Berg

529 Pages·2021·28.694 MB·English

by  Bryan R. Simms, Charlotte Erwin

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T H E M A S T E R M U S I C I A N S
BERG
SERIES EDITED BY R. LARRY TODD
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T H E M A S T E R M U S I C I A N S
Titles Available in Paperback
Bach • Malcolm Boyd Musorgsky • David Brown
Bartók • Malcolm Gillies Puccini • Julian Budden
Berlioz • Hugh Macdonald Purcell • J. A. Westrup
Beethoven • Barry Cooper Rachmaninoff • Geoffrey Norris
Brahms • Malcolm MacDonald Rossini • Richard Osborne
Britten • Michael Kennedy Schoenberg • Malcolm MacDonald
Bruckner • Derek Watson Schubert • John Reed
Chopin • Jim Samson Schumann • Eric Frederick Jensen
Grieg • John Horton Sibelius • Robert Layton
Handel • Donald Burrows Richard Strauss • Michael Kennedy
Liszt • Derek Watson Tchaikovsky • Edward Garden
Mahler • Michael Kennedy Vaughan Williams • James Day
Mendelssohn • Philip Radcliffe Verdi • Julian Budden
Monteverdi • Denis Arnold Vivaldi • Michael Talbot
Mozart • Julian Rushton Wagner • Barry Millington
Titles Available in Hardcover
Bach • David Schulenberg Puccini • Julian Budden
Beethoven • Barry Cooper Rossini • Richard Osborne
Byrd • Kerry McCarthy Schoenberg • Malcolm MacDonald
Carter • David Schiff Schubert • John Reed
Chopin • Jim Samson Schumann • Eric Frederick Jensen
Debussy • Eric Frederick Jensen Schültz • Basil Smallman
Elgar • Robert Anderson Richard Strauss • Michael Kennedy
Handel • Donald Burrows Strauss • Laurenz Lütteken
Liszt • Derek Watson Stravinsky • Paul Griffiths
MacDowell • E. Douglas Bomberger Tallis • Kerry McCarthy
Mozart • Julian Rushton Tchaikovsky • Roland John Wiley
Musorgsky • David Brown Verdi • Julian Budden
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T H E M A S T E R M U S I C I A N S
BERG
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BRYAN SIMMS
CHARLOTTE ERWIN
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3
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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© Oxford University Press 2021
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Simms, Bryan R., author. | Erwin, Charlotte Elizabeth, 1948– author.
Title: Berg / Bryan Simms, Charlotte Erwin.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2021. |
Series: Master musicians series |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020027710 (print) | LCCN 2020027711 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190931445 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190931469 (epub) | ISBN 9780190931476
Subjects: LCSH: Berg, Alban, 1885–1935. | Composers—Austria—Biography.
Classification: LCC ML410.B47 S49 2021 (print) | LCC ML410.B47 (ebook) |
DDC 780.92 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027710
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027711
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190931445/ 001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
v

Contents

Preface ix

Abbreviations xiii
Introduction: Music in the Twilight of the Habsburg Empire . . . . 1
1. Two Viennese Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Berg’s Early Life.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Specter of Ill Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Marie Scheuchl Affair.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Nahowski Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Helene Nahowski and Paul Kammerer . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Berg’s Courtship of Helene Nahowski . . . . . . . . . . . .43
2. Berg’s Musical Apprenticeship, 1899– 1911 . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Studies with Schoenberg.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Berg’s Early Songs .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Seven Early Songs (1907)
Four Songs, Op. 2 .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Music for Piano.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Piano Sonata, Op. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
String Quartet, Op. 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
3. A Struggle for Recognition, 1911– 15.. . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Before the War: 1911– 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Berg’s Work for Schoenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
The Scandal Concert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Berg as Writer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
,
Five Orchestral Songs to Picture Postcard Texts by Peter Altenberg
Op. 4 (1912) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5 (1913) . . . . . . 138
Three Orchestra Pieces, Op. 6 (1914– 15) . . . . . . . . . . 140
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vi
vi • Contents
4. The War and Its Aftermath, 1914–20 . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Patriotic Enthusiasm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Berg’s Conscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Superstition and Pseudo- Science.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Postwar Burdens.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
A Change of Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
5. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Wozzeck
Operatic Plans and Uncertainties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
From Play to Libretto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
A Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Wozzeck
The Music of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Wozzeck
on Stage .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Wozzeck
6. International Acclaim, 1923– 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Triumphant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Wozzeck
The Continuing Quest for Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
New Directions in Postwar Music: Neoclassicism
and Dodecaphony.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Chamber Concerto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
7. Secret Programs with Twelve Tones, 1925– 27 . . . . . . . . 255
The Hanna Fuchs Affair.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
A Return to Composing .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
for String Quartet .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Lyric Suite
8. The Celebrated Composer, 1928– 34.. . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Prerogatives of Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Summer Retreats and Family Entanglements . . . . . . . . 295
Flight from Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Berg’s Music and the Nazi Threat . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
A Musical Digression:  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Der Wein
9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Lulu
The Search for Lulu.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Wedekind’s Lulu Plays.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Berg’s Libretto for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Lulu
A Chronology of Composition.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
The Music of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Lulu
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Contents • vii
Prospects for Staging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Symphonic Pieces from the Opera Lulu
10. Berg’s Final Year, 1935 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Berg’s Financial Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Political Turmoil and Austrofascism . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
The Violin Concerto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Berg’s Final Illness.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
11. Helene Berg and the Management of Berg’s Legacy,
1936–7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
The Completion of .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Lulu
Bereavement, Grief, and Helene Berg’s
“Eternal Marriage” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Helene Berg’s Life Under the Nazis, 1938– 45 . . . . . . . . 419
Berg’s Musical Manuscripts and Letters . . . . . . . . . . 424
Toward a Berg Biography.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
The Alban Berg Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Helene Berg’s Last Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Epilogue: Berg the Outsider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Appendix 453

Notes 455

Selected Bibliography 503

Index 505
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ix

Preface
He had a beautiful face, a smiling, almost mocking mouth, great warming
eyes that always looked straight at you. Most of the many photographs
that survive do him small justice: they are always a little stiff, a little too
beautiful, a little posed, never quite as human as he was— they have nei-
ther the twinkle in the eye which we all remember nor the suffering that
we also knew so well.
T
hose who knew Alban Berg often record the same traits
that Hans Heinsheimer did in this recollection.1 Berg was an at-
tractive person, someone who drew people to him and won their lasting
affection. But beneath the courteous, affable and somewhat shy exte-
rior, a complex and restless spirit resided. His student Theodor Adorno
characterized him in a different way—a s a man whose person was the
stuff of his art, his music: “Berg’s empirical existence was subordinate to
the primacy of creative work; he honed himself as its instrument, his store
of life experiences became solely a means of supplying conditions that
would permit him to wrest his oeuvre from his own physical weaknesses
and psychological resistance.”2
This book will portray Alban Berg from both of these perspectives,
man and musician. While the two are intertwined in the careers of all
major composers, they are tied especially tightly together in the case
of Berg, who continued the romantic’s inclination to encode thoughts
about his life— both inner and outer— in musical form. Our study of
Berg’s life is based on contemporary documents and reminiscences of
those who knew him, also on the discoveries about him that are found in
the large scholarly and analytic literature written since his death in 1935.
By using these sources we hope to elucidate the forces that shaped his
personality, career, and artistic outlook. A distinctive feature of the book
will be an assessment of the role of Berg’s wife, Helene Nahowski Berg,
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