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Berg's Sketches for Wozzeck: A Commentary and Inventory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

David Fanning
David Fanning*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Extract

In 1975 the Wozzeck sketches were examined and commented on by Ernst Hilmar, having been made available to him by the composer's widow. Subsequently they were catalogued, along with all the manuscripts in the Berg legacy, by Rosemary Hilmar. It might appear surprising, then, that neither George Perle nor Janet Schmalfeldt makes more than passing mention of them in their important recent studies. In a sense the omission is not unduly sinful – not surprisingly, the majority of the sketches show Berg at work on constructional features of the opera which are already well known, and there is no evidence of hitherto undiscovered esoteric planning.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 112 , Issue 2 , 1987 , pp. 280 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 Ernst Hilmar, Wozzeck von Alban Berg (Vienna, 1975) In connection with the sketches the two most important chapters are ‘Die Komposition der Oper Versuch einer Zeitfolge’ (henceforth EHKom) and ‘Bemerkungen zu den Kompositionsskizzen’ (henceforth EHBem) With the exception of two pages in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, all known Wozzeck sketches are in the Musiksammlung of the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna Sketches referred to by Ernst Hilmar (p 103, n 103) in the Collection Meyer, Paris, apparently do not exist (I am grateful to Dr Peter Petersen, Hamburg, for this information)Google Scholar

2 Katalog der Musikhandschriften, Schriften und Studien Alban Bergs im Fond Alban Berg und der weiteren handschriftlichen Quellen im Besitz der Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, i, ed Rosemary Hilmar (Vienna, 1980), Alban Berg-Studien, ed Franz Grasberger and Rudolf Stephan, i Veroffentlichung der Alban Berg Stiftung, henceforth RHKatGoogle Scholar

3 George Perle, The Operas of Alban Berg, i Wozzeck (Berkeley, 1980)Google Scholar

4 Janet Schmalfeldt, Berg’s Wozzeck Harmonic Language and Dramatic Design (New Haven, 1983)Google Scholar

5 With respect to the identification and interpretation of musical contents it may seem that the present study leaves little intact of EHBem or, especially, RHKat However, it should be remembered that both studies were prepared in a relatively short space of time and as part of very much larger projects Their pioneering efforts should not go unrecognizedGoogle Scholar

6 It may be recalled that the composition of Wozzeck extended over a period of more than seven years, from the earliest sketches in mid-1914 to the completion of the last scene in short score in October 1921 In so far as Berg’s unpublished letters assist in dating the sketches, I am indebted to EHKomGoogle Scholar

7 Appendix 3 also shows that Act 1, scene iv is the only large section of the work for which no sketch material is known, although it is probable that additional sketches also once existed for Act 1, scene iiGoogle Scholar

8 First published in Musikblatter des Anbruch, 6 (1924), 329-41 Translated as ‘Why is Schönberg’s Music so Hard to Understand?’ in Music Review, 13 (1952), 187-96Google Scholar

9 In general such designations, and details of the formal outline of the opera as shown in Appendix 3, will follow those in Perle, The Operas of Alban Berg, i, 44-88Google Scholar

10 As in Item 22 and (remarkably) Item 260 (sec Appendix 1) Several sketches referred to in EHBem including one shown in facsimile (ibid, 75) are no longer to be found among the catalogued Wozzech materialsGoogle Scholar

11 Few. if any of the paginations in the Wozzeck sketches are the composer’s own (see below, p 287 and Appendix 1, Item 9)Google Scholar

12 See Item 18. F 21 Berg 13/VI. f 2Google Scholar

13 The process of derivation may be seen at its clearest in Berlin, Item 2, since the derived pitches are more definitive in this version than in Vienna, Item I, it may be that the former was merely a neat copy or aide-mémoireGoogle Scholar

14 See EHBem, 33Google Scholar

15 The Operas of Alban Berg, i, 171-3 The sketch throws no light on the discrepancy noted by Schmalfeldt (Berg’s Wozzeck, 252)Google Scholar

16 Original sources are reproduced by kind permission of the Musiksammlung of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, ViennaGoogle Scholar

17 This assumes that the folio currently numbered I. recto and verso, should be the last in the item.Google Scholar

18 See Appendix. 1, Item 9.Google Scholar

19 Compare Item 18. f. 4v with the facsimile in Ernst Hilmar. Wozzeck ron Alban Berg, 74.Google Scholar

20 EHBem. 33.Google Scholar

21 This seems to have happened in Berg’s lifetime, since there is a draft of a letter on pp 14 and 15 which appears to be continuous over the breakGoogle Scholar

22 See, for instance, bars 83, 86, 91ff in that sceneGoogle Scholar

23 See ‘Bergs “Wozzeck”-Vortrag von 1929’ in Hans Redlich, Alban Berg Versuch einer Wurdigung (Vienna, 1957). 324, translated as ‘Berg’s Lecture on “Wozzeck” (1929)’ in Hans Redlich, Alban Berg The Man and his Music (London, 1957), 280Google Scholar

24 ‘Bergs “Wozzeck”-Vortrag’ and Perle, The Operas of Alban Berg, i, 93-117Google Scholar

25 Number 10 in Perle’s list (The Operas of Alban Berg, i, 106)Google Scholar

26 Not listed by Perle Neither this nor the original ‘Gehetzte’ motif is, as Ernst Hilmar suggests (EHBem, 34), a rejected ideaGoogle Scholar

27 Ernst Hilmar reads ‘Das Fatalische’ (EHBem, 34)Google Scholar

28 EHKom, 22-3Google Scholar

29 Ibid, 22Google Scholar

30 Ibid, 23Google Scholar

31 IbidGoogle Scholar

32 IbidGoogle Scholar

33 Ibid, 24-5Google Scholar

34 Alban Berg, Briefe an seine Frau (Munich, 1965), 461, translated as Letters to his Wife (London, 1971), 280Google Scholar

35 ‘Der II Akt ist fertig, der III zu ein Viertel nur’ (EHKom, 25-6)Google Scholar

36 Berg, Briefe an seine Frau, 376, Letters to his Wife, 229Google Scholar

37 EHBem, 33-4Google Scholar

38 The incorrect dating of Item 1 is repeated in the catalogue of the Berg centenary exhibition, Alban Berg Katalog zur Ausstellung (Vienna, 1985), 79Google Scholar

39 Perle, The Operas of Alban Berg, i, 169-71 I have been unable to decipher Berg’s designation here It reads, ‘W[ozzeck] Es moll der I(?)—gn(?)ierte’ (see Figure 4)Google Scholar

40 Item 2, F 21 Berg 13/II, p 90, also Item 7, F 21 Berg 70/I, f 9Google Scholar

41 Item 12, F 21 Berg 13/X, f 4Google Scholar

42 Item 13, F 21 Berg 13/XI, f 3Google Scholar

43 Item 13, fvGoogle Scholar

44 Item 19, F 21 Berg 13/V, f 1Google Scholar

45 Not shown in Ernst Hilmar’s transcription (EHBem, 38)Google Scholar

46 Item 2, F 21 Berg 13/II, p 55 - see Example 7Google Scholar

47 Item 2, pp 50-5, 58Google Scholar

48 For instance, the first five bars of this piece.Google Scholar

49 Letter to Webern of 19 July 1918 (quoted in EHKom, 21)Google Scholar

50 I am grateful to Dr Douglas Jarman for the identification of this sketchGoogle Scholar