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The Sarajevo Period of Dane Škerl’s Artistic Activity
Specifically, the main material of the Symphony, given at the start
(b. 1–3) of the Largo (1 movement) by the first violins, is represented by
st
the 12-tone row which bears most of the characteristics of dodecaphon-
ic “pre-composed material” (Example 6). The row is composed of 12 differ-
ent, non-repeating pitches of the chromatic total, and its compositional di-
rection repeatedly highlights the minor second as its specific interval and
therefore through highly pronounced chromaticism, which is supposed to
negate a key suggestion of the row. In contrast to this, the pitches in the row
are positioned at specific points of musical flow to suggest functional-har-
monic relationships of the dominant (D, b. 1, also F# at the end of b. 3), sub-
dominant (C, b. 2), and tonic function (G, b. 2).
This perspective is supported by the nearly immediate imitation ob-
served by the second violins (b. 1). This interaction highlights the afore-
mentioned G as the harmonic centre, particularly at the conclusion, where
the augmented fourth (C-F#) given in two-part texture introduces caden-
tial tension that resolves into the subsequent G. The partition of the row
into two phrases of eight and four pitches, managed by pauses and marked
by the opening pitches D and G – suggest the symmetry and correspondent
harmonic relations of the classical sentence structure as well. These phras-
es themselves will act as essential constructive elements in the continuation
of the movement. EX6
The movement itself makes an analogy with the fugue repercussion,
i.e. its duxes and comeses in prime, inversion, retrograde and transposed
forms of the row (all the possible variants given in Table 3). Yet the tex-
ture is not polyphonic, but constructed of two layers, each of which oscil-
late between its purpose on negating and supporting the harmonic centre.
For instance, the transposed repetition of the row is accompanied by the
successive addition of minor seconds up to the cluster chord in the range
of the mentioned fourth (D-G), or – opposed to that – by an ostinato fig-
ure which alternates the mediant-related G and Eb major triads (G-B-D
and Eb-G-B). This friction is most clearly implemented in the first move-
ment, while the neoclassical way of thinking dominates over the expres-
sionist one in other movements, so the row acts exactly as Škerl called it –
a “mere coincidence”. 34

34 Gregor Pompe, “Slovenian Twelve-Tone Music,” De Musica Disserenda 14, no. 2
(2018): 100.

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