Alban Berg is one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century music by virtue of his association with the establishment of Schoenberg's twelve-note method of composition. It is, however, the emotional content of such works as the Violin Concerto which has awoken a ready response in his listeners and has caused him to be considered the most approachable of those who composed under Schoenberg's influence. This volume of essays had its origins in an international conference on his life and music held in 1985, the centenary of his birth, at the University of Chicago. The list of contributors, which extends beyond those who spoke at the conference, embraces a substantial number of leading American and British scholars.
Berg's life and cultural environment, Douglas Jarman; "Man hat auch nur
Fleisch und Blut" - Towards a Berg biography, J.Peter Burkholder; Berg and
the possibility of popularity - Berg's style and technique, Mark DeVoto;
creeping chromaticism in Berg, Janet Schmalfeldt; Berg's path to atonality -
the Piano Sonata, Op 1, Robert P. organ; the eternal return - Berg's
retrogrades, Allen Forte; the mask of tonality - Berg's Symphonic Interlude
in Wozzeck, Allen Forte; Douglass Green, a false start for Lulu - an early
version of the prologue; Claudio Spies, some notes on the completion of Lulu;
Patricia Hall, role and form in Berg's sketches for Lulu; Leo Treitler, the
character of Lulu.
