Editing Anton Webern (section)

== Music ==

{{further|List of compositions by Anton Webern}}

{{Quote box
| bgcolor = #FFFFF0
| width = 25%
| quoted = true
| salign = right|Tell me, can one at all denote thinking and feeling as things entirely separable? I cannot imagine a sublime intellect without the ardor of emotion.
| source = Webern wrote to Schoenberg (June 1910).{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=113}} [[Theodor Adorno]] described Webern as "propound[ing] musical expressionism in its strictest sense, ... to such a point that it reverts of its own weight to a new objectivity".{{sfnm|Adorno|1984|1loc=448|Adorno|2004|2loc=418}}
}}

Webern's music was generally concise, [[organicism|organic]], and parsimonious,{{efn|Webern repeatedly emphasized {{lang|de|Zusammenhang}}, translated as unity, coherence, or connection. [[Jonathan Kramer]] wrote that Webern's definition of unity was "utmost relatedness" and that he sought "to develop everything else from <em>one</em> principal idea!"{{sfnm|Kramer|2016|loc=53, 53n22, 84, quoting Webern in ''The Path to the New Music'' 35}} Kramer noted that most prior music and theory shared Webern's emphasis.{{sfn|Kramer|2016|loc=84}} But Webern's zeal and rigor fit more with twentieth-century modernism, and his approach added complexity, Kramer argued.{{sfn|Kramer|2016|loc=84–85}} [[Sibelius]] was also noted for his organicism and natural topics. British concert programs posed him as an alternative to the Second Viennese School.{{sfn|Bols|2020|loc=112–113}} Adorno and Leibowitz criticized him.{{sfn|Bols|2020|loc=124–125}}}} with very small [[Motif (music)|motifs]], [[Palindrome#Classical music|palindromes]], and [[Elements of music|parameterization]] on both the micro- and macro-scale.{{sfnm|Burkholder|1983|1loc=125|Frigyesi|1998|2loc=23, 25–26, 30–33, 36–41, 90–93, 105–108|Neubauer|2001|3loc=11–15|Neubauer|2002|4loc=501–502|Neubauer|2009|5loc=21–22, 29–31|Rochberg|2004|6loc=17–18}} His idiosyncratic approach reflected affinities with Schoenberg, Mahler,{{efn|Taruskin noted Webern's "descent from Mahler".{{sfn|Taruskin|2023a|loc=294}} Keith Fitch glossed Webern as "crystallized Mahler". The opening of Webern's Op. 21 echoed that of Mahler's [[Symphony No. 9 (Mahler)|Ninth]].{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=205}}}} Guido Adler and [[early music]]; interest in [[Western esotericism|esotericism]] and {{lang|de|[[Naturphilosophie]]}}; and thorough perfectionism.{{efn|This was noted in his performances.{{sfn|Johnson|2006b|loc=205–206}}}} He engaged with the work of [[Goethe]], Bach,{{efn|Webern engaged with Bach in two phases, first as a student.{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=299|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=37, 39}} Later, he conducted Bach's music ten times (1927–1935), finding inspiration in it while writing his twelve-tone music.{{sfn|Zenck|1989|loc=299, 309}} He made some connections between his and Bach's music to make his own more easily understandable and to emphasize his place in established tradition.{{sfn|Zenck|1989|loc=299}} Webern cited the two-movement ([[overture]]–[[Suite (music)#Dance suite|dance suite]]) form of Bach's [[Orchestral suites (Bach)|orchestral suites]] as one model for the two-movement form of his Op. 21 (writing to Schoenberg),{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=299|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=319, 325–326}} the instrumentation of the ''[[Brandenburg Concertos]]'' as inspiration for that of his Op. 24 (writing to Hertzka),{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=299–300|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=422}} and Bach's [[Orchestral suites (Bach)#Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067|B-minor badinerie]] as the model for the Op. 27/ii [[scherzo]] (in coaching Peter Stadlen).{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=300|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=483, 681n6}} Writing to Stein, Webern confirmed (as Polnauer had already noticed) that the [[BACH motif]] was the motivic basis of his Op. 28, but "''secretly'' ... ''never'' ... in this ostentatious transposition!!!"{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=300|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=492–493, 756}} He asked Stein not to publicize this in ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]''.{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=300|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=492}} In the same letter, Webern also outlined a complex synthesis of musical forms in Op. 28/iii, specifically identifying Bach's influence in the fugal element.{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=299–300|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=492–493, 753–756}}}} and the [[Franco-Flemish School]] in addition to that of Wolf, [[Brahms]],{{efn|Webern's [[Passacaglia for orchestra (Webern)|Op. 1]] was openly modeled on that of Brahms's [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Fourth]].{{sfn|Littlewood|2004|loc=33}} Webern's [[Variations for piano (Webern)|Op. 27/i]] was perhaps modeled on Brahms's [[Fantasies, Op. 116|Op. 116/v]].{{sfnm|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|1loc=483|Musgrave|1985|2loc=259–260}}}} Wagner, Liszt, [[Schumann]], Beethoven, Schubert ("so genuinely Viennese"), and Mozart.{{sfnm|Burkholder|1983|1loc=119–128|Burkholder|2006|2loc=425|Cook and Pople|2004|3loc=672|Kolneder|1968|4loc=20–21|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|5loc=37, 39, 49–69, 74–78, 84–88, 99, 124–125, 265, 274, 276, 300, 318–321, 325–328, 334–339, 366–369, 373–374, 378–380, 414, 419, 424–427, 482, 506–508, 570–572, 575–576, 689, 715, 738–739|Morris|2016|6loc=172–173|Street|1989|7loc=71–91|Tarasti|2002|8loc=44–46, 99–104|Tarasti|2015|9loc=292–293}}{{efn|Webern often referred to the Franco-Flemish School as "the Netherlanders." In Feb. 1905 Webern recorded in his diary, "Mahler pointed out ... [[Rameau]] ... Bach, Brahms, and Wagner as ... contrapuntalists ... . '... Just as in nature the entire universe has developed from the primeval cell ... beyond to God ... so also in music should a large structure develop [entirely] from a single motive ... .' Variation is ... most important ... . A theme [must] be ... beautiful ... to make its unaltered return ... . ... [M]usicians [should] combine ... contrapuntal skill ... with ... melodiousness".{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=75–76}} In Jan. 1931, Schoenberg responded to Webern's plan for lectures: "... show the logical development towards twelve-tone composition. ... [T]he Netherlands School, Bach for counterpoint, Mozart for phrase formation [and] motivic treatment, Beethoven [and] Bach for development, Brahms, and ... Mahler for varied and highly complex treatment. ... [T]itle ... : 'The path to twelve-tone composition.'"{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=374}} [[J. Peter Burkholder]] generalized his claim that "the use of existing music as a basis for new music is pervasive in all periods";{{sfn|Allen-Russell|2023|loc=192}} he had focused on "the [[Historicism|historicist]] mainstream" within the proximal eighteenth and especially nineteenth and twentieth centuries.{{sfn|Burkholder|1983|loc=115, 124–125, 129, 132}} [[Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak|Adriaan Peperzak]], writing about the taste of "most intellectuals" at the end of the 20th century as "a plurality of cultural homes" (or about "the 'modern museum of cultures'"),{{sfnm|Stapleton|1994|1loc=12–13|Peperzak|1994|2loc=461}} stressed a general connection between new and old represented also in music (i.e., both [[Post-tonal music theory|"after"]] and [[Early music|before]] [[tonality]] or [[Common practice period|common practice]]), observing that "whereas certain works of Bartók and Stravinsky already are experienced as difficult," "[[Josquin des Prez]], [[Carlo Gesualdo|Gesualdo]], Webern and Boulez seem to be reserved to a small elite, and we continue to refer to traditional art in learning how to compose new works and how to listen to the extraordinary works made according to non-traditional codes."{{sfn|Peperzak|1994|loc=466}}}} Stylistic shifts were not neatly coterminous with gradually developed technical devices, particularly in the case of his mid-period {{lang|de|Lieder}}.{{efn|For example, his first use of twelve-tone technique in Op. 17, Nos. 2 and 3, was more technical than stylistic, and Adorno felt that Op. 14 sounded twelve-tone.{{sfnm|Adorno|1999|1loc=100|Antokoletz|2014|2loc=44|Bailey Puffett|1991|3loc=14, 31–35, 94, 107–109, 125, 418|Ballance|2023|4loc=Abstract, 95, 232–234|Johnson|1999|5loc=165}}}}

