D. dissertation, seule e8e A t i et University of New York, 1975); Bruce Archibald, “Some Thoughts on Symwciy Sesh) 2 aa 335 fe 323% se Lany Weberoz Op. 5. Nov" Perspectives of New ui, X/2 (1972), 15: Bette £ °F sar campenition sad Atonality, chap. 2 (an the Gist movement of the Serenade, E Schoenbe >€iasegs ii 2 ain somos he Gna_yariaton of Mac's one a aeea re = eamoni variations” om Vom Himinel heck da omm’ich her) dimensional teations 3 Z z into raion. This makes the preserv ae i = we eat fanettons that much move of 2 challenge: it is wot a device for eliminating val metions or a way to compose music in the absense of tonal functiont,complementation in “atonal” music, on the other hand, generates the harmonic context and is, by definition, literal. The invertibility of the series is a primary postulate of Schoen- berg's twelve-tone system. Any twelve-tone set is one o ‘mutation of an interval-l or interval cycle, and the i ill be an equivalently permuted complementary cycle. But such reorderings do not revise the collection of P/I dyads, which depends only on the sum of complementation. If that sn is 0, for example, then, for any set, the inversionally complementary set-forms will be po and is, py and in, pe and ie... pus and is, and the corre- sponding r and ri pairs.!? Each pair of set-formis will produce another Permutation of the following P/I dyads; namely, dyads of sum 0: Peycle: 0 1 234567891011 Teycle: 011109876543 21 The maintenance of a single sum of complementation among different pairs of inversionally related set-formis is a principle that is found in several of Webern's compositions, The “tonality” of the Quartet, Opus 22, for violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone, and piano, is based on the above collection of P/I dyads. In the initial pair of set- statements these are permuted 3s follows: Dep cit bb. 5 i pe 110901134568 27 > ims 1230 198764105 The same principle of set-form association governs a large section of Act II, Scene 1, of Berg's Lulu. The priority of sums {and 7 (as the bases of pitch relations) over the ordering imposed by a given setatructure is explicitly asserted in that the same collections of P/I 12 The sulcripte show the pitch level of a setform by identifying the inital pitch class of p (prime) and i (inversion) forms and the final plich class of tograde) and ri (retrograde-inverion) forms, with O always representing C. This a departure from the usual and my own earlier practice of asigning pitchclas, ‘amber © t0 the initial element of a reterential p sctlorm, whatever the piteh-lass tbe. The new terminulogy makes it possible tm identify ly, by the sum of transposition ‘onally complementary forms of any set. Lawer-cae le “P and “I” as names of int JF. Schon's Five Strophe Aria: Some Notes «m Tonality Lulu,* Perspectives of New Music, VIM/2 (1870), 23, Berg's Master Array 19 rent sets. The “Lied der Lulu,” for example, comrhences with pe and ir of the basic series: 04527 96 81031 73250111 8 946 The same P/I dyads are derived from the pi and is forms of Dr. Schin's series at the beginning of the third strophe of his aria: 1610115 87023 94 G19 8210754103 In Schoenberg's “combinatorial” pieces the sum of complementa- tion determines the respective segmental content of the set. In the Piano Piece, Opus 33a, for example, each dyad of sum 1, 12.3456 01110987 is divided, for a given set-form, between the two hexachords: pe: 10501196/187824 ‘The inverted set-form that is complementary at sum 1 will exchange and reorder the pitch-class content of the respective hexachords, 50 that all twelve pitch classes occur in each pair of aligned p and i hexachords: 381247/01065119 ‘Any change in the pitch level of a given setfonn will change the implied sum of complementation by twice the difference in semi- tones between the two pitch levels. In the development section pre and is are first transposed by 2, to sum of complementation 5, pr O 7T21118/359104 6 is 51034 69/208 711120 “The Musical Quarterly and then by T-7, to sum of complementation 3, ps $076 41/8 1023911 im: 10389112/7 5106 4 Vhere in the examples cited from Webern and