Wozzeck Excerpts

''Wozzeck'' () is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. Composed between 1914 and 1922, it premiered in 1925. It is based on the drama ''Woyzeck'', which German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's play on 5 May 1914, and knew at once that he wanted to base an opera on it. (At the time, the play was still known as ''Wozzeck'', due to an incorrect transcription by Karl Emil Franzos, who was working from a barely-legible manuscript; the correct title would not emerge until 1921.) From the fragments of unordered scenes left by Büchner, Berg selected 15 to form a compact structure of three acts with five scenes each. He adapted the libretto himself, retaining "the essential character of the play, with its many short scenes, its abrupt and sometimes brutal language, and its stark, if haunted, realism".

The plot depicts the everyday lives of soldiers and the townspeople of a rural German-speaking town. Prominent themes of militarism, callousness, social exploitation, and casual sadism are brutally and uncompromisingly presented. Toward the end of act 1, scene 2, the title character (Wozzeck) murmurs, "Still, all is still, as if the world died," with his fellow soldier Andres muttering, "Night! We must get back!" seemingly oblivious to Wozzeck's words. A funeral march begins, only to transform into the upbeat song of the military marching band in the next scene. Musicologist Glenn Watkins considers this "as vivid a projection of impending world doom as any to come out of the Great War".

Historical background

Berg began writing ''Wozzeck'' in 1914, shortly before World War I began and delayed his work. He was never stationed on the front line and sought the rank of (), which he obtained in 1916, for its shorter term of service. His pained determination to complete the opera is documented in letters and notebooks. He wrote his wife , "For months I haven't done any work on ''Wozzeck''. Everything suffocated. Buried!"

Berg had more time to work on regiment leave (1917–1918). Much of the opera was composed at the piano in Helene's Trahütten family cottage during ("summer holiday"). He nurtured his creativity there by reading books, walking through the forests, collecting mushrooms, and admiring the mountains, lakes, and springs—habits of a "love of nature" that Helene identified in Berg's music, including that of ''Wozzeck''.

Berg's experience of the war shaped the opera in many ways. News of the ongoing war troubled him. He wrote Schoenberg of a reportedly "'successful' ruse" in which the sound of a bell, perhaps reminding soldiers of a "past time" or "beloved place", was used to bait and kill them: Berg also wrote Helene in 1918 that he identified with Wozzeck: The war also separated Berg from Schoenberg and their social circles in Vienna, affording him not only solitude, but also independence despite the trying and unusual circumstances. He finished act 1 by summer 1919, act 2 in August 1921, and act 3 over the next two months. Finalizing orchestration over the following six months, he completed ''Wozzeck'' in April 1922.

Drama

Roles

:

Synopsis

Act 1

''Scene 1 ( Suite)''

Wozzeck shaves the Captain, who lectures him on the qualities of a "decent man" and taunts him for living an immoral life. Wozzeck dutifully replies, ("Yes sir, Captain") to these repeated insults. When the Captain scorns Wozzeck's having a child "without the blessing of the Church", Wozzeck argues that poverty makes virtue difficult and quotes Mark 10:14, ("Allow the little children to come to me"). Confused, the Captain asks for clarification. Wozzeck grows agitated as he explains, crying out that if the poor ever "got to Heaven, we'd all have to manufacture thunder!" to tumultuous, crackling music. The Captain abruptly tries to calm Wozzeck, conceding that he is "a decent man, only you think too much!" The tired Captain exits.

''Scene 2 ( Rhapsody and Hunting Song)''

Wozzeck and Andres cut sticks at sunset. Andres sings a hunting song. Wozzeck experiences frightening visions and grows agitated. Andres tries to calm him.

''Scene 3 (March and Lullaby)''

Marie admires a military parade when Margret mocks her for her interest in the soldiers. Marie shuts the window. She sings a self-soothing lullaby to her son. Wozzeck arrives, sharing his troubling visions. He leaves without even seeing their child, much to Marie's dismay. She laments their poverty.

''Scene 4 (Passacaglia)''

The Doctor scolds Wozzeck for not following his strict orders, involving a restrictive diet and urine collection. He is delighted when Wozzeck's mental illness becomes apparent.

''Scene 5 (Rondo)''

Marie admires the Drum Major from her doorway. He makes advances, which she first rejects but then accepts after a short struggle.

