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Lyric Suite is a string quartet written by
Alban Berg from 1925 to 1926.
According to Erwin Stein, "The work (Ist and VIth part, the main part of the IIIrd and the middle section of the Vth) has been
mostly written strictly in accordance with Schoenberg's technique of the 'Composition with 12 inwardly related tones.' A set of 12 different tones gives the rough material of
the composition, and the portions which have been treated more freely still adhere more or less to the technique."
According to Rene
Leibowitz (1947), it is, "entirely written in the twelve-tone technique, [it] is a sonata movement without the development.
Thus the recapitulation follows directly upon the exposition; but, because of the highly advanced twelve-tone technique of
variation, everything in this movement is developmental."
However, the first analysis was undertaken by H.F. Redlich (1957), who notices that, "the first movement of the Lyric Suite develops out of the
disorder of intervals in its first bar, the notes of which, strung out horizontally, present the complete chromatic scale, and
from this in the second and following bars, grows the Basic Set in its thematic shape."
Redlich (ibid, p.142) described, "the concealed vocality of the Lyric Suite," despite having no knowledge of the
setting of Baudelaire in the finale movement, deciphered by Douglass M. Green in 1976 from what George Perle call's, "Berg's
cryptic notations". Perle discovered a complete annotated copy prepared by Berg for his dedicatee, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, later
that year. (Perle, 1990)
Berg also used the motif, A-B-H-F, for Alban Berg (A.B.) and Hanna Fuchs-Robettin (H.F.) (AMG).
Movements
- Allegretto gioviale
- Andante amoroso
- Allegro misterioso - Trio estatico
- Adagio appassionato
- Presto delirando - Tenebroso
- Largo desolato
Tone rows
Movement I
- according to George Perle, pitch classes
Movement III
- according to Wolfgang Stroh, pitch classes
- according to George Perle, pitches
Movement VI
- tone row 1
- tone row 2, derived from tone row 1
Constructive rhythm
Sources
- George Perle (1990). The Listening Composer. California: University of
California Press. ISBN 0520069919.
- Perle, George (1977). "The Secret Program of the Lyric Suite", International Alban Berg Newsletter 5
(June).
- Stein, Erwin (). Lyric Suite score. Prefatory notes by Stein.
- Leibowitz, Rene (1947). Schoenberg et son ecole (1947) [Schoenberg and his School, p.157 (1949)]. Paris:
Janin [New York: Philosophical Library]. [Translated by Dika Newlin]
- Redlich, H.F. (1957). Alban Berg, the Man and His Music, p.135f (1957). London: John Calder.
- Douglass M. Green (1977). "Berg's De Profundis: The Finale of the Lyric Suite", International Alban Berg
Newsletter 5 (June).
- Wolfgang Martin Stroh (1968). "Alban Berg's 'Constructive Rhythm'", Perspectives of New Music VII/I (Fall-Winter):
26.
- http://www.allclassical.com/cg/acg.dll?p=acg&sql=2:53893
External link
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