75.

Improvisation in the style of Webern

Create an improvised piece using extremely few elements, drawing on Anton Webern’s ‘Three Little Pieces for cello and piano’ op. 11/3. The extended version of the assignment consists of planning and creating a three-movement work in the style of Webern in pairs or small groups.

Assignment author
Esa Ylivaara

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Basics

Skill level

Group size

Minimum time required

1 lessons

2 lessons

One month

Goal and output

Pedagogical goal

Introduction to the style of Webern.

Improvising on the basis of as few elements as possible, with concentration and intense listening.

Concrete output

A brief, unplanned improvised piece or a longer, planned three-movement improvised piece.

Preparation

Have the students familiarise themselves in advance with Anton Webern's 'Three Little Pieces for cello and piano' op. 11.

Instruct them to listen to the piece with the score, to think about what is going on in the music and to make observations on the structure, pitches, gestures, harmonies, moods – or anything at all, really.

Work progress

- Have every participant think up three different elements or things that they can play. An element may be a single tone, a chord or a brief figure, and it must be based on a specific tonal colour or technique (pizzicato, sul tasto, muted tone, etc.). Always specify the dynamics.

- When the piece begins, everyone is to play the elements/things that they have thought up, but not all at once. Instead, everyone should listen to everyone else. Each element must only be played once.

- The piece ends when everyone has played their three elements.

- You may experiment with the piece occupying different lengths of time. You may agree in advance that the piece should last about one minute. Then play it again, but now with a duration of only 10 seconds.

Variant: Points
- Everyone has three 'points' available. Each of them can only be used once. A 'point' here is a single tone that can be of any length and played using any dynamic and any technique. In other respects, follow the instructions above.

Extended version: Planned improvised piece
- Split the group up into small groups of 2 or 3 students and send them into different rooms.

- Plan a three-movement work in the style of Webern, the indicative total duration being about 2 minutes.

- Use Webern's op. 11 as a model. Its movements have differing characters.

- It is not necessary to notate the piece, but you can make notes.

- Allow no more than 20 minutes for the planning; then have the small groups perform their creations for everyone else.