His music was also characteristically linear and [[cantabile|song-like]].{{sfnm|Rochberg|2004|1loc=15|Shreffler|1994|2loc=18|Shreffler|1999|3loc=253–255}} Much of it (and Berg's{{sfn|Schroeder|1999|loc=218–219}} and Schoenberg's){{sfnm|Berry|2019|1loc=74|Simms|1999|2loc=161–162}} was for singing.{{sfn|Elliott|2007|loc=222}}{{efn|Their instrumental music has been related to vocal idioms: the "concealed vocality" and "latent opera" of Berg's ''[[Lyric Suite (Berg)|Lyric Suite]]''{{sfn|Schroeder|1999|loc=233–234}} and the Bach chorale and folk melody of his [[Violin Concerto (Berg)|Violin Concerto]]; the "recitative" of Schoenberg's [[Five Pieces for Orchestra|Op. 16/v]] and the [[Accent (poetry)|accent]]ed [[Prosody (music)|musical prose]] of his twelve-tone music. Unlike Berg and Schoenberg, Webern did not use {{lang|de|[[Hauptstimme]]n}} and {{lang|de|[[Nebenstimme]]n}}, but he endorsed textures of accompanied melody in his music's polyphony. He could not stop writing songs, he told Berg (1921) and Hertzka (1927), noting his work's "almost exclusively [[Lyrics#Poems|lyrical]] nature" and apologizing to Hertzka for the consequently inauspicious [[Music industry|commercial]] implications.{{sfn|Shaftel|2000|loc=iv}}}} Johnson described the song-like [[Musical gesture|gestures]] of Op. 11/i.{{sfn|Johnson|1998|loc=275–279}} In Webern's mid-period {{lang|de|Lieder}}, some heard instrumentalizing of the voice{{sfnm|Kolneder|1968|1loc=86|Shreffler|1994|2loc=149}} (often in relation to the clarinet){{sfn|Adorno|1999|loc=100}} representing yet some continuity with {{lang|it|[[bel canto]]}}.{{sfnm|Barker|2004|1loc=24–26|Fraser|2003|2loc=9–25|Matter|1981|3loc=57|Shreffler|1999|4loc=276}}{{efn|Berg endorsed an innovative, pluralist approach emphasizing some {{lang|it|bel canto}} and like Webern, expressed faith in singers to execute challenging lines.{{sfnm|Berg|2014|1loc=218–219, 222, 261|Elliott|2007|2loc=229–230|Hayes|1995|3loc=138|Perle|1985|4loc=29}}}} Lukas Näf described one of Webern's signature hairpins (on the Op. 21/i mm. 8–9 [[bass clarinet]] {{lang|it|[[tenuto]]}} note) as a ''[[messa di voce]]'' requiring some ''[[tempo rubato|rubato]]'' to execute faithfully.{{sfn|Näf|2019|loc=190}}{{efn|Hairpins were arguably read as {{lang|it|[[tenuto]]}}-like [[agogic accent]]s.{{sfn|Kim|2012|loc=46–48, 51}}}} Adventurous [[Texture (music)|textures]] and [[timbre]]s, and melodies of wide leaps and sometimes extreme [[Range (music)|range]]s and registers were typical.{{sfnm|Clark|2001|1loc=573|Hayes|2021|2loc=9}}

For Johnson, Webern's ''rubato'' compressed Mahler's "'surging and ebbing'" tempi; this and Webern's dynamics indicated a "vestigial [[Lyrics#Poems|lyrical]] subjectivity."{{sfn|Johnson|2017|loc=228}} Webern often set carefully chosen [[lyric poetry]].{{sfn|Rode-Breymann|1996|loc=1}} He related his music not only to nostalgia for the lost family and home of his youth, but also to his Alpinism and fascination with [[Perfume#Plant sources|plant aromatics]] and [[plant morphology|morphology]].{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=1–8, 20–37, 42–44, 50, 73–78, 100–109, 145–154, 162, 172, 182, 186, 193, 199–218, 230–232, 248, 259}} He was compared to Mahler in his orchestration and semantic preoccupations (e.g., memory, landscapes, nature, loss, often [[Christian mysticism#Western Catholic mysticism|Catholic]] [[mysticism]]).{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=258}} In Jone, who he met with her husband Humplik via the {{lang|de|[[Hagenbund]]|italic=no}}, Webern found a lyricist who shared his esoteric, natural, and spiritual interests. She provided texts for his late vocal works.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=340–342}}

