Alban Berg
7 Early Songs
Short instrumentation: 1 1 1 1 - 1 0 0 0 - pno, glock, str (min. 1 1 1 1 1, max. 4 4 3 2 1 players)
Duration: 17'
Bearbeitung: Paul Leonard Schäffer
Solos:
high voice
Instrumentation details:
flute
oboe (+c.a)
clarinet in Bb (+bass cl(Bb))
bassoon
horn in F
glockenspiel
piano
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
double bass (strings: min. 1 1 1 1 1, max. 4 4 3 2 1 players)
Berg - 7 frühe Lieder for high voice and ensemble or chamber orchestra
Printed/Digital
Translation, reprints and more
Alban Berg
Berg: 7 frühe LiederOrchestration: für hohe Stimme und Ensemble oder Kammerorchester
Type: Partitur
Language: Deutsch
Sample pages
Work introduction
Berg composed these early songs along with many others between 1905 and 1908, when he was already having lessons with Arnold Schönberg. They were not part of his studies, although they were not entirely independent of them.
20 years later, Berg decided to publish these early songs anew, but – like Mahler – in two versions, one for piano and the other with orchestral accompaniment. For a certain time, it was not certain how many there would be; ultimately they totalled seven.
However, Berg not only wanted to fashion the lieder anew or improve them in this manner; he wanted to form them into a cyclical unity, despite the heterogeneity of their poetic bases.
In 2014, Paul Leonard Schäffer scored the cycle for ensemble or chamber orchestra (i.e. not merely reducing the orchestra version), basing is work on the original piano version published by UE in 1928. Thus he followed the path Berg had taken when orchestrating the music.