Lot 114: BERG, Alban (1885-1935). Autograph musical quotation signed ("Alban Berg"), to Erme(?) Katz, Frankfurt, 19 April 1931. 1 page, oblong 12mo, with autograph musical example notated on a single hand-drawn stave, in a giltwood frame.

BERG QUOTES THE OPENING OF HIS FAMOUS ATONAL OPERA WOZZECK A very attractive example of an extended bar from Wozzeck, notated by the composer on a carefully drawn staff and boldly signed. Berg's operatic masterpiece (based on the play Woyzeck by Georg Bchner) provoked a violent reaction at its premiŠre in 1925. Berg adopted atonality and later the twelve-tone technique of Arnold Schoenberg (with whom he studied from 1904), but combined it with elements of the lyric and dramatic qualities of the Viennese romantic tradition. Wozzeck is written in free atonal style, with occasional intrusions of tonality and is generally considered "an epoch-making work that broke new ground musically, emotionally and dramatically" ( Grove Dictionary, III, pp.316-17). The success of Wozzeck brought Berg recognition as a composer and a degree of financial stability; royalties, along with private teaching, enabled him to devote himself to composition.