Piano Piece, op. 11/2

For Arnold Schönberg, the Vienna years around 1908 were a time of artistic breakthrough and severe personal crisis. His family life was jolted by an intimate relationship between his wife Mathilde and the painter Richard Gerstl, who had set up his studio in the Schönbergs’ home in the Liechtensteinstraße 68/70 (Vienna, 9th district) and had not only given the couple lessons but painted their portraits. Richard Gerstl committed suicide in 1908, a few months after his affair with Arnold Schönberg’s wife Mathilde became known. One of the first works Schönberg composed after Gerstl’s death was the second of the Three Piano Pieces, op. 11. The pitches D/re (Richard), A (Arnold), E-flat [Es in German nomenclature] (Schönberg) and G (Gerstl) in this short piano piece represent the protagonists, evoked by name in a tragedy. A chord built from the pitch names occurs again and again in the piece, both in its original form and varied via transposition. The sombre sonic ambience, founded on recurring ostinato figures in the bass, can be characterized as “funèbre” in tone.