Louise Herzfeld-Schild: Serialismus aus Tradition

Milton Babbitts Schönberg-Rezeption

Milton Babbitt, American composer and music theorist, based one of the defining principles of his serialism—hexachordal combinatoriality—on the tradition of the Second Viennese School, in particular on Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone compositions. Anton Webern’s technique, which took one trichord for the derivation of the twelve-tone series, indeed for an entire composition itself, also played a prominent role in Babbitt’s serialism. The development of his compositional technique is exemplified in an analysis of his first two serial compositions, Three Compositions for Piano No. 1 and Composition for Four Instruments. Also discussed is the extent to which his music is built on tradition and where he succeeded in forging his own path, as well as how he deals with the remaining musical parameters. Finally, a comparison between the conceptions of Babbitt’s pitch class-sets and Schoenberg’s twelve-tone series serves to highlight Babbitt’s one-sided, although not misguided, reception of Schoenberg’s techniques.

> zurück zur homepage

> zurück zum Gesamtinhaltsverzeichnis