Berg the same sum ‘as maintained between the T-nos. of associated complementary et forms, Schoenberg maintains the same difference (7 in the present nstance), since no other relation between complementary forms of he given set aligns p and i hexachords of mutually exclusive content. ind where for Webern and Berg the sum of complementation may ¢ odd or even, for Schoenberg it must be odd, since for any even 1m of complementation P/T dyads of interval O will occur i oints separated by the tritone, Obviously, where a pitch class is its wn complement the P/I dyad cannot be partitioned between the vo segments of a single set-form. Ina letter to Webern dated October 12, 1925, Berg refers to his irst attempt at strict twelve-tone serial composition.” a new setting ‘the poem by Theodor Storm, Schliesse mir die Augen beide, which had provided with a tonal setting in 1907. The set is the same te on which he based the first movement of his next work, the yri¢ Suite for string quartet, to which he refers in the same letter t. Ex. 15): two il i ps 5409728136101 erg's characteristic preoccupation with interval cycles merges with serial concept in this “first attempt,” in the structure of the set elf. The alternate elements of each hexachord unfold inversionally lated segments of interval-7 cycles (P/I dyads of sum 9 Peycle: | 507/294 1161/83 101 | Teycle: | 492]705 1038, 1611] 4 . ere the individual set-form in itself unfolds a complete collection P/I dyads, the sum of complementation depending on the pitch el of the set-form. (The setform given above, for example, may Partitioned imo the P/I dyads of sum 9.) The series is sym- Berg's Master Array a metrical, r and ri set-forms being respectively equivalent to tritone transpositions of the corresponding p and i set-forms. There are therefore uwenty-four rather than forty-eight independent set-forms. In terms of segmental content, a dyadic partitioning reduces number to twelve, the content and the order of the segments rel to each other being invariant between pa and in: FE/CA/GD/ Ab Db / Eb Gh / Bb Ch EF /ACG/DG{/ Dp Ab / Gb Eb / Ch Bb the series comprises all eleven intervals, the hi uniformity it imposes on the harmonic material limi for “strict twelve In fact, the degree of ts usefulness ne serial composition. movement of the Lyric Suite obviously does not m te whatever postulates of “strict (welve-tone serial composi- tion” one may be able to deduce from the twelve-tone serial composi- tions of Schoenberg and Webern. The four introductory chords are not derived from the above series at all, but are segments of the imterval-7 eyele, and complete statements of the same cycle occur in the cello in measures 7-9 and 54-35, in the second violin in measures 46-47, in the second violin and cello in measures 61-63, and in the first violin in measures 64-66, Given these explicit representations of the cycle, it seems reasonable to interpret the hexachordal scales measures 33.35 and 62-68 as telescoped versions of six-note segr ments of the same cycle. The series is partitioned by its symmetrical structure into two six-note segments, of which the second is the retrograde at 16 of the first, and the content of each is likewise equivalent to a six-note segment of the interval? cycle. The first movement of the Lyric Suite is thus based on not one but three sets, of which the Urform is a bisected interval-7 cycle, each segment of which is subjected to both a serial and a scalar ordering. The prin- of the movement is defined in one respect by the three sets: FGCGDAE/B Ft Ct Gg Dt At ps FEGAGD / Gt Ct Dg Ft ARB CDEFGA/ Fk Gt At B Ce DE“a Ane piusical Quarterly The principal “tonality” is defined in another respect by the sum of complementation of the symmetrically related dyads of the series in its primary set-form, px (Ex. 15). A circular permutation of ps (Ex. 16) projects the same dyads independently of the primary hexachordal segmentation. Copyright © 1927 and 1955 by Universal Edition, Vienne, Used by petmision. A second hexachordally defined “tonality” is represented by an- other setform of the same series and its associated scales and interval- 