For Tuesday, March 5

Tomorrow we continue (and hopefully conclude) our study of the fourth movement of Webern’s Fünf Sätze für Streichquartett, Op. 5 (recording in 299Shared, scores distributed in class earlier in the week).

In Monday’s class, we discussed several recurring pitch patterns in this movement:

• the Z-cell, a four-note unit such as that occurring in the violins in m. 2 and in the first violin part in m. 3 (B, C, F, F-sharp). This unit (which was named by Ernő Lendvai, after the terms X-cell and Y-cell were coined by Leo Treitler—I remembered as soon as I started typing this sentence!) contains two semitones (B–C, F–F#), two tritones (B–F, C–F#), and two perfect fourths/fifths (C–F, B–F#). It also can be composed out as a fifth, followed by a tritone, followed by a fourth (7, 6, 5 semitones), as in the violin in m. 3.
• The ascending äußerst fuhig/flüchtig figures in m. 6, m. 10, and m. 13. All of these have the same interval patterns, but have been transposed to different pitch levels.
• The augmented triad in the viola in mm. 7–9.
• The A-section melody (first violin, m. 5), composed of C, C#, D, and F (this pitch collection has intervals of 1, 1, and 3 semitones).
• The B-section melody (first violin, mm. 8–9), composed of G#, B, C, E-flat (this pitch collection has intervals of 3, 1, and 3 semitones).

For Tuesday’s class, get together with one or two other people, draw a box around every segment of music in this score that can be accounted for by one of these patterns. Is there anything remaining? Are there any other ideas or patterns that unite those remaining elements, either to each other or to one of the above patterns?