Klangfarbenmelodie

Klangfarbenmelodie (German for "sound-color melody") is a musical concept that treats timbre as a melodic element.

Late in the 19th century, a sophisticated treatment of musical timbre started to emerge in works like Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

[1] During the same period, Hermann von Helmholtz theorized that timbre is part of what enables a listener to perceive melody.

In 1911, Arnold Schoenberg analyzed musical sound (klang) as consisting of pitch (höhe), timbre (farbe), and volume (stärke).

The letter also expands on the concept by explaining the "klänge" in question could be entire passages of music that would be modulated by tone color.

He specifically pointed to three examples from his catalogue: "the tomb scene of Pelleas und Melisande, or much of the introduction to the fourth movement of my second String Quartet, or the fugue figure from the second Piano Piece...They are never merely individual tones of different instruments at different times, but rather combinations of moving voices.

[11] This original sense of klangfarbenmelodie has its most direct descendants in the practitioners of spectral music, which prizes timbre as a structural element.

[14] The technique can also be found in polyphonic precedents like Annibale Padovano's treatment of the cantus firmus in his music.

10 (1913) which requires the efforts of the flute, trumpet, celeste, harp, glockenspiel, viola, and clarinet often playing just one note each.

The effect creates a sense of a compound melody, where the pitch content moves more swiftly than the timbres.

The impetus for Schoenberg's letter was partially to reclaim ownership of the concept which had become so synonymous with his pupil's work.