Webern's and Schoenberg's music distinctively prioritized minor seconds, major sevenths, and minor ninths{{efn|Some exceptions included Webern's Op. 23.}} as noted in 1934 by [[Microtonal music|microtonalist]] [[Alois Hába]].{{sfn|Hába|1934|loc=15–17}} The [[Yuri Kholopov|Kholopov siblings]] noted the [[semitone]]'s unifying role by [[Axis system|axial]] [[Inversion (music)#Inversional equivalency and symmetry|inversional symmetry]] and [[Octave#Equivalence|octave]] [[Equivalence class (music)|equivalence]] as [[interval class]] 1 (ic1), approaching [[Allen Forte]]'s [[Generalization|generalized]] [[Set theory (music)|pitch-class set analysis]].{{sfn|Ewell|2013|loc=220–223, 242}} Webern's consistent use of ic1 in [[Cell (music)|cell]]s and [[Set (music)|set]]s, often expressed as a wide interval musically,{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1991|1loc=47|Hayes|2021|2loc=9|Taruskin|2023a|3loc=294}}{{efn|Webern found Bartók's [[String Quartet No. 4 (Bartók)|String Quartet No. 4]] "cacophonous" for its clusters of semitones.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=465}}}} was well noted.{{efn|[[Philip Ewell]] cited [[Erhard Karkoschka]], Kolneder, [[Heinz-Klaus Metzger]], [[Henri Pousseur]], and [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]] on this point.{{sfn|Ewell|2013|loc=219–221}}}} Symmetric [[pitch interval|pitch-interval]] practices varied in rigor and use by others (e.g., Berg, Schoenberg, Bartók, Debussy, Stravinsky; more nascently Mahler, Brahms, Bruckner,{{efn|[[Eliahu Inbal]], whose work with the {{lang|de|[[Frankfurt Radio Symphony|hr-Sinfonieorchester]]|italic=no}} in the 1980s was part of a Bruckner reappraisal,{{sfnm|Korstvedt|2004|1loc=121|Sanderson|n.d.}} found additional connections between Bruckner and Webern and Romantics and modernists more generally,{{sfn|Inbal|2022}} echoing [[Dika Newlin]] and Mahler himself.}} Liszt, Wagner). Berg and Webern took symmetric approaches to [[elements of music]] beyond pitch. Webern later linked pitches and other [[Parameter#Music|parameters]] in schemes (e.g., [[fixed register|fixed or "frozen" register]]).{{sfnm|Antokoletz|2014|1loc=44–47|Baragwanath|1999|loc=262–83}}

Relatively few of Webern's works were published in his lifetime. Amid fascism and [[Emil Hertzka]]'s passing, this included late as well as early works (in addition to others without opus numbers). His rediscovery prompted many publications, but some early works were unknown until after the work of the Moldenhauers well into the 1980s,{{sfn|Shaftel|2004|loc=iv}} obscuring formative facets of his musical identity.{{sfnm|Chen|2006|Puffett|1996|2loc=38|Yang|1987|3loc=vi}} Thus when Boulez first oversaw a project to record Webern's music, the results fit on three CDs and the second time, six.{{sfnm|Fitch|2000|Webern|2000}}{{efn|Performers also relaxed their tempi.{{sfn|Quick|2010|loc=103–104, 112–118, 248}}}} A [[Historical editions (music)|historical edition]] of his music has remained in progress.

=== 1899–1908: Formative juvenilia and emergence from study ===

Webern published little [[juvenilia]]; like Brahms, he was meticulous and self-conscious, revising extensively.{{sfnm|Meyer and Shreffler|1996|1loc=136|Shere|2007|2loc=7}} His earliest works were mostly ''[[Lied]]er'' on works of [[Richard Dehmel]], [[Gustav Falke]], and [[Theodor Storm]].{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=211–236}} He set seven [[Ferdinand Avenarius]] poems on the "changing moods" of life and nature (1899–1904).{{sfn|Rode-Breymann|1996|loc=2}} Schubert, Schumann, and Wolf were important models. With its brief, potent expressivity and utopianization of the natural world, the ([[German Romanticism|German]]) [[Romanticism|Romantic]] ''Lied'' had a lasting influence on Webern's musical aesthetic.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=42–45}} He never abandoned its lyricism, intimacy, and wistful or nostalgic topics, though his music became more abstract, idealized, and introverted.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=211–236}}

Webern memorialized the Preglhof in a diary poem "An der Preglhof" and in the [[tone poem]] ''Im Sommerwind'' (1904), both after [[Bruno Wille]]'s [[idyll]]. In Webern's ''Sommerwind'', Derrick Puffett found affinities with Strauss's ''[[Alpensinfonie]]'', Charpentier's ''[[Louise (opera)|Louise]]'', and Delius's ''[[Paris: The Song of a Great City|Paris]]''.

At the Preglhof in summer 1905, Webern wrote his tripartite, single-movement string quartet in a highly [[sonata theory|modified]] [[sonata]] form, likely responding to Schoenberg's [[String Quartets (Schoenberg)#String Quartet No. 1, Op. 7|Op. 7]].{{sfn|Wedler|2015|loc=225–226, 229}} He quoted [[Jakob Böhme]] in the preface{{sfn|Jensen|1989|loc=12–14}} and mentioned the panels{{efn|''{{lang|it|La vita}}'', ''{{lang|it|La natura}}'', and ''{{lang|it|La morte}}''; or ''Life'', ''Nature'', and ''Death''}} of Segantini's {{lang|it|Trittico della natura}}{{efn|''Alpine Triptych'' (1898–1899)}} as "{{lang|de|Werden–Sein–Vergehen}}"{{efn|"Becoming–Being–Bygone"}} in sketches.{{sfnm|Jensen|1989|1loc=11–15|Johnson|1999|2loc=72–77|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|3loc=86}} Sebastian Wedler argued that this quartet bore the influence of Richard Strauss's ''[[Also Sprach Zarathustra]]'' in its germinal three-note motive, opening [[fugato]] of its third (development) section, and [[Nietzsche]]an reading (via [[Eternal return#Friedrich Nietzsche|eternal recurrence]]) of Segantini's triptych.{{sfn|Wedler|2015|loc=229–243}} In its opening harmonies, [[Allen Forte]] and [[Heinz-Klaus Metzger]] noted Webern's anticipation of Schoenberg's [[atonal]]ity in [[String Quartets (Schoenberg)#String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10|Op. 10]].{{sfn|Wedler|2015|loc=226–227}}

