| Contents |
Introduction. Music in the twilight of the Habsburg empire. Two Viennese families. Berg's early life ; The specter of ill health ; The Marie Scheuchl affair ; The Nahowski family ; Helene Nahowski and Paul Kammerer ; Berg's courtship of Helene Nahowski -- Berg's musical apprenticeship, 1899-1911. Studies with Schoenberg ; Berg's early songs ; Seven Early Songs (1907) ; Four songs, op. 2 ; Music for piano ; Piano sonata, op. 1 ; String quartet, op. 3 -- A struggle for recognition, 1911-15. Before the war: 1911-14 ; Berg's work for Schoenberg ; The scandal concert ; Berg as writer ; Five Orchestral Songs to Picture Postcard Texts by Peter Altenberg, op. 4 (1912) ; Four pieces for clarinet and piano, op. 5 (1913) ; Three orchestra pieces, op. 6 (1914-15) -- The war and its aftermath, 1914-20. Patriotic enthusiasm ; Berg's conscription ; Superstition and pseudo-science ; Postwar burdens ; A change of profession -- Wozzeck. Operatic plans and uncertainties ; From play to libretto ; A Wozzeck chronology ; The music of Wozzeck ; Wozzeck on stage -- International acclaim, 1923-25. Wozzeck triumphant ; The continuing quest for health ; New directions in postwar music: neoclassicism and dodecaphony ; Chamber concerto -- Secret programs with twelve tones, 1925-27. The Hanna Fuchs affair ; A return to composing ; Lyric Suite for string quartet -- The celebrated composer, 1928-34. Prerogatives of success ; Summer retreats and family entanglements ; Flight from reality ; Berg's music and the Nazi threat ; A musical digression: Der Wein -- Lulu. The search for Lulu ; Wedekind's Lulu plays ; Berg's libretto for Lulu ; A chronology of composition ; The music of Lulu ; Prospects for staging ; Symphonic Pieces from the Opera Lulu -- Berg's final year, 1935. Berg's financial crisis ; Political turmoil and Austrofascism ; The violin concerto ; Berg's final illness -- Helene Berg and the management of Berg's legacy, 1936-76. The completion of Lulu ; Bereavement, grief, and Helene Berg's "Eternal marriage" ; Helene Berg's life under the Nazis, 1938-45 ; Berg's musical manuscripts and letters ; Toward a Berg biography ; The Alban Berg foundation ; Helene Berg's last years -- Epilogue. Berg the outsider. |
| Abstract |
This book contains a new study of the life and works of the composer Alban Berg (1885-1935). The major events in his life are recounted, based on a reassessment of archival documents, correspondence, and the recollections of those who knew him. His relationship with other modernists in music, art, and literature-including Arnold Schoenberg, Karl Kraus, and Alma Mahler-Werfel-is traced. The role played in Berg's personal and artistic life by his wife, Helene, is emphasized, and her management of his legacy-often controversial-for the forty years following his death is explored. The book contains a close study of each of Berg's major musical works, including his operas Wozzeck and Lulu. |
