Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

that held my generation in thrall, composed the kind of music that I have been dreaming of. I
believe this very short piece—we once timed it at a mere eight minutes—is a milestone in our
search for a new style of composition. It leaves my Verklärte Nacht far behind.
"It is written for four strings, which is intentional as a thought-provoking deception as
well as a way to increase its clarity. Structurally it is not a quartet in the classical sense. It is a
tentative experiment, in which Herr Webern tried to use a new structural and tonal approach to
composition by going back to Bach’s daring harmonies.
"I present this piece for the first time here, in order to subject it to your discriminating
judgment. It may not produce an unpremeditated hearing pleasure, it does not adhere to a
given key, it is atonal throughout. For the time being Webern uses some contrapuntal
elements, which he may drop again in the future. However, unlike Bach, the theme, a simple
line of twelve notes you will easily discern in the very beginning, is not repeated as such. Each
note of this sequence gives each of the twelve elaborations that follow a specific musical color.
"Try to hear this music by visualizing these blocks of color as if they formed a nonfigurative,
abstract painting, each block expressing a specific emotion."
He smiled and bowed towards the hostess.
"Herr Webern has dedicated this piece to you, Mrs. Dahl, as a contribution to the
controversy of this evening: The Spiritual in Art, Music and Painting."
Alexandra sighed. The music, the polemic, and the didactic expositions of Herr
Schönberg went over her head. All she had ever heard in Western music was Tchaikovsky’s
Swan Lake to which Aunt Sophia had taken her before Otto was born. But she had some
experience in seeing colors with music. Maybe that would open this music to her. Expectantly
she relaxed and closed her eyes.
In the beginning the first violin played the promised sequence of twelve tones. The notes
would have formed a simple melody-like line, if they had been set in a customary key. They
turned out to be the twelve notes of the chromatic scale but not in that order.
In the subsequent section the cello held, like a counterpoint, the first note of the series
two octaves lower, and above that pure tone the other instruments performed an elaborate,
elegiac musical figure. They ended in an ear-splitting, dissonant chord.
Suddenly extraordinary vibrant colors filled her mind. They formed geometrical shapes,
lines, circles and spirals. The cello appeared as a dark red circular object that changed in
shape with the instrument’s volume. In the beginning the other three instruments each had a
specific color attached, the viola was yellow, the second violin green, and the first violin deep
blue. These colors were not stable, or primary, nor did they continue to be attached to
particular instruments, the colors mixed and changed depending on the mood or the
interpenetration of the voices.
A light, song-like passage followed, accompanied by a wavy green line that first rolled
into a large spiral, and then collapsed into a yellow spot as the four instruments reached
another cumulative chord. Abruptly the music stopped and immediately broke into a second
chord, which turned the yellow spot into a rapidly expanding, irregular, blue shape that
threatened to devour her entire field. In the last moment, the viola shot like a violet arrow
diagonally across the blue field.
Alexandra took a deep breath; this colorful show was extraordinary.
The violin held the high note keeping the blue suspended and covering her entire field of
vision. Across this foil three shapes chased each other, a large black disc connected now with
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