Alban Berg and His World
An incisive new look at the pivotal modernist composer

Alban Berg and His World is a collection of essays and source material that repositions Berg as the pivotal figure of Viennese musical modernism. His allegiance to the austere rigor of Arnold Schoenberg's musical revolution was balanced by a lifelong devotion to the warm sensuousness of Viennese musical tradition and a love of lyric utterance, the emotional intensity of opera, and the expressive nuance of late-Romantic tonal practice.

The essays in this collection explore the specific qualities of Berg's brand of musical modernism, and present newly translated letters and documents that illuminate his relationship to the politics and culture of his era. Of particular significance are the first translations of Berg's newly discovered stage work Night (Nocturne), Hermann Watznauer's intimate account of Berg's early years, and the famous memorial issue of the music periodical 23. Contributors consider Berg's fascination with palindromes and mirror images and their relationship to notions of time and identity; the Viennese roots of his distinctive orchestral style; his links to such Viennese contemporaries as Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and his attempts to maneuver through the perilous shoals of gender, race, and fascist politics.

The contributors are Antony Beaumont, Leon Botstein, Regina Busch, Nicholas Chadwick, Mark DeVoto, Douglas Jarman, Sherry Lee, and Margaret Notley.

1100318520
Alban Berg and His World
An incisive new look at the pivotal modernist composer

Alban Berg and His World is a collection of essays and source material that repositions Berg as the pivotal figure of Viennese musical modernism. His allegiance to the austere rigor of Arnold Schoenberg's musical revolution was balanced by a lifelong devotion to the warm sensuousness of Viennese musical tradition and a love of lyric utterance, the emotional intensity of opera, and the expressive nuance of late-Romantic tonal practice.

The essays in this collection explore the specific qualities of Berg's brand of musical modernism, and present newly translated letters and documents that illuminate his relationship to the politics and culture of his era. Of particular significance are the first translations of Berg's newly discovered stage work Night (Nocturne), Hermann Watznauer's intimate account of Berg's early years, and the famous memorial issue of the music periodical 23. Contributors consider Berg's fascination with palindromes and mirror images and their relationship to notions of time and identity; the Viennese roots of his distinctive orchestral style; his links to such Viennese contemporaries as Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and his attempts to maneuver through the perilous shoals of gender, race, and fascist politics.

The contributors are Antony Beaumont, Leon Botstein, Regina Busch, Nicholas Chadwick, Mark DeVoto, Douglas Jarman, Sherry Lee, and Margaret Notley.

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Alban Berg and His World

Alban Berg and His World

by Christopher Hailey (Editor)
Alban Berg and His World

Alban Berg and His World

by Christopher Hailey (Editor)

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Overview

An incisive new look at the pivotal modernist composer

Alban Berg and His World is a collection of essays and source material that repositions Berg as the pivotal figure of Viennese musical modernism. His allegiance to the austere rigor of Arnold Schoenberg's musical revolution was balanced by a lifelong devotion to the warm sensuousness of Viennese musical tradition and a love of lyric utterance, the emotional intensity of opera, and the expressive nuance of late-Romantic tonal practice.

The essays in this collection explore the specific qualities of Berg's brand of musical modernism, and present newly translated letters and documents that illuminate his relationship to the politics and culture of his era. Of particular significance are the first translations of Berg's newly discovered stage work Night (Nocturne), Hermann Watznauer's intimate account of Berg's early years, and the famous memorial issue of the music periodical 23. Contributors consider Berg's fascination with palindromes and mirror images and their relationship to notions of time and identity; the Viennese roots of his distinctive orchestral style; his links to such Viennese contemporaries as Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and his attempts to maneuver through the perilous shoals of gender, race, and fascist politics.

The contributors are Antony Beaumont, Leon Botstein, Regina Busch, Nicholas Chadwick, Mark DeVoto, Douglas Jarman, Sherry Lee, and Margaret Notley.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691148564
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 08/29/2010
Series: The Bard Music Festival , #24
Pages: 392
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Christopher Hailey is the author of a biography of Franz Schreker and an editor of the German and English editions of the Berg/Schoenberg correspondence. He has published editions of scores by Berg and Schreker and is a cotranslator of Theodor Adorno's biography of Berg.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments xi

Permissions and Credits xv

Berg's Worlds Christopher Hailey 3

Hermann Watznauer's Biography of Alban Berg Nick Chadwick 33

A Descriptive Overview of Berg's Night/Nocturne Regina Busch Christopher Hailey 91

Berg and the Orchestra Antony Beaumont 133

"...deinen Wuchs wie Musik": Portraits, Identities, and the Dynamics of Seeing in Berg's Operatic Sphere Sherry D. Lee 163

"Remembrance of things that are to come": Some Reflections on Berg's Palindromes Douglas Jarman 195

1934, Alban Berg, and the Shadow of Politics: Documents of a Troubled Year Margaret Notley 223

Alban Berg zum Gedenken: The Berg Memorial Issue of 23: A Viennese Music Journal Mark Devoto 269

Alban Berg and the Memory of Modernism Leon Botstein 299

Index 345

Notes on the Contributors 359

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