Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op.

2, of Alban Berg
Robert Gauldin
Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Spring, 1999), pp. 32-42.
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Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder,

Op. 2, of Alban Berg

Robert Gauldin

The use of referential association originating from extra- or

intra-musical sources is a recurring theme in the history of
Western music.' The manner of its occurrence in individual pieces
is both varied and ingenious. In some cases such references are
relatively conspicuous and obvious, while in other instances they
are artfully disguised within the musical fabric, revealing their
presence only through analytical scrutiny. In this essay I enumerate several exemplars of this procedure in various works from the
Renaissance to the present day, and then demonstrate how Alban
Berg employed associative keys centers, acronyms, quotations,
and parody as the means of establishing referential associations in
his Vier Lieder, op. 2.
Recent research has explored Wagner's use of associative
tonality in his later music dramas, where the initial key of certain
passages or leitmotifs linked to specific personages, objects, or
emotions recurs in subsequent statements of similar dramatic import.* These referential tonal centers, which usually originate at
'1 use the term r<fkrential differently from Leonard Meyer, who defines it as
pertaining to "meanings which in some way refer to the extramusical world of
concepts, actions, emotional states, and character." Leonard B. Meyer, Enlotion
and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), 1. In my
somewhat broader view, referential associations may also refer to other musical
works and even to passages in different movements of the same work.
'Although Robert Bailey is largely concerned with the Nibelungen cycle in
his groundbreaking "The Structure of the Ring and its Evolution," 19th-Century
Music 111 (1977-78): 48-71, he also alludes to earlier associative precedents in
Derjiegende Hollander (the Dutchman's B minor), Tannhauser (the Eb major
of the knight's absolution versus the E major of Venus and her court), and

the musical surface, often appear at elevated hierarchical levels,

controlling entire scenes or acts.3 In pursuing the possibility that
particular keys held more generalized affective associations for
particular composers, Alfred Einstein has pointed out their possible existence in certain works of M o ~ a r t Patrick
McCreless has
.~
even suggested that "associative" relations may exist between
the key hierarchy of different movements in an piece of absolute
Lohengrin (the semitonal pairing of Lohengrin's A and Elsa's Ab, in addition to
the tritone relation between Ortrud's F# minor and the KingJHerald's C major).
See also the list of the Ring's associative keys in Warren Darcy, Wagner'J Das
Rheingold (London: Oxford University Press, 1994), 218.
'Early on in Das Rheingold the initial presentations of the Gold's C major
triad and the Ring's F# half-diminished seventh serve to spawn two groups of
exclusively derived motifs in the Ring: Wotan's "grand scheme" to redeem the
Ring (C oriented) versus Alberich's Curse (F# and B minor oriented). These
keys increasingly control more significant chunks of music as the cycle unfolds,
until this symbolic tritone (C and F#lGb) is eventually resolved (as scale degrees ? and d ) in the concluding Db major of Brllnnhilde's Glory. I discussed
these relationships in "The ClF# Complex in Der Ring des Nibelungen," paper
delivered at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Philadelphia,
27 October 1984.
'Alfred Einstein, Mozart: His Characre6 His Work (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1945), 157-63. Einstein specifically mentions D minor as the
"tragic key" (the D minor Piano Concerto and Don Giovanni), C major as the
"festive key" (the C major Piano Concerto and the Jupiter Symphony), and Eb
major as the "expressive key" (usually found in slow movements). To this list
one might append G minor as the "chromatic key" (the String Quintet and the
Symphony No. 40). Also note Beethoven's characteristic use of C major and F
minor; he dubbed B minor "the black key." Some composers, such as Jan
Sibelius, tend to associate certain keys with particular colors.

Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op. 2, of Alban Berg 33

instrumental music.5 Specific keys may also hold more personal or

intimate connections for a composer, our knowledge of which depends on historical documentation.
The use of musical acronyms, in which the initials or full name
of a person or place are expressed in hexachordal syllables or
modem letter names, may be traced back to the soggetto cavato
of Renaissance practice, as in Josquin's Missa Hercules Dux
Ferariae (where the vowel sounds extracted from the dedication
create the subject re-ut-re-ut-re-fa-mi-re). Bach's ability to express his own name in musical notation and his attendant fascination with numerology (using alphabetical position to compute
BACH = 2 + 1+3+8 = 14 and JSBACH = its reverse 41) are evident in several of his own works,6 not to mention in subsequent
uses of BACH by such diverse composers as Mendelssohn, Liszt,
Honegger, and Schoenberg. The use of either overt or disguised
acronyms, as practiced by Schumann (ASCH in Carnaval and his
ABEGG Variations) and Brahms (AGAT[H]E in his G major
String Sextet op. 36), found its continuation in the Second
Viennese School. The degree of association between referrer and
referent varies considerably, from Schumann's miniature tribute to
the Norwegian composer GADE7 to Berg's invariant tetrachord in
his Lyric Suite, whose hidden relation to his secret mistress was
eventually deciphered by George Perle.8
5Patrick McCreless, "Schenker and Chromatic Tonicization: A
Reappraisal," in Schenker Studies, ed. Hedi Siegel (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1990), 125-45 [132-381.
61n addition to the last exposition of the unfinished (quadruple?) fugue in his
Kunsr der Fuge and the clavier fugue in Bb major BVW 898, both of which are
based on his name, see also Bach's use of the numbers 14 and 41 in the cantus
notes of his chorale prelude k r deinen Tron tret' ich hiermit BVW 668. Nor
was Bach the first to indulge in such practices: O(c)keghem added a "c" to his
last name so that the numerical equivalents of the letters would form symmetrical patterns: OC = 17, KE = 15, GH = 15, and EM = 17. While the first four and
last four letters total 32, their sum 64 (or the square of 8) forms a correlation to
his first name JOHANNES, which sums to 81 (or the square of 9).
'See "Norse Song," Albumfir the Young, no. 41.
8George Perle. "The Secret Program of the Lyric Suite," The International
Alban Berg Society Newsletter 5 (1977): 4-12.

