Comment On Schoenbegs Piece Peripetie

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Comment on how Schoenberg uses the following musical elements in this piece Tonality and Harmony Melody Rhythm Texture Timbre Peripetie is an atonal piece. This means that the piece has no key. The piece uses a lot of dissonant harmonies as well as most of the chords and melodies are often built on hexachords. The texture is mostly Polyphonic with the odd monophonic and homophonic bits. Schoenberg uses a lot of techniques to build up the texture and make it more interesting and more complex. Some of these techniques include inversions, imitations and canons. The rhythms are also complex and vary. The rhythms change quickly between ¾, 2/4 and 4/4. Schoenberg also layers different rhythms together to create a very complex polyphonic texture. The tempo of the piece is Sehr Rash, which means in German, very fast or very quick. The melody is made up of 7 motifs that are combined in different ways. The melodies are disjunct and often sound angular. Schoenberg does this by octave displacement. Schoenberg doesn’t really develop the motif but instead represents the motif in different ways by using techniques like melodic inversions, augmentation and diminution. Schoenberg uses a large orchestra made up from brass, strings, percussion and woodwind. The instruments change quickly between each other making the piece contrast in timbre. Schoenberg also makes the instruments play at the extremities of their range either very high or very low. He also makes the instruments play in weird ways, for example, he makes the cymbal be played with a mallet and cello bow to produce an unfamiliar sound. He also uses instruments that are not used or not often used in an orchestra such as the tam-tam and the contra
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