Tonal Implications and the Role of the Symmetrical Hexachord in Alban Berg's Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Opus 5, No. 2

Abstract

In this paper I demonstrate that the Berg Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Opus 5, No. 2, is a veiled tonal piece, with its background tonal center of B^b generated by a five‐note set, (10,1,2,5,6), a subset of the all‐combinatorial hexachord [0,3,4,7,8,11]. A combination of a Schenker‐style reductive technique and Forte‐style pitch‐class set theory is used in this analysis.