View source for Wozzeck

{{short description|1925 opera by Alban Berg; Berg's first opera}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox opera
| name = Wozzeck
| composer = [[Alban Berg]]
| image = Hans Heinrich Palitzsch 1974 poster Wozzek.jpg
| caption = Poster from the 1974 [[Oldenburgisches Staatstheater]] production
| librettist = Berg
| language = German
| based_on = {{based on|''[[Woyzeck]]''|[[Georg Büchner]]}}
| premiere_date = {{Start date|1925|12|14|df=y}}
| premiere_location = [[Berlin State Opera]]
}}
'''''Wozzeck''''' ({{IPA|de|ˈvɔtsɛk}}) is the first [[opera]] by Austrian composer [[Alban Berg]], created between 1914 and 1922 and premiered on 14 December 1925 at the [[Berlin State Opera]]. Based on [[Georg Büchner]]'s play ''[[Woyzeck]]'' (1836), it depicts a soldier's tragic slide into madness and murder amid [[militarism]] and [[oppression]].

Berg's [[expressionist music]]al language and innovative approach to [[musical form]] heightened the opera's [[Psychological fiction|psychological realism]]. He used [[atonality]] and [[leitmotif]]s to show individuals' emotional and existential plight under [[Authoritarianism|forces of authority]]. Drawing on tonal and rhythmic idioms from folk and dance music, he linked [[Social psychology|psychological and social dimensions]] and exposed [[social alienation]]. He also invoked latent [[Theme (narrative)|theme]]s and [[Music semiology|topic]]s of fate and nature, reflecting an understanding of humanity as shaped by universal forces.

A {{lang|fr|[[succès de scandale]]}} at its premiere, ''Wozzeck'' faced backlash but became a landmark of early 20th-century [[Opera#Modernism|modernist opera]]. It remains a cornerstone of the repertoire, celebrated for its narrative power and complex musical structure.

==Background==
{{multiple image
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| image1            = Georg_Büchner_-_Franzos-Werkausgabe_!04.jpg
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* (left) [[Georg Büchner]], illustration in an 1879 French edition of his complete works
* (right) Plaque marking ''Wozzeck'''s composition at the present-day Alban Berg Villa in [[Trahütten]]
}}
}}

Berg created the {{lang|de|[[Literaturoper]]|italics=no}} (literary opera) ''Wozzeck'' from 1914 to 1922, stalled by [[World War I]].<ref name="Watkins 2003">{{cite book |author-last=Watkins |author-first=Glenn |author-link=Glenn Watkins |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pprwj |title=Proof Through the Night: Music and the Great War |publisher=University of California Press |others=Sponsors, Sukey and [[Gil Garcetti]], Michael P. Roth, and the Roth Family Foundation |isbn=978-0-520-23158-0 |edition=First hardcover |publication-place=Berkeley |publication-date=2003 |pages=232–241}}</ref>{{sfnm|Hall|2011|1loc=26–38|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=176}} He had first pursued a literary career, writing [[Lyric poetry|lyrical]] and dramatic [[juvenilia]], including after [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s play ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]''.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=17–21, citing Berg's "long love epic" titled "Hanna" as well as his "Bergwerk" or "Mining Drama" project}} But in 1904, he diaried that music was "a [[Classificatory disputes about art#Schemes of classification of arts|higher form]] of revelation".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=56, quoting Berg on Brahms's [[A German Requiem (Brahms)|German Requiem]], with phrasing likely from the [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]-attributed [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] to ''Spemanns Goldenes Buch der Musik'': "Music is a form of revelation higher than all wisdom and philosophy"}} [[Arnold Schoenberg]], his mentor, advised, "let poetry lead you ... to music".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=4–5, quoting Schoenberg}} Schoenberg premiered some of Berg's aphoristic ''[[Altenberg Lieder]]'' (1911–1912), which caused the 1913 {{lang|de|[[Skandalkonzert]]|italics=no}}. He told Berg to write a [[Suite (music)|suite]] of [[character piece]]s (the [[Three Pieces for Orchestra (Berg)|Three Orchestra Pieces]], 1913–1915) before trying a planned vocal symphony after [[Gustav Mahler]], but affirmed Berg's operatic interest in the [[chamber play]]s of [[August Strindberg]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=119–124, 140–142, 175, quoting Berg's letter to Schoenberg}}

