This work deals with the analysis of selected works by the famous Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler. For the purpose of zeitgeist illustration the dramas Anatole and Reigen were used. The analysis of the works is preceded by theoretical section with a closer description of the socio-historical situation in Vienna at the turn of the 19th and 20 century. A part of the main section is a short treatise on the importance of one-act plays cycle in the development of the author´s works, dramas analysis and characterization of the characters, on the basis of which the conclusions are drawn about the image of Victorian society, which the author deals with in his works . The last part concludes the analysis and provides an outline description of the image and the zeitgeist as it can be deduced on the basis of both Schnitzler´s dramas compared to socio-historical knowledge of that time.

Helmut Lachenmann’s three string quartets Gran Torso. Musik für Streichquartett (1970/71 with later revisions), »Reigen seliger Geister« (1989) and »Grido« (2000/2001, rev. 2002) introduce a huge variety of extended playing techniques that are first listed systematically allowing for a comparison between the three works on a purely technical level. It becomes obvious that most of the extended techniques are introduced in the first quartet and that the subsequent quartets show increasingly smaller selections of these techniques. This especially applies to the most prominent of these techniques: the pressed bow, described by the composer as »rattling«, which symbolizes Lachenmann’s sound world like no other technique. Although the statistics again show the highest degree of timbral differentiation in the first quartet, the pressed bow indeed takes a crucial formal function in all three works. Each quartet includes a relatively long section or field in which this technique dominates. Although the transformation processes by which these fields are integrated show some degree of similarity, a separate predominant function can be discerned for each field. In Gran Torso, the pressed bow section is part of a complex continuous transformation from »tenuto« sounds to single impulses, not least due to its »perforated« sound quality. Whereas this transformation integrates a huge variety of different timbres, »Reigen seliger Geister« condenses the music to two main sound qualities, »flautato« sounds and pizzicato-impulses. The pressed bow field here forms part of a much more concentrated large-scale development and most prominently figures in the retransition from pizzicato-chords to »toneless« impulses towards the end of the piece. In »Grido«, the pressed bow fields integrate other playing techniques as well as pitched sounds, and can be characterized by a tendency towards rhythmic and pitch-related synchronicity that also describes a large-scale formal tendency in this work. Except for the pressed bow sections, the musical flow in this work cannot be characterised by playing techniques anymore, but might be divided into »calm« and »agitated« fields that are interconnected by the »rattling fields«. The analysis provides evidence for the argument that the pressed bow technique, which often was misunderstood as a simple »negation« of beautiful sound, fulfills an essential structural function in Lachenmann’s music.