sign in sign up
<<
Home , Moses und Aron, Wozzeck

Today’s

BERG:

Alban Berg: Wozzeck (1926). in Three Acts. Text by the composer, based on by Georg Büchner (1813–37). Büchner was a brilliant but short-lived writer from the start of the 19th Century. His play, a searing attack on militarism and social injustice, was left unfinished at his death, existing only as a large number of short scenes. It was first performed only in 1913 in Munich and in Vienna the following year, a performance that Berg attended. Working on the opera during his own service in the World War, Berg must have seen uncanny relevance across the centuries. The opera premiered in Berlin in 1925 under , and was an immediate success until banned by the Nazis in 1933.

[The following synopsis is adapted from Wikipedia. Sections to be played in class are underlined.]

Despite its , the three acts and the five scenes in each act are distinguished by reference to conventional musical structures. These are listed after each section below.

Act One, Scene 1 (Suite). Wozzeck is shaving the Captain who lectures him on the qualities of a "decent man" and taunts him for living an immoral life. Wozzeck slavishly replies, "Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann"

— 1 — repeatedly to the Captain's abuse. However, when the Captain scorns Wozzeck for having a child out of wedlock, Wozzeck protests that it is difficult to be virtuous when he is poor. The flustered Captain, unable to comprehend Wozzeck, finally concedes that he is a decent man, and dismisses him.

Act One, Scene 2 (Rhapsody and Hunting Song). Wozzeck and his friend Andres are cutting sticks as the sun is setting. Wozzeck has frightening visions and Andres tries unsuccessfully to calm him.

Act One, Scene 3 (March and Lullaby). A military parade passes by outside Marie's room. Her neighbor Margret taunts her for flirting with the soldiers. Marie sings a lullaby to her son. Wozzeck then comes by and tells Marie of the terrible visions he has had, but leaves without seeing their son, much to Marie's dismay. She laments about being poor.

Act One, Scene 4 (). The Doctor scolds Wozzeck for not following his instructions regarding diet and behavior. However, when the Doctor hears of Wozzeck's mental aberrations, he is delighted and congratulates himself on the success of his experiment.

Act One, Scene 5 (). Marie admires the Major outside her room. He makes advances to her, which she first rejects but then accepts after a short struggle.

Act Two, Scene 1 (Sonata-Allegro). Marie is telling her child to go to sleep while admiring earrings which the Drum Major gave her. When Wozzeck asks where she got the earrings, she says she found them. Though not convinced, Wozzeck gives her some money and leaves. Marie chastises herself for her behavior.

Act Two, Scene 2 (Fantasia and on 3 Themes). The Doctor rushes by the Captain in the street, who urges him to slow down. The Doctor then proceeds to scare the Captain by speculating what afflictions may strike him. When Wozzeck comes by, they insinuate that Marie is being unfaithful to him.

Act Two, Scene 3 (Largo). Wozzeck confronts Marie, who does not deny his suspicions. Enraged, Wozzeck is about to hit her, when she stops him, saying even her father never dared lay a hand on her. Her statement "better a knife in my belly than your hands on me" plants in Wozzeck's mind the idea for his subsequent revenge.

Act Two, Scene 4 (). In the tavern, Wozzeck sees Marie dancing with the Drum Major. After a brief hunter's chorus, Andres asks Wozzeck why he is sitting by himself. An Apprentice delivers a drunken sermon, then an Idiot approaches Wozzeck and cries out that the joyful scene reeks of blood.

Act Two, Scene 5 (Rondo). In the barracks at night, Wozzeck, unable to sleep, is keeping Andres awake. The Drum Major comes in, intoxicated, and rouses Wozzeck out of bed to fight with him.

Act Three, Scene 1 (Invention on a Theme). In her room at night, Marie reads to herself the passage from the Bible about the woman taken in adultery. She cries out that she wants forgiveness.

— 2 —

Act Three, Scene 2 (Invention on a Single Note). Wozzeck and Marie are walking in the woods by a pond. Marie is anxious to leave, but Wozzeck restrains her. As a blood-red moon rises, Wozzeck becomes determined that if he can't have Marie, no one else can, and he stabs her.

Act Three, Scene 3 (Invention on a Rhythm). Again in the tavern, people are dancing. Wozzeck enters, and upon seeing Margret, dances with her and pulls her onto his lap. He insults her, and then asks her to sing him a song. She sings, but then notices blood on his hand and elbow; everyone begins shouting at him, and Wozzeck, now agitated and obsessed with his blood, rushes out of the tavern.

Act Three, Scene 4 (Invention on a ). Having returned to the murder scene, Wozzeck becomes obsessed with the thought that his knife will incriminate him, and throws it into the pond. When the blood-red moon appears again, Wozzeck, fearing that he has not thrown the knife far enough from shore and also wanting to wash away the blood staining his clothing and hands, wades into the pond and drowns. The Captain and the Doctor, passing by, hear Wozzeck moaning and rush off in fright.

Interlude (Invention on a Key). A four-minute orchestral adagio summing up the emotions of the opera.

Act Three, Scene 5 (Invention on an Eighth-Note moto perpetuo, quasi ). Next morning, children are playing in the sunshine. The news spreads that Marie's body has been found, and they all run off to see, eventually including Marie's little boy, who incomprehendingly follows after the others.

