Der musikalische Aphorismus in der Wiener Schule

With the short instrumental pieces of the Viennese School composed between 1909 and 1914, the literary aphorism finds its genuine musical counterpart. The present work deals with the preconditions of the aphoristic style and its development in formal, material and compositional terms on the basis of three selected compositions. Despite some outward similarities and close aesthetic affinities, which traditionally accentuate the image of the school, the three Viennese composers realized the common aesthetic goal of music that was both comprehensible and highly condensed in their own very personal ways. The fundamentally different strategies become clear through the juxtaposition of the pieces. Based on a comparison with Schumann's Träumerei, the question is also explored as to what extent - although "the harmonic foundation has changed - all other elements of the previous music are also present in the new one" (Berg), thus establishing a link to the past. Just like the compositions themselves, the analysis rejects any pre-systematized methods; for the specific compositional procedures can be discovered in the works themselves, but at the same time point beyond them.

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