The practice of citing quotations from the works of other composers likewise occupies a considerable historical span, stretching
from the homages of Busnois and Josquin for the Renaissance
master Ockeghemg to Luciano Berio's Sinfonia, which superimposes a collage of various excerpts against the background of
Mahler's Second Symphony. While Brahms intended the snippet
from Tannhauser in his Third Symphony as an epitaph on Wagner's recent death,I0 other composers have used quotations to
serve satirical purposes: see, for example, Saint-Saens's delicious
deformations of melodies by Offenbach and Berlioz in his Carnival of the A n i r n a l ~ and
, ~ ~ Debussy's maudlin setting of the opening
phrase of Tristan in his Golliwog's Cake Walk. Composers have
even engaged in self-quotation, as evidenced by Richard Strauss's
allusions to his earlier works in Ein Heldenleben and Vier letzte
Lieder.
The technique of "parody," the more extensive modeling of a
composition on a previous work (either one's own or that of another composer) constitutes a final form of association. Once a
common practice in the liturgical literature of the High Renaissance (nearly half of Palestrina's masses employ this procedure),
it resurfaced in the Romantic period and after. In some cases the
re-compositional process is both conspicuous and intentional
(such as the Liszt/Schubert and BusoniBach paraphrases, Stravinsky's re-workings of Pergolesi, Tchaikovsky, Bach, and Gesualdo,
or Lukas Foss's Baroque Variations), while in other instances the
extent of the parody is revealed only through analysis.lz
9Busnois's In hydraulis and Josquin's Nynrphes des bois contain quotations
from Ockgehem's Missa Caput.
I0Compare the harmonic progression in mm. 31-33 of the symphony's first
movement with the Sirens' Chorus in the Bacchanal of Tannhauser's first act.
I1ln "Turtles," the can-can tune from Offenbach's Orpheus in Hades occurs
in lugubrious augmentation; in "Elephants," Berlioz's elfin "Dance of the
Sylphs" (from The Damnation of Faust) is performed by the double basses.
[=Therondo Finale of Brahms's D minor Piano Concerto appears to be
closely modeled after the rondo Finale of Beethoven's C minor Piano Concerto.
For a discussion of Wagner's use of such techniques see Robert Gauldin,
"Wagner's Parody Technique: 'Trlume' and the Tristan Love Duet," Musir
Theory Spectrum 1 (1979): 33-42.

34

Music Theory Spectrum

Some composers show a more pronounced tendency than others to employ extra- and intra-musical associations. In particular,
Alban Berg utilized both overt and disguised referential techniques in his music, as has been demonstrated by such notable analysts as George Perle, Douglas Jarman, Allen Forte, and Dave
Headlam. Yet the focus of scrutiny has rested primarily on Berg's
Lyric Suite, Chamber Concerto, Violin Concerto, and Wozzeck,
unfortunately neglecting possible associational allusions in the
Vier Lieder op. 2.{3Although it may seem surprising that such an
early work of Berg's would incorporate each of the referential
procedures discussed above, the remainder of this article will endeavor to establish the concurrent existence of all such procedures
as a significant component of the song cycle's composition. In
confining my comments to the musical aspects of the associations,
I leave any attendant philosophical or aesthetic issues, such as
meaning, representation, or symbolism, for others to ponder.
The analytical scrutiny already afforded the pitch structure in
these songs has resulted in a sizable literature.14 Remnants of tonal