— 3 —

SCHOENBERG: UND ARON

Arnold Schoenberg: (1930–32). Opera in two acts, with a third unfinished. Text by the composer after . Schoenberg wrote two of the planned three acts of his Moses und Aron between 1930 and 1932, but wrote only sketches for the third. Because he always intended to finish the opera, though, it was never performed in his lifetime. Its first staging was in in 1957, six years after the composer’s death. This was in the two-act version. Although another composer, Zoltán Kocsis, eventually set the missing third act, this “complete” version has never been staged. The two acts that Schoenberg wrote have a logical unity of their own, and are often considered the composer’s masterpiece. The unusual spelling of the title is due to Schoenbergs triskaidekaphobia.

Schoenberg’s covers the calling of Moses at the burning bush, the deliverance from captivity in Egypt, and the wandering of the Israelites in the desert. Not all of this is told in normal dramatic form, and indeed the composer originally planned the work as an . As an opera, it has only two leading characters, only one of whom (Aron) actually sings; Moses, who claimed he was tongue-tied, speaks only in Sprechstimme; he needs his half-brother Aron as his mouthpiece. The chorus, however, plays a major part in the drama.

The ideas in Moses und Aron also derive in part from a political play Schoenberg wrote in 1928, called The Biblical Way. Its protagonist, Max Aruns, is an idealized combination of Moses and .

— 4 —

[The following synopsis is taken from Wikipedia. Sections to be played in class are underlined.]

Act One. Moses, in the presence of the burning bush, reluctantly receives from God the order to become a prophet and free Israel from bondage in Egypt. Moses asks to be spared such a task, he is old and though he can think, he cannot speak. God assures him that he will put words in his heart and orders him to find his brother Aron.

In the desert Moses greets Aron, who will have to serve as his spokesman, explaining his difficult ideas in terms the people can understand. Soon they start misunderstanding each other: Moses assures him that love is the key to unlocking this mystery, but Aron praises God for hearing prayers and receiving offerings. Moses cautions that the purification of one's own thinking is the only reward to be expected from tributes.

In the Israelite community there are many who claim to have seen God in different manifestations. A young couple discusses Moses' having been chosen to lead the Israelites. The elders are afraid that because he killed an Egyptian guard, bringing retribution on his people, he will get them into further trouble. One man expresses hope that the new idea of a single God will prove stronger than Egypt's multiple gods, stronger than Pharaoh's grip. The people reiterate this hope, looking at the arriving Moses and Aron, who keep changing roles so that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. Trying to explain how God can be perceived only within oneself, Moses grows frustrated by Aron's glibness, which seems to weaken his idea. Aron defies Moses, seizing his rod and throwing it down, whereupon it turns into a serpent; this, says Aron, shows how a rigid idea can be made flexible. The people wonder how this new God can help them against Pharaoh's might. Aron shows them another wonder: Moses' hand, which appears leprous, is healed when he places it over his heart, wherein God dwells. The people now believe God will strengthen their own hands: they will throw off their shackles and escape into the wilderness, where Moses says purity of thought will provide the only sustenance they need. Pouring Nile water, which appears to change into blood, Aron interprets the sign, saying they will no longer sweat blood for the Egyptians but will be free. When the water appears clear again, Aron says Pharaoh will drown in it. Promised a land of milk and honey, the people pledge their allegiance to this new God.

Act Two. Moses has been gone for forty days and the people are left in the desert waiting. Unnerved by his long absence, the people wonder whether God and Moses have abandoned them.

At the foot of the mountain, Aron, a priest and a group of elders wonder why Moses has been gone so long, as licentiousness and disorder prevail among the people. Aron assures them that once Moses has assimilated God's intent, he will present it in a form the people can grasp. To the anxious people who flock to him for advice, however, he admits that Moses may have defected or be in danger. Seeing them unruly and ready to kill their priests, Aron tries to calm them by giving them back their other gods: he will let them have an image they can worship. A is set up and offerings are brought, including self-sacrifices at the altar. An emaciated youth who protests the false image is killed by tribal leaders. Priests sacrifice four virgins, and the people, who have been drinking and dancing, turn wild and orgiastic. When they have worn themselves out, and many have fallen asleep, a lookout sees Moses returning from the mountain.

— 5 —

Destroying the golden calf, Moses demands an accounting from Aron, who justifies his indulgence of the people by saying that no word had come from Moses. While Moses' love is entirely for his idea of God, Aron says, the people too need his love and cannot survive without it. In despair Moses smashes the tablets of the laws he has brought down from the mountain. Aron denounces him as fainthearted, saying he himself keeps Moses' idea alive by trying to explain it. Led by a pillar of fire in the darkness, which turns to a pillar of cloud by day, the people come forth, encouraged once more to follow God's sign to the . Moses distrusts the pillar as another vain image, but Aron says it guides them truly. As Aron joins the people in their exodus, Moses feels defeated. He cries out in despair that he lacks the capability to speak.

Act Three. [A single scene, complete in the libretto, but never composed.] Aron is put under arrest, accused of fostering idle hopes with his imagery such as that of the Promised Land. Aron insists that Moses' word would mean nothing to the people unless interpreted in terms they can understand. Moses declares that such sophistry will win the people's allegiance to the imagery and not God; by misrepresenting the true nature of God, Aron keeps leading the people back into the wilderness. When Moses tells the soldiers to let Aron go free, Aron falls dead. Even in the wilderness, Moses says, the people will reach their destined goal: unity with God.

— 6 —