Webern's Das Augenlicht, op. 26 and the "Musical Idea"

Darin Hoskisson, University of Oregon

Das Augenlicht is perhaps one of Webern's most personal works. Inscribed on the back of his tombstone are the opening two lines of the piece, "Durch unsere offnen Augen fliesst das Licht ins Herz und strömt als Freude sanft zurück aus ihnen." This piece was also one of the great successes he had during his compositional career. Because of this, it is odd that there is such an immense void when it comes to published analytic literature on opus 26. The little there is makes small effort at describing how Webern created "comprehensibility" in this choral work.

In this paper I will look to Webern's own understanding of Schoenberg's musikalische gedanke (musical idea) to show how he achieves cohesion and unity in this piece. For Webern, the "idea" of the piece creates unity, which in turn provides the comprehensibility and cohesion he was constantly seeking in his music. In Das Augenlicht, Webern selects certain primary gestalten from the row; he then uses these set classes both harmonically and motivically to establish the elements of contrast and resolution that are basic to the presentation of the musical idea. This paper will trace the introduction and development of these principal motives focusing on how elements of contrast are introduced bringing imbalance to the music. The resulting tension ultimately finds resolution near the end of the piece bringing unity and cohesion to the music.