Then Berg twice attended the May 1914 Vienna premiere of [[Georg Büchner]]'s play ''[[Woyzeck]]'' (1836) at the {{lang|de|{{ill|Kammerspiele der Josefstadt|lt=Residenzbühne|de}}|italics=no}}. He recalled seeing [[Albert Steinrück]] as Wozzeck among visitors from the [[Munich Residenz#The Old Residenz Theatre|Munich Residenz Theatre]] and said he "immediately" decided to make it an opera.{{sfnm|Berg|2014|1loc=327|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=175–176}} Berg wrote his own [[libretto]], which is indebted partly to writer [[Karl Emil Franzos]]. Franzos's version, titled ''Wozzeck'' by a misreading of poorly legible papers shared by Büchner's brother, physician [[Ludwig Büchner]], first appeared in a ''[[Neue Freie Presse]]'' serial (1875) and in his "critical, complete" Büchner edition (1879).{{sfnm|sfn|Hall|2011|1loc=26–38|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=179, 181–185}}

===Büchner, Woyzeck, and Berg===

====Büchner and Woyzeck====
Trained in biology and medicine,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=180}} Georg Büchner taught [[comparative anatomy]] at the [[University of Zurich]].<ref name="Reddick 1990">{{cite book |author-last=Reddick |author-first=John |chapter=The shattered whole: Georg Büchner and {{lang|de|Naturphilosophie}} |editor-last1=Cunningham |editor-first1=Andrew |editor-last2=Jardine |editor-first2=Nicholas |title=Romanticism and the Sciences |url=https://archive.org/details/romanticismscien0000unse |language=English |edition=Hardcover |publication-place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |publication-date=1990 |pages=326, 328 |isbn=978-0-521-35602-2 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref> A [[Romanticism in science|Romantic in science]] like his patron [[Lorenz Oken]],<ref name="Dedner 2017">{{cite book |author-last=Dedner |author-first=Burghard |chapter=Producing 'thoughts by means of the body'. Büchner and the Enigma of Consciousness |editor-last1=Gillett |editor-first1=Robert |editor-last2=Schonfield |editor-first2=Ernest |editor-last3=Steuer |editor-first3=Daniel |title=Georg Büchner: Contemporary Perspectives |series=Amsterdamer Beitrage zur neueren Germanistik |url=https://brill.com/display/title/34315 |language=English, German |volume=89 |others=Founding editor, Gerd Labroisse; series editors: William Collins Donahue, Norbert Otto Eke, Martha B Helfer, Sven Kramer; cover, Armin Smailovic |edition=Hardcover |publication-place=Leiden |publisher=Brill |publication-date=2017 |pages=31, 34 |isbn=978-90-04-33859-3 |issn=0304-6257 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715133727/https://brill.com/display/title/34315 |archive-date=15 July 2024 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref> he treated [[taboo]] topics like sex, religion, and politics in literature<ref name="Reddick 1994">{{cite book |author-last=Reddick |author-first=John |title=Georg Büchner: The Shattered Whole |url=https://archive.org/details/georgbuchnershatOOOOredd |language=English |edition=Hardcover |publication-place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |publication-date=1994 |pages=5 |isbn=978-0-19-815812-7 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref> and stressed [[characterization]] over [[narrative]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=180}}<ref name="Guthrie 1995">{{cite book |author-last=Guthrie |author-first=John |chapter=Introduction |editor-last1=Reddick |editor-first1=John |title=Georg Büchner: Woyzeck |url=https://archive.org/details/woyzeck0000buch |language=English |edition=2nd revised |publication-place=London |publisher=Duckworth Books |publication-date=1995 |pages=17–20 |isbn=978-1-85399-374-9 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref> He had proto-[[Marxism|Marxian]]{{sfn|Reddick|1994|loc=6}} or similarly [[radical politics]] and studied the [[French Revolution]] for his first play, ''[[Danton's Death]]'' (1835), which left him feeling "crushed" by forces he sought to describe in an 1834 letter to his fiancée [[Minna Jaeglé]]: "I find in [[human nature]] a terrible sameness [...]. Individuals are but froth on the waves, ... a ridiculous struggle against an [[iron law (disambiguation)|iron law]] [...]."{{sfnm|Perle|1980|1loc=24|Reddick|1994|2loc=108–110|Simms and Erwin|2021|3loc=180–181}}<ref name="Büchner 1993">{{cite book |author-last=Büchner |author-first=Georg |chapter=Selected Letters |editor-last1=Reddick |editor-first1=John |title=Georg Büchner: Complete Plays, ''Lenz'' and Other Writings |url=https://archive.org/details/completeplayslen0000buch |language=English |edition=Revised paperback |publication-place=London |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |publication-date=1993 |pages=195–196 |isbn=978-0-14-044586-2 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref>