7 cyclic segments. There is maximum intersection between the re- spective hexachordal collections (i. ¢., five of the six elements are held in common), since the second “tonality” is equivalent to a T-7 transposition (i. e., a transposition by the cyclic interval) of the first: CGDAEB / Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F pc CBGEDA/ Eb Ab Bb Db F Gh GABCDE/ Dp Eb F Gh Ab By ial and scalar forms that explicitly represent this second “tonality” in the movement are not these T-7 transpositions, but other forms of identical hexachordal content: CGDAEB/ Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F int BCE GAD/ Ab Eb Dp By Gh F BCDEGA/ F Gb Ab Bb Db Ep In respect to hexachordal content pe and in are equivalently re- lated to the primary series, ps. But in is also related to ps in another espect. The following alternative dyadic partitioning, which only 1 shares with ps, shows why in rather than ps is chosen as the serial Tepresentative of the second “tonality”: Berg's Master Array 23 ()/EC/AG/D Ab / Dp Ey / Gh Bh / BF @)/CE/GA/D Ab/ Eb Dy / BY Gh/ FB cis this second collection of dyads that is projected in the recapitula- tion (Ex. 17) as an analogue of Ex. 16. Except for the tritone D/Ab at the center of the series, the dyads Produced by this alternative partitioning, like those produced by the original dyadic partitioning, are symmetrically related, with 4 dis- Placing 9 as the sum of adjacent pitch classes. The single exception occurs at the point where the interval-7 cycles that generate alternate elements of the series are interrupted: rT FoE«CeA4GeDw Abo Db« Fhe Gh « Boy Ch Where a given form of the series is immediately repeated there is a juxtaposition of the two hexachords that eliminates this single discrepancy: ——————_——_, —_______,, Abo Db « Eb Gh « Bho Chs Fe Es CoAsGyD A continuation of the cycles produces the retrograde form (= the Prime form at T-6) of the same series, and pitch-class repetition at the point where the cycles intersect: ——_—__., ‘Ab » Db « Fb Gh Bb BF ECAGDDGACEF DB Bh... ‘We shall call any set thus consistently generated by the interlock- ing of P and I cycles of the same interval number a “cyclic set.” Any other form of the same series may be interpreted as one or another Fealignment of the same cycles. For example, Berg's in series, whose association with the primary series, ps, was noted above, may be similarly read as a “cyclic set.” As such it duplicates the above dyads4 ‘The Musical Quarterly of sum 4 and at the same time generates another collection of sym- ‘metrically related dyads of sum 11: ss ———_——— ‘Ab u Eb « Dp Bb Gh FBC EG AD DAGECBF Gp.. In that the collection of symmetrically related dyads of sum 9 plays as important a role in the first movement of Barték’s Fourth Quartet as in the first movement of Berg's /.yric Suite, both pieces may be said to be, in this respect, in the same “tonality.” In the later these suin-9 dyads occur as components of a serially ordered set: in the former no explicit serial ordering is assu nd it is there: fore immaterial whether these dyads are represented by an alignment of interval-7 cycles, or by the following alignment of interval-l cycles: Peycle: B C Cs D DEE F Fs G Ge A At (B Lcycle: Bh AG} G Fe FEE) D CECB (Bb An interval-l cyclic set exactly analogous to Berg's interval-7 cyclic set may be derived from this alignment, The inversionally related setforms that share the sum-9 dyads may be alternatively partitioned into sum-8 dyads, Se Bh» Be AC Ab Dp GD Ff Eb FEE F Ep Fa DG Db or sum-10 dyads, ee Bs Bh CA Db Ab DG Eb FQ EFF E Fg Ep G D Ab..- ‘To compose with a twelve-tone set is to articulate and differen- tiate set-segments hythmically, registrally, and dynamically. At a deeper level a particular segmentation may establish referential pitch-class collections that provide a basis for harmonic association and progression among the forty-eight forms of the set, or even among forms of different sets as in Berg's Julu.!