Living Scores Learn - Hans Werner Henze

Improving the practice and performance of contemporary music

Pitch Organization

In the second movement, all 12 pitches are exposed in the opening of the movement, almost without interruption of repeated notes, only the G# or Ab is repeated twice.

Figure 10
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

After this exposition, Henze focusses on certain note-reservoirs with repetitions and mirror techniques inside these note groups:
  • Second half of the first line: E - C - G# - C# - G - B - Bb - A: Central note of this passage is G#, the pattern is rhythmically built-up quasi symmetrically, pivoting around the center.

Figure 11
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • First half of the second line: F# - Eb - D - Bb - F - C# - A - D# - B: Several mirrors running up and down the tonal material are applied to this passage.

Figure 12
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • Second half of the second line: Almost fully chromatic material, referring to the opening section in the first line, both in the upwards direction of the material as in the intervallic application. D, D# and F are missing in the material (prominent pitches in the passage before).

Figure 13
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • Third line with upbeat: The grace-note passage is repeated almost literally; the upbeat and the ending in thirty-second notes contain the same notes as used in the grace note reservoir: E - F - C - G# - C# - B - Bb - F# - Eb - D.

Figure 14
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • The fourth line starts with a fully chromatic triplet pattern, that is the retrograde of the material in figure 11 & 12, and evolves in a mirrored fully chromatic up and down movement that resembles the opening figure of this movement.

Figure 15
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • The grace-note figure in the fifth line of this movement is again a 10-note figure as the figure in the third line: B and C are missing in this series.

Figure 16
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • The first and second line (with upbeat) of the second page are a sort of re-exposition of the material of the beginning of this movement, with similar up and down movements in the tonal material, the use of fully chromatic note reservoirs and extracts of these with the same mirroring and repetition techniques as in the second line of the first page.

Figure 17a
Figure 17b
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • From the grace-note slur of the second line of the second page on, all the grace-note groups are fully chromatic note-reservoirs, except for the one in the fourth line, which is a quasi-exactly transposed (one semitone down) copy of the grace-note group in the first page, third line.

Figure 18
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

  • All the rhythmical parts from here on until the end of the movement recall the opening material of the movement, also applying the fully chromatic note-reservoirs.
  • The prominent figures at the beginning of both line 8 and line 10 of this movement are exact copies of each other in terms of musical material, as stated beautifully in Chung’s thesis (1).

In his thesis, Chung points out that there is a very high frequency of set-class 3-3, always consisting of a minor second and a minor third (up or down) third, for example in line 5, the grace-note sequence, top voice, there are three groups of set-class 3-3: D-Db-F; Db-F-E; F#-D-D# (2). This three-note group seems to be a structuring element regularly recurring in the whole movement.

Something to point out (3) is the exact retrograde in pitches between the passage starting in the second half of line 1 (E-C-G#-etc.) and the triplet section in line 4. Another re-exposition of the opening of this movement is the transposed version starting at the upbeat of line 6, and the transposed version of the opening at the end of the movement, last line.

Figure 19a
Figure 19b
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

Rhythmical Organization

As in the first movement of Five Scenes from the Snow Country, we believe that a reorganization of meter in this movement can help for an accurate execution of the score, at least for all the rhythmical parts in this movement:
  • A clear distinction can be made between beats in a 2/8 feel and beats with a 3/16 feel. Most of the rhythmic part of the score can be rearranged as a combination of these meter-types.
  • The rhythm of the opening passage of this movement (first two lines) is extremely resemblant to the rhythm of the first two lines of the second page of this movement.
  • The rhythmic repetition starting at the upbeat of line 6 also brings along a transposition and re-orchestration of the material of the opening of this movement.
Chung points out a binary subdivision of this movement into two big parts (4). We would prefer to organize the movement as an intertwining of rhythmical related material and grace-note groups, that often have the same origin.

Chung makes different subdivisions for metric stability, worth discussing with our solutions. He also subdivides the phrase of the second line of this movement differently than our subdivisions.

Figure 21aFigure 21b
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

Dynamics

As in the first movement, dynamics help to structure the phrases and tonal material:
  • The three grace note groups that consist of ten-note reservoirs always become softer and softer throughout the movement, the last of these groups is even played with hands to enhance this structural diminuendo.
  • Dynamics follow the overall structure of the different note-reservoirs and their combinations.

Notes

  1. CHUNG, Yiu-Kwong, Hans Werner Henze’s “Five Scenes from the Snow Country”, an Analysis”, Doctoral Thesis, City University of New York, 1991, p. 77
  2. id., pp. 70-71
  3. id., p. 83