His work expresses a [[unity of opposites]], or [[negation|complement]]s, from [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]] and [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]].<ref name="Thompson 2017">{{cite book |author-last=Thompson |author-first=Peter |chapter=Büchner, Science and the Metaphysics of Contingency |editor-last1=Gillett |editor-first1=Robert |editor-last2=Schonfield |editor-first2=Ernest |editor-last3=Steuer |editor-first3=Daniel |title=Georg Büchner: Contemporary Perspectives |series=Amsterdamer Beitrage zur neueren Germanistik |url=https://brill.com/display/title/34315 |language=English, German |volume=89 |others=Founding editor, Gerd Labroisse; series editors: William Collins Donahue, Norbert Otto Eke, Martha B Helfer, Sven Kramer; cover, Armin Smailovic |edition=Hardcover |publication-place=Leiden |publisher=Brill |publication-date=2017 |pages=55–59 |isbn=978-90-04-33859-3 |issn=0304-6257 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715133727/https://brill.com/display/title/34315 |archive-date=15 July 2024 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref> Philosopher [[György Lukács]] called him a [[literary realism|literary realist]] after the hero of Büchner's [[Lenz (fragment)|''Lenz'' fragment]] (1835), who calls for artists to "submerge themselves in the life of the ... humblest person and ... reproduce it with all its faint agitations, hints of experience, the subtle ... play of his features [expressions]."<ref name="Lukács 1993">{{cite book |author-last=Lukács |author-first=György |author-link=György Lukács |chapter=The Real Georg Buchner and his Fascist Misrepresentation [1937] |editor-last1=Livingstone |editor-first1=Rodney |translator-last1=Gaines |translator-first1=Jeremy |translator-last2=Keast |translator-first2=Paul |title=German Realists in the Nineteenth Century |trans-title=''translated reprint, with editor's introduction, of [[Ferenc Jánossy]]'s'' {{lang|de|Deutsche Realisten des 19. Jahrhunderts}} ''(1951)'' |url=https://archive.org/details/germanrealistsin00luka |language=English |edition=First hardcover |publication-place=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |publication-date=1993 |pages=86–88 |isbn=978-0-262-12171-2 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref><ref name="Lukács 1937">{{cite web |last=Lukács |first=György |author-link=György Lukács |editor-last=Blunden |editor-first=Andy |title=The Real Georg Büchner and his Fascist Misrepresentation |trans-title="{{lang|de|Der faschistisch verfälschte und der wirkliche Georg Büchner|italics=no}}", originally published in ''[[Das Wort]]'' |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/buchner/lukacs.htm |series=Georg Lukács Archive |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |language=English |translator-last1=P |translator-first1=Anton |publication-date=19 February 1937 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250215102457/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/buchner/lukacs.htm |archive-date=15 February 2025 |access-date=11 November 2025 |quote=As a great realist, however, he portrayed Woyzeck [...]. And in the short story fragment ''Lenz'', Büchner has his hero, the well-known friend of [[Goethe]]'s from his youth, express the following commitment to true realism: '[...] Try once to immerse yourself in the life of the little one and reproduce it in the twitches, the hints, the whole delicate, hardly noticed play of expressions [...]. They are the most prosaic men under the sun; but the vein of feeling is the same in almost everyone, only the shell through which it has to break is more or less dense. You just have to have an eye and an ear for it.'}}</ref> [[German literature]] scholar John Reddick argued his style expressed [[paradox]]es in [[mosaic]]s, as in a "shattered [[Absolute (philosophy)|whole]]": "All my being is in this single moment", says Leonce at the climax of ''[[Leonce and Lena|Leonce und Lena]]'' (1836).<ref name="Reddick 1993">{{cite book |author-last=Reddick |author-first=John |title=Georg Büchner: Complete Plays, ''Lenz'' and Other Writings |url=https://archive.org/details/completeplayslen0000buch |language=English |edition=Revised paperback |publication-place=London |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |publication-date=1993 |pages=xiv–xvii |isbn=978-0-14-044586-2 |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref>{{sfn|Reddick|1994|loc=9–10, 74–75, 252–267}}