"Ulrich Kr2mer deals with the general topic of "Quotation and SelfBorrowing in the Music of Alban Berg," Journal ~f'Mu.sicologica1Research
1211-2 (1992): 53-82, but with the exception of one quotation from Schoenberg, he ignores the op. 2 Songs.
"Surveys of the cycle include Jay Wilkey, "Certain Aspects of Form in the
Vocal Music of Alban Berg" (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1965); Mary
Wennerstrom, "Pitch Relations in Berg's Songs Opus 2," Indiana Theory
Review 1 (1977): 12-22; Douglas Jarman, The Music (?f'AlbanBerg (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1979), 30-31, 148; George Perle, "Berg," in
The New Grove Dic.tior~rrr?,of' Mu\ic. irnd Mu.cic.rarrs; Thomas Hattey, "The
Transition to Atonality: an Analysis of Alban Berg's Vier Lieder Op. 2"
(Master's thesis, Eastman School of Music, 1985, for which the present author
served as adviser); Mark DeVoto, "Berg, the Composer of Songs," in T l ~ eBerg
Conrpanron. ed. Douglas Jarman (London: Macmillan, 1989), 33-66; Stephen
Kett, "A Conservat~veRevolution: the Music of the Four Songs Op. 2," in The
Berg Corrrpaniorr, 67-90; Dave Headlam, Tllr Musrc. of' Alban Berg (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 33-45, 167-74; and Anthony Pople, "The
Early Works: Tonality and Beyond," in Tllr Canrbrrdgr Corrlparrion to Berg, ed.
Anthony Pople (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 66-76. The

function remain in the first three songs, prompting some analysts

to approach them using Schenkerian voice-leading procedures.15
Other more atonal passages, especially in the final song, invite the
use of set-class analysis.16 A summary of the essential points
found in the sources listed in footnote 14 is presented below and
cued to Example 1.
Song 1 ("Schlafen, Schlafen, nichts als Schlafen") opens in the
key of D minor and establishes the significant referential chord D
F # A C F (set-class 5-32 [01469]) with its related neighbor Eb A G
C #F # (5-28 [02368]); within both is embedded the crucial trichord
3-5 [016]. Refer to Example la.I7
Song 2 ("Schlafend tragt man mich") relies heavily on the
French-sixth-type sonority (4-25 [0268]) as a derived subset of

truncated analysis of the songs that appears as Chapter 40 of my Harnronic

Practice in Tonal Music (New York: Norton, 1997), 605-20 is based on the research for this article. Additional analyses pertaining to the individual songs
will be duly documented in later footnotes.
I5Both Hattey and Headlam incorporate voice-leading graphs for the first
three songs, but their results are often at odds. For instance, for the initial song
Hattey proposes a 3-b4-? fundamental line (mm. 1. 15, 23), while Headlam
posits a 3-2-1 Urlinie (mm. 21,22, 30).
I6See the studies by Wennerstrom, Hattey, and Headlam, although Headlam's discussion emphasizes i n t e r ~ a cycles,
l
especially those based on intervals
1 and 5.
''Most writers mention the 5-32 referential chord and the derived trichord
3-5. Schoenberg observed the interesting character of this sonority during his
discussion of the last two harmonies of the cycle (5-32 and 6-30 [013679]) in
his Harmonielehre (191 I ) , but neglected to mention that lt occurs as early as m.
5 of the initial song. For a discussion of the basic palindromic design of this
song see Robert F? Morgan, "The Eternal Return: Retrograde and Circular Form
in Berg," in Alban Berg: Historical and Ar~alytical Per.spec,tii'e.\, ed. David
Gable and Robert P. Morgan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 47-91
[841.

Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op. 2, of Alban Berg 35

Example 1. Issues raised by analysts of Berg's Op. 2 songs

b. Song 2 : "Schlafend triigt man mich"

a. Song 1: "Schlafen, ScNafen, nichts als ScNafen"

IN^.

1-8

5-32

(transferred voice-leading)

5-28

c. Song 3: "Nun ich der Riesen"

Imn. 1-2

~ n l n4-6
.

d. Song 4: "Warm die Liifte"

5 cycle

36

Music Theory Spectrum

5-28; a pair of superimposed 1 and 5 cycles frame the song

(Example lb).IE
Song 3 ("Nun ich der Riesen") features the emergence of the
3-5 trichord as a part of a prominent four-note motive, and a reference in the song's middle section (mm. 7-9) to the D minor tonality from the opening of the cycle. The relations of Song 3's three
tonal areas, Ab, D, and Eb, also refer to the the 3-5 trichord, as indeed do the key centers of the first three songs: D minor, Eb minor,
and Ab minor (Example lc).I9

181 suspect that the original form of the opening four measures consisted of
a superimposition of chromatically descending [026] trichords in the upper
voices against the projection of fourths in the bass, resulting in a succession of
French-sixth-type sonorities in a four-voice texture. Since every other chord
in such a succession contains a doubling and thus does not form a complete
[0268] tetrachord, Berg added notes in the vocal line to complete the tetrachords; each successive three-chord segment forms the aggregate. Hattey and
Headlam both describe these opening four measures as a prolonged "V7" of Eb
minor, noting the existence of a long-range voice exchange between the Bb and
Fb (=Eh) in mm. 1 and 4, followed by a "resolution" to Eb in measure 9. Also
see Craig Ayrey, "Berg's 'Scheideweg': Analytical Issues In Op. Zlii," Mu.\ir
Analysis 112 (1982): 189-202, and Phil~pLambert, "lves and Berg: 'Normative' Procedures and Post-Tonal Alternatives," in Charle., Ives and the Classical
Tradition, ed. Geoffrey Block and J. Peter Burkholder (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 105-30 [121-221.
19Wennerstrom's discussion of this song is revealing, especially her observations on the 3-5 trichord and its relation to the tonal centers of the first three
songs. Pople ("Early Works," 69) traces no less than seven occurrences of the
openlng four-note motive (Ab-C-G-Db) in various transpositions, all of which
contain the embedded 3-5. In contrast to the whole-tone-oriented sonorities of
the previous song, this motive features half-step relations. I must take exception
to the analysis of the D minor recurrence in Matthew Brown, Douglas
Dempster, and Dave Headlam, "The #IV (bV) Hypothesis: Testing the Limits
of Schenker's Theory of Tonality," Music Theory Spectrunz 1912 (1997):
155-83 [179-801. In order to sidestep the tritone relation of D minor and its
subsequent prolongation to the tonic Ab minor, they attempt to explain it away
by "sleight of hand" through a functional assignment of "IV of bII." Their
voice-leading graph is based on the analysis in Headlam, The Music of Alban
Berg, 44. The nature of this passage will be examined below in light of the concurrent Bh in the upper voice.

