Alban Berg on Music Theory Print

Altenberg Lieder

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The songs are: # (“Soul, how much more beautiful are you”) # (“Did you see the forest after the rainstorm?”) # (“Beyond the boundaries of the universe”) # (“Nothing has come”) # (“Here is peace”)

Instrumentation#

The work is scored for medium voice (mezzo-soprano) and a large orchestra consisting of: Woodwinds :3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo) :3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn) :3 clarinets in B (3rd doubling clarinet in E) :1 bass clarinet in B :3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon) ;Brass :4 horns in F :3 trumpets in F :4 trombones (1st doubling alto trombone) :1 tuba (doubling contrabass tuba) Percussion :timpani :glockenspiel :xylophone :triangle :cymbals :tam-tam :side drum :bass drum Keyboards :celesta :piano :harmonium Strings :harp :violins I, II :violas :celli :double basses

Der Wein

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

- - – Annelies Kupper, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hermann Scherchen (1957) (Scherchen also conducted the premiere)

Kammerkonzert (Berg)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work is scored for piano and violin soloists accompanied by a wind ensemble of 13: piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, E clarinet, A clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, two French horns, trumpet, and trombone. It is in three movements: According to AllMusic, the concerto is “remarkable for the thoroughness of its organization; that is, it was composed with rigorous attention to minute details, and its structure is derived from a series of complex mathematical relationships. For example, the first movement’s 240 measures consist of 30 and 60 measure variations, the second is 240 measures, and the third is the length of the previous two at 480 measures.”

Lulu (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sources#

Berg was familiar with Wedekind’s Erdgeist by 1903, when he was 19. He also saw Die Büchse der Pandora in 1905 in a production by Karl Kraus on 29 May, and was inspired by the introductory speech that Kraus delivered on that occasion. In Wedekind’s two Lulu plays, now often performed together under that title, Erdgeist forms the basis for the act 1 and act 2, scene 1, of the opera culminating in her shooting Dr. Schön, while Die Büchse der Pandora forms the basis for the rest of act 2 and act 3, Lulu’s imprisonment, escape and subsequent decline and murder.

Lyric Suite (Berg)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition and analysis#

The string quartet has six movements: As Berg’s friend and fellow Schoenberg pupil Erwin Stein wrote in the preface to the score, " t he work (Ist and VIth part, the main part of the IIIrd and the middle section of the Vth) has been mostly written strictly in accordance with Schoenberg’s technique of the ‘Composition with 12 inwardly related tones’. A set of 12 different tones gives the rough material of the composition, and the portions which have been treated more freely still adhere more or less to the technique". George Perle points out that the first movement is not strictly twelve-tone, with the opening four chords being derived not from the series but from the interval-7 cycle. The first analysis was undertaken by H. F. Redlich, who notices that “the first movement of the Lyric Suite develops out of the disorder of intervals in its first bar, the notes of which, strung out horizontally, present the complete chromatic scale, and from this in the second and following bars, grows the Basic Set in its thematic shape”. Theodor W. Adorno called the quartet “a latent opera”. Redlich described “the concealed vocality of the Lyric Suite” despite having no knowledge of the setting of Baudelaire’s De profundis clamavi in the finale movement, deciphered by Douglass M. Green from what Perle calls “Berg’s cryptic notations”. Perle discovered a complete copy of the first edition annotated by Berg for his dedicatee, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin (Franz Werfel’s sister, with whom Berg had an affair in the 1920s), later that year. Berg used the signature motif, A-B-H-F (in German notation, B means B, while H means B), to combine Alban Berg (A. B.) and Hanna Fuchs-Robettin (H. F.). This is most prominent in the third movement. Berg also quotes a melody from Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony in movement four which originally set the words “You are mine own”. In the last movement, according to Berg’s self-analysis, the “entire material, the tonal element too… as well as the Tristan motif” is developed “by strict adherence to the 12-note series”.

Piano Sonata (Berg)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Berg first studied under Arnold Schoenberg in the autumn of 1904, taking lessons in harmony and counterpoint. Later, from autumn 1907, he returned to begin studies in composition, which ended with the study of sonata movements. Several draft sketches of sonata movements date from this period and it is thought that Op. 1 followed from these drafts. The exact date of composition is unknown; although the second reissue of the score bears the date 1908, sources suggest that the sonata was not composed until the spring or summer of 1909. Piano Sonata, Op. 1 was published in 1910 along with a set of , Op. 2. Berg financed the publication of the sonata himself. The premiere was performed in Vienna on 24 April 1911 by Etta Werndorff, at a concert whose programme also included Berg’s String Quartet, Op. 3. After World War I, Eduard Steuermann performed the sonata at several concerts arranged by the , and its popularity increased after the success of Berg’s opera Wozzeck in the late 1920s. The work underwent alterations for republication in 1920, but this version is now lost. In 1925 the publisher requested revisions from Berg in order to produce a “revised edition”, partly to facilitate the acquisition of a copyright in the United States of America, and also to capitalise on Berg’s growing international reputation. The revisions were mainly to phrasing.

