Alban Maria Johannes Berg (/bɛərɡ/BAIRG;[1]Austrian German:[ˈalbaːnˈbɛrg]; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austriancomposer of theSecond Viennese School. His compositional style combinedRomantic lyricism with thetwelve-tone technique.[2] Although he left a relativelysmalloeuvre, he is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century for his expressive style encompassing "entire worlds of emotion and structure".[3]
Berg was born and lived in Vienna. He began to compose at the age of fifteen. He studied counterpoint, music theory and harmony withArnold Schoenberg between 1904 and 1911, and adopted his principles ofdeveloping variation and the twelve-tone technique. Berg's major works include the operasWozzeck (1924) andLulu (1935, finished posthumously), the chamber piecesLyric Suite andChamber Concerto, as well as aViolin Concerto. He also composed a number of songs (lieder). He is said to have brought more "human values" to the twelve-tone system; his works are seen as more "emotional" than those of Schoenberg.[4] His music had a surface glamour that won him admirers when Schoenberg himself had few.[5]
[... T]here are things that can't be measured by the yardstick ofNature – – things that have sprungsolely from thehuman spirit, towering far above thematerial world—things that arereal only in ourlonging for them, 'when thesublime and beautiful things, the good and wise things, that we long for, turn into reality—not a reality that can be picked and put in the mouth or that can be counted and put in one's pocket!' (Otto Ernst [de]). Music is like that – – – and quite a few literary works that are written from within alonging-filled heart! – – : – – – I've now got toA Doll's House. ...
Berg was born in Vienna, the third of four children of Johanna and Konrad Berg. His father ran a successful export business, and the family owned several estates in Vienna and the countryside. The family's financial situation turned to the worse after the death of Konrad Berg in 1900, and it particularly affected young Berg, who had to repeat both his sixth and seventh grade to pass the exams.[16] One of his closest lifelong friends and earliest biographer (under the pseudonym Hermann Herrenried), architect Hermann Watznauer, became a father figure (partly at Konrad's request),[17] being ten years Berg's senior. Berg wrote him letters as long as thirty pages, often in florid, dramatic prose with idiosyncratic punctuation.[18][d] Berg was more interested in literature than music as a child and would consider a career as a writer several times, turning to music slowly and at times unconfidently[e] until the success ofWozzeck. He did not begin to compose until he was fifteen, when he started to teach himself music, although he did take piano lessons from his sister's governess.[19] With Marie Scheuchl, a maid in the family estate of Berghof inCarinthia and fifteen years his senior, he fathered a daughter, Albine, born 4 December 1902.[20]
In 1906 Berg met the singerHelene Nahowski [de] (1885–1976), daughter of a wealthy family (rumoured to be in fact the illegitimate daughter of EmperorFranz Joseph I from his liaison withAnna Nahowski).[21] Despite the outward hostility of her family, the couple married on 3 May 1911, although "her father insisted on a Protestant ceremony to facilitate the divorce he foresaw as inevitable."[22]
With little prior music education, Berg began studyingcounterpoint,music theory, andharmony underArnold Schoenberg in October 1904.[23] By 1906 he was studying music full-time; by 1907 he begancomposition lessons. His student compositions included five drafts forpiano sonatas. He also wrote songs, including hisSeven Early Songs (Sieben frühe Lieder), three of which were Berg's first publicly performed work in a concert that featured the music of Schoenberg's pupils in Vienna that year.[24]
