Editing Anton Webern (section)

=== 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}}