Act 2

''Scene 1 (Sonata-Allegro)''

Marie admires her earrings, a gift from the Drum Major. She bids her son to sleep. Wozzeck arrives, startling her. He asks about the earrings, and she claims she found them. He doubts that, but gives her money and leaves. Marie is wracked with guilt.

''Scene 2 (Fantasia and Fugue on Three Themes)''

Echoing the opening scene, the Captain urges the Doctor to slow down as they pass. The Doctor taunts the Captain with a list of frightening diagnoses for his ailments. As Wozzeck passes, they hint that Marie is unfaithful to him.

''Scene 3 ( Largo)''

Wozzeck confronts Marie. She does not deny it. Enraged, he nearly strikes her. She stops him. "Better a knife in my belly than your hands on me," she says. Wozzeck repeats this after her, considering it.

''Scene 4 (Scherzo)''

Wozzeck spots Marie out dancing with the Drum Major. While soldiers sing a hunter's chorus, Andres notices Wozzeck sitting alone and asks why. An Apprentice is drunkenly preaching when an Idiot stumbles toward Wozzeck, crying, ("Joyful, ... but it reeks ... I smell blood!")

''Scene 5 (Rondo)''

In the barracks at night, Wozzeck cannot sleep without thinking about Marie, disturbing Andres. Wozzeck prays while everyone snores. The Drum Major enters and beats Wozzeck, who is humiliated. Some watch. Wozzeck dissociates.

Act 3

''Scene 1 (Invention on a Theme)''

In her room at night, Marie reads from the Bible, crying out for mercy.

''Scene 2 (Invention on a Single Note (B))''

Wozzeck and Marie walk along a pond in the forest. Wozzeck grabs her when she tries to flee. He stabs her, declaring that if he can't have her, no one else can. A blood-red moon rises.

''Scene 3 (Invention on a Rhythm)''

In a tavern, Wozzeck dances with Margret. He pulls her onto his lap, insults her, and demands that she sing. As she does, people notice blood on Wozzeck. They raise alarm. Agitated and terrified, Wozzeck flees.

''Scene 4 (Invention on a Hexachord)''

Wozzeck tries to retrieve the knife from the pond. Hallucinating, he speaks to Marie. He has paranoid delusions about the blood-red moon telling the world about his crime. He becomes frantic and drowns in what he imagines is blood. Nearby, the Captain and Doctor are enjoying a slow walk. They shudder at the sound of someone drowning and quickly leave.

''Interlude (Invention on a Key (D minor))''

This interlude leads to the finale.

''Scene 5 (Invention on an Eighth-Note moto perpetuo, ''quasi toccata)'' ''

The next morning, children play and sing in the sunny street outside Marie's door. News spreads that she is dead. They all run off to see the body. Marie's son is unaffected by the news, even after it is shouted at him. After some delay, he follows the others, oblivious.

Music

A typical performance of the work takes slightly over an hour and a half.

Instrumentation

''Wozzeck'' uses a fairly large orchestra and has three onstage ensembles in addition to the pit orchestra (a marching band in act 1, scene 3; a chamber orchestra in act 2, scene 3; and a tavern band in act 2, scene 4; an upright piano is also played in act 3, scene 3). The instrumentation is:

Pit orchestra

;Woodwinds
: 4 flutes (all double piccolos)
: 4 oboes (4th doubles English horn)
:
: 1 bass clarinet in B
: 3 bassoons
: 1 contrabassoon

;Brass:
: 4 horns in F
: 4 trumpets in F
: 4 trombones (1 alto, 2 tenor, 1 bass)
: 1 tuba

;Percussion:
: 4 timpani
: 2 bass drums (one with rute)
:
: snare drum
: 2 tam-tams (one smaller than the other)
: triangle
: xylophone

; Keyboards:
: celesta

;Strings:
: harp
: violins I and II
: violas
: cellos
: double basses

Special groups

Marching band (act 1, scene 3):

;Woodwinds:
: 1 piccolo
: 2 flutes
: 2 oboes
: 2 clarinets in E
: 2 bassoons

;Brass:
: 2 horns in F
: 2 trumpets in F
: 3 trombones
: 1 tuba

;Percussion:
: bass drum with cymbals
: snare drum
: triangle

Berg notes that marching band members may be taken from the pit orchestra, indicating exactly where the players can leave with a footnote near the end of act 1, scene 2.

