I have recently written an article on Schoenberg’s Op. 33a. The research was funded as part of a post-doctoral fellowship in Berlin.

 

There is often unfortunate antagonism between many performers and music analysts. For some, the acts of each group are almost irrelevant to the other. Schoenberg’s Piano Piece Op. 33a is usually discussed by analysts in terms of abstract absolute music: 12 tone technique and sonata form. Building on recent performance and gender studies, I suggest an analytical alternative: constructing gender narratives, as manifested in performance, as a vehicle for dealing with the immediate musical experience. This alternative is suggested less as a tool for discovering the composer’s or performers’ original meaning, but as a flexible concept that might aid to the creation of meaning for and by contemporary performers, analysts and listeners, taking into consideration social and cultural issues.

 

The recordings that I discuss in this article span the period between the years 1952 and 1965. The pianists are Else C. Kraus (1899-1979), Leonard Stein (1917-2004), Edward Steuermann (1892-1964), Paul Jacobs (1930-1983), and Glenn Gould (1932-1982).

 

You can read an unpublished draft of this article at my latest research page. If you have any comments on my article draft, I will be glad if you will let me know by commenting on this post or sending them to my email (contact).

 

I have added here a few videos of Op. 33a some contain only music and some are real videos. My favorite performance of the piece is definitely that of Gould. However, I love also the performance of Jacobs.