Theodor W. Adorno

Alban Berg

Adorno was twenty-one years old when he traveled to Vienna in March 1925 to study musical composition with Alban Berg. Twenty years later, Adorno wrote: "how much of my writing will remain is beyond my knowledge or my control, but there is one claim I wish to stake: that I understand the language of birds," It was no less than the desire to learn to speak this language that drew him to Berg. Adorno already knew what he wanted to drew to compose before he went to Berg, and the aim of his stay in Vienna and the following years was to learn to put this knowledge of musical composition into practice. His correspondence with Berg, who was soon to be world famous, is partly defined by his engagement with the compositional problems posed for the musical avant-garde by Schoenberg?s discovery of the twelve-tone technique, for which Adorno was to become an advocate, not least in Vienna and through Berg. This correspondence documents how he wrote numerous essays on Berg, Webern and Schoenberg during this time, and tried in vain to establish a platform for the Second Viennese School against "moderated modernity" in the journal Anbruch, where he exerted considerable editorial influence. It also shows how much Adorno ? continually admonished by Berg to focus only on his musical composition ? strove to reconcile his academic duties and his literary and journalistic work with the constant which to do nothing more than compose.

Correspondence 1925-1935

Libretto in German and English

Lulu

Adorno was twenty-one years old when he traveled to Vienna in March 1925 to study musical composition with Alban Berg. Twenty years later, Adorno wrote: "how much of my writing will remain is beyond my knowledge or my control, but there is one claim I wish to stake: that I understand the language of birds," It was no less than the desire to learn to speak this language that drew him to Berg. Adorno already knew what he wanted to drew to compose before he went to Berg, and the aim of his stay in Vienna and the following years was to learn to put this knowledge of musical composition into practice. His correspondence with Berg, who was soon to be world famous, is partly defined by his engagement with the compositional problems posed for the musical avant-garde by Schoenberg’s discovery of the twelve-tone technique, for which Adorno was to become an advocate, not least in Vienna and through Berg. This correspondence documents how he wrote numerous essays on Berg, Webern and Schoenberg during this time, and tried in vain to establish a platform for the Second Viennese School against "moderated modernity" in the journal Anbruch, where he exerted considerable editorial influence. It also shows how much Adorno – continually admonished by Berg to focus only on his musical composition – strove to reconcile his academic duties and his literary and journalistic work with the constant which to do nothing more than compose.

Pro Mundo - Pro Domo: The Writings of Alban Berg contains new English translations of the complete writings of the Viennese composer Alban Berg (1885-1935) and extensive commentaries tracing the history of each essay and its connection to musical culture of the early twentieth century. Berg is now recognized as a classic composer of the modern period, best known for his operas Wozzeck and Lulu. Berg, Anton Webern, and their teacher Arnold Schoenberg constitute the "Second Viennese School" which played a major role in the transformation of serious music as it entered the modern period. Berg was an avid and skillful writer. His essays include analytic studies of compositions by Schoenberg, polemics on music and musicians of his day, and lectures and miscellaneous writings on a variety of topics. Throughout his considerable and diverse corpus of writings, Berg alternates between two perspectives: Pro Mundo - Pro Domo, meaning roughly "speaking for all - speaking for myself" commenting at one moment on the general state of culture and the world, and the next moment on his own works. In his early years he also tried his hand at fictional writing, using works by Ibsen and Strindberg as models. This new English edition contains 47 essays, many of which are little known and have not been previously available in English.

The Writings of Alban Berg

Pro Mundo - Pro Domo

According to Elias Canetti, &quote;with Wozzeck, Buechner achieved the most complete revolution in the whole of literature&quote;. The same can be said of Berg's opera, as revolutionary in the history of music. Mark DeVoto and Theo Hirsrunner discuss why this complex score suits the chaotic nature of the play. In his famous essay about the opera, Theodor Adorno shows how what seems fragmentary in the text is actually complete. Kenneth Segar offers a new interpretation of the play in the light of the most recent Buechner research. The play as Berg knew it is set out with a translation, and this unique source material is complemented by a series of critical reactions to the first London production in 1952.Contents: 'Wozzeck' in Context, Mark DeVoto; Georg Buechner's 'Woyzeck': an Interpretation, Kenneth; The Musico-Dramatic Structure of 'Wozzeck'; Musical Form and Dramatic Expression in 'Wozzeck', Theo Hirsbrunner; On the Characteristics of 'Wozzeck', Theodor W. Adorno; 'Wozzeck' at Covent Garden, 1952, John Amis, Eric Walter White, Arthur Jacobs, William Mann, Joan Chissell, Geoffrey Bush, Deryck Cooke, Robert L. Jacobs; Wozzeck: Libretto by Georg Buechner, edited by Franzos and Landau, 1909; Wozzeck: Performing translation by Vida Harford and Eric Blackall; Additional material fiom Buechner translated by Stewart Spencer

Wozzeck

Jens Peter Jacobsen

Arnold Schoenberg

This ambitious work by one of the 20th century's great musical innovators calls for five solo voices, a speaker, three male choruses, and an eight-part mixed chorus. Schoenberg based his monumental achievement on a German translation of a poem by the Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen. This comprehensive edition features the original text of Songs of Gurre, as well as a German singing translation and a new English translation.

Alban Berg

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