29 Facts About Alban Berg

Alban Berg 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.

Alban Berg is said to have brought more "human values" to the twelve-tone system; his works are seen as more "emotional" than those of Schoenberg.

Alban Berg's music had a surface glamour that won him admirers when Schoenberg himself had few.

Alban Berg wrote in a typically freewheeling manner to share his reading of Ibsen's A Doll's House with Watznauer on October 18,1906, here quoting from Ernst's Meersymphonie in relating music to dreams, fantasies, feelings, and desires, especially those of a counterfactual and universal nature.

Alban Berg was born in Vienna, the third of four children of Johanna and Konrad Alban Berg.

Alban Berg's father ran a successful export business, and the family owned several estates in Vienna and the countryside.

Alban Berg wrote him letters as long as thirty pages, often in florid, dramatic prose with idiosyncratic punctuation.

Alban Berg was more interested in literature than music as a child and would consider a career as a writer several times, turning to music slowly and at times unconfidently until the success of Wozzeck.

Alban Berg did not begin to compose until he was fifteen, when he started to teach himself music, although he did take piano lessons from his sister's governess.

In 1906 Alban Berg met the singer Helene Nahowski, daughter of a wealthy family.

Alban Berg wrote songs, including his Seven Early Songs, three of which were Berg's first publicly performed work in a concert that featured the music of Schoenberg's pupils in Vienna that year.

Alban Berg was a part of Vienna's cultural elite during the heady fin de siecle period.

Alban Berg's circle included the musicians Alexander von Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker, the painter Gustav Klimt, the writer and satirist Karl Kraus, the architect Adolf Loos, and the poet Peter Altenberg.

Alban Berg effectively withdrew the work, and it was not performed in full until 1952.

Alban Berg had a particular interest in the number 23, using it to structure several works.

From 1915 to 1918 Alban Berg served in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Alban Berg helped Schoenberg run his Society for Private Musical Performances, which sought to create the ideal environment for the exploration and appreciation of unfamiliar new music by means of open rehearsals, repeat performances, and the exclusion of professional critics.

The opera, which Alban Berg completed in 1922, was first performed on 14 December 1925, when Erich Kleiber conducted the first performance in Berlin.

Alban Berg made a start on his second opera, the three-act Lulu, in 1928 but interrupted the work in 1929 for the concert aria Der Wein which he completed that summer.

Alban Berg found that opportunities for his work to be performed in Germany were becoming rare, and eventually his music was proscribed and placed on the list of degenerate music.

Alban Berg had interrupted the orchestration of Lulu because of an unexpected commission from the Russian-American violinist Louis Krasner for a Violin Concerto.

Alban Berg died aged 50 in Vienna, on Christmas Eve 1935, from blood poisoning apparently caused by a furuncle on his back, induced by an insect sting that occurred in November.

Alban Berg was buried at the Hietzing Cemetery in Vienna.

For personal reasons Helene Alban Berg subsequently imposed a ban on any attempt to "complete" the final act, which Alban Berg had in fact completed in short score.

Alban Berg is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century and the most widely performed opera composer among the Second Viennese School.

Alban Berg is said to have brought more "human values" to the twelve-tone system, his works seen as more "emotional" than Schoenberg's.

The Alban Berg Foundation, founded by the composer's widow in 1969, cultivates the memory and works of the composer, and awards scholarships.

The Alban Berg Monument, situated next to the Vienna State Opera and unveiled in 2016, was funded by the Foundation.

The Alban Berg Quartett was a string quartet named after him, active from 1971 until 2008.