Song No. 4 ("Warm die Liifte") is decidedly more atonal, with

several characteristic half-step wedges. The oft-quoted concluding
measures superimpose a series of 3-5 trichords in chromatic descent over a 5 cycle (Example ld).20
Despite the feasibility of both Schenkerian and set-class approaches to these songs, I would nevertheless suggest that previous analyses have presented an incomplete picture of their pitch
structure. While analyses have addressed the question of how the
various relationships interact, they have failed to engage the issue
of where and why certain pitch formations occur within the music.
For instance, what is the significance, if any, of the infamous referential augmented ninth chord on D in mm. 5-10 and 23-26 of
the initial song and its subsequent recurrence as the cycle's jinal
harmony, transposed to B? In order to answer this and other such
queries, we must first reconstruct the historical circumstances surrounding the composition of these songs.21
Berg wrote the Vier Lieder during 1908-1910. At that time the
composer was courting the affections of Helene Nahowsky, whom
he would marry in 1911; the songs' original dedication bears the
inscription "To my Helene. Alban Berg."22 I propose that Berg
used the four types of referential association mentioned abovespecific key relations, acronyms, quotations, and parody-all of
which are explicit in the tonal structures of the songs, to express

2oHeadlamprovides an extensive graph of cyclical tetrachords in t h ~ ssong.

In addition to Anthony Pople's comments in his "Secret Programmes: Themes
and Techniques in Recent Berg Scholarship," Music Analysis 1213 (1993):
392-94, see H. H. Stuckenschmidt's famous "Debussy or Berg? The Mystery
of a Chord Progression," The Musical Quarterly 5113 (1965): 453-59. Glenn
Watkins refers to the latter in his brief comments on "Warm die Ltifte" in
Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century (New York: Schirmer Books, 1988),
45-49.
ZIDetailed information on this period of Berg's life can be found in
Reinhard Gerlach, Musik and Jugenstil (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1985).
"One of the best sources for information about the relationship between
Alban and Helene is Constantin Floros, Alban Berg: Musik als Autobiographic
(Wiesbaden: Brietkopf & Hartel, 1992), 143-52.

Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op. 2, of Alban Berg 37

his feelings toward Helene. Before offering details of these associations in the songs, I give a brief outline of their importance.
While the application of these ideas to Op. 2 may initially seem
somewhat speculative, I trust their frequent occurrence in Berg's
other works will serve to substantiate the validity of my arguments.
1) Specific key relations. Berg continually associated the key
of D minor with Helene.23 It functions as the basic tonal center of
the initial song of op. 2 and as the home ("Heimat") key that recurs in mrn. 6-8 of the third song. Berg's correspondence with his
wife includes a letter (1907?) that ends with a reference to her as
"my most glorious Symphony in D minor," a phrase recalled in
his letter of 16 July 1909: "the most glorious D-minor chords of
~~
Jarman notes that this key occurs as an imyour S O U I . "Douglas
portant tonal center in the op. 6 Orchestral Pieces, in Der Wein,
the last interand in the final interlude of W o z ~ e c kConcerning
.~~
lude, in a letter to Helene dated 27 May 1922 Berg states, "I owe
it all to you and you alone. You composed it and I only wrote it
down." 26
2) Acronyms. The initial chromatic ascent in mm. 2-4 of
the first song (A-Bb-Bh) spells out an acronym of Alban
Berg and Helene, where H = Bh. Rent Leibowitz and Theodor
Adorno mention these pitches in regard to mm. 5-6 of the third

2'While writers have proposed the Beethoven Ninth or Mahler Sixth

Symphonies as possible origins of this association, David Schroeder traces it to
Berg's acquaintance with the plays of August Strindberg; see his "Berg,
Strindberg, and D minor, College Music. Synzposiun~3012 (1990): 74-89. The
key of D minor does occur in numerous pieces of this period: the D minor
String Quartet of Schoenberg, the D minor Passacaglia of Webern, and certain
songs of Zernlinsky. In this instance, Berg's association of the key to Helene
represents a specific case, a point not mentioned in the various analyses of
o p . 2.
2JAlban Berg: Letters to his Wife, ed. Bernard Grun (London: Faber and
Faber, 197 I), l , 6 2 .
25Jarman,Music (j'Berg, 18.
26AlbanBerg: Letters to His Wife, 30 1.