[[File:Danzig - Friedrich-Wilhelm-Schutzenhaus - Saal. 1906 (70940322).jpg|thumb|[[Danzig]]'s Friedrich-Wilhelm-{{ill|Schützenhaus|de}} in a 1906 postcard photograph]]

In 1906, Schoenberg assigned Webern [[List of chorale harmonisations by Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach chorales]] to harmonize and figure; Webern completed eighteen in a highly chromatic idiom.{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=299, 301–308|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=82, 87–88}} Then the Passacaglia, Op. 1 (1908) was his graduation piece, and the Op. 2 choral canons soon followed. The passacaglia's chromatic [[Harmony|harmonic]] language and less conventional [[orchestration]] distinguished it from prior works; its form foreshadowed those of his later works.{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1996|1loc=195|Meyer and Shreffler|1996|2loc=147, 150|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|3loc=93–97}} Conducting the 1911 Danzig premiere of Op. 1 at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-{{ill|Schützenhaus|de}}, he paired it with Debussy's 1894 ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'', [[Ludwig Thuille]]'s 1896 ''Romantische Ouvertüre'', and Mahler's 1901–1904 ''[[Kindertotenlieder]]'' in a poorly attended {{lang|de|Moderner Abend}}{{efn|Modern Evening}} concert. The ''{{ill|Danziger Zeitung|de}}'' [[Music criticism|critic]] derided Op. 1 as an "insane experiment".{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett and Schingnitz|2020|1loc=193|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=140–141}}

In 1908 Webern also began an opera on [[Maeterlinck]]'s ''{{ill|Alladine et Palomides|fr}}'', of which only unfinished sketches remained,{{sfnm|Kolneder|1968|1loc=225|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=116–117, 736–737}} and in 1912 he wrote Berg that he had finished one or more scenes for another planned but unrealized opera, ''Die sieben Prinzessinnen'', on Maeterlinck's ''{{ill|Les Sept Princesses|fr}}''.{{sfnm|Johnson|1999|1loc="one scene" as on 84, quoting his own translation of Webern's July 1912 letter from Rexroth's ''Opus Anton Webern''|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=113, 132, "several scenes" as on 190, 736–737}} He had been an opera enthusiast from his student days.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=57}} Debussy's ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' enraptured him twice in Dec. 1908 Berlin and again in 1911 Vienna.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=104}} As a vocal coach and opera conductor, he knew the repertoire "perfectly ... every [[Number (music)|cut]], ... [[Musical improvisation|unmarked]] [[cadenza]], and in the [[comic opera]]s every theatrical joke".{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=184}} He "adored" Mozart's ''[[Il Seraglio]]'' and revered Strauss, predicting ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'' would last. When in high spirits, Webern would sing bits of Lortzing's ''[[Zar und Zimmermann]]'', a personal favorite. He expressed interest (to [[Max Deutsch]]) in writing an opera pending a good text and adequate time; in 1930, he asked Jone for "opera texts, or rather dramatic texts", planning cantatas instead.{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=128, 184}}

=== 1908–1914: Atonality and aphorisms ===
{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename=Excerpt of Fünf Sätze für Streichquartett, Op. 5, I. Heftig bewegt; Anton Webern, composer, Schloss Preglhof, spring 1909; Emerson String Quartet, State University of New York at Purchase, 19 October 1992.ogg|title=Fünf Sätze for string quartet, Op. 5, I. Heftig bewegt (Schloss Preglhof, spring 1909) – Emerson String Quartet|description=Spending summer 1909 with Webern (et al.) and seeing his Op. 5 manuscript reinvigorated Schoenberg's music, inspiring him to write Busoni: "... away with 'motivic working out.' Away with harmony as cement or bricks of a building. Harmony is ''[[Expressionist music|expression]]'' and nothing else. ... Away with [[Pathos]] [and] [[Symphony#Late-Romantic, modernist and postmodernist eras|protracted ten-ton]] scores ... . My music must be ''brief''. Concise! [[Aphorism|In two notes]]: not built, but ''expressed!!'' ... no stylized and sterile protracted emotion. People are not like that" (Schoenberg's emphases).{{sfnm|Busoni|1987|1loc=388–9|Haimo|2010|2loc=100–104|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|3loc=123–125, 706–707}}}}

Webern's music, like Schoenberg's, was freely atonal after Op. 2. Some of their and Berg's music from this time was published in ''[[Der Blaue Reiter]]''.{{sfn|Street|2005|loc=86}} Schoenberg and Webern were so mutually influential, the former later joked, "I haven't the slightest idea who I am".{{sfn|Schoenberg|1950|loc=484}} In Op. 5/iii, Webern borrowed from Schoenberg's Op. 10/ii. In Op. 5/iv, he borrowed from Schoenberg's Op. 10/iv setting of "Ich fühle luft von anderen planeten".{{sfn|Brinkmann|2000|loc=9–12}}{{efn|"I feel the air of other planets"}}

The first of Webern's innovative and increasingly extremely aphoristic Opp. 5–11 (1909–1914) radically influenced Schoenberg's Opp. [[Drei Klavierstücke (Schoenberg)|11]]/iii{{efn|Op. 11/iii (mid-1909) so differed from Op. 11/i–ii (Feb. 1909) that when Bartók performed Op. 11 (23 Apr. 1921 Budapest, 4 Apr. 1922 Paris), he omitted it.{{sfn|Krones|2017|loc=125}}}} and [[Five Pieces for Orchestra|16]]–[[Erwartung|17]] (and Berg's Opp. [[List of compositions by Alban Berg|4]]–[[Altenberg Lieder|5]]).{{sfnm|Adorno|1984|1loc=448|Bailey Puffett|1997|2loc=83–86|Haimo|2010|3loc=100–104|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|4loc=64, 93–97, 117–134, 190–208, 263, 279, 656}} Here, {{ill|Martin Zenck|de}} considered, Webern did not seek "the new ... in [music of] the past but in the future".{{sfn|Zenck|1989|loc=301}} In writing the Op. 9 [[Bagatelle (music)|bagatelle]]s, Webern reflected in 1932, "I had the feeling that when the twelve notes had all been played the piece was over."{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=194}} "[H]aving freed music from the shackles of tonality," Schoenberg wrote, he and his pupils believed "music could renounce motivic features".{{sfn|Haimo|2006|loc=318–352}} This "intuitive aesthetic" arguably proved to be aspirational insofar as motives persisted in their music.{{sfn|Boss|2015|loc=2, 5, 10–12, 46, n8}}

