Inside Webern's workshop: a glimpse of op.9 no.6 in the making

Abstract

The Webern Collection of the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel holds a fair copy of an early version of the Drei Stücke für Streichquartett (1913), comprising the song ‘Schmerz, immer Blick nach über’ together with what later became numbers 1 and 6 of the Sechs Bagatellen op.9. This document is highly interesting on many counts: here I will mainly discuss one, the existence of a discarded ending to the third piece (later op.9 no.6). This passage is heavily blacked-out in mauve pencil in the manuscript, but the notes, dynamics and indications can be discerned with a strong light and magnifying glass.