Berg, Alban

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Headlam
Keyword(s):  
Alban Berg ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
Incomplete Form ◽  
Sketch Study

Composer Alban Berg (1885–1935) is best-known for his two operas, Wozzeck (premiered 1925) and Lulu (left unfinished but performed in incomplete form until the full premiere in 1979, as completed by Friedrich Cerha) and his Violin Concerto (premiered 1936). Berg’s oeuvre consists of his opi 1–7 and then, without opus numbers, pre-Opus 1 songs, incomplete pieces, and arrangements, added by archival and sketch study.

Alban Berg and the Fateful Number

Tempo ◽  
1991 ◽  
pp. 2-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Poole
Keyword(s):  
Alban Berg ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
Asthma Attack

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.

Alban Berg

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor W. Adorno
Keyword(s):  
Alban Berg

Alban Berg

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin Floros
Keyword(s):  
Alban Berg

Béla Bartók’s 1907 Violin Concerto

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicja Usarek-Topper
Keyword(s):  
Violin Concerto

Alban Berg

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Adhesion Strength ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Alban Berg ◽  
German Translation ◽  
Stefan George ◽  
Strength Tests ◽  
Parallel Texts

When Austrian composer Alban Berg was working on his opera Lulu, he wrote three Baudelaire songs as a Konzertaria entitled Der Wein. Premiered in 1930, Der Wein is a large-scale work for voice and orchestra. Berg uses a German translation by Stefan George, but the published score is in parallel texts, accommodating the French verse line. The chapter also considers a ‘hidden’ Baudelaire setting from Berg’s 1926 Lyric Suite for string quartet. The analysis covers: (a) the context of composition; (b) the connections established between selected poems; (c) the statistical data generated from the adhesion strength tests; and (d) how the data shape an evaluation of Berg’s settings of Baudelaire. Evidence suggests that Berg’s settings of Baudelaire are loosely entangled; the highly prescriptive score affects syntax, semantics, and prosody. Yet, because Der Wein has stood the test of time, the settings are deemed loosely accretive.

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