Schoenberg's Musical Idea: Perspectives on Analysis, Performance, and Performance Analysis

Abstract

Structuralist interpretative paradigms continue to shape Schoenberg reception, even though they have been problematised elsewhere in music studies. This has resulted in analytical and performative approaches to Schoenberg’s music that coalesce around a narrow set of issues, including interpretative objectivity, textual fidelity, deep structure, and pitch-centrism. While salutary in many respects, such paradigms have reified commonly held views of Schoenberg as an authoritarian modernist, limiting access to and engagement with his work. This thesis confronts such views by arguing for a greater degree of interpretative play in the analysis and performance of Schoenberg’s music. To that end, it re-evaluates Schoenberg’s concept of the ‘musical Idea’ (musikalischer Gedanke), which has long been acknowledged as a central aspect of his thinking. Departing from previous scholarship, the thesis argues that the Idea not only challenges structuralist paradigms at a conceptual level, but also suggests alternative analytical and performative approaches to individual musical works. In terms of the former, close reading of Schoenberg’s published and manuscript texts reveals an ontological and epistemological scheme that resists definitive interpretation. This scheme is evident in the composer’s own analytical practice and in his statements on performance. Regarding the latter claim, the thesis conceives the Idea in part as a musical narrative that encompasses a range of musical parameters, shifting the focus from deep, pitch-based structures to surface shapings that resonate with the phenomenology of listening and performing. This holistic approach to musical shaping is illustrated in case studies of Schoenberg’s Klavierstücke, Op. 11, No. 3 and Op. 19, Nos. 1–2. In these ways, the thesis proposes a more diverse and provisional approach to the interpretation of Schoenberg’s music.