* The cyclic set differs radically from the general series in that aiy partitioning generates totally systematic connections among. pitch-class coll Berg's Master Array 25 tions. The two dyadic partitionings of Berg's primary cyclic setform, for example, produce two collections of symmetrically related dyads, one of which is given by the sum-9 column and the other by the sum-4 column of the sum and interval array. The sum-9 column also gives us one of the two dyadic partitionings of each of the above inversionally related interval-I cyclic set-forms. Any four-note chord comprising two dyads of interval 7 and two dyads of sum 9 or sum 4 will occur as a segment of the cyclic version of Berg's primary set- form. Triadic partitionings produce segments in which each element of the set serves as the “axis note” of a cyclic interval, the perfect fifth. The respective transpositional levels of this interval are inver- ally complementary to the respective transpositional levels of the axis note, resulting in the following collection of three-note chords (Bx. 18): Each of these chords is an unambiguous representation of the given setform, since its three component dyads comprise interval 7, sum 9, and sum 4, the three necessary and sufficient defining elements of the given set form, ‘We have seen how, in Schoenberg's twelve-tone compositions, the structure of the set provides a rationale for the pairing of a given form of the set with a given inversionally related form. The structure of the cyclic set provides a rationale for (1) the pairing of any mem- ber of the camplex of twenty-four setforms with any other member and (2) ordered relations among all such paired set-forms. Let us assume, for example, that the cyclic versions of Berg's ps and inn sct- forms are combined on the basis of triadic segments that share the same axis note: i Ab ab Dp eb Gb bh B FEcAgDdGaCeF b Bb Eb ab Ab eb Db bh GLFBcEgAd DaGeCbF oe —. Bb Eb db (Ab‘The combined segments produce the following collection of chords (Ex. 19): a SS—= SSS ‘Transposing the second of these two setforms by T-] (=T-7), and then again aligning common axis notes, ——— Ab ab Dp eb Gh BbB LE cA gDdGaCeF b Bp F ab Bb eb Eb bb AE Doc Fe g Bd EaAe DDG i ar 8 Eb db (Ab Bb C db (F produce the following collection of chords (Ex. 20):!# But the latter series of cyclic-interval combinations (we shall call these four-note collections “cyclic chords") may also be derived from the former pair of set-forms when these are aligned so that each axis note of the first set-form is matched with the axis note a major second lower of the second set-form, Ab ab Dp eh Gh bhB f£ Ec A gDdGaCeF b By F gh Bb db Eb ab Ab eh Dp bh GULF BC EgAdDaG a a ee Bb Eb db (Ab ecb modal system” ty. Mis earliest 1910. Suggestions 18 The intervalt qylie set la the basis of the author's“ ad in the second edtion of Serial Composit ‘composition in the “I2tone modal system” was published clleted by Paul Lanaky in the summer of 1969 led to a close and tion in the course of which the original theory was ra ly expanded, The present arte would not have been pouible except for insights ‘ald 282 reault of this collaboration. or where each axis note of the second setform is combined with the axis note a major third lower of the first set-form, —— ______, F b_ Bb gb Eb db Ab ab Db eh Gh bh BF Ec AgDd Ab ch Db bb Ghf Bc E g Ad DaGeCbhFg Gace Bb db Eb ab (Ab ‘There are, moreover, functional distinctions among chords de- rived by combining setsegments in this way. For example, where the paired axis notes are equivalent to a dyadic segment of either of the two set-forms the associated cyclic chord will be equivalent to a tetradic segment of the other. In the following alignment of our second pait of set-forms the axis-note dyads are equivalent to seg- ments of the first of these two set-forms: — — Dp ab Ap db Eb gh BhbF eC aGdDgAcEfB F ab Bh eb Eb bb Ab ff Doc Fpg BA Ea Ae DbG bb Gb eb (Db fs C db ‘The chords in Ex. 21 are again derived by combining three-note segments of the two setforms. But at the same time the axisnote dyads alone unfold successive dyads of one set-form and the cyclic chords unfold overlapping tetradic segments of the other. Realigning the set-forms so that the same series of axis-note dyads are transposed upwards by a major