Tavern band (act 2, scene 4):

;Woodwinds:
: 1 clarinet in C

;Brass:
: 1 bombardon in F (or tuba, if it can be muted)

;Keyboard:
: accordion

;Strings:
: guitar
: 2 fiddles (violins with steel strings)

In addition, for the Tavern scene in act 3, scene 3, Berg calls for an out-of-tune upright piano.

Chamber orchestra (act 2, scene 3):

;Woodwinds:
: 1 flute (doubling piccolo)
: 1 oboe,
: 1 English horn
: 1 clarinet in E
: 1 clarinet in A
: 1 bass clarinet in B
: 1 bassoon
: 1 contrabassoon

;Brass:
: 2 horns

;Strings:
: 2 violins
: 1 viola
: 1 violoncello
: 1 double bass

The instrumentation matches that of Schoenberg's '' Chamber Symphony No. 1''.

Classic forms

Berg decided not to use classic operatic forms such as aria or trio. Instead, each scene is given its own inner coherence by the use of forms more commonly associated with abstract instrumental music. The second scene of act 2 (during which the Doctor and Captain taunt Wozzeck about Marie's infidelity), for instance, consists of a prelude and triple fugue. The fourth scene of act 1, focusing on Wozzeck and the Doctor, is a passacaglia.

The scenes of the third act move beyond these structures and adopt novel strategies. Each scene is a set of variations, but not necessarily on a melody. Thus, scene two is a variation on a single note, B, which is heard continuously in the scene, and the only note heard in the powerful orchestral crescendos at the end of act 3, scene 2. Scene 3 is a variation on a rhythmic pattern, with every major thematic element constructed around this pattern. Scene 4 is a variation on a chord, used exclusively for the whole scene. The following orchestral interlude is a freely composed passage firmly grounded in D minor. Finally, the last scene is a ''moto perpetuo'', a variation on a single rhythm (the quaver).

The table below summarizes the dramatic action and forms as prepared by Fritz Mahler.

:

Leitmotifs

The opera uses a variety of musical techniques to create unity and coherence. The first is leitmotifs. As with most examples of this method, each leitmotif is used in a much subtler manner than being directly attached to a character or object. Still, motifs for the Captain, the Doctor and the Drum Major are very prominent. Wozzeck is clearly associated with two motifs, one often heard as he rushes on or off stage, the other more languidly expressing his misery and helplessness in the face of the pressures he experiences. Marie is accompanied by motifs that express her sensuality, as when she accepts a pair of earrings from the Drum Major. A motif not linked to a physical object is the pair of chords that close each act, used in an oscillating repetition until they almost blur into one another.

The most significant is the "anguish" motif first sung by Wozzeck in the first scene with the Captain, to the words ("we poor folks"). Tracing out a minor chord with added major seventh, it is frequently heard as the signal of the characters' inability to transcend their situation.

Berg also reuses motifs from set pieces heard earlier in the opera to give insight into characters' thoughts. For example, the reappearance of military band music in the last scene of act 1 informs the audience that Marie is musing on the Drum Major's attractiveness.

An almost imperceptible leitmotif is the single pitch B, symbolizing the murder. It is first heard at the very end of act 2, after Wozzeck's humiliation, after his words "" ("one after another"), and grows increasingly insistent during the murder scene, with Marie's last cry for help a two-octave jump from B₅ to B₃, until after the murder, when the whole orchestra explodes through a prolonged crescendo on this note, first in unison on B₃, then spread across the whole range of the orchestra in octaves.

Expressionism and other elements

Berg's expressionist music emphasizes Wozzeck's and other characters' emotions and thought processes, particularly Wozzeck's madness and alienation. Though atonal, it does not always eschew conventional function in its voice leading, extended tonicizations, or arguably tonal passages. He uses pitch and harmony as elements of the music's formal structure to portray the drama. Some pitch sets recur at crucial moments, establishing continuity and contributing to coherence. B–F tritonal dyads represent Wozzeck and Marie, tense and struggling. B–D minor-third dyads represent Marie's bond with her child.