The early sketches eventually culminated in thePiano Sonata, Op. 1, published in 1910 and likely composed 1908–1909;[25] it has been described as one of the most formidable "first" works ever written.[26] Berg studied with Schoenberg for six years until 1911. Among Schoenberg's teachings was the idea that the unity of a musical composition depends upon all its aspects being derived from a single basic idea; this idea was later known asdeveloping variation. Berg passed this on to his students, one of whom,Theodor W. Adorno, stated: "The main principle he conveyed was that of variation: everything was supposed todevelop out of something else and yet be intrinsically different".[27] The Piano Sonata is an example—the whole composition is derived from the work's openingquartal gesture and its opening phrase.[28]
Watschenkonzert [slapping concert], caricature inDie Zeit [de] (Vienna), 6 April 1913[29]
In 1913 two of Berg'sAltenberg Lieder (1912) premiered in Vienna, conducted by Schoenberg in the infamousSkandalkonzert. Settings of aphoristic poetic utterances, the songs are accompanied by a very large orchestra. The performance caused a riot, and had to be halted. Berg effectively withdrew the work, and it was not performed in full until 1952. The full score remained unpublished until 1966.[30]
Berg had a particular interest in the number 23, using it to structure several works. Various suggestions have been made as to the reason for this interest: that he took it from thebiorhythms theory ofWilhelm Fliess, in which a 23-day cycle is considered significant,[31] or because he first suffered an asthma attack on the 23rd of the month.[32]
From 1915 to 1918 Berg served in theAustro-Hungarian Army. During a period of leave in 1917 he accelerated work on his first opera,Wozzeck. After the end of World War I, he settled again in Vienna, where he taught private pupils. He also helped Schoenberg run hisSociety for Private Musical Performances, which sought to create the ideal environment for the exploration and appreciation of unfamiliar new music by means of open rehearsals, repeat performances, and the exclusion of professional critics.
In 1924 three excerpts fromWozzeck were performed, which brought Berg his first public success. The opera, which Berg completed in 1922, was first performed on 14 December 1925, whenErich Kleiber conducted the first performance in Berlin. Today,Wozzeck is seen as one of the century's most important works. Berg made a start on his second opera, the three-actLulu, in 1928 but interrupted the work in 1929 for the concert ariaDer Wein which he completed that summer.Der Wein presagedLulu in a number of ways, including vocal style, orchestration, design and text.[33]
Other well-known Berg compositions include theLyric Suite (1926), which was later shown to employ elaborate cyphers to document a secret love affair; the post-MahlerianThree Pieces for Orchestra (completed in 1915 but not performed until afterWozzeck); and theChamber Concerto (Kammerkonzert, 1923–25) for violin, piano, and 13 wind instruments: this latter is written so conscientiously thatPierre Boulez has called it "Berg's strictest composition" and it, too, is permeated by cyphers and posthumously disclosed hidden programs.[34] It was at this time he began exhibitingtone clusters in his works after meeting with American avant-garde composerHenry Cowell, with whom he would eventually form a lifelong friendship.[35]
Life for the musical world was becoming increasingly difficult in the 1930s both in Vienna and Germany due to the rising tide ofantisemitism and theNazi cultural ideology that denouncedmodernity. Even to have an association with someone who was Jewish could lead to denunciation, and Berg's "crime" was to have studied with the Jewish composerArnold Schoenberg. Berg found that opportunities for his work to be performed in Germany were becoming rare, and eventually his music wasproscribed and placed on the list ofdegenerate music.[36]
In 1932 Berg and his wife acquired an isolated lodge, theWaldhaus on the southern shore of theWörthersee, nearSchiefling am See inCarinthia, where he was able to work in seclusion, mainly onLulu and theViolin Concerto.[37] At the end of 1934, Berg became involved in the political intrigues around finding a replacement forClemens Krauss as director of theVienna State Opera.