Seven Early Songs (Berg)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The seven songs are: # Nacht (Night) – text by # Schilflied (Song amid the reeds) – Nikolaus Lenau # Die Nachtigall (The nightingale) – Theodor Storm # Traumgekrönt (Crowned in dream) – Rainer Maria Rilke # Im Zimmer (Indoors) – Johannes Schlaf # Liebesode (Ode to Love) – Otto Erich Hartleben # Sommertage (Summer days) – Paul Hohenberg

Instrumentation#

The orchestral version is scored for high voice (soprano) and: * 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn), 2 clarinets in B flat, bass clarinet in A, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon; * 4 horns in F, trumpet in F, 2 tenor trombones; * timpani, percussion (bass drum, side drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam), harp, celesta; * strings: violins I and II, violas, violoncellos, double basses.

String Quartet (Berg)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background and music#

From 1905 to 1907, Berg wrote many fugues, theme-and-variation sets, character pieces, and other short works, often for chamber strings or piano, to learn classical musical forms during his music theory studies with his mentor, Arnold Schoenberg. He finished Four Songs, Op. 2 around 1908 or 1909 and began a string quartet as his final apprentice piece. Berg dated the work to 1909–1910. Schoenberg left no draft markings or suggested revisions as he had on Berg’s student Sonatas 1–5 and Piano Sonata, Op. 1. Berg pursued his own originality, approaching form more freely than he had been able to do while learning.

Three Pieces for Orchestra (Berg)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Berg composed the Three Pieces between 1913 and 1915. Studying with Arnold Schoenberg, he had composed mainly lieder such as Altenberg Lieder, and thought about a larger composition, such as a suite or a symphony. He settled with orchestral pieces, and worked on them in Trahütten, Styria, in summer, where his parents-in-law had a country estate. The work was completed on 23 August 1914. Berg dedicated it “to my teacher and friend Arnold Schoenberg with immeasurable gratitude and love”, and sent it to Schönberg as a gift for his 40th birthday, on 13 September 1914. In a letter he expanded: “I have truly striven to give my best, to follow all your incentives and suggestions, whereby the unforgettable, yea revolutionising experiences of the Amsterdam rehearsals and thorough study of your orchestra pieces served me boundlessly and sharpened my self-criticism more and more.” The premiere of the first two pieces was held in Berlin on 5 June 1923 during an Austrian Music Week, conducted by Anton Webern. It was not until 14 April 1930 that the complete composition was played, in its revised form, by the Oldenburger Landesorchester conducted by Johannes Schüler.

Violin Concerto (Berg)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Conception and composition#

The piece stemmed from a commission from the violinist Louis Krasner. When he received the commission, Berg was working on his opera Lulu, and did not begin work on the concerto for some months. After the death by polio of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, the daughter of architect Walter Gropius and Berg’s friend and patron Alma Mahler (Gustav Mahler’s widow), Berg set Lulu aside to write the concerto, which he dedicated “to the memory of an angel”; he identified the “angel” to Alma as Manon. Alma had felt abandoned by the Bergs in her time of mourning, and Berg was eager to repair the breach. He sent Alma some part of the score, possibly the dedicatory page and opening, in 1935. It was her 56th birthday, to which the opening metronome marking (56 to a quarter note) likely referred. The concerto was the last work Berg completed. He worked on the piece very quickly, completing it in a few months; it is thought that his work on the concerto was largely responsible for his failing to complete Lulu before his death on 24 December 1935. In a letter to Krasner dated 16 July 1935, Berg wrote: “Yesterday I finished the composition without the orchestration of our Violin Concerto. I am probably more surprised by it than you will be … the work gave me more and more joy. I hope – no, I have the confident belief – that I have succeeded.” The manuscript score carries the date 11 August 1935.

Wozzeck

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Berg created the (literary opera) Wozzeck from 1914 to 1922, stalled by World War I. He had first pursued a literary career, with juvenilia in lyric poetry and drama, including after Henrik Ibsen’s play Ghosts. But in 1904, he diaried that music was “a higher form of revelation”. Berg’s mentor Arnold Schoenberg advised, “let poetry lead you … to music”. Schoenberg premiered some of Berg’s aphoristic Altenberg Lieder (1911–1912), which caused the 1913 . Next Berg planned a vocal symphony after Gustav Mahler, but Schoenberg told him to try a suite of character pieces (the Three Pieces for Orchestra, 1913–1915), while affirming his operatic interest in the chamber plays of August Strindberg. In May 1914, Berg twice attended the local premiere of Georg Büchner’s 1836 play Woyzeck, then mistitled Wozzeck, at Vienna’s . Among visitors from the Munich Residenz Theatre, he recalled seeing actor Albert Steinrück as Wozzeck and said he “immediately” decided to make it an opera. He wrote his own libretto, which is much indebted to writer Karl Emil Franzos. From poorly legible papers shared by Büchner’s brother, physician Ludwig Büchner, Franzos’s version had appeared in a Neue Freie Presse serial (1875) and in his “critical, complete” Büchner edition (1879).