Bio of composer alban berg
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Alban Berg
Austrian composer (1885–1935)
Alban Maria Johannes Berg (BAIRG,[1]German:[ˈalbaːnˈbɛʁk]; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively small oeuvre, he is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century for his expressive style encompassing "entire worlds of emotion and structure".
Berg was born and lived in Vienna. He began to compose at the age of fifteen. He studied counterpoint, music theory and harmony with Arnold Schoenberg between 1904 and 1911, and adopted his principles of developing variation and the twelve-tone technique. Berg's major works include the operas Wozzeck (1924) and Lulu (1935, finished posthumously), the chamber pieces Lyric Suite and Chamber Concerto, as well as a Violin Concerto. He also composed a number of songs (lieder). He is
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Alban Berg
9.2.1885 – born in Vienna as the son of the book-seller Conrad Berg and his wife Johanna, née Braun.
1900 – his father dies on 30th March. Begins to compose songs. His life-long asthma bekymmer starts.
1903 – Berg failed the Matura and falls into nedstämdhet. In September he even considered commiting suicide.
1904 – Berg passes the Matura and starts a practical training in accounting in the "Statthalterei" in Lower Austria. Simultaneously, he attends lectures in law and musicology. He takes private lessons with Arnold Schönberg which are even free of charge until 1906 because of his precarious financial situation. Acquaintance with Webern.
1905 – attends a performance of Frank Wedekind’s Pandora’s Boxdirected by Karl Kraus.
1906 – thanks to a heritage he fryst vatten in a position to give up his hateful office job. Acquaintance with Nahowski.
1907 – on 7th November first public performance of three Songs and Fugue for string quartet and piano.
• Read on for our introduction to the life and work of the composer Alban Berg (1885-1935), one of the leading lights of the Second Viennese School. One of the great triumvirate of composers of the Second Viennese School – along with his teacher Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern – Alban Berg’s compositional style moved from rich Romanticism to atonalism and, eventually, 12-tone serialism. Even in later composition, however, he retained elements of Romanticism in his writing, giving it a more humane feel than that of his colleagues. Two of his operas – Wozzeck (1925) and Lulu (left incomplete at his death in 1935) – are regularly performed today, as is his Violin Concerto (1935), one of the modern masterpieces for the instrument, and his Lyric Suite (1926) for string quartet. A deeply suspicious man, much of his music is full of cleverly concealed symbolism – not least revolving Alban Berg: from lush Romanticism to the wilder shores of Serialism
Who was Alban Berg?