Second Viennese School : Alban Berg and Anton Webern

• There were many other composers in the group, but Schoenberg, Webern and Berg are the main ones.

· Each developed a very personal style, very different from each other. Generally, Berg used Schoenberg’s more conservative aspects as point of departure; Webern used more radical aspects.

· Alban Berg (1885-1935): Became Schoenberg’s pupil in 1905, early works are late romantic

· shared Schoenberg’s interest in counterpoint; pieces have very linear style

· made rich use of tone color

· works tend to be very lyrical despite their dissonance

· never completely gave up tonality, although it was used more for effect than functionally in his works

· Best known work is the expressionist opera Wozzeck (1921)

· Based on the play Woyzeck by Georg Büchner (1813-37), based on true story

· Uses Leitmotives and Sprechstimme

· Draws from ideas behind Wunderhorn texts: folk character and deliberately folk-like music Berg composed for certain parts of the opera

· Wozzeck is expressionist, but also socially relevant: Berg comments on sad state of downtrodden people, and the dark, nightmarish place into which circumstances push them

· Anton Webern (1883-1945). Of the three main Second Viennese School composers, Webern made most complete break with tonality.

· His style is very economical: every thought stated as simply as possible, then varied but never repeated.

· He used very soft dynamics, and most works are very short

· He seldom used large ensembles, but sometimes unusual combinations

· He liked to use instruments in extreme registers

· He sometimes wrote melodies with each note in different instrument or Pointillist: each note is a miniature pinpoint of sound. In these passages, color is at least as important as pitch, a different kind of Klangfarbenmelodie

· Example: Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10 (1911-13)

· extremely short, no repetition of ideas

· sounds very abstract, but some allusion to nature in 3rd piece: suggests cowbell