Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Alban Berg’s Wozzeck (first premiered in 1925) tells the story of a person who’s slowly breaking because of madness. Allow us to draw our consideration to Act III Scene IV of the opera. On this late scene, excessive musical conventions speed up the story and appear to steer the deranged titular character to his loss of life. The depth of emotion and intelligence of musical conference mix to make this some of the memorable scenes in opera. Right here is an English-subtitled efficiency of the scene:

Many of those musical conventions are apparent. For instance, on this scene, the voice is instructed to sing almost each observe with Sprechstimme.

In the course of the scene simply prior, when Wozzeck murders his spouse Marie, he doesn’t speak-sing on this fashion in any respect. Sprechstimme is abrasive, barely on pitch, and indecisive—a musical reminder that Wozzeck can now not match into the conventions of society and even the pure world however should discover his personal path—a path of loss of life.

There is just one level upon which he’s clear, and that is highlighted by the one bel canto phrase within the scene: measure 245, the place Wozzeck sings “the worth of sinning.” Irrespective of how tousled Wozzeck has turn into, he’s tragically clear on one level: the factor that has been his undoing is the unfaithfulness of the very individuals who ought to have helped him.

Two different musical conventions that go to the extremes on this scene of madness are vocal and dynamic vary. The extraordinarily huge vocal vary encompasses excessive G above the workers to an E under the workers for an entire vary of virtually two-and-a-half octaves (for distinction, the usual vocal vary is simply about two octaves). For a lot of the scene, the best pitch intoned by Wozzeck is an F, a observe that’s discovered very often, however he reaches the G with one in all his final breaths, wailing “Woe” in measure 280.

For a baritone resembling Wozzeck, that is very excessive. The bottom observe is discovered primarily at key text-painting moments; for instance, in measure 260, it’s the “stein” which sinks into the deep darkish water. For a lot of the scene, nonetheless, the pitches sit excessive within the vary.

Dynamic distinction is discovered not solely within the voice however within the instrumentation. Maybe essentially the most visually apparent is the ffp’s discovered within the brass in measure 252. Extra curiously, pianiss-iss-issimos (pppp) of the strings in measure 230 which can be rapidly adopted by fortississimos (fff) within the harp in measure 234 whereas the strings are directed “semper pp.” The dynamics not solely embody a variety, they’re excessive and imbalanced of their nature, simply as Wozzeck himself has been imbalanced by the occasions in his life.

Some of the aurally placing conventions used to understand the intense agony and imbalance of Wozzeck’s thoughts is the way in which by which phrases finish. These “phrases” in such a contemporary work are essentially much less common and far shorter than their common-practice counterparts, and there’s really no higher place for them than Wozzeck’s madness!

For instance, one in all Wozzeck’s first declamations “Wo ist das Messer?…Naeher” begins with an extended observe (eighth on “Wo”) which inserts idiomatically with the sequence of phrases. Nonetheless, each phrase after within the phrase doesn’t obtain the identical remedy, however is given a sixteenth observe per syllable, aside from “noch” in measure 225. In measure 267, the “phrase” is confused and set off stability by a tied observe in the course of the declaration: “der Mond ist blutig.” Wozzeck can not appear to make up his thoughts, and he has even misplaced the flexibility to speak within the method of males.

At Wozzeck’s loss of life, nonetheless, order is just not restored. Neither does the music mirror the stereotypical loss of life or dirge traits, just like the chromatic step-wise descent of Dido’s well-known Lament:

As a substitute, each instrument within the orchestra persists in climbing upwards chromatically. On the entrance of the Physician and the Captain, the velocity of those chromatic ascensions slows barely, however persists till measure 300, when it turns into apparent that the 2 males, just like the priest and the Levite of the parable, won’t act to avoid wasting the dying Wozzeck.

The lonely, deranged, injured Wozzeck can discover no Good Samaritan even in loss of life, and in response, the orchestration begins sinking down within the basic, overpowering perspective of loss of life (measure 301- chromatic descent within the harp, winds, and brass). Such imbalance couldn’t proceed for lengthy, and each the music and the person discover relaxation and even a form of peace within the final lengthy tied notes of the scene.

Republished with gracious permission from The Saint Constantine School (2017).

This essay was first printed right here in July 2018.

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