As more of the performances of his work in Germany were cancelled by theNazis, who had come to power in early 1933, he needed to ensure the new director would be an advocate for modernist music. Originally, the premiere ofLulu had been planned for theBerlin State Opera, whereErich Kleiber continued to champion his music and had conducted the premiere ofWozzeck in 1925, but now this was looking increasingly uncertain, andLulu was rejected by the Berlin authorities in the spring of 1934. Kleiber's production of theLulu symphonic suite on 30 November 1934 in Berlin was also the occasion of his resignation in protest at the extent of conflation of culture with politics. Even in Vienna, the opportunities for the Vienna School of musicians were dwindling.[36]
Berg had interrupted the orchestration ofLulu because of an unexpected (and financially much-needed) commission from the Russian-American violinistLouis Krasner for aViolin Concerto (1935). This profoundly elegiac work, composed at unaccustomed speed and posthumously premiered, has become one of Berg's frequently performed compositions. Like much of his mature work, it employs an idiosyncratic adaptation of Schoenberg's "dodecaphonic" ortwelve-tone technique, that enables the composer to produce passages openly evoking tonality, including quotations from historical tonal music, such as aBach chorale and a Carinthian folk song. The Violin Concerto was dedicated "to the memory of an Angel",Manon Gropius, the deceased daughter of architectWalter Gropius andAlma Mahler.[38]
Berg died aged 50 in Vienna, on Christmas Eve 1935, fromblood poisoning apparently caused by afuruncle on his back, induced by an insect sting that occurred in November.[39] He was buried at theHietzing Cemetery in Vienna.
Before he died, Berg had completed the orchestration of only the first two of the three acts ofLulu. The completed acts were successfully premièred in Zürich in 1937. For personal reasons Helene Berg subsequently imposed a ban on any attempt to "complete" the final act, which Berg had in fact completed inshort score.[40] An orchestration was therefore commissioned in secret fromFriedrich Cerha and premièred in Paris (underPierre Boulez) only in 1979, soon after Helene Berg's own death.
Berg is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century and the most widely performed opera composer among the Second Viennese School.[16] He is said to have brought more "human values" to thetwelve-tone system, his works seen as more "emotional" than Schoenberg's.[4] Critically, he is seen as having preserved the Viennese tradition in his music.[16]
Berg scholar Douglas Jarman writes inThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that "[as] the 20th century closed, the 'backward-looking' Berg suddenly came as [George]Perle remarked, to look like its most forward-looking composer."[16]
^As Ernst continues, in fuller context: "Otherwise we would no longer have any longing, and that would be the end of us. It is a reality that one feels with sensuous certainty in one's brain and heart, eyes and ears, nose and tongue, hands and hair roots, blood and all the nerves and muscles of the body! ... An artist is a person who has heightened senses. ... And they see in words and sounds ... a happier world. And their eye can open a hundred thousand eyes ..." ("Dann hättet ihr keine Sehnsucht mehr, und das wäre das Ende der Menschheit. Aber doch ist es eine Wirklichkeit, die ihr im Hirn und im Herzen, in Augen und Ohren, in Nase und Zunge, in Händen und Haarwurzeln, in Blut und allen Nerven und Muskeln eures Leibes mit sinnlicher Gewißheit fühlt! ... Ein Künstler ist ein Mensch, der selige Sinne hat. ... Und sie sehen in Worten und Tönen ... einer beglückteren Welt. Und sein Auge vermag hunderttausend Augen aufzutun ...").
^Alwa, a semi-autobiographical role inLulu, is defined above all by his infatuated idealization of Lulu, just as theLyric Suite is defined by Berg's infatuation with the idea ofHanna Fuchs-Robettin; but unlike Berg, who did not consummate his affair with Hanna, Alwa "is unable tosublimate his sinfulpassion"[9] for hismuse. On at least one occasion (likely spring 1907), echoing a passage fromFrank Wedekind'sErdgeist, which he had seen in Vienna, Berg wrote to his wifeHelene [de]: "Again and again I kiss that hand of yours, my most glorious Symphony in D minor";[10] likewise Alwa sings, in a prominent episode full of kisses, a fanatical hymn comparing Lulu's features to music, with Wedekind's text modified to correspond roughly to music from theLyric Suite (e.g., "these knees: a misterioso").[11]
^At the very beginning as heshaves hisHauptmann, Wozzeck sings, "Poor folks like us! ...Money! If one hasnone! ... if Iwere agentleman ... I'd bevirtuous ... it must be a fine thing to be ... But ... ourkind is unlucky in this world and in the next".[13] Like Wozzeck, Berg was a soldier and saw in him "a bit of me ... since I have been spending thesewar years just asdependent on people I hate, have been inchains,sick,captive, resigned, in facthumiliated" (letter to Helene, August 7, 1918).[14]
^These were habits that Berg sought to moderate in time, not only with maturity, but also especially under the increasing influence of Schoenberg.
