Analysis Of Alban Berg's Opera Wozzeck

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In Act III, scene 1 of his opera Wozzeck, Alban Berg employs his take on a theme and variations. When one hears that a piece of music is classified as an “invention on a theme,” they immediately associate the style with early composers from the Baroque era, a time when classical conventions truly started to take their form. By employing methods of long term tonicization, bending the classical expectations of form and harmony, and accentuating Marie’s sense of wandering conscious and morality, Berg is able to give the audience a profound insight into Marie’s relationship with Wozzeck, her child, and herself.
Throughout scene 1 of Act III Berg strongly accentuates G, and by result also outlines both its major and minor triads. Berg imposes this …show more content…

In that variation we notice Marie’s line no longer arpeggiating a G minor triad, but instead leads toward an F-sharp to C tritone in measure 28. Berg goes even further as to make that tritone the goal in the bass of the accompaniment as well, in measures 30-32. However, much like the underlying tonality of G in the first iteration of the second theme, this theme highlights the pitch D. While Marie’s line does not transparently arpeggiate a D triad, by beginning her line on a D above the F-sharp in the bass, a D chord in first inversion can be super-imposed. (Figure 3) If we consider the F-sharp and C tritone that Marie is moving towards to be a part of this imposed harmony, then one can state that a dominant seventh chord is strongly implied. The solo viola begins the same voice leading path as Marie, only a measure later. By displacing these themes in a fugue-like fashion, Berg is taking on the same unsettling mood as he did in the beginning thematic declaration, only this time with variations on the same theme. By implementing this Berg sets up the listener to wait with anticipation for the second theme, which he presents immediately after in the fifth

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