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Schönberg composed the Three Satires for Mixed Chorus when he was 51 and at the high-point of his career; shortly before beginning the piece, he had been appointed Ferruccio Busoni’s successor at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste, the twelve-tone technique had established itself to a certain degree, and Schönberg was recognized as a composer as never before.
Yet in himself he remained as sensitive as ever; “I wrote [the Satires] at a time when I was incensed by the attacks of some of my younger contemporaries – I wanted to warn them that it wasn’t a good thing to connect with me,” he explained in the foreword to the Satires. His words were aimed at four groups he wished to target with the pieces; those “who seek their personal salvation in the middle of the [compositional] road,” those who are oriented to the past, who look backwards instead of forwards,” the “folklorists” and lastly, “all the ‘…ists’ in whom I can only see mannerists.”
Although it as intended as an immediate response to current trends, the Satires’ message is still clear enough today. Am Scheideweg is directed at those exploiting tonal and atonal principles alike without being aware of origins or consequences. The text “Tonal” corresponds to a C-major triad which had already worked its way into the twelve-tone row. Schönberg places this tonal cell deliberately (contrary to the principle of avoiding blatant major/minor groupings so as not to invoke a tonal focus) to reflect in the music the tonal/atonal contrast in the text; he also uses canon to send a tremor through those who despise the art of refined polyphony, joining the basic set and the cancrizans to make a 23-note double row and executing it as a four-part canon at the unison, which ends with a coda consisting of the basic set in stretto.
The rhythmic structure is conspicuous in this piece and the next one, Vielseitigkeit, notable in the way it contrasts with the complex ordering of the pitches. The visual impression alone of the Vielseitigkeit score gives a sense of the multilayered polyphonic texture; based on sophisticated mirrorings of the row, the piece is reminiscent of the “eye music” of the 15th and 16th centuries, the recurrent succession C-E-G remaining for the most part in the sonic background.
No. 3, “Der neue Klassizismus,“ is a cantata for  mixed chorus with viola, cello and piano accompaniment. It predominantly targets the musicologist Hugo Riemann (although Schönberg does not mention him specifically in the foreword); in his music encyclopedia (the 1916 edition) Riemann had spoken derisively of passages in Schönberg’s Harmonielehre, an attack from which the composer had not yet recovered in 1926 (when he was writing the Satires, when Riemann had long since died and when the passages in question had been deleted many years earlier).
Otherwise, Stravinsky was the main target. Obviously modeled on Baroque cantata form, the extended recitative Dem kann die Macht der Zeiten nichts mehr anhaben – “The forces of time can no longer touch him” – marked “perhaps solo” – precedes an aria for bass and chorus, Die Hauptsache ist der Entschluß – “The decision is the main thing” – which includes a varied reprise. Another recitative develops the initial material segues to a triple fugue, its subjects taken from the same row. The instruments’ role is to support the vocal lines, a precautionary measure going back to Schönberg’s choral work Friede auf Erden.
The Satires conclude with three canons composed diatonically. Schönberg justifies the procedure in a separate foreword, saying that he wanted to prove that he was able to compose diatonic canons, a technique which “although not appreciated very much, is still considered difficult” – and canon happens to be the traditional form which comes closest to meeting the requirements of the twelve-tone method.

Agnes Grond
© Arnold Schönberg Center

Am Scheideweg
Arnold Schönberg

Tonal oder atonal?
Nun sagt einmal
in welchem Stall
in diesem Fall
die größre Zahl,
daß man sich halten,
halten kann am sichern Wall.


Vielseitigkeit
Arnold Schönberg

Ja, wer tommerlt denn da?
Das ist ja der kleine Modernsky!
Hat sich ein Bubizopf schneiden lassen;
sieht ganz gut aus!
Wie echt falsches Haar!
Wie eine Perücke!
(Ganz wie sich ihn der kleine Modernsky vorstellt),
ganz der Papa Bach!


Der Neue Klassizismus
Arnold Schönberg

Tenor:
Nicht mehr romantisch blieb ich,
Romantisch hass ich;
von morgen an schon
schreib ich nur reinstes Klassisch!

Baß:
Dem kann die Macht der Zeiten
nichts mehr anhaben,

Sopran und Alt: Siehe Riemann!

Baß:
den Kunstgesetze leiten nach dem Buchstaben.

Sopran und Alt: Buchstaben? Wenn man die kann!

Bass:
Ich staun, wie rasch die Wendung:
von heut auf morgen besitzt man Formvollendung?
Kann man die borgen?

Sopran und Alt: ...nur borgen!

Chor:
Die Hauptsache ist der Entschluß.
Doch der ist leicht gefaßt.
Die Technik macht manchem Verdruss,
drum wird sie gern gehaßt.
Man läßt sie ganz einfach beiseiten,
Vollendung ist doch das Panier!
Sie zeitigt den Einfall beizeiten,
wenn auch nur auf dem Papier.
Schlussfuge: Klassische Vollendung,
streng in jeder Wendung,
sie komm woher sie mag,
danach ist nicht die Frag,
sie geh wohin sie will:
das ist der neue Stil.