Alban Maria Johannes Berg
(born Feb. 9, 1885, Vienna, Austria-Hungary — died Dec. 24, 1935, Vienna, Austria) Austrian composer. He was largely self-taught musically until he met
Arnold Schoenberg at age 19. This would prove to be the decisive event in his life, and Schoenberg would remain his teacher for eight years. Under his influence, Berg's early late-Romantic tonal works gave way to increasing
atonality and finally (1925) to 12-tone composition. His Expressionist opera
Wozzeck (1922) would become the most universally acclaimed post-Romantic opera. His second opera,
Lulu, on which he worked for six years, remained unfinished at his death. Berg's other works include two string quartets, including the
Lyric Suite (1926);
Three Pieces for Orchestra (1915); and a violin concerto (1935).
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