114 Part II: A Change of Scene
broken off after only four bars. Following a powerfully articulated
melodic middle section, the dramatic opening gesture is repeated. In
contrast, the second movement, which is divided into prologue and epi-
logue, opens up a deep space that is produced ultimately by the contrast
between the principal and secondary voices. The sound is not primarily
that of the full orchestra. Instead, it is dominated by the subtle interac-
tion of soloists. The third movement is lively and is characterized by
contrasting groups. The twelve bars of the fourth movement are strictly
divided into three parts and, again, the instrumentation is subtle. It is
difficult to discern any motivic progression and all the principal melo-
dies are limited to two-note motifs, but the melody and accompanying
chords all come together in a complete twelve-note field. Nevertheless,
this section is not simply an exercise in the pure twelve-tone system.
That can also be said of the fifth piece, the waltz, the longest one of the
series. At its core there is a twelve-tone melody on the clarinet that
determines what comes after it, but in such a way as to conjure up the
past form of the waltz as a form now irredeemably lost. At the same
time, the waltz is dissolved and reshaped as something new. The last
movement is very slow and very brief; it is defined by its simplicity and
also by the appearance of tonal chords, triads typically, that somehow
suggest a montage of alien elements.
As a whole, the instrumental pieces that Adorno composed at differ-
ent times between 1920 and 1929 are exemplary in two different ways.^14
On the one hand, they share an explosive spontaneity. On the other, we
are struck by the tendency towards atonal rigour, a fixation on twelve-
tone technique. This tendency can also be seen in his Two Pieces for
String Quartet, op. 2, of 1925–6, which was composed partly under Berg’s
supervision, or at least in consultation with him. In addition to the use
of diverse motifs, the second movement, which he wrote while he was
still in Vienna, is notable for a theme defined by a tone-row with twelve
variations – based on the pattern of canon, retrograde, inversion and
retrograde inversion. So although a twelve-tone row emerges the pat-
tern is disrupted, since a number of notes break the taboo on repetition.
Adorno also used serial technique in the first movement, a sonata move-
ment or rondo, which he composed at a later date in Frankfurt. The
violin melody of the first twenty bars with its sweeping intervals is
a classical twelve-tone movement. It makes use of the twelve notes of
the scale without repeating any of them before all the others have been
sounded.^15 The main movement contains four different twelve-tone rows,
a principal row and three secondary ones. Even so, the row can still
be said to play a kind of pre-compositional role in this quartet. The
coherence of the piece is really established by timbre and texture.^16
This tendency to use timbre and texture to play down the importance
of twelve-tone technique is a characteristic that can also be found in
Adorno’s songs for piano. In terms of sheer quantity, these are at the
forefront of Adorno’s oeuvre; the genre attracted him from the outset