Sixth Form Lecture: Webern's OP 22 - Pattern of Invention

On Friday 6 December, Senior Deputy Head of Queen Anne’s School, Mr Mark Richards, gave an insightful lecture to our Lower Sixth Students, on Austrian composer Webern.

Mr Richards began his lecture by explaining that Webern was one of Schoenberg’s most famous pupils. The other, Berg, is usually regarded as having concentrated on the more conservative elements of serialism, while Webern responded to its radical portion. This ‘radical portion’ and unconventional and experimental ideas of Webern were to be a fundamental focus point of this lecture.

Mr Richards explained to the room techniques such as serialism, pointillism and intervals, all of which were extensively used by Webern.

Webern’s work often focuses on a real sense of colour and timbre.

He then led students in analysing the composer’s Op 22. Each of the students were provided with a music score of this piece, and so were able to see as well as hear it’s uniqueness.

Although the piece was sometimes difficult to follow, due to its unconventional qualities, the students described the piece as “disjointed”, “angular”, “thin”, and were clearly able to recognise the use of pointillism and colour.

Mr Richard’s lecture was a valuable experience for the Lower Sixth to be introduced to a classical composer who thought outside of the box, and to analyse material that Upper Sixth Music students would normally study.