In the 1920s and 1930s, Arnold Schoenberg developed his "method of composing with twelve tones which are related only with one another," as he described it, or as it is more concisely called, twelve-tone music or dodecaphony. Yet in approximately the same time period, Schoenberg's colleague Josef Matthias Hauer began experimenting with arrangements of pitches in what he called tropes, which also involved cycling through all 12 tones before any could be repeated. Yet in spite of their shared ideas and similar methods, there ...
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In the 1920s and 1930s, Arnold Schoenberg developed his "method of composing with twelve tones which are related only with one another," as he described it, or as it is more concisely called, twelve-tone music or dodecaphony. Yet in approximately the same time period, Schoenberg's colleague Josef Matthias Hauer began experimenting with arrangements of pitches in what he called tropes, which also involved cycling through all 12 tones before any could be repeated. Yet in spite of their shared ideas and similar methods, there is a considerable difference between Schoenberg's and Hauer's results, chiefly in the area of expression. Schoenberg's music often conveyed disjointedness, angularity, and conflict, while Hauer's interest in balance and the logical unfolding of ideas called for a slower and calmer approach. In this three-CD set from MDG, Steffen Schleiermacher performs the complete Melodies and Preludes, which give a thorough presentation of Hauer's methods and expressions. Schleiermacher recorded...
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