Although Berg decided immediately after seeing Buchner's play Woyzeck in May 1914 to set it to music, he did not complete his opera until 1922, with the Berlin premiere taking place in 1925. Berg's Wozzeck traces the composer's slow but determined progress. Using compositional sketches, diaries, notebooks and other archival material, author Patricia Hall reveals the challenges Berg faced--from his induction as a soldier in World War I, to the hyper-inflation of the twenties. In addition to the precise chronology of the opera, the sketches show how Berg derived large-scale form from the Buchner text, and how his compositional style evolved during the nine years in which he composed the opera. A comprehensive visual database on the book's companion website of the extant sketches from seven archives in the United States, Germany and Austria allows the reader to examine, for the first time, Berg's sketches in high resolution color scans.

About the Author
Patricia Hall is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include A View of Berg's 'Lulu' Through the Autograph Sources (1996, winner of the ASCAP Deems-Taylor Award), and A Handbook to Twentieth-Century Musical Sketches (2004, co-edited with Friedemann Sallis). She is the editor and founder of the electronic journal Music and Politics.

Reviews
this study of the Wozzeck sketches will be an invaluable research resource for many years to come and should be on the shelves of every self-respecting university music library and in the library of every scholar interested in Bergs opera. * Nick Chadwick, Music and Letters *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195342611
Author Patricia Hall
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 436g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 170mm * 22mm