Two enduring topics emerged in Webern's work: familial (especially maternal) loss and [[veneration of the dead|memory]], often involving some [[religious experience]]; and abstracted [[landscape]]s idealized as [[spirituality|spiritual]], even [[pantheism|pantheistic]], {{lang|de|Heimat}} (e.g., the Preglhof, the [[Eastern Alps]]).{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=121}} Webern explored these ideas explicitly in his [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] stage play ''Tot: Sechs Bilder für die Bühne'' (''Dead: Six Scenes for the Stage'', Oct. 1913).{{sfnm|Crawford and Crawford|1993|1loc=243–244|Johnson|1999|2loc=33–34, 75, 101–108, 132–134}} The play comprises six [[tableaux vivants]]{{efn|[[Maurice Maeterlinck#Static drama|Maurice Maeterlinck's notion of static drama]] influenced Webern.{{sfn|Crawford and Crawford|1993|loc=243–244}}}} set in the Alps, over the course of which a mother and father reflect on and come to terms with the loss of their son.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=33–34, 75, 101–108, 132–134}}{{efn|Webern was likely inspired by the sudden death of his nephew, Theo Clementschitsch, who died on holiday in Italy.{{sfnm|Crawford and Crawford|1993|1loc=243–244|Johnson|1999|2loc=101}} Webern had to negotiate the return of his body to Austria.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=101}}}} The script specifies exact lighting, sounds, delivery, and gestures to match mood, time, and place, with birds, bells, and flowers as important elements of a still, holy world.{{sfn|Crawford and Crawford|1993|loc=243–244}} Webern drew so heavily from Swedenborg's [[correspondence (theology)|theological doctrine of correspondence]]s, quoting from ''Vera Christiana Religio'' at length, that Schoenberg considered the play unoriginal.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=107–108, 132–134}}

It is known that Webern sublimated these concerns into his music, particularly in the case of his Op. 6.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=107–108, 132–134}} Confiding in Berg and Schoenberg, Webern told the latter some about the programmatic narrative for that music in Jan. 1913, as Schoenberg prepared to premiere it at what would become the {{lang|de|[[Skandalkonzert]]|italic=no}} that March:{{sfnm|Johnson|1999|1loc=103–104 {{lang|lt|et passim}} 40, 85, 99–127|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=126}}{{blockquote|The first piece is to express my frame of mind ... already sensing the disaster, yet ... maintaining the hope that I would find my mother still alive. It was a beautiful day—for a minute I believed ... nothing had happened. Only during the train ride to [[Carinthia]] ... did I learn the truth. The third piece conveys ... the fragrance of the {{lang|lt|[[Erica (plant)|Erica]]}}, which I gathered ... in the forest ... and ... laid on the [[bier]].{{efn|Webern wrote Berg that August, "the heather from the middle of August is my favourite flower. It's most beautiful in a forest clearing, where the sun can reach, that wonderful sun, where it is against the grass, and the bees and bumble-bees are upon it, and that scent. I've indulged in orgies there, standing motionless, my eyes closed, that's my favourite. Have I already told you, that the 3rd piece of my orchestral pieces was born from such an impression. Directly. The scent of heather. But of course, that is the scent of heather which I laid on my mother's coffin."{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=104 {{lang|lt|et passim}} 40, 85, 99–127, quoting his own translation of Webern's Aug 1913 letter from Rexroth's ''Opus Anton Webern'' (77)}}}} The fourth piece I later entitled {{lang|it|[[funeral march|marcia funebre]]}}. Even today I do not understand my feelings as I walked behind the coffin to the cemetery. ... The evening ... was miraculous. With my wife I went ... again to the cemetery ... . I had the feeling of my mother's ... presence.}}

As Webern's music took on the character of such static dramaticovisual [[Scene (performing arts)|scenes]], his pieces frequently culminated in the accumulation and amalgamation (often the [[developing variation]]) of compositional material. [[Fragmentation (music)|Fragmented]] melodies frequently began and ended on weak [[Beat (music)|beats]], settled into or emerged from [[Ostinato|ostinati]], and were dynamically and texturally faded, mixed, or contrasted.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=105–108}} Tonality became less directional, [[Function (music)|functional]], or narrative than tenuous, spatial, or symbolic as fit Webern's topics and literary settings. Stein thought that "his compositions should be understood as musical [[Vision (spirituality)|visions]]".{{efn|"Ecstasy was [Webern's] natural state of mind", Stein recalled.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=205}}}} [[Oliver Korte]] traced Webern's {{lang|de|Klangfelder}}{{efn|"fields of sound", sound-fields}} to Mahler's "suspensions".{{efn|For Adorno, these were an "essential" Mahlerian formal "genre", often episodic as in a section of music marked {{lang|it|senza tempo}}. Korte compared Webern's Op. 10/iii to the passage before Mahler's "[[Symphony of a Thousand|Chorus mysticus]]".}}

Expanding on [[Orchestration#Mahler|Mahler's orchestration]], Webern linked colorful, novel, fragile, and intimate sounds, often nearly silent at {{serif|'''''ppp'''''}}, to lyrical topics: solo violin to female voice; closed or open [[Voicing (music)|voicings]], sometimes {{lang|it|[[sul ponticello]]}}, to dark or light respectively; compressed range to absence, emptiness, or loneliness; registral expansion to fulfillment, (spiritual) presence, or transcendence;{{efn|Beethoven's similar use of registral expansion was noted (e.g., [[Piano Sonata No. 32 (Beethoven)|Op. 111, No. 2, Var. 5]] when the theme re-emerges in a strange harmonic context after a long section of trills).}} celesta, harp, and glockenspiel to the celestial or ethereal; and trumpet, harp, and [[string harmonic]]s to angels or heaven.{{sfnm|Dolan and Rehding|2021|1loc=135, 144, 157–159, 183, 514, 527–529, 534|Johnson|1999|2loc=57, 94, 110–112, 121, 125, 141, 201}}{{efn|Examples included the circling ostinati of Op. 6/v and the end of Op. 15/v.}}

With elements of {{lang|de|[[Kabarett]]|italic=no}},{{efn|See {{lang|de|[[Sprechgesang]]|italic=no}}. Schoenberg briefly directed and wrote for the [[Überbrettl]], for example, in the 1901 ''Brettl-Lieder''.}} [[neoclassicism (music)|neoclassicism]],{{efn|Examples included passacaglia in "Nacht", fugue in "Der Mondfleck", and canon in both.}} and ironic Romanticism{{efn|Examples included the [[virtuoso]] solo and waltz in "Serenade" and triadic harmony in "O alter Duft".}} in ''[[Pierrot lunaire]]'', Op. 21 (1912), Schoenberg began{{efn|"Galgenlied" was still quite short.}} to distance himself from Webern's and latterly Berg's aphoristic expressionism, which provoked the {{lang|de|Skandalkonzert|italic=no}}. Alma recalled Schoenberg telling her and [[Franz Werfel]] "how much he was suffering under the dangerous influence of Webern", drawing on "all his strength to extricate himself from it".{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=660n9, quoting a 1915 note from Alma Mahler published in her ''Mein Leben'' (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1960): 77}}

