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Let’s go back to the opening measures of
[Schoenberg’s] Fourth Quartet.
The layout of register shows a high degree of determinacy,
of trying to make everything count musically. This doesn’t mean using
some
abstract notion of what counts, but relating things to the piece internally,
or—there we are again—contextually. . . . After
stating his first hexachord,
which he articulates very obviously, he then lays out the next six notes
of his set in a particular registral distribution which is the only one
out of the six-factorial (6!) registral distributions which will define
a particular relationship between the two hexachords which is fundamental
to the structure of the piece, the counterpoint of the piece, the progression
of the piece. . . . This is musical! Don’t look for
formulas and don’t
look for arithmetical tricks. Purely musical criteria are found. I’m
simply
claiming or avowing that all we’re dealing with here are musical issues.
The primitives are the same as in tonal music. We’re talking about pitch;
we’re talking pitch class.
Milton Babbitt
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