^The duress of Schoenberg's criticisms provoked crises of confidence.
Adorno, Theodor W.; Berg, Alban (2005) [1997]. Lonitz, Henri (ed.).Briefwechsel 1925–1935 [Correspondence 1925–1935]. Hoban, Wieland – translator, originally published by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt. Cambridge: Polity.ISBN978-0-7456-9496-2.Archived from the original on 29 April 2020. Retrieved29 August 2017.
Breivik, Magnar. 1998. "The Representation of Sleep and Death in Berg'sPiano Songs, op.2". InEncrypted Messages in Alban Berg’s Music, ed. Siglind Bruhn, 109–136. Border Crossings Series. London: Taylor & Francis.ISBN978-1-136-52287-1.
Bruhn, Siglind. 1998. "Editor's Introduction". InEncrypted Messages in Alban Berg’s Music, ed. Siglind Bruhn, xv–xvi. Border Crossings Series. London: Taylor & Francis.ISBN978-1-136-52287-1.
Hailey, Christopher (2010a). "Berg's Worlds". InHailey (2010), pp. 3–32.
Headlam, Dave (2013)."Berg, Alban 1885–1935". In Steib, Murray (ed.).Reader's Guide to Music: History, Theory and Criticism. Routledge. p. 78ff.ISBN978-1-135-94262-5.Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved2 December 2019.
Johnson, Julian. 1999.Webern and the Transformation of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-66149-2.
Johnson, Julius. 2006. "Anton Webern, the Social Democratic Kunstelle and Musical Modernism."Austrian Studies 14(1):197–213.
Lauder, Robert Neil (1986).Two Early Piano Works of Alban Berg: A Stylistic and Structural Analysis (thesis). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
Monson, Karen. 1979.Alban Berg: A Biography. Reprinted, London: Macdonald and Jane's. 1980.ISBN978-0-354-04464-6.
Notley, Margaret. "1934, Alban Berg, and the shadow of politics: documents of a troubled year". InHailey (2010), pp. 223–268.
Perle, George. 1980.The Operas of Alban Berg, Vol. I: Wozzeck. Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN978-0-520-06617-5.
Perle, George. 1985.The Operas of Alban Berg, Vol. II: Lulu. Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN978-0-520-06616-8.
Grun, Bernard, ed.Alban Berg: Letters to his Wife. London: Faber and Faber, 1971.
Headlam, Dave.The Music of Alban Berg. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
Jarman, Douglas. "Dr. Schon's Five-Strophe Aria: Some Notes on Tonality and Pitch Association in Berg'sLulu".Perspectives of New Music 8/2 (Spring/Summer 1970).
Jarman, Douglas. "Some Rhythmic and Metric Techniques in Alban Berg'sLulu".The Musical Quarterly 56/3 (July 1970).
Jarman, Douglas. "Lulu: The Sketches".International Alban Berg Society Newsletter, 6 (June 1978).
Reich, Willi.The life and work of Alban Berg. Trans.Cornelius Cardew. New York : Da Capo Press, 1982.
Schmalfeldt, Janet. "Berg's Path to Atonality: The Piano Sonata, Op. 1".Alban Berg: Historical and Analytical Perspectives. Eds. David Gable and Robert P. Morgan, pp. 79–110. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Schweizer, Klaus.Die Sonatensatzform im Schaffen Alban Bergs. Stuttgart: Satz und Druck, 1970.
Simms, Bryan R. (2013) [1996].Alban Berg (2nd ed.). Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.ISBN978-1-135-84674-9.Archived from the original on 29 April 2020. Retrieved29 August 2017.
Simms, Bryan; Erwin, Charlotte (2021).Berg. Master Musicians. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-093144-5.
_%7e1930_%25C2%25A9_Max_Fenichel_(1885%25E2%2580%25931942).jpg)
