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“Erwartung” was through-composed and none of the motifs were repeated, which meant a complete break with the tradition of opera music. SourceThe work is based on Büchner’s unfinished drama “Woyzeck” from 1837. The literature-loving Berg saw the play in 1914 and decided to set the work to music. The path to this goal was rocky, however. Büchner left behind only a fragment. He was able to complete thirty handwritten scenes (“pictures”) before his early death, without page numbers and unclear stages of development. More than fifty years later, the Austrian writer
Karl Emil Franzos was able to chemically make the now faded sketches readable again and to form a theater piece from them. Berg was fascinated by the person and fate of Woyzeck, whose destiny was based on a real event. The son of a wigmaker stabbed a 46-year-old widow to death in 1780. He probably suffered from schizophrenia. The court was one of the first to order an examination of his insanity. The expert opinion judged him culpable and he was executed in 1824 on the market place of Leipzig. Büchner learned of this incident from a medical journal to which his father had subscribed. Büchner interweaves further stories of other bizarre cases from the Journal into the drama. Biographical parallelsIn
this work about a soldier who murdered the mother of his illegitimate child out of jealousy and insanity, there are some surprising biographical parallels to Berg’s life. The Music I – the musical formsThe music and drama of this opera are highly structured. Each act has 5 scenes, which are arranged thematically. The Music II – the OrchestraThe forms described above are barely audible to the listener, the musical arrangement is too complex and a comprehension is only possible by using the score and with some expertise. The Music III – “Don’t sing at all!”Berg wanted to bring Büchner’s dialogues to the stage with high quality acting, so he refrained from using sung forms such as arias. Berg had a clear idea of how the singers should sing: “No singing! But nevertheless, the pitch must be indicated and recorded in the singing pitch (exactly after the notes); the latter, however, with speech resonance”. This corresponded to the use of the speaking voice as in Schönberg’s Pierrot-Lunaire ten years earlier, a technique between singing and speaking. The playwright Berg – his influence on HitchcockBüchner’s dialogues were largely everyday dialogues and not very inspiring for soulful opera. For Berg this was no obstacle – on the contrary, Berg was a dramatist and he developed an unheard-of wealth of tonal language. The famous composer Bernard Herrmann, known for his film music for Hitchcock, was an avowed Berg fan. The famous scene of the murder in the shower with the dissonant high cries of the violins in “Psycho” was inspired by Berg’s music and became one of the greatest moments in film history. You can hear the screaming violins in the sound sample of the first picture of the first act. ReviewIt took a full 11 years from Berg’s first stage experience of Wozzeck in 1914 to the premiere. The General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera, Erich Kleiber, championed the work and conducted it himself at the premiere. Some experts considered the
work unperformable. In order to do justice to the complexity and novelty of the work, Kleiber arranged for 137 rehearsals. WOZZECK ACT ILeitmotifs
Without overture, only with a swirl in the drums, which is supposed to represent the military, the singing voice immediately begins in the 5th bar. The piece is written in the form of a suite (prelude, pavane, cadenza, gigue, cadenza, gavotte double I/II, air, prelude in crabwalk). We soon hear the first leitmotif of the opera, it is the sequence of notes we hear repeatedly in Wozzeck’s “Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann” (“Yes, Captain”). We hear Hitchcock’s cries of the violin in the recording below in the passage starting at 3:30. One of the most important leitmotifs we encounter in Wozzeck’s “Wie arme Leut!” (“We poor people!”) It is surprisingly a C major triad. Berg wrote about it: “how could one make the objectivity of the money we are talking about more obvious!” The leitmotif appears again and again. The role of the loquacious and simply minded captain is written in the voice fach of a tenor buffo, which expresses the caricature-like nature of the superior (see also above in the section “Biographical Information”). Langsam, Wozzeck, langsam! (Slowly, Wozzeck, slowly! One by one!) – Grundheber
This piece is a rhapsody over three chords and a three-trophic hunter’s song. Berg has assigned an instrument to each figure, Wozzeck is accompanied by the trombone, which corresponds to his baritone’s pitch. The piece fades away with Austrian military signals from afar, which Berg had internalized during his years of service. Du, der Platz ist verflucht! (You, the place is cursed!) – Berry / Weikenmeier Marie and their illegitimate child
The piece begins with a march that sounds in the distance. The conversation between Marie and Margarethe is purely spoken theater, Berg has not written down any notes. This is followed by a lullaby, which, although written in the classic 6/8 time, does not meet expectations due to its rapid tempo. No wonder the child cannot fall asleep with the mother’s inner turmoil. Before Wozzeck arrives, the two find some peace, which Berg composed with the dreamlike sounds of the celesta. Tschin Bum, Tschin Bum – Grundheber / Behrens The manic doctor
Berg wrote a Passacaglia based on a classical twelve-tone theme and varied it 21 times. With this merciless repetition, he shows the doctor as maniacally driven. Was erleb’ ich, Wozzeck? (What do I experience, Wozzeck?)
