"… einen Roman durch eine einzige Geste … auszudrücken …" Affekt- und Kristallklänge bei Anton Webern

Despite the lack of any musical dramatic works in Anton Webern’s oeuvre, his music is often labeled as "gestural": for example, in the famous foreword of Arnold Schoenberg to Webern’s Bagatellen, Op. 9, or in some of Theodor W. Adorno’s writings. The latter’s polarizing characterization of Webern’s (early) gestural pieces as "absolute expression" ("absoluter Ausdruck"), on the one side, and his (late) twelve-note compositions as a mere "fetishism of material" ("Materialfetischismus"), on the other, raises the question of how one could nevertheless describe Webern’s late music as expressive or affective. Referring to the concepts of "affection-image" and "crystal-image" in Gilles Deleuze’s Cinema-books, this essay tries to discuss (in an experimental way) Webern’s Bagatelle, Op. 9/III as a possible 'affection sound' (Affektklang), and the second movement of the Konzert, Op. 24 as a 'crystal sound' (Kristallklang), both pieces realizing different types or modes of musical expression.