He was a member of the Second Viennese School along with Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern, producing works that combined Mahlerian romanticism with a highly personal adaptation of Schönberg's twelve-tone technique.
LIFE and WORKS
Berg was born in Vienna, the third of four children of Johanna and Conrad Berg. His family lived quite comfortably until the death of his father in 1900.
He was more interested in literature than music as a child and did not begin to compose until he was fifteen, when he started to teach himself music. He had very little formal music education until he began a six-year period of study with Arnold Schönberg in October 1904 to 1911, studying counterpoint, music theory, and harmony; by 1906, he concentrated on his music studies full-time and by 1907, he began composition lessons. Among his compositions under Schönberg were five piano sonata drafts and various songs, including his Seven Early Songs (Sieben Frühe Lieder), three of which were Berg's first publicly performed work in a concert featuring the music of Schönberg's pupils in Vienna that same year.
These early compositions would reveal Berg's progress as a composer under Schönberg's tutelage. The early sonata sketches eventually culminated in Berg's Piano Sonata (Op.1) (1907-8); while considered to be his "graduating composition", it is one of the most formidable initial works ever written by any composer (Lauder, 1986). Schönberg was a major influence on him throughout his lifetime; Berg not only greatly admired him as a composer and mentor, but they remained close friends for the remainder of his life. Many people believe that Berg also saw him as a surrogate father, considering Berg's young age at the time of his father's death.
An important idea Schönberg used in his teaching was what would later be known as developing variation, which stated that the unity of a piece is dependent on all aspects of the composition being derived from a single basic idea. Berg would then pass this idea down to one of his students, Theodor Adorno, who stated: "The main principle he conveyed was that of variation: everything was supposed to develop out of something else and yet be intrinsically different". The Sonata is a striking example of the execution of this idea that the whole composition can be derived from the opening quartal gesture and from the opening phrase.
Berg was a part of Vienna's cultural elite during the heady period of Fin de siècle. His circle included the musicians Alexander von Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker, painter Gustav Klimt, writer and satirist Karl Kraus, architect Adolf Loos, and poet Peter Altenberg. In 1906, Berg met Helene Nahowski, singer and daughter of a wealthy family; despite the outward hostility of her family, the two married on May 3, 1911.
In 1913, two of Berg's Five Songs on Picture Postcard Texts by Peter Altenberg (1912) were premiered in Vienna under Schönberg's baton. The pieces ?settings of unpoetic, aphoristic utterances accompanied by a very large orchestra ?caused a riot, and the performance had to be halted; the work was not performed in full until 1952 (and its full score remained unpublished until 1966).
From 1915 to 1918, he served in the Austrian Army and it was during a period of leave in 1917 that he began work on his first opera, Wozzeck. Following World War I, he settled again in Vienna where he taught private pupils. He also helped Schoenberg run the Society for Private Musical Performances, which sought to create an ideal environment for the exploration of unappreciated and unfamiliar new music by means of open rehearsals, repeated performances and the exclusion of all newspaper critics.
The performance in 1924 of three excerpts from Wozzeck brought Berg his first public success. The opera, which Berg completed in 1922, was not performed in its entirety until December 14, 1925, when Erich Kleiber directed a performance in Berlin. The opera is today seen as one of his most important works; a later opera, the critically acclaimed Lulu, was left with its third act incomplete at his death.
Berg's best-known piece is probably his elegiac Violin Concerto. Like so much of his mature work, it employs a highly personal adaptation of Schönberg's twelve tone technique that enables it to combine frank atonality with more traditionally tonal passages and harmonies; additionally, it uses actual quotations of pre-existing tonal music, including a Bach chorale and a Carinthian folk song. The Violin Concerto was dedicated to Manon, the deceased daughter of architect Walter Gropius and Alma Schindler.
Other well known Berg compositions include the Lyric Suite (seemingly a big influence on the String Quartet No. 3 of Béla Bartók), Three Pieces for Orchestra and the Chamber Concerto for violin, piano and 13 wind instruments.
Berg died on Christmas Eve, 1935, in Vienna, apparently from blood poisoning caused by an insect bite. He was 50 years old.
According to Douglas Jarman, writing in the New Grove: "As the 20th century closed, the 'backward-looking' Berg suddenly came as Perle remarked, to look like its most forward-looking composer."