WOZZECK ACT IIThe second act follows the structure of a symphony: 1: Sonata, 2: Fantasy/Fugue, 3: Largo, 4: Scherzo, 5: Rondo.
Was die Steine glänzen? (What the stones shine?) – Behrens / Grundheber
Berg wrote unusual performance indications in the score several times. With the Hauptmann, he repeatedly wrote “snapping voice” or “nasal voice” and with the Doktor even “like a donkey”. Wohin so eilig, geehrtester Herr Sargnagel? (Where is the hurry, dearest Mr. Sargnagel?) – Dönch / Berry Marie’s dispute with Wozzeck
This scene is a homage to Schönberg, the instrumentation corresponds to Schönberg’s Chamber Symphony op. 9. According to Berg’s instructions, the 15 musicians leave the orchestra pit and position themselves on the stage in a geometric form. Guten Tag, Franz (Good day, Franz) – Berry / Strauss The tavern scene
The piece begins with a ländler played in tonal music. After the song of the craftsman, the piece turns into a waltz written in free tonality. It continues with a hunter’s choir, which reminds of the Freischütz (possibly a deliberate reminiscence of the lifetime of Woyzeck, who committed the murder at the time of the Freischütz’ creation). The forms of the scherzo and the ländler return. The plot and the music increasingly turn into a nightmare scene. Ich hab’ ein Hemdlein an, das ist nicht mein (I’ve got a shirt on, that’s not mine) – Abbado In Wozzeck the idea of revenge arises
A ghastly short ghost choir introduces the piece conceived as “Rondo martiale con Introduzione”. Visions plague Wozzeck and the ghost choir returns. The orchestra crackles, cracks and rings as the drum major makes his mischief. Andres! Andres! ich kann nicht schlafen (Andres! I can not sleep) – Berry / Uhl WOZZECK ACT IIIBerg describes each of the five pictures of this act as an invention. Each picture describes the obsession of a person, be it Marie’s feelings of guilt, Wozzeck’s murder, the bloody hands or the frenetic search for the knife. Marie’s feelings of guilt
Right at the beginning we hear the theme, which Berg uses as a basis for 7 variations and a fugue. Und ist kein Betrug in seinem Munde erfunden worden (And no deceit has been invented in his mouth) – Lear The murder
Berg wrote an invention about the tone H, which is omnipresent. The piece begins quietly, threateningly, one hears the violin’s soft cries announcing the disaster. Wozzeck is quiet before the act, but threatens Marie blatantly (“He who is cold does not freeze any more! You will not freeze with the morning dew”). The moon rises pale over the scene. It is the music before the murder. Margarethe dies with a piercing scream and terrible chords sound in the orchestra. The passage ends with a tremendous crescendo. Dort links geht’s in die Stadt (There on the left is the city) – Berry / Strauss The second tavern scene
The piece begins with a polka played on an out-of-tune piano. Later, an inn orchestra with fiddles, accordion and the heavy sounds of a bombardon (a kind of tuba) is heard. Tanzt Alle; tanzt nur zu, springt, schwitzt und stinkt (Dances All; just dance, jump, sweat and stink) – Berry / Lasser Wozzeck returns to the pond
Berg describes this piece as an “invention about a sixth-chord”. The underlying notes comprise b, c, e, g sharp, e flat, f. Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer? (The knife? Where is the knife?) – Berry The interludeThe following interlude is written more or less tonally in the key of D minor. Once again, many of the opera’s motifs are audible and the interlude ends with a twelve-tone chord that was heard at Marie’s death. Entracte
The opera ends with an invention about an eighth note movement. Ringel, Ringel, Rosenkranz, Ringelreih’n! Recording RecommendationSONY, with Walter Berry, Isabel Strauss, Fritz Uhl, Carl Doench conducted by Pierre Boulez and the Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera de Paris Peter Lutz, opera-inside, the online opera guide on “WOZZECK ” by Alban Berg. 18. October 2020/ Which of the following are the three distinct levels of music Ives used in his famous work The Unanswered Question which are not?Now let's hear The Unanswered Question, written in 1908 and later revised. Ives described this piece as a “cosmic landscape.” As you listen, pay attention to three distinct and independent musical layers: the strings, the trumpet and the woodwinds.
What about Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck can be called Wagnerian quizlet?Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck can generally be thought of as: Wagnerian in its dependence on musical continuity carried by the orchestra.
Which describes the instrumentation of Pierrot Lunaire?Its instrumentation – flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano with standard doublings and in this case with the addition of a vocalist – is an important ensemble in 20th- and 21st-century classical music and is referred to as a Pierrot ensemble.
Which of the following Expressionists composed the opera Wozzeck?Wozzeck, opera in three acts by Austrian composer Alban Berg, who also wrote its German libretto, deriving the story from the unfinished play Woyzeck (the discrepancy in spelling was the result of a misreading of the manuscript) by Georg Büchner. The opera premiered in Berlin on December 14, 1925.
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