=== 1914–1924: Mid-period ''Lieder'' ===
{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename=Excerpt of Fünf geistliche Lieder für Sopran und fünf Instrumente, Op. 15, V. Fahr hin, o Seel, zu deinem Gott; Anton Webern, composer, 1917; Peter Rosegger, poet, 1900; and Halina Lukomska, soprano and Pierre Boulez, conductor, 1969.ogg|title="Fahr hin, o Seel', zu deinem Gott", double canon ''in motu contrario'' (Klagenfurt, 20 July 1917) – soprano Halina Lukomska and conductor Pierre Boulez|description=In this excerpt (mm. 20–29) is Webern's [[lyric setting]] of the text "{{lang|de|[Gott ... nehme dich] barmherzig auf in jenes bess're Leben|italic=no}}".{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=89–90}}{{efn|"[God ... lifts you] mercifully into that better life"}} [[Julian Johnson (academic)|Julian Johnson]] noted Webern's use of first short, then long [[note value]]s and phrases to impart a sense of calm rest before the final high harp [[String harmonic|harmonic]], a [[tone painting]] of [[heaven]].{{sfnm|Johnson|1997|1loc=76–78|Johnson|1999|2loc=156–157}}}}

During and after [[World War I]] (1914–1926) Webern worked on some fifty-six songs.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=129}} He finished thirty-two, ordered into sets (in ways that do not always align with their chronology) as Opp. 12–19.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=129}} Schoenberg's recent vocal music had been motivated by the idea that "absolute purity" in composition couldn't be sustained,{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=83–85, quoting [[Theodor W. Adorno]]}} and Webern took Schoenberg's advice to write songs as a means of composing something more substantial than aphorisms, often making earnest settings of folk, lyric, or spiritual texts.{{sfn|Johnson|1997|loc=71–74, 89–101}} The first of these mid-period {{lang|de|Lieder}} was an unfinished setting of a passage ("In einer lichten Rose ...") from Dante's ''[[Paradiso (Dante)|Paradiso]]'', [[Paradiso (Dante)#The Empyrean|Canto XXXI]].{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=274–275}}

By comparison to melodic "atomization" in Op. 11, [[Walter Kolneder]] noted relatively "long arcs" melodic writing in Op. 12{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=83}} and polyphonic [[voice leading|part writing]] to "control the ... expression" in Opp. 12–16 more generally.{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=90}} "How much I owe to your ''Pierrot''", Webern told Schoenberg after setting Trakl's "Abendland III" (Op. 14/iv),{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=149–150}} in which, distinctly, there was no silence until a pause at the concluding gesture. The [[Counterpoint|contrapuntal]] procedures and [[Pierrot ensemble|nonstandard ensemble]] of ''Pierrot'' are both evident in Webern's Opp. 14–16.{{sfnm|Johnson|1999|1loc=149–150|Shreffler|1994|2loc=131–132}}

Schoenberg "yearn[ed] for a style for large forms ... to give personal things an objective, general form."{{efn|In Apr. 1914, after [[Four Orchestral Songs (Schoenberg)|Op. 22]]/i, "Seraphita," so wrote Schoenberg to Alma Mahler.{{sfn|Auner|2003|loc=123–124}}}} Berg, Webern, and he had indulged their shared interest in [[Heaven and Hell (Swedenborg book)|Swedenborgian mysticism]] and [[Theosophy]] since 1906, reading Balzac's ''[[Louis Lambert (novel)|Louis Lambert]]'' and ''[[Séraphîta]]'' and Strindberg's ''[[To Damascus|Till Damaskus]]'' and ''Jacob lutte''. [[Gabriel]], protagonist of Schoenberg's semi-autobiographical ''[[Die Jakobsleiter]]'' (1914–1922, rev. 1944){{efn|Scholarship varied as to the genesis of ''Jakobsleiter''.{{sfnm|Auner|2003|1loc=123–125|Berry|2008|2loc=86|Berry|2014|3loc=66|Smither|2001|4loc=678|Watkins|2011|5loc=215, 295n83}} Two scholars noted work from 1914.{{sfnm|Auner|2003|1loc=123–125|Watkins|2011|2loc=215}} [[Winfried Zillig]] finished it after Schoenberg's death.{{sfn|Watkins|2011|loc=295n83}} Schoenberg told Berg about setting Strindberg's ''Jacob lutte'' in spring 1911. Webern introduced Schoenberg to Balzac's ''Louis Lambert'' and ''Séraphîta'' in Mar. 1911.{{sfn|Brown|2011|loc=120}}}} described a [[Jacob's Ladder|journey]]: "whether right, whether left, forwards or backwards, uphill or down – one must keep on going without asking what lies ahead or behind",{{efn|"''Ob rechts, ob links, vorwärts oder rückwärts, bergauf oder bergab – man hat weiterzugehen, ohne zu fragen, was vor oder hinter einem liegt.''"{{sfn|Christensen|1979|loc=Volume II: Appendices, Appendix B: Annotated Edition of the Libretto (DICH[tung]14), 6}}}} which Webern interpreted as a [[conceptual metaphor]] for (twelve-tone) [[pitch space]].{{sfn|Watkins|2011|loc=215–216, 226–227}} Schoenberg later reflected on "how enthusiastic we were about this."{{efn|In 1941 Schoenberg lectured: "the ... law of the unity of musical space ''demands an absolute and unitary perception''. In this space, as in Swedenborg's heaven (described in Balzac's ''Séraphîta'') there is no absolute down, no right or left, forward or backward." Schoenberg then considered ''Jakobsleiter'' a "real twelve-tone composition" for its opening [[hexachord]]al ostinato and "Scherzo ... of all the twelve tones".{{sfn|Schoenberg|1950|loc=113}}}}