Berg adapted some of his tonal juvenilia for use in ''Wozzeck''. In Marie's Bible scene, he reworked an early sonata fragment in F minor, which Christopher Hailey described as Schumannesque in its abiding melancholy. In an interlude adapted from a Mahlerian student piece in D minor, Berg brings the opera to a climax with a dominant-functioning aggregate sonority marked , which crescendos into a potent statement of the "anguish" leitmotif (act 3, mm. 364–365). The dramatic effect is cathartic after Wozzeck's final mad scene Then Wozzeck's and Marie's unnamed orphan son plays among children singing in a brief epilogue. They are interrupted by the news that a peer shouts at him:

Berg's notes and sketches for ''Wozzeck'' (and for the March from his Three Orchestral Pieces, 1913–1915) were mingled with disjointed fragments of military ordinances and terminology. In a draft page of the act 1, scene 2 libretto, he sketched Austrian army bugle calls. He modified them in the final score, where they appeared in a recognizably atonal form. He also included modified folk elements, particularly in the open field and tavern scenes. Berg's war experience also informed his word painting of snoring soldiers in barracks (act 2, scene 5): "this polyphonic breathing, gasping, and groaning is the most peculiar chorus I've ever heard. It is like some primeval music that wells up from the abysses of the soul".

Reception

''Wozzeck'' is one of the most famous 20th-century modernist operas. John Deathridge called it "one of the undisputed masterpieces of modern opera". It has also been compared to Schoenberg's ''Erwartung'' in its dissonant, psychological idiom. The inner turmoil and self-destructive trajectory of its outcast antihero has also prompted comparison to other major operas with similar male title roles, including Verdi's ''Macbeth'' and ''Nabucco'', Mussorgsky's ''Boris Godunov'', and Britten's ''Peter Grimes''.

Cultural context

''Wozzeck'' comes from the same expressionist milieu, with its origins in Symbolism, as novelist Franz Kafka, painters Oskar Kokoschka and Emil Nolde, and poets Gottfried Benn, Rainier Maria Rilke, and Franz Werfel. In German opera, Strauss's ''Elektra'' is an early example, followed by Schoenberg's more radical ''Erwartung'' and ''Die glückliche Hand''. Among the operas premiered within a year of ''Wozzeck'' were Hindemith's ''Cardillac'', Krenek's ''Zwingburg'' and '' Sprung'', and Weill's ''Protagonist''.

Schoenberg and Webern influenced Berg most, but his operas show other influences, David Schroeder suggests, emphasizing Viennese coffee house culture as facilitating Berg's early contact with a mix of innovative personalities across disciplines. Among these were more popular composers like Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus, or Erich Korngold and Strauss at establishments like the Café Museum. John L. Stewart suggests that ''Wozzeck'' was influenced not only by Schoenberg's ''Erwartung'' but also by Schreker's ''Der ferne Klang'', the piano-vocal score of which Berg prepared in 1911. Schroeder agrees, cautioning that Berg thought less of Schreker than he did of Mahler, Schoenberg, or himself, and that Schreker's operas were more Wagnerian.

Wagner

In his 1929 lecture on ''Wozzeck'', Berg said he rejected "the Wagnerian recipe of ' through-composing'" in opting for traditional forms. At the time, this prompted comparisons to Busoni's ''Doktor Faust'' and Hindemith's ''Cardillac''. Deathridge and Hailey wrote that the intense emotional depth of Berg's music still linked it to (post-)Wagnerian . Hailey contended that Berg always highlighted this formal approach partly to subvert his reputation for quasi-Romanticism. Werfel, perhaps the Bergs' closest literary friend, disparaged Wagner's "bloated excess" and "garrulous monotony" in favor of Verdi, and may have influenced Berg's 1920s opinion of Wagner as "antiquated".

Gurlitt

The much delayed discovery and staging of Büchner's incomplete ''Woyzeck'' inspired not only Berg, but also Manfred Gurlitt. Premiered only four months after Berg's, Gurlitt's opera was also entitled ''Wozzeck'' and published by Universal Edition, discomfiting Berg. They worked without any knowledge of one another.

When Berg examined Gurlitt's piano–vocal score, he considered it "not bad or unoriginal", but a weak "broth ... even for (poor folks)". Hailey agreed, noting its simpler musical textures and describing its polystylism as closer to Hindemith or Weill. Hailey praised Gurlitt's more frequent, socially oriented use of chorus, and wrote that Gurlitt's approach may have been more faithful to Büchner's original conception. Gurlitt's work has remained in the shadow of Berg's.

