The music of Alban Berg / Dave Headlam.

Author/creator Headlam, David John
Format Book
Publication InfoNew Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, ©1996.
Descriptionxi, 460 pages : illustrations, music ; 25 cm.
Subjects
Berg, Alban, 1885-1935--Criticism and interpretation.

SeriesComposers of the twentieth century
Composers of the twentieth century. ^A258186
Contents Tonality, cycles, and Berg's opus 1 and opus 2 -- The atonal music: introduction -- The atonal music: detail and analysis -- The twelve-tone music: introduction -- The twelve-tone music: detail and analysis -- Appendix. Theme and row charts for chapter 5.
Abstract Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935), along with his contemporaries Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, dramatically altered the musical landscape of the Western world. In this original book, the author offers a comprehensive analysis of Berg's music. He examines each of the composer's works - including the Piano Sonata, Opus 1, the operas Wozzeck and Lulu, and the Violin Concerto - and defines the main components of his musical language. Charting Berg's development as he progressed from late-romantic tonality to atonality and finally to his own distinctive dodecaphonic language, Headlam demonstrates with clarity and sophistication the compositional continuity that underlies all Berg's music. Headlam closely analyzes Berg's compositional technique and the use of symmetry and cycles throughout his oeuvre. He brings into the discussion Berg's own writings, as well as those of composer and musicologist George Perle; the techniques of Schoenberg, Webern, and other serialists; and aspects of pitch-class set and twelve-tone theory. Headlam contends that in his treatment of all musical elements - pitch, rhythmic, formal, and even orchestrational techniques - Berg achieved a synthesis that transcends the surface distinctions of his tonal, atonal, and twelve-tone periods, and that the cyclic basis of these chronological periods differs in degree rather than in kind. Berg's achievement of this synthesis foreshadows later developments in the work of his many musical heirs.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 401-453) and index.
LCCN 95046936
ISBN0300064004 (cloth : alk. paper)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML410.B47 H43 1996 ✔ Available Place Hold