Jugendlieder (1), composed 1901, voice and piano, published 1985
Herbstgef..hl (Siefried Fleischer)
Spielleute (Henrik Ibsen)
Wo der Goldregen steht (F. Lorenz)
Lied der Schifferm..dels (Otto Julius Bierbaum)
Sehnsucht I (Paul Hohenberg)
Abschied (Elimar von Monsterberg-Muenckenau)
Grenzen der Menschenheit (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Vielgeliebte sch..ne Frau (Heinrich Heine)
Sehnsucht II (Paul Hohenberg)
Sternefall (Karl Wilhelm)
Sehnsucht III (Paul Hohenberg)
Ich liebe dich! (Christian Dietrich Grabbe)
Ferne Lieder (Friedrich R..ckert)
Ich will die Fluren meiden (Friedrich R..ckert)
Geliebte Sch..ne (Heinrich Heine)
Schattenleben (Martin Greif)
Am Abend (Emanuel Geibel)
Vor..ber! (Franz Wisbacher)
Schummerlose N..chte (Martin Greif)
Es wandelt, was wir schauen (Joseph von Eichendorff)
Liebe (Rainer Maria Rilke)
Im Morgengrauen (Karl Stieler)
Grabschrift (Ludwig Jakobwski)
Jugendlieder (2), composed 1904?, voice and piano, published 1985
Traum (Frida Semler)
Augenblicke (Robert Hamerling)
Die N..herin (Rainer Maria Rilke)
Erster Verlust (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
S..ss sind mir die Schollen des Tales (Karl Ernst Knodt)
Er klagt das der Fr..hling so kortz bl..ht (Arno Holz)
Tiefe Sehnsucht (Detlev von Liliencron)
..ber den Bergen (Karl Busse)
Am Strande (Georg Scherer)
Winter (Johannes Schlaf)
Fraue, du S..sse (Ludwig Finckh)
Verlassen (Bohemian folksong)
Regen (Johannes Schlaf)
Traurigkeit (Paul Altenberg)
Hoffnung (Paul Altenberg)
Fl..tenspielerin (Paul Altenberg)
Spaziergang (Albert Mombert)
Eure Weisheit (Johann Georg Fischer)
So regnet es sich langsam ein (C..sar Flaischlein)
Mignon (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Die Sorglichen (Gustav Falke)
Das stille K..nigreich (Karl Busse)
Sieben fr..he Lieder, voice and piano, composed 1905?, revised and orchestrated 1928
Nacht (Carl Hauptmann)
Schilflied (Nikolaus Lenau)
Die Nachtigall (Theodor Storm)
Traumgekr..nt (Rainer Maria Rilke)
Im Zimmer (Johannes Schlaf)
Liebesode (Otto Erich Hartleben)
Sommertage (Paul Hohenberg)
Schliesse mir die Augen beide (Theodor Storm), voice and piano, composed 1907, published in 1930 & 1955
An Leukon (Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim), voice and piano, composed 1908; published in 1937 & 1963 (Reich) & 1985 (UE) (2 versions exist: in G minor [1907]; in E minor [1908]
Fr..he Klaviermusik, published 1989
Zw..lf Variationen ..ber ein eigenes Thema in C, piano, composed Nov. 8, 1908; published in 1957 & 1985
Symphony and Passacaglia, fragment, composed 1913
Piano sonata, Op. 1, composed 1907?, published April 24, 1911
Vier Lieder, Op. 2, voice and piano, composed 1909?0, published 1910
Schlafen, schlafen (Friedrich Hebbel)
Schlaffend tr..gt man mich (Albert Mombert)
Nun ich der Riesen St..rksten (Albert Mombert)
Warm die L..fte (Albert Mombert)
String Quartet, Op.3, composed 1910, published 1920
F..nf Orchesterlieder nach Ansichtkartentexten von Peter Altenberg, Op. 4, soprano and orchestra, 1912 ("Altenberg Lieder")
Seele, wie bist du sch..ner
Sahst du nach dem Gewitterregen
..ber die Grenzen des All
Nichts ist gekommen, Hier ist Friede
Vier St..cke, Op. 5, clarinet and piano, composed 1913, published 1920
Drei St..cke, Op. 6, orchestra, composed 1914?5
Pr..ludium
Reigen
Marsch
Wozzeck Op. 7, composed 1914?2
Drei Bruchst..che aus 'Wozzeck', soprano and orchestra
PIERROT LUNAIRE INTERNATIONAL COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2010
Composers from all over the world without age limitation - are invited to present works for the Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien ®. This competition for chamber works will be open to composers of all nationalities.
Deadline for entries: January 31, 2010 (certified by the post office stamp)
Instruments: The compositions submitted for the competition must use ONLY the following instruments, either together or in sectors, involving a minimum of 2 performers and a maximum of 5, without conductor and without vocal participation.
Flute (single performer including piccolo, G alto flute) Clarinet in B-flat (single performer including A-clarinet and B-flat bass clarinet) Violin (single performer) Cello (single performer) Piano (single performer)
Prize for the winning Composition 1.Prize: Euro 5.000,- and minimum three performances by the Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien ® during its 2010-2011 international concert tour season.
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