song,27but are silent concerning their initial appearance. In both

cases the original chromatic ascent continues on to C to form a
semi-tonal tetrachord, whose associative significance I discuss
below. Acronyms occur in other works of Berg: the Chamber
Concerto, whose mono theme is based on the names of Arnold
Schonberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg, the invariant tetrachord of the Lyric Suite using the names Alban Berg and Hanna
Fuchs, his secret mistress,Z8 and the set 4-18 [0147] based on the
framing letters of Helene Berg in Woueck, noted by Allen Forte.29
Coincidentally, in a letter to Helene dated December 1908, the
composer signed his name by notating the pitches A and Bb in the
treble clef. Since Berg did not write his letter alluding to his mystical number "23" and Wilhelm Fliess's Vom Leben und Tod
(1909) until 1914, it is probably coincidental that in the two inner
songs, which form a single unit, the arrival at the pivotal D minor
in the third song is concomitant with the first use of the A-B-H
motive at the end of m. 23 and the beginning of m. 24.
3) Quotations. Based on a consideration of the texts that Berg
chose, Stephen Kett describes the op. 2 songs as "a psychological
exploration of, and journey to, a distant world of 'sleep-death' as
an escape from reality"; he cites Tristan as the most likely influence.'O While the first three songs feature a prominent use of the
word sleep ("Schlafen"), the last song concludes with an allusion
to death ("Stirb!"), suggesting a longing for the "night" or eternal
sleep of death,31 the prevailing Schopenhauerian/metaphysical
27RenCLeibowitz, Srhoenberg et son Prole (Paris: J. B. Janin, 1947), 146,
and Theodor Adorno, Alban Berg: Master ofthe Smallest Link, trans. Juliane
Brand and Christopher Hailey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991),
49. At my suggestion, Hattey included this, as well as other allusions referred to
in this article, in his Thesis during his discussion of the first and third songs.
28Perle,"The Secret Program of the Lyrir Suite," 4-12.
Z9Allen Forte, "Berg's Symphonic Epilogue to Wouerk," in Alban Berg:
Historical and Analytical Perspectives, 157.
3oKett,"Conservative Revolution," 67-68.
?'The only two low A's in the vocal line of the cycle occur at the opening of
the first song on the word "Schlafen" and near the end of the last song on the
word "Stirb."

38

Music Theory Spectrum

motif that runs throughout Wagner's music drama. I believe there

are numerous disguised musical references to Tristan throughout
the songs, casting Alban and Helene as the star-crossed lovers.
Melodic gestures and harmonies cited at their original pitch levels
and drawn from the Prelude to Act I, the Ab Love Duet in Act 11,
and Isolde's final Transfiguration ("Liebestod) occur in each of
the last three songs. This is not totally surprising, since similar
quotations from Wagner's opera appear in his other works. In addition to embedding a "Tristan progression" in his op. 1 Piano
Sonata (rnrn.90-101),32 Berg actually quotes the opening measures of that opera's Prelude in the Finale of the Lyric Suite.33
Douglass Green suggests that the text of a poem by Baudelaire, on
which the last movement of that work was originally based, shows
a decided similarity to the opening scene of Act I11 in Tri~tan.3~
In
his correspondence to Helene during the composition of the op. 2
songs, Berg made several specific references to the opera: "Anyone who could write Tristan must surely have believed in love
with the uttermost conviction" (2 June 1907), and "to die for you
the death of love ('Liebestod')" (30 July 1909).3r
'This reference is omitted in Janet Schmalfeldt's extended voice-leading
analysis of the Sonata; see her "Berg's Path to Atonality: The Piano Sonata Op.
1," in Alban Berg: Historic.al andAnalytic~11Per.\pective.s, 79-1 10.
"In his provocative article "Tristan and Berg's Lyric. Suite," In Tl~eoryOnly
813 ((1984): 33-41, Joseph N Straus points out that a rearrangement and transposition of Hanna's A-B-H-F motive [0126] yields the opening cello pitches
of Tristan. A-F-E-D#. He further demonstrates how three segments of the tone
row (his "set B") in the last movement (mm 2-4 in the viola) may be mapped
into the Tristan quotation. These remarks were reiterated in his later Reshapin~
the Pa.\t; Music.al Modernisn~and tlle Influence of'tllr final Traditton (Cambr~dge,Mass : Harvard University Press, 1990), 144-49. Wagner h~mself
quoted the opening gesture of the Tristan Prelude in his own works. Aside from
the obvious citation in Act 111 of Mei.ster.singer (p. 452, mm. 1-4 of the Schirmer vocal score), he alluded to it in the "Paris" revision of Tannhduser:~
Bacchanal. The progression permeates much of the exchange between Parsifal
and Kundry in Act I1 of Parsifid, especially during the "kiss" (p. 184, rnm.
3-7).
'4Douglass Green, "Berg's De Profundis: The Finale of the Lyric Suite," T l ~ e
Interr~atior~al
Alban Berg Soc.iery Newsletter 5 (1977): 13-23.

