Keillor, John2024-08-142024-08-1419981998https://hdl.handle.net/1828/18373This thesis concerns the atonal instrumental works of Anton Webern, composed between 1909 and 1914. These works can be divided into two groups, the "miniature" (Opp 5, 6, and 7) and the "aphorisms" (Opp 9, 10, and 11). As analysis shows, the central difference between these two groups of compositions is that the miniatures retain many recognized aspects of musical rhetoric that are abandoned in the aphorisms. Common rhetorical devices such as repetition and contrasts largely disappear in Opp 9, 10, and 11, in favour of a continuous, organic spinning-out of the possibilities of the opening musical statement. Crucial to this development are Schoenberg's Op 19 piano pieces, which provided the inspiration that led Webern from his first atonal style to the next.82 pagesAvailable to the World Wide WebThesis