SERIAL MUSIC IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY

Alban Berg ( 1885 - 1935 )

   Berg started to work with Schoenberg in 1904, who is another figure of the period. Differently from Schoenberg's returning to tonality and Webern's total serialism, he composed serial music consistently under influence of Mahler-Romanticism. Also he add some of his tone-row's little tonal referances such as Interlude of Lulu Suite. Berg's earliest 12-note composition had been a setting of the short poem Schliesse mir die Augen beide, a text he had already set before and chose to reset using the row he was to use in the Lyrische Suite, whose first movement became his first extended 12-note composition. Though only the first and last movements of the quartet are entirely 12-note, the work already demonstrates the features that distinguish Berg's handling of the 12-note system from that of Schoenberg or Webern. Also as an opera composer Berg showed the opera composing with the 12 tone tecnique. His Wozzeck, with his topic, musical genius and gripping atmosphere is a pure example of expressionism. As seen in his compose's romantic features, his music is the evidence of lyric music with serial music