35AlbanBerg: Letters to His Wife, 24, 78.

4) Parody. The third song of the cycle may represent the recomposition of an extended passage from Act I1 of Tristan.
Although I have been unable to find this degree of parody occurring in other works of Berg, his Violin Concerto does feature
"re-workings" of a Carinthian folk song and Bach's setting of the
chorale Es ist g e n ~ g . ~ ~
Based on his study of extant sketch material, Stephen Kett concludes that the two interior songs, both of which incorporate texts
from Alfred Mombert's Der Gliihende (1896), were w r i t t e n f i r ~ t . ~ ~
This view reinforces Jay Wilkey's contention that these two songs
form a single unit as the centerpiece of a triptych.38 In tracing the
complete cycle's compositional chronology in the following
analysis, I will hereafter assume that the second and third songs in
the opus ("Schlafend tragt man rnich" and "Nun ich der Riesen")
were composed first and second, respectively, followed by op. 2,
no. 1 ("Schlafen, Schlafen, nichts als Schlafen") and then op. 2,
no. 4 ("Warm die Liifte"). When viewed from this standpoint, it is
easy to see that the opening progression of "Schlafend tragt" already lays out the superimposed cycles l and 5 that permeate and
eventually close the set during the final measures of "Warm."
"Schlafend tragt" employs two significant linear motives.
Although I originally suspected that the first of these (Example
2a) represented a quotation from some other work, I have been
unable to locate it, either in Tristan or in earlier pieces of Schoen-

l6For a discussion of the sources and their occurrences, see Anthony Pople,
Berg:s Violin Conc,erto (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991); and
Douglas Jarman, "Alban Berg, Wilhelm Fliess, and the Secret Programme of
the Violin Concerto," in Tlie Berg Con~panion,181-96.
j7Kett ("Conservative Revolution," 80-82) provides a diagram linking the
tonal structure of the pair of interior songs, but his use of the term "French 6th"
in several instances is midleading, because the harmonies so denoted in mm 3
and 6 of "Nun ich" are half-diminished seventh chords.
38See Kett, "Conservative Revolution," 69-70, and Wilkey, "Certain
Aspects of Form," 23. Kett also suggests that Joseph Engelhart's painting Die
Sc,hlejienden, which features three sleeping women and a "faun-like creature"
(3 + I), may have been the initial inspiration for op. 2.

Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op. 2, of Alban Berg 39

Example 2. Two significant linear motives in "Schlafend tragt"

berg and Berg.39 On the other hand, the second melodic motive of
a rising minor sixth following by descending half-step motion
(Example 2b) does suggests the opening cello statement of the
Tristan Prelude. Occurring nine times during the song, the jrst
statement in the piano part (mm. 4-5) starts with the same three
notes used at the beginning of Tristan (A-F-E). The minor sixth is
confined to occurrences of that single interval within the omnipresent French-sixth chords of the song. At this stage of the
cycle's composition, no reference appears either to Helene's D
minor or the A-B-H motive, leading me to speculate that these associations may not have occurred to Berg until midway through
"Nun ich" at the crucial words "led by a white fairy's hand."
To facilitate discussion of the next-composed song ("Nun
ich"), Example 3 provides a graph of its underlying voice-leading.
The dominant-like cadence on Eb at the end of the previous song
resolves to Ab minor at the beginning of "Nun ich," first suggested
by the arpeggiated tonic triad in the vocal line of the first two
measures. After the bass pulls up chromatically to the Eb that supports an Ab-minor $ (with an added sixth) at the end of m. 2, a pair
of fifth-related harmonies (E7-A7, mm. 4-5) anive at the "home"
key of D minor ("heimfand") in m. 6. Just prior to this resolution,
the voice begins the A-B-H motive with Helen's Bh appropriately
39Krlmer("Quotations and Self-Borrowing," 80) contends that m. 5 and
23 of "Schlafen. Schlafen" are quotations from m. 15-16 of Schoenberg's
Dns B u d drr lziingencien Giirren No. 5. He does not, however, propose a
source for the opening of "Schlafend trigt."