On the journey to composition with twelve tones, Webern revised many of his mid-period {{lang|de|Lieder}} in the years after their apparent composition but before publication, increasingly prioritizing clarity of pitch relations, even against timbral effects, as [[Anne C. Shreffler]]{{sfn|Shreffler|1999|loc=283}} and Felix Meyer described. His and Schoenberg's music had long been marked by its contrapuntal rigor, formal schemes, systematic pitch organization, and rich motivic design, all of which they found in the music of Brahms before them.{{sfnm|Straus|1990|1loc=8–9, 21–41|Shere|2007|2loc=10}} Webern had written music preoccupied with the idea of dodecaphony since at least the [[total chromaticism]] of his Op. 9 bagatelles (1911).{{sfnm|Ballance|2023|1loc=42, 95, 114|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=194, 309–310}} and Op. 11 cello pieces (1914).{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=206}}{{efn|Schoenberg hinted at the idea in ''Harmonielehre'' (1911),{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=308}}}} He began preparing these aphoristic works for publication while composing most of his mid-period {{lang|de|Lieder}}, which may have reoriented him to his own lyricism.{{sfnm|Johnson|1999|loc1=128–131|Wedler|2023|loc2=87–89}}

There are twelve-tone sets with repeated notes at the start of Op. 12/i and in some bars of Op. 12/iv, in addition to many ten- and eleven-tone sets throughout Op. 12.{{sfn|Kolneder|1968|loc=89}} Webern wrote to Jalowetz in 1922 about Schoenberg's lectures on "a new type of <em>motivic work</em>", one that "unfolds the entire development of, if I may say so, <em>our</em> technique (harmony, etc)".{{sfn|Hamao|2011|loc=239–240, 287–288, quoting Webern with Webern's emphases}} It was "almost everything that has occupied me for about ten years", Webern continued.{{sfn|Hamao|2011|loc=239–240, 250–251}} He regarded Schoenberg's [[transformation (music)|transformation]] of twelve-tone rows as the "solution" to their compositional concerns.{{sfn|Hamao|2011|loc=235, 250–251, quoting Greissle and Schoenberg}} In Op. 15/iv (1922), Webern first used a tone row (in the voice's opening twelve notes), charted [[Tone row#Theory and compositional techniques|the four basic row forms]], and integrated [[trichord|tri]]- and [[tetrachord]]s into the harmonic and melodic texture.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=309–310}} He systematically used [[twelve-tone technique]] for the first time in Op. 16/iv–v (1924).{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=310}}

=== 1924–1945: Formal coherence and expansion ===

{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename=Webern - Sehr langsam.ogg|title=String Trio, Op. 20, I. Sehr langsam (1926–1927) – LaSalle String Quartet members|description=An excerpt (mm. 49–59) from the first movement of Webern's String Trio, Op. 20. At 0:07–0:18 in this excerpt (mm. 51–56), there are repeated [[figure (music)|figure]]s in [[fixed register|fixed (or "frozen") register]], comprising the first B section of this movement's seven-part ABACABA [[rondo]].{{sfn|Bailey Puffett|1991|loc=41–42, 238–242}} Kathryn Bailey Puffett likened them to [[bell-ringer|bell ringers]]' technique in [[change ringing|ringing changes]].{{sfn|Bailey Puffett|1991|loc=41–42}}}}With Schoenberg leaving Mödling in 1925 and this compositional approach at his disposal, Webern obtained more artistic autonomy and aspired to write in larger forms, expanding on the extreme concentration of expression and material in his earlier music.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=259, 285–287, 322}} Until the ''Kinderstück'' for piano (1924, intended as one of a set), ''Klavierstück'' (1925), and ''Satz'' for string trio (1925), Webern had finished nothing but {{lang|de|Lieder}} since a 1914 cello sonata.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=278–279, 285}}{{efn|Among six non-vocal drafts and sketches were an abandoned string quartet (1917–1918); seventeen measures of music scored for clarinet, trumpet, and violin (1920); and four twelve-tone fragments.{{sfnm|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|1loc=278–279, 311–320|Perle|1995|2loc=125}}}} The 1926–1927 String Trio, Op. 20, was his first large-scale non-vocal work in more than a decade. For its 1927 publication, Webern helped Stein write an introduction emphasizing continuity with tradition:{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=321–322}}{{blockquote|The principle of developing a movement by variation of motives and themes is the same as with the classical masters ... [only] varied more radically here ... . One 'tone series' furnishes the basic material ... . The parts are composed in a [[mosaic]]-like manner ...}}

Schoenberg exploited [[Combinatoriality|combinatorial]] properties of particular [[tone row]]s,{{sfn|Straus|1990|loc=169–170, 180–184}} but Webern focused on prior aspects of a row's internal organization. He exploited small, [[invariant (music)|invariant]] pitch [[set (music)|subsets]] (or [[Derived row|partitions]]) symmetrically [[Derived row|derived]] via [[Melodic inversion|inversion]], [[Retrograde (music)|retrograde]], or both ([[retrograde inversion]]). He understood his compositional (and [[precomposition]]al) work with reference to ideas about growth, morphology, and unity that he found represented in Goethe's ''{{ill|Urpflanze|de}}'' and in [[Goethean science]] more generally.{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1996|1loc=171|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=75–76, 318–319, 327, 513–514, 575, 689n9}}{{efn|Webern wrote, "What you see here (retrograde, canon, etc.—it is always the same) is not to be thought of as "Kunststückerln" [artistic tricks]—that would be ridiculous!"{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=194, 327–328}}}}

