Object #23

Arnold Schönberg
Analysis of String Quartet No. 1, op. 7
for a performance in Dresden
1907

Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien

“The great expansion of this work required a careful organization. It might perhaps interest an analyst to learn that I received and took advantage of the tremendous amount of the advice suggested to me by a model I had chosen for this task: the first movement of the Eroica. Alexander von Zemlinsky told me Brahms said that every time he faced difficult problems, he would consult a significant work of Bach and one of Beethoven, both of which he always used to keep near his standing desk [Stehpult]: how did they handle a similar problem? Of course, the model was not copied mechanically, but its mental essence was applied accommodatingly. In the same manner, I learned from the Eroica solutions to my problems. How to avoid monotony and emptiness, how to create variety out of unity, how to create new forms out of basic material, how much can be achieved by slight modifications if not by developing variation out of often rather insignificant little formulations. Of this masterpiece, I learned also much about the creation of harmonic contrasts and their application. Brahms' advice was excellent, and I wish this story would induce young composers that they must not forget what our musical forefathers have done for us.”
(Arnold Schönberg, Introduction to the Four Quartets, 1949)