occumng over her D minor harmony (m. 6), a tritone removed

from the Ab minor tonic of the song; the text at this point ("led by
a white fairy's hand") doubtless represents a direct reference to
the composer's beloved.40 During the subsequent prolonged D
minor chord of mrn. 6-8, the piano intones the D-A fifth, portraying the tolling of the bell and anticipating the opening interval of
"Schlafen, Schlafen," the next song to be composed. In both occurrences of the A-B-H motive here-in the vocal line of m. 5-6
and in the piano of m. 8-the chromatic ascent continues to C
(mm. 6-7, 9), forming chromatic tetrachords. If we are willing to
accept the existence of the A-F-E gesture in the previous song as
a derivation from the Tristan Prelude, what would be more natural
than to include Wagner's subsequent oboe G#-A-A#-B
gesture in
this song? The A B H acronym does occur as the last three notes
of the Tristan motive, but Berg transposed it up one half-step
(A-BC-B-C) so that its opening note (A, not Wagner's GI) would
form a consonant relation with the underlying A7 chord. This is
likewise true at the opening of the cycle's first song, where the
supporting harmony for the acronym's A is now a D minor triad.
But there is more, for the Ab minor $/added sixth chord at the end
of m. 2 represents an enharmonic form of the Tristan chord ( F Cb
Eb Ab = F B D # G#), which properly resolves to the E G#B D
chord in m. 4, completing Wagner's progression. The final three
bars of the song represent a variant of mm. 2-3, concluding with a
"half cadence" on E b.
Mark DeVoto has suggested that "Nun ich" bears a certain resemblance to the "Hagen's Wacht" music in Act I of Gotterdamm e r ~ n g . " ~I ' would go even farther and propose that this song
represents a truncated parody of the initial Ab portion of the ex, ~ ~ in turn is based on
tended Love Duets in Act I1 of T r i ~ t a nwhich
Wagner's Wesendonck song " T r a ~ m e . " ~Both
3
are preceded by
an extended dominant on Eb prior to the initiation of the Ab tonic.
'OFor a reference to the comments of Adomo and Leibowitz on this passage.
see note 27 above.
41DeVoto,"Berg: Composer of Songs," 44.
'*See p. 162, m. 17-21 in the Schirmer vocal score of Tristan.
''See Gauldin, "Wagner's Parody Technique."

40

Music Theory Spectrum

Example 3. Voice-leading graph of "Nun ich"

ab:

TC

v7/v

d:

ab:

While the Love Duet employs the major mode, its opening measures exploit numerous mixture references, especially b ? and b6;
these relations are mirrored in Berg's song as C versus Cb (m. 1)
and F versus Fb (rnm. 2-3). The initial prominent notes of the
song's vocal line outline the Tristan chord, especially in mm. 2-3
(F-Ab- Cb-Eb), a procedure that likewise opens the Wagner passage (p. 163, mm. 1-5 of the Schirmer vocal score). A continuous
pulsating tripletJduplet syncopation underlies the rhythmic surface
of both the Duet and song.44In the latter portion of the Love Duet
(p. 168, mm. 2-8) the E7 of the Tristan progression "resolves" to
an A major t , and then moves on to a D in the bass. Berg mimics
this same harmonic motion in mm. 2-6, but now the D supports a
minor-mode tonicization on that tone. Both pieces conclude on
their Eb dominants; Wagner appends a brief codetta (p. 169, mm.
3-11) that exploits passing chromatic motion around the Ab tonic.
'4This figuration is already anticipated in the last two measures of the previous song;
dominant likewise establishes the rhythmic pulsation in
- a preceding
.
the Love Duet.

V'

Even if these similarities were not intentional on Berg's part, they

do represent a striking coincidence and tend to reenforce the
melodic/harmonic quotations from Wagner's Prelude.
Having realized the compositional potential of Helene's D
minor tonality and the A-B-H motive in "Nun i c h along with the
Tristan citations in both of first two songs, I believe that Berg then
attempted to incorporate them in a more meaningful manner
within the fabric of the next-composed song in Op. 2, "Schlafen,
Schlafen." In his search for another text that dealt with the common theme of "Sleep and Death," the composer was forced to
look outside the Mombert cycle; "Schlafen, Schlafen" is based on
a poem from Friedrich Hebbel's collection Dem Schmerz sein
Recht (1836). It opens in Helene's D minor established by a reiterated fifth (D-A) in the bass, with the A-B-H motive emphatically
stated in the inner voice (mm. 1-4 and Example 4a), continuing
on to C as in "Nun ich." These original pitch classes then recur in
mm. 11-12 of the vocal line rearranged to spell out B-A-C-H,
which immediately appears in sequence a tone higher in the following measures (C-B-D-C#). This allusion to Bach may repre-

Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op. 2, of Alban Berg 41

Example 4. Use of acronyms in "ScNafen, Schlafen"

b. nun 1-5

a. mm.1-5

C H

seg. T2

sent an intentional clue on Berg's part, hinting that a less obvious

acronym (the A-B-H reference) is disguised somewhere in the
song. The brief 5 cycle in the bass (C#-F&B-E and Example 4b)
that supports the B-A-C-H quotation recalls the framing progressions of the "Schlagend tragt."45 A fleeting sonority in m. 19
suggests the same pitches and spacing of the "bell" fourth-chord
in mm. 6-7 of "Nun ich." Beginning with the upbeat to m. 21, the
opening melodic gestures recur in the manner of a free palindrome (underpinned by the referential 5-32 [01469] sonority on
D) before coming to rest on the original D minor tonic (Example
4c), as has been previously observed by Morgan.46The three occurrences of the retrograded H-B-A (mm. 20-21, 21-22, 27-29)
'SLambert ("Ives and Berg," 108-9) points out that following an interruption, this 5 cycle (C#-F#-B-E) continues in mm. 18-20 with A-D-G. The tritone relation between this cycle's framing C # and G recalls the opening 5 cycle
of "Schlafend tragt," which spans the tritone BbIFb.
46Morgan,"The Eternal Return," 84.

