AN EXAMPLE OF SERIAL TECHNIQUE IN EARLY WEBERN

At the end of the fourth piece in Webern1 s Opus 5 (Five Pieces for String Quartet) , the linear motive L = C-E-F #-B-C#-G-Bb , which closed off the first section of the work, is brought back at pitch-class transpositional level 8 to close off the work as a whole with a statement of L8 = G#-C-DG-A-Eb-F#. "It is not entirely clear why Webern chose this particular transposition, 11 says David Beach in his exemplary set-theoretic analysis, echoing con sordino and senza vibrato and the despairing cries of other analysts over the years Д