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  1. Home
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  3. Narratives of Identity in Alban Berg's 'Lulu'
Publisher:
Boydell & Brewer
Online publication date:
August 2014
Print publication year:
2014
Online ISBN:
9781580468497
Subjects:
Ethnomusicology, Music, Opera
Series:
Eastman Studies in Music
Information

Book description

Exploring the crossroads between autobiographical narrative and musical composition, this book examines Berg's transformation of Frank Wedekind's Erdgeist (1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1904) -- the plays used inthe formation of the libretto for Lulu -- according to notions of gender identity, social customs, and the aesthetics of modernity in Vienna of the 1920s and 1930s. While Berg modernized several aspects of the plays by Wedekind and incorporated serial techniques of composition from Arnold Schoenberg, he never let go of the idealistic Wagnerian perspectives of his youth. In fact, he went as far as reconfiguring aspects of Richard Wagner's life as anideal identity to be played out in the compositional process. In the process of composing the opera, Berg also reflected on the most important cultural figures in fin-de-siècle Vienna that affected his worldview, including Karl Kraus, Emil Lucka, Otto Weininger, and others. Adopting an approach that combines a systematic analysis of Berg's numerous sketches for Lulu, correspondence, and the finished work with interpretive models drawn from cultural studies and philosophy, this book elucidates the ways in which Berg grappled with his self-image as an "incorrigible romantic" (unverbesserliche Romantiker) at the end of his life, explaining aspects of his musical language that have been considered strange or anomalous in the scholarship. Silvio J. dos Santos is assistant professor of musicology at the University of Florida.

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