Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)

The second viola and second cello repeat a low D. Above them, the first viola and first cello begin a descending phrase marked immer leise (always quiet). The violins rest until later.

Richard Dehmel’s poem places two people beneath bare trees and a bright moon. The woman speaks first: “Ich trag ein Kind, und nit von Dir” — “I carry a child, and it is not yours.” Her companion has not yet replied.

In September 1899 Schoenberg spent a holiday in Payerbach with Alexander Zemlinsky and Zemlinsky’s sister Mathilde, who later became Schoenberg’s wife. He composed Verklärte Nacht there in three weeks. The finished manuscript is dated 1 December.

In 1902 Schoenberg explained his aim of bringing the poetic programme of orchestral music into chamber music. No singer takes the parts of Dehmel’s speakers. Two violins, two violas and two cellos carry the whole story.

The music moves to E major, marked Etwas ruhiger (a little calmer). The first violin plays the melody over moving figures in the second viola and first cello. In Schoenberg’s account of the poem, this theme belongs to the woman’s longing for motherhood.

The woman’s confession is over. In Dehmel’s poem she walks awkwardly beside the man she loves and looks up at the moon. His reply begins by lifting the burden from her unborn child.

The strings settle in E♭ minor and stop until only a low B♭ remains in the second cello. The first side of the LP ends on that note, at bars 228–⁠229. Side two opens in D major.

Violas and cellos play a broad chord of D major, marked Sehr breit und langsam — very broadly and slowly. The first cello then plays an expressive line. In Dehmel’s poem, the man accepts the child his companion is carrying.

The strings put on mutes. Quick violin runs cross held harmonics, notes made by touching the strings lightly. The key is F♯ major; in his 1950 programme notes Schoenberg identified this passage with the beauty of the moonlight.

In 1950 Schoenberg wrote that the sextet “does not illustrate any action or drama”. He described it as a portrayal of nature and an expression of human emotion, and said that heard in this way it “can make you forget the poem” that inspired it.

A duet for violin and cello follows the muted passage. Earlier themes return around it with new accompaniments and are developed. Schoenberg described the duet and these returns in his programme notes of 1950, examples 12–⁠16.

Dehmel wrote to Schoenberg on 12 December 1912 after hearing the sextet. He had meant to follow his poem through the music, but he soon forgot to and listened only to the six strings.

After the climax of the duet, a new melody enters for what Schoenberg called the “warmth that flows from one of us into the other”. Earlier themes return in reworked form. A second new theme follows for the man’s resolve.

In his 1950 programme note Schoenberg recalled that the sextet “was hissed and caused riots and fist fights” at its first Vienna performance. “But very soon it became very successful.”

Schoenberg later arranged Verklärte Nacht for string orchestra, adding double basses in 1917 and revising the arrangement in 1943. Here the original six players are kept, and each violin, viola and cello part is played by one person.

In his 1950 programme note Schoenberg described a second new theme as the man’s “dignified resolution”. The warmth between them “will transfigure your child”, so that it becomes “my own”.

An ascent leads to the climax, where the second half of the man’s theme returns. This is the broad D major melody that opened this side, “a man whose generosity is as sublime as his love”. A long coda follows.

In the coda the opening walking theme returns in the major, set in counterpoint with the man’s theme, the principal theme of the fourth section. Dehmel’s final stanza returns to the night walk beneath the same moon.

Capitol’s sleeve called this the first recording of the original sextet version and said it “was prepared under the personal supervision of the composer.” The Hollywood String Quartet made it on 21 and 22 August 1950, joined by Alvin Dinkin and Kurt Reher.

The first violin holds long notes above running figures in the second violin, with violas and cellos filling the space between them. At the soft close of the piece the inner parts keep moving until all six instruments come to rest on D major.