Webern's Sketches (III)

The most extensive sketches in the volume are of a third movement for the String Trio op. 20. Thirty-one bars were completed and are headed ‘planned as third movement ofthe String Trio op. 20 (August 1927 broken off in Hafning)’. The sketches cover five densely-packed pages and are transcribed as Ex. 18. Many passages exist in two, three or even more versions but usually the earlier, superseded, attempts have been crossed out and it is possible to trace the final form by following a path through the maze of vi – de signs, asterisks and arrows. Occasionally, however, there are several versions of a single bar or motive, none of which have been deleted. In the interests of achieving a continuity so that Ex. 18 can be read—and even, perhaps, played—as a torso, I have, in each of these ambiguous places, selected the version which seemsto me to be the most nearly definitive. For example, when one variant has the word ‘gilt’ by it, this is the one I have also chosen, even though the other versions may not have been crossed out.