Webern and his early work

Anton Webern, an Austrian composer, is one of the New Vienna Schools, who has played the main role to create as well as activate the modern music early in the 20th century.

Like his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg, in his young days, he has composed a few pieces in the late romantic style before starting the atonal style and later by the twelve tone technique. This romantic piece is told to have been composed while he was hiking with a girl who would be his wife later. He was only 21 years of age and a few years before he got into the atonality style. It is a music of love with infinite beauty. The romantic melody line and the complicated structure tell us it was under the influence of Brahms. It is also noted it would express not only the pleasure of love but also faintly perceivable anxiety and sorrow.

The commentary of this Youtube clip quotes the following words by Webern himself.  He might have expected some "cold rain at night" even at the height of happiness. He still decided to walk along with her then.

"To walk forever like this among the flowers, with my dearest one beside me, to feel oneself so entirely at one with the Universe, without care, free as the lark in the sky above -- Oh what splendor...when night fell (after the rain) the sky shed bitter tears but I wandered with her along a road,"

It has been a question why the late romantic style has been taken over by the modern music method in Webern and in the other modern composers. One reason might be that they had faced a wall which they could not express themselves with the late romantic style, which was going to endlessly extend their sense and emotion. Voluminous score and larger number of performers would play almost endless works. Actually, they wer not endless. There was a hard wall to overcome before them. They must have thrown away that thick clothes hiding their real inner selves. And they have reached simpler and crystlline harder style of atonality and further methods in the modern music.

The other aspect we should never forget is that they have lived the age when the idealism of democracy has been replaced to totaltareanism in the politics. It has ended in the massacre and total destruction of the society. Before and during that period of tragedy, the composers must have been influenced by that thought of the times. They must not be concerned with doubtful humanity but should be concentrated in the logic of music itself. I am afraid they have given up something music could reach and react with our mind directly.

Maybe, later music historians will reveal what has happened to them. Hopefully, contemporary and future composers would find the way to sublimate this contradiction of music styles.

This piece is still really attractive to me.