[[File:Webern Variations op. 30 tone row.png|thumb|right|[[File:Webern Variations op. 30 tone row.mid|center]]The [[tone row]] from Webern's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30, has only two [[Interval (music)|interval]]s ([[minor second]]s and [[minor third]]s) and is [[derivation (music)|derived]] from two [[hexachord]]s or three [[tetrachord]]s, yielding half as many [[Tone row#Theory and compositional techniques|basic tone-row forms]] and ensuring a unity of chords and motives.{{sfn|Leeuw|2005|loc=161}}]]Webern's large-scale, non-vocal music in more traditional genres,{{efn|viz. the String Trio, Op. 20; Symphony, Op. 21; Quartet, Op. 22; Concerto, Op. 24; Variations for Piano, Op. 27; String Quartet, Op. 28; and Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=184}}}} written from 1926 to 1940, has been celebrated as his most rigorous and abstract music.{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=184}} Yet he always wrote his music and tried his new compositional procedures with concern for (or at least some latent reference to) expressivity and representation.{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1996|1loc=170–173|Johnson|1999|2loc=4–11, 184–185|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|3loc=190, 308–309, 315–316, 342}}{{efn|Webern understood his own (and Mahler's) work as crystallizations of personal experience.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=113–114, 190}} He wrote Berg in 1912 that an experience would occupy him until it became music "that quite decidedly had to do with the experience—often down to the details".{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=190}} He wrote Schoenberg in 1910 that "[Mahler's symphonies] must be most closely connected with his inner experiences. I also see a development: from the most intense worship of nature to an ever more spiritual, more detached content. ... This ... abstraction ... is more important for me ... than ... techni[que]."{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=113–114}}}} In sketches for his Op. 22 quartet, Webern conceived of his themes in programmatic association with his experiences—as an "outlook into the highest region" or a "coolness of early spring (Anninger,{{efn|The Anninger to which Webern referred was a hill in the [[Vienna Woods]] above Mödling that he enjoyed hiking and wrote about in his diary, including while working on Op. 22.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=348, 423, 670n4}}}} first flora, [[Primulaceae|primroses]], [[anemone]]s, [[Pulsatilla|pasqueflowers]])", for example.{{sfnm|Bailey Puffett|1996|1loc=171|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=423}} Studying his compositional materials and sketches, Bailey Puffett wrote,{{sfn|Bailey Puffett|1996|loc=171}}{{blockquote|... [Webern] seems perhaps not ... a prodigy whose music was the result of reasoned calculations [but a composer] who used his row tables as Stravinsky used his piano, to reveal wonderful surprises ... [like] he found on his walks in the Alps.}} While writing the [[Concerto for Nine Instruments (Webern)|Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24]], Webern was inspired by the [[Sator square]], which is like a [[Matrix (music)|twelve-tone matrix]].{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=431–434}} He concluded his ''{{lang|de|Weg zur Neuen Musik}}'' with this [[magic square]].

In Webern's late cantatas and songs,{{efn|viz. the Drei Gesänge, Op. 23; Drei Lieder, Op. 25; ''Das Augenlicht'', Op. 26; Cantata No. 1, Op. 29; and Cantata No. 2, Op. 31{{sfn|Rochberg|2004|loc=15}}}} [[George Rochberg]] observed, "the principles of 'the structural spatial dimension' ... join[ed] forces with lyrico-dramatic demands".{{sfn|Rochberg|2004|loc=15}} Specifically in his cantatas, Bailey Puffett wrote, Webern synthesized the rigorous style of his mature instrumental works with the word painting of his ''Lieder'' on an orchestral scale.{{sfn|Bailey Puffett|2001}} Webern qualified the apparent connection between his cantatas and Bach's as general and referred to connections between the second cantata and the music of the [[Franco-Flemish School]].{{sfnm|Zenck|1989|1loc=301|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|2loc=571, 576–578}} His textures became somewhat denser yet more [[homophony|homophonic]] at the surface through nonetheless [[counterpoint|contrapuntal polyphonic]] means.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=576–578}} In Op. 31/i he alternated lines and [[Pointillism#Music|points]], culminating twice{{efn|First by [[hexachord]]al aggregation in its center; second in a registrally expansive, open voicing at the end.}} in twelve-note [[simultaneity (music)|simultaneities]].{{sfn|Johnson|1999|loc=182}}

At his death he left sketches for the movement of an apparent third cantata (1944–1945), first planned as a concerto, setting "Das Sonnenlicht spricht" from Jone's ''Lumen'' cycle.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=742}}

=== Arrangements and orchestrations ===

In his youth (1903), Webern orchestrated five or more Schubert {{lang|de|Lieder}} for an appropriately Schubertian orchestra (strings and pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns). Among these were "Der Vollmond Strahlt auf Bergeshöhn" (the Romanze from ''[[Rosamunde (Schubert)|Rosamunde]]''), "Tränenregen" (from ''[[Die schöne Müllerin]]''), "Der Wegweiser" (from ''[[Winterreise]]''), "Du bist die Ruh", and "Ihr Bild".{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=67, 746}}

After attending [[Hugo Wolf]]'s funeral and memorial concert (1903), he arranged three {{lang|de|Lieder}} for a larger orchestra, adding brass, harp, and percussion to the Schubertian orchestra. He chose "Lebe wohl", "Der Knabe und das Immlein", and "Denk es, o Seele", of which only the latter was finished or wholly survived.{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=67}}

For Schoenberg's [[Society for Private Musical Performances]] in 1921, Webern arranged, among other music,{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=237}} the 1888 ''[[Schatz-Walzer]]'' (''Treasure Waltz'') of [[Johann Strauss II]]'s ''[[Der Zigeunerbaron]]'' (''The Gypsy Baron'') for string quartet, [[harmonium]], and piano.

In 1924 Webern arranged Liszt's ''Arbeiterchor'' (''Workers' Chorus'', c. 1847–1848){{sfn|Merrick|1987|loc=31}} for bass solo, mixed chorus, and large orchestra; thus Liszt's work was finally premièred{{efn|Initially inspired by his [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848|revolutionary countrymen]], Liszt left it in manuscript at {{ill|Carl Haslinger|de|Carl Haslinger (Verleger)}}'s discretion.{{sfnm|Arnold|2002|1loc=386–387|Merrick|1987|2loc=31}}}} when Webern conducted the first full-length concert of the Austrian Association of Workers Choir (13 and 14 March 1925). A review in the ''[[Wiener Zeitung]]'' (28 March 1925) read "''neu in jedem Sinne, frisch, unverbraucht, durch ihn zieht die Jugend, die Freude''" ("new in every respect, fresh, vital, pervaded by youth and joy").{{sfn|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|loc=282}} The text (in English translation) read in part: "Let us have the adorned spades and scoops,/Come along all, who wield a sword or pen,/Come here ye, industrious, brave and strong/All who create things great or small."

In orchestrating the six-voice ricercar from Bach's ''Musical Offering'', Webern timbrally defined the internal organization (or latent subsets) of the Bach's [[Subject (music)|subject]].{{sfnm|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|1loc=416, 440–445|Straus|1990|2loc=70-73}} Joseph N. Straus argued that Webern (and other modernists) effectively recomposed earlier music, "projecting motivic density" onto tradition.{{sfn|Straus|1990|loc=5–9, 73}} After more conservatively orchestrating two of Schubert's 1824 ''Six German Dances'' on UE commission in 1931, he wrote Schoenberg:

{{Blockquote|I took pains to remain on the solid ground of classical ideas of instrumentation, yet to place them into the service of ''our'' idea, i.e., as a means toward the greatest possible clarification of thought and context.{{efn|Webern emphasized ''our''.{{sfnm|Moldenhauer and Moldenhauer|1978|1loc=440|Straus|1990|2loc=67, 72, 197}}}}}}