third (T-4) will case cyclic chords to be transposed in the opposite direction by the sime interval (T-8):28 ‘The Musical Quarterly ———— A CE £ B bb Gb eb Db ab Ab dh Eb gh Bhb Fe C a DpcFggBd E a Ae D b G ff C db F ab Bo eh a EE dD g (Ab Eb bp Ab f (Db oe The “tonic” setforms continue to be represented by their triadic segments, but the combined segments now coincidentally unfold, in axisnote dyads and cyclic chords, “resultant” setforms at T-4 (= T-10, i. e., TA plus or minus the tritone) and T-8 (= T-2): CCF-G BPD EPA GE GB FH ACEEFS BB FEE CEA GED bE Be BC; EGy A_Ep D Bh GF EFF CoB G~ ED DCs (ATE pet ON Eh Any other transposition of the series of axis-note dyads in Ex. 21 will similarly result in cyclic chords that are equivalently transposed in the opposite direction. These chords will again unfold “resultant” setforms whose respective pitch levels will similarly reflect the re- spective pitch levels of the “tonic” pair of set-forms whose combined triadic segments are the source of these axisnote dyads and cyclic chords. ‘The relation between pitch levels of associated setforms is thus always analogous to that which Webern imposes in the first move- ‘ment of Opus 22. In twelve-tone compositions based on the implica- tions of the cyclic set, however, this principle of setform association is inherent, as a “natural” consequence of the setstructure itself. The cyclic set in such compositions is an all-pervasive referential norm, just as is the aggregate of functional relations based on the triad and diatonic scale in traditional tonality. This referential norn the content of pitch-class collections derived by com ments of cyclic set-forms, and is no more dependent on the explicit and literal reiteration of a twelve-tone series than is the key of a tonal composition dependent on the continuous foreground reitera- ‘ Berg's Master Array 29 ‘The implications of the cyclic set based on interval I are analogous to those of the cyclic set based on interval 7. Where cyclic chords derived from the latter include all combinations of two perfect fifths, cyclic chords derived from the former will include all combinations of two semitones. Any other interval will generate cyclic sets with analogous properties. OF course, where interval-7 and interval cyclic sets generate uninterrupted series of all twelve pitch classes. an imterval-3 cyclic set, for example, will fall into two subsets: segmenta- tion procedures, however, will produce exactly analogous results. The chords in Fx. 20 were derived hy combining two perfect fifths he interval of a minor third: the same chords may be interpreted as (wo minor thirds at the interval of a perfect fifth, Triadic segments of the follo y he paired to produce that entire collection of cyclic chords in association with the same axis- note dyads: Ab) Ab FB OD (D/A G Fe Bh Eh DCE (A G A) A GFREb (Fb / Ab Bh BOG D EF Db (Ab Bh ‘The chords of Ex. 20 will now appear in a new order (Fx. 22), if, as before, their order is to reflect the complete serial ordering of the aligned set-forms: Ab) ab Fb Dd BE Ab // Ag Ft bb Eb db Ce (A // Dp) ab Bh b Gd Ef Db // Dg B bb Ab dh Fe (D // eee eee, ———— F) a G ff Bb eb Dpc E A) aC ft Fb ch Fhe A wae However, as we have seen, the coherence of twelve-tone ‘composition based on cyclic sets does not depend on such literal sur-30 ‘The Musical Quarterly two collections may be regarded as a point of intersection between wo different cyclic systems. Any given collection of cyclic chords may be similarly reinterpreted, so that all the cyclic systems are imerrelated through such intersections, as well as through common axes of symmetry. There is, finally, nothing to prevent the pairing of set-forms generated by different cyclic intervals, to produce cyclic chords comprising nonequivalent intervals. The normative implica- tions of what we may reasonably call “twelve-tone tonality” will em- borace these as well. Berg's array of the interval cycles is an astonishing speculative adumbration of the structural basis of this “twelve-one tonality,” in which,the seemingly disparate structural elements of postdi ‘composition converge.