Alban Berg and the Fateful Number
No prizes for guessing the number. The pervasive stamp of 23, whether it be in the precompositional proportions, the tempo markings, or the rhythmic formation of works like the Lyric Suite, Lulu, and the Violin Concerto, is well established in the current analytical literature. It is in any case confirmed by frequent calculations amongst the sketches. 23 also seems to have been inextricably linked to Berg's sense of personal destiny. It is widely agreed, for instance, that his first asthma attack occured on 23 July, though whether in 1900 or 1908 (when he was 23) or possibly another year remains uncertain. (The selectivity of this memory is itself curious.) On his deathbed he was convinced that December 23 would prove ‘decisive’, as indeed it did.
To the memory of an angel…* *Violin concerto by Alban Berg, inspired by the death from poliomyelitis of Alma Mahler's daughter.