Performance history

The 1924 Frankfurt premiere of the Three Fragments from ''Wozzeck'' at the annual festival, along with Webern's premiere of the and from the Three Orchestral Pieces during an Austrian Music Week in 1923 Berlin, initiated Berg's regional reputation as a considerable figure in music.

Erich Kleiber conducted the world premiere of the entire work at the Berlin State Opera on 14 December 1925, having personally decided on it. Hailey writes that it was "the event of the season", achieving a noted combination of coherence and expressivity over a substantial length of time despite its post-tonal musical language. Walsh writes that it was a ''succès de scandale'' with audience disruptions and mixed reaction in the press. Many productions followed throughout Germany and Austria until after 1933, when the Nazis forbade "degenerate music".

''Wozzeck'' was then taken to Prague by Otakar Ostrčil at the National Theatre in 1926. It provoked a "scandal", Berg wrote his pupil Theodor W. Adorno, staged by "Czech Nationalists (virtually Nazis)" and "clerical lobbies". Berg emphasized that this was The Bohemian State Committee forbade further performances. Brian S. Locke called the "''Wozzeck'' Affair" the "most important event at the Czechs' National Theater in the interwar period".

At its third premiere (1927) in Leningrad, the Association for Contemporary Music and Nikolai Roslavets staged ''Wozzeck'' at the Mariinsky Theatre with Berg and Shostakovich in attendance. Berg wired Helene, "huge, tumultuous success", though critical reception was mixed. (Amid Stalinism and deteriorating Germany–Soviet Union relations, ''Wozzeck'' had yet to be restaged in the Soviet Union, George Perle observed in 1980.)

On 19 March 1931, Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company gave the United States premiere of ''Wozzeck'' on 19 March at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia.

Henry Wood and the BBC Symphony Orchestra gave a studio concert of the Three Fragments from ''Wozzeck'', which Edward Clark, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, produced for broadcast on 13 May 1932. On 14 March 1934, Adrian Boult conducted a complete concert performance of ''Wozzeck'', again produced by Edward Clark, in the Queen's Hall. (The opera was not staged there until 22 January 1952 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.)

Effect on Berg

The success of ''Wozzeck'' transformed Berg's life. It brought him international renown, and he was able to live comfortably off the royalties nearly until his death in 1935. He traveled not only to Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and England, but also to Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, France, and Italy for performances of and talks about the opera.

Busy attending to his newfound success and enjoying financial independence, Berg declined Schreker's offers of an appointment at the Berlin Musikhochschule as well as subsequent vacations with Schoenberg, though the two remained committed friends. He benefited from new relationships with Karl Böhm, Erich Kleiber, and Gian Francesco Malipiero, among others, and was appointed to serve on the jury of the ADMV.

Influence

Krenek

Hans Hartleb saw many parallels between ''Wozzeck'' and Krenek's ''Orpheus und Eurydike''. He cited the composers' use of violent scenes and saw the music of both Eurydike and Marie as evocative of "fatalism, melancholy, and sensuality". Stewart agrees, writing that Berg's music for Marie raised her from a "stock character" to one of more substance. Berg and Krenek knew each other from the salons of Alma Mahler. (Alma was a close friend of the Bergs and the wife or lover of Gustav Mahler, Kokoschka, and Werfel.)

Krenek began studying the piano-vocal score of ''Wozzeck'' in early 1923, while visiting Kokoschka, the librettist of ''Orpheus''. Krenek wrote Berg to praise ''Wozzeck'' and ask about Berg's vocal writing. Berg responded at length, citing (and transcribing) examples from Wagner, Mozart, and Bach to support what he said was his treatment of the human voice as "the supreme instrument". He said he adapted the music with respect to the voices' limitations and dramatic function. Berg also used () for dramatic effect. Krenek later said he did not use ''Wozzeck'' as a model for ''Orpheus'', but Stewart suggests that he at least adhered to Berg's advice about vocal writing.

Later music

In ''Sinfonia'' (1968–69), Luciano Berio quotes the rising orchestral chords Berg uses in the word painting of Wozzeck's drowning.

Arrangements

Working with Berg, Erwin Stein

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