Herzgewächse

Composition

The work was completed on 9 December 1911 and premiered by Marianne Rau-Hoeglauer in Vienna in April 1928 under the direction of Anton Webern. Herzgewächse is one of Schoenberg's freely atonal works and one in which the music attempts to accurately reflect the meaning of the words. The voice runs parallel to the words of the poem, as it tries to follow the meaning implied: when the singer sings "sink to rest", she descends to a very low register; however, when she sings "imperceptibly ascending", she progressively rises to one of the highest pitches in the piece.

The harmonium plays the opening chords and plays throughout the piece: the celesta and harp, on the other hand, have numerous rests.

The work was originally written to be featured in Wassily Kandinsky's journal Der blaue Reiter (German: The Blue Rider), as an example of one of Schoenberg's early atonal works.