Living Scores Learn - Hans Werner Henze

Improving the practice and performance of contemporary music

Pitch and Interval Organization

This movement is again centered on the intervals that were important and most prominent in movement 1 and 3: major seventh, minor ninth and minor second intervals. Especially one of these intervals stands out: the interval the movement starts with: Bb-B, at the same time the penultimate note in both the high and low range of a marimba with A as its bass note (the most common instrument type at the time the piece was composed (1).

The full reservoir of chromatic notes is displayed in the first line of this movement and serves as the tonal material for the whole movement.

Figure 28
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

The first half of the second line of the movement provides the pitch and interval material for the coda of this movement and is again fully chromatic. The first chord of this line is again an example of the first type of chords used in the third movement: Bb-B-D-F. Both types of chords that appear in the third movement, re-appear on a regular basis in the fourth movement. It is advised to bring out these chord-types slightly during the performance, in order to enhance the understanding of the musical material for the listener.

The chords as described in the third movement, the ones where a tonal triad is combined with a major seventh or minor ninth interval of one of its voices, are present again in the grace note slur that envelopes the whole third page of the fourth movement. Also, the repeated chord at the end of that page is an example of this type of chord. Chung points out an interesting mirror inversion of material in line 2 of this movement, mirroring the material across the two augmented chords in the middle of the line (2).


Figure 29aFigure 29b

Figure 29cFigure 29d
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

Rhythmical Organization

Chung again made an estimation on how long the different fermatas throughout the movement can last in his analysis (3). He also set the tempo to 110 BPM per eighth note to match the ‘Allegretto’ tempo marking of this movement.

The biggest structural element in rhythm in this movement is the difference between the quasi-measured musical material and the free grace-note passage on page 3 of this movement. We think it is advised for the quasi-measured parts to subdivide the musical text into eighth notes and dotted eighth notes and to add measures to the score, as we did for the first and second movement of this piece. This will help the performer to follow the written musical text as close as possible. Different measures can be applied to this text, the performer decides which way he or she wants to go.

Figure 30
© Schott Music, Mainz, BAT 39

Notes

  1. FANG, I-Jen (2005), Doctoral Dissertation, 2005 University of North Texas, pp. 3-10
  2. CHUNG, Yiu-Kwong, Hans Werner Henze’s “Five Scenes from the Snow Country”, an Analysis”, Doctoral Thesis, City University of New York, 1991, p. 127
  3. id., pp. 138-139