Alban Berg

Books about Alban Berg and his music

Douglas Jarman and Richard Wagner Alban Berg: Lulu (Cambridge Opera Handbooks) Cambridge University Press, 1991; ISBN 0521284805; 172 pages This book is the first guide to Berg's second opera, Lulu, written in non-technical language and intended for those students and music lovers wishing to become familiar with one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century music. Jarman presents a clear and concise introduction to the musical language and to the intricate musical and dramatic structure of Berg's opera. The volume also examines the literary background, the genesis, composition, and tortuous posthumous career of the work. The final chapters survey the performance history and suggest a possible interpretation of this complex and challenging composition. An important feature of the book is the inclusion of source documents and critical responses to the opera. Illustrated with photographs from the premiere and from recent productions, the volume also includes a synopsis, bibliography, and discography. Price indication: $ 25.45

Alban Berg Wozzeck (Opera Guide) Calder Publications, 1990; ISBN 0714542016; 116 pages In 1972 Elias Canetti said: 'with Wozzeckm Buchner achieved the most complete revolution in the whole of literature'. The same can be said of Berg's opera, as revolutionary in the history of music in our century as in opera in particular. Mark DeVoto and Theo Hirsbrunner discuss why this infinitely complex and formal score perfectly suits the confused and disordered nature of the play. In his famous essay about the opera (written in 1968, but given here for the first time in English) Theador Adorno shows how what seems fragmentory in the text is actually complete, and how the music responds to the words; Kenneth Segar offers a new interpretation of the play in the light of the most recent Buchner research. Also for the first time, the complete edition of the play as Berg knew it is set out with a translation so that readers can see not only what he kept for his liberetto but also what he omitted. This unique source material is complemented by a series of critical reactions to the first London production in 1952 illustrating the controversy which has surrounded the opera since its 1925 Berlin premiere, and the extent to which our aesthetics have changed over the last forty years. Price indication: $ 8.07

George Perle The Operas of Alban Berg: Wozzeck University of California Press, 1989; ISBN 0520066170; 268 pages Price indication: $ 27.50

Douglas Jarman and Richard Wagner Alban Berg: Wozzeck (Cambridge Opera Handbooks) Cambridge University Press, 1989; ISBN 0521284813; 192 pages Alban Berg's Wozzeck is one of the most significant operas of the twentieth century. Douglas Jarman's study provides a clear and accessible introduction to this work, placing it in the context of the radical developments in musical language during the early decades of the century and of the development of Berg's own musical style. The book covers all aspects of the work. Early chapters are devoted to the history and discovery of the Buchner play Woyzeck on which Berg based the libretto and to the background and composition of the opera. A detailed synopsis takes the reader through the events on stage in relation to the structured musical effects. Particular attention is given in the subsequent chapter to the unique dramatic and musical design of the opera. In offering a possible interpretation of the work Douglas Jarman considers this closely organized structure in relation to the expressionistic language of the music. A final chapter charts the performances of the opera, in particular early productions, which are illustrated with many hitherto unpublished photographs from Berg's own lifetime. An important feature of the book is the inclusion of many important and otherwise unobtainable contemporary documents concerned with the play and the opera, includine Karl Emil Franzos's description of the reconstruction of the fragmented Buchner play and three commentaries by Berg himself on the opera. This comprehensive guide will be invaluable to the student and opera-goer wishing to unravel the musical and dramatic complecities of this important work. Price indication: $ 29.99

Anthony Pople and Julian Rushton Berg: Violin Concerto (Cambridge Music Handbooks) Cambridge University Press, 1991; ISBN 0521399769; 132 pages Described by Aaron Copland as "among the finest creations of the modern repertoire," Berg's Violin Concerto has become a twentieth-century classic. In this authoritative and highly readable guide the reader is introduced not only to the concerto itself but to all that surrounded and determined its composition. The book puts the concerto in its cultural context, provides biographical information on the composers and others associated with the work, gives an accessible guide to the music, and provides scholarly discussion for specialists. The author's ability to combine musical anecdote with scholarly analysis makes this guide compelling reading for amateur and specialist alike. Price indication: $ 17.99

translated and annotated) Grun Bernard (edited ALBAN BERG: LETTERS TO HIS WIFE St. Martin's Press, 1971-01-01 Price indication: $ 12.50

Theodor W. Adorno and Christopher Hailey and Juliane Brand Alban Berg : Master of the Smallest Link Cambridge University Press, 1994; ISBN 0521338840; 176 pages Adorno's study of Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935) is a sui generis document. In addition to Adorno's personal account of of the life and musical works of his mentor, friend, and composition teacher, the book explores the historical and cultural significance of Berg's music, its relationship to that of other nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers, and to the larger issues of contemporary life. Price indication: $ 24.99

Mosco Carner Alban Berg: The Man and the Work Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1983; ISBN 0841908419; 314 pages Price indication: $ 49.95

Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg The Berg-Schoenberg Correspondence: Selected Letters W. W. Norton & Company, 1987-10-01; ISBN 0393336395; 528 pages Few figures have influenced 20th-century music as much as Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. Their letters, one of the most important sources of information about the background to their music, are here published for the first time. The editors have transcribed, translated and annotated more than 800 letters and from this vast body of material have selected 370 that reflect the lives and times of these two great composers. The letters reveal much about the relationship between Berg and Schoenberg: first as pupil and teacher, then as friends and finally, after the premier of Wozzeck, as colleagues and peers. They also shed light on the reasons for Schoenberg's move to Berlin in 1911, the intrigue behind the early demise of the Society for Private Musical Performance, and Schoenberg's feigned indifference to the success of Wozzeck. Schoenberg describes his first years in America and the correspondence ends with Berg's death in 1935. The letters are fully annotated and supplemented with appendices, facsimiles and many photographs. Price indication: $ 22.63

Janet Schmalfeldt Berg's Wozzeck: Harmonic language and dramatic design Yale University Press, 1983; ISBN 0300027109; 272 pages Price indication: $ 269.79

Dave Headlam The Music of Alban Berg (Composers of the Twentieth Century Serie) Yale University Press, 1996; ISBN 0300064004; 472 pages In this sophisticated analysis of the music of Austrian composer Alban Berg, Dave Headlam charts Berg`s development from late-romantic tonality to atonality and finally to his own distinctive dodecaphonic language. In so doing, Headlam defines Berg`s musical language and brings to light the compositional continuity that underlies all of his works. Price indication: $ 60.00

Karen Monson ALBAN BERG Houghton Mifflin, 1979-08-03; ISBN 0395277620; 396 pages Price indication: $ 1.22

Theodor W. Adorno and Alban Berg and Henri Lonitz Correspondence, 1925-1935 Polity Press, 2005; ISBN 0745623352; 168 pages Adorno was 21 years old when he travelled to Vienna in March 1925 to study musical composition with Alban Berg. Twenty years later, Adorno wrote: 'How much of my writing will remain is beyond my knowledge or my control, but there is one claim I wish to stake: that I understand the language of music as the heroes in fairy tales understand the language of birds.' It was no less than the desire to learn to speak this language that drew him to Berg. Adorno already knew what he wanted to compose before he came to Berg and the aim of his stay in Vienna and the following years was to learn to put this knowledge of musical compostition into practice. His correspondence with Berg, who was soon to be world-famous, is partly defined by his engagement with the compositional problems posed for the musical avant-garde by Schönberg's discovery of the twelve-tone technique, for which Adorno was to become an advocate, not least in Vienna and through Berg. This correspondence documents how he wrote numerous essays on Berg, Webern and Schönberg during this time, and tried in vain to establish a platform for the Second Viennese School against 'moderated modernity' in the journal Der Anbruch, where he exerted considerable editorial influence. It also shows how much Adorno - continually admonished by Berg to focus only on his musical composition - strove to reconcile his academic duties and his literary and journalistic work with the constant wish to do nothing more than compose. Price indication: $ 35.95

Douglas Jarman The Music of Alban Berg Univ of California Pr, 1985; ISBN 0520049543; 266 pages Price indication: $ 16.95

George Perle Style and Idea in the Lyric Suite of Alban Berg Pendragon Press, 2001; ISBN 1576470857; 112 pages Price indication: $ 42.00

SIGLIND BRUHN Encrypted Messages in Alban Berg's Music (Border Crossings) Garland, 1998; ISBN 0815324804; 323 pages The 12 new essays in this volume explore the relationship between text and music in Alban Berg's works. The book examines the biographical issues that made such expressive choices attractive to the composer, and explores ways in which works not involving explicit verbal texts create signification, allusion, and reference. Price indication: $ 106.00

Mosco Carner Alban Berg: The Man and the Work Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1983-06; ISBN 0841912564 Price indication: $ 11.77

René, Leibowitz Schoenberg and His School: The Contemporary Stage of the Language of Music (Da Capo Paperback) Da Capo Press, 1975; ISBN 0306800209; 305 pages Price indication: $ 2.75

Douglas Jarman The Berg Companion Northeastern Univ Pr, 1990; ISBN 1555530680; 352 pages Price indication: $ 125.00

H F Redlich Alban Berg. The Man and his Music. London: Calder 1957., 1957-01-01; 316 pages Price indication: $ 12.50

Sheet music, libretti, etc.

Lulu ; Oper in drei Akten von Alban Berg ; nach den Tragodien Erdgeist und Buchse der Pandora ; Vocal Piano - Universal

Works for String Quartet - Dover Publications
<DIV>This impressive volume brings together three major 20th-century chamber works: Berg's <I>String Quartet No. 1, Op. 3</I>; Stravinsky's <I>Three Pieces for String Quartet</I>; and Webern's <I>Five Movements for String Quartet</I>. Reprinted from authoritative sources, these works reflect the influence of Arnold Schoenberg and the musical sea changes of the early decades of the twentieth century. </DIV>