may symbolize the composer's hope that the middle "B" (= Berg)
will eventually become their shared name. Although no overt references to Trisran appear in "Schlafen, Schlafen," the prevailing
D minor may also allude to the dramatic events in the final scene
of Act 11, where King Mark is associated with the same key.
Wagnerian scholars have compared the good-hearted monarch to
Otto Wesendonck, who initially seemed oblivious to the "affair of
the heart" developing between his wife Mathilde and Richard.
Perhaps Berg sensed a parallel to Helene's father, who was suspicious of Berg's ability to support his daughter.
While no further references to D minor occur in "Warm," the
final song of the set, acronyms of Berg's name (A-B) occur in
mm. 9-10 and at the climax of the work (last beat of m. 15
through m. 19) concomitant with the word "Stirb." (Does this represent a Schopenhauerian rejection of the Will?) This may be connected with the cycle's final bass note Bh to suggest once again an
anticipated marriage under one name: Berg, Alban and Helene.

42

Music Theory Spectrum

Finally, the last referential 5-32 sonority of the cycle, built on

Helene's Bh, may represent a double allusion both to Wagner's
Isolde and to Berg's Helene: the final chord of Isolde's Transfiguration, B D# F#, plus Helene's A and D, derived from her D
minor.47 Thus the cycle's opening 5-32 in Helene's D minor
("Schlafen, Schlafen") is transfigured by Isolde's sacrificial love,
concluding "Warm" with the same sonority now on Bh. I suspect that Berg sketched out this final progression of the set after
completing the first two songs; the final song's 5 cycle and 3-5
trichords, as noted above and shown in Example Id, had already been introduced in "Schlafend tragt" and "Nun ich." He
then transferred the last augmented ninth chord on B back to
"Schlafen, Schlafen," the next-composed song, and transposed it
to Helene's original D minor. Further disguised references to the
Wagner's "Liebestod" suggest a possible parody: while the prominent upper F # s in mm. 4-6 of the final song may allude to the F#
Kopfton of last B major section of Isolde's Transfiguration, the
semitonal wedges in mm. 12-15 of the song display a striking
similarity to those passages of contrary chromatic motion found in
that aria (p. 297, m. 7 through 298, m. 3, and p. 295, m. 7 through
299, m.7 of the Schirmer vocal score).48

While nothing in the above discussion negates the findings of

prior studies of this cycle, it does, I trust, illustrate the significant
roles played by extra- and intra-musical associations in the songs.
Despite the speculative nature of some of my proposals, they do
not represent anything radically different from what has been similarly described in Berg's other w0rks.~9As other scholars have
pointed out, he seemed intent on imbuing every phrase or gesture
with as many intra- and extra-musical meanings as possible. As
such, this brief study may open further vistas for the exploration
of Berg's referential associations in his later works.
ABSTRACT
While scholars have focused considerable attention on extramusical references and associations in certain works of Alban Berg (especially the
Lyric Suite, Chamber Concerto, Wozzeck, and the Violin Concerto), little
attention has been given to these kinds of procedures in Berg's early Vier
Lieder, op. 2. Referential associations in the op. 2 songs originate from
the composer's relationship with Helene Nahowsky, whose affections he
was courting during the time of their composition (1908-10). The references involve the key of D minor ("Helene's key"), an acronym based on
the couple's initials (A B H = A Bb Bb), and quotations and parody alluding to passages from Wagner's Tristnn und I.solde.

"Kett ("Conservative Revolution," 84) suggests that the "split third" in this
final sonority refers back to the tonalities of "Schlafen, Schlafen" (D minor)
and "Schlafend tragt" (EP[Dl] minor).
48Seethe discussion of these "wedges" in Leonard Meyer, Music and Srylr
(Phladelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), 3 19-23.

"Even in the more "abstract" instrumental works of Webern, extra-musical

influences occasionally appear; see David Cohen, "Anton Webern and the
M ' 1311 (1974): 213-15, which deals
Magic Square," Prr.spec.tive.s ~ ~ ' N CMu.sic
with the Latin word square based on SATOR and its use in the final measures of
the op. 24 finale.

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Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op. 2, of Alban Berg
Robert Gauldin
Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Spring, 1999), pp. 32-42.
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[Footnotes]
12

Wagner's Parody Technique: "Trume" and the "Tristan" Love Duet

Robert Gauldin
Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 1. (Spring, 1979), pp. 35-42.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0195-6167%28197921%291%3C35%3AWPT%22AT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9
18

Berg's 'Scheideweg': Analytical Issues in Op. 2/ii

Craig Ayrey
Music Analysis, Vol. 1, No. 2. (Jul., 1982), pp. 189-202.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0262-5245%28198207%291%3A2%3C189%3AB%27AIIO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V
20

Debussy or Berg? The Mystery of a Chord Progression

H. H. Stuckenschmidt; Piero Weiss
The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 3. (Jul., 1965), pp. 453-459.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4631%28196507%2951%3A3%3C453%3ADOBTMO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y
49

Anton Webern and the Magic Square

David Cohen
Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 13, No. 1. (Autumn - Winter, 1974), pp. 213-215.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-6016%28197423%2F24%2913%3A1%3C213%3AAWATMS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K

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