[[File:Johann Christian Woyzeck.jpg|alt=|thumb|left|upright=0.75|Woyzeck (1780–1824) of Leipzig]]In ''Woyzeck'', Büchner mixed [[Grotesque#In literature|the grotesque]] with [[tragicomedy]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=179–180, 190, 200}} He used [[case report]]s of [[Femicide#Among intimate partners|romantic femicide]], mainly physician [[Johann Christian August Clarus]]'s on [[Johann Christian Woyzeck]], a barber and [[military veteran]],{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=180–181}} published in a [[medical journal]] to which Büchner's brother contributed.{{sfnm|Perle|1980|1loc=23, 25, 32|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=180–181}} At the [[Competency evaluation (law)|competency evaluation]], Clarus reported that his [[patient]] had "{{lang|de|freier Vernunftgebrauch|italics=no}}" ([[freedom|free]] use of [[reason]]) and "{{lang|de|Willensfreiheit|italics=no}}" ([[free will]]) despite a [[medical history]] notable for recurrent episodes of [[psychosis]], leading to Woyzeck's 1821 conviction and 1824 beheading.{{sfnm|Reddick|1994|1loc=327, quoting Clarus: {{lang|de|"Freiheit des Willens", "Willensfreiheit", "freier Vernunftgebrauch"|italics=no}}|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=180–181}} Büchner died of typhus in 1837, leaving an untitled, fragmentary script with shifting character names,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=180–181}} perhaps as an {{ill|Geschlossene und offene Form im Drama#Offenes Drama|lt=open drama|de}}.{{sfn|Guthrie|1995|loc=14–15 (26n6), 19–21}}

====Toward Berg's ''Wozzeck''====
Berg came from the same expressionist milieu, rooted in [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolism]] with its exaltation of outcast artists,{{efn|For example, Symbolist [[Stefan George]]'s poetry was often set by the [[Second Viennese School]].{{sfnm|Barnouw|1999|1loc=73–74|Schroeder|1999|2loc=232–233, 236|Shreffler|1999|3loc=253|Simms|1999a|4loc=xiii–xiv|Simms|1999b|5loc=136–137, 157–158, 182n33|Simms and Erwin|2021|6loc=4, 281, 306, 308, 485n62}} Shreffler described his poems as "hyperexpressive", eliciting "equally vivid and extreme music".{{sfn|Shreffler|1999|loc=266}} They may have influenced Schoenberg's atonal turn in the [[String Quartets (Schoenberg)#String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10|String Quartet No. 2]].{{sfnm|Barnouw|1999|1loc=73–74|Simms|1999a|2loc=xiii–xiv|Simms|1999b|3loc=136–137, 157–158, 182n33|Simms and Erwin|2021|4loc=4}} Webern set fourteen George texts, ten as atonal {{lang|de|Lieder}} Opp. 3–4.{{sfn|Shreffler|1999|loc=267}} George translated Baudelaire's ''[[Les Fleurs du mal]]'', from which Berg took the hidden text of his ''[[Lyric Suite (Berg)|Lyric Suite]]'' and three poems for ''[[Der Wein]]''.{{sfnm|Schroeder|1999|1loc=232–233, 236|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=281, 306, 308, 485n62}}}} as novelist [[Franz Kafka]], painters [[Oskar Kokoschka]]{{efn|Schoenberg called Kokoschka "the greatest living painter".{{sfn|Simms|1999b|loc=159}} Kokoschka was nearly arrested at the 1909 production of his play ''[[Murderer, the Hope of Women]]'',{{sfn|Barnouw|1999|loc=118n20}} on which Paul Hindemith's first expressionist opera ''[[Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen]]'' is based.{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=74}} Its gender conflict may have influenced Schoenberg's ''[[Die glückliche Hand]]''.{{sfn|Simms|1999b|loc=159–160}} After the Nazis' defeat, in 1951, Kokoschka expressed interest, at [[Will Grohmann]]'s suggestion, in producing ''Wozzeck'', though this never transpired.{{sfn|Görner|2020|loc=§7A. "Progressive Restoration, or in the Middle of Loss"}}}} and [[Emil Nolde]], and poets [[Gottfried Benn]], [[Rainier Maria Rilke]],{{efn|Berg set Rilke's "Traumgekrönt" in [[Seven Early Songs (Berg)|Seven Early Songs]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=71, 75}}}} and [[Franz Werfel]].{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=23}} In expressionist [[opera in German|German opera]], ''Wozzeck'' followed Richard Strauss's ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' and Schoenberg's more radical ''[[Erwartung]]'' and ''[[Die glückliche Hand]]''.{{sfn|Griffel|2018|loc=xxi}} ''Erwartung'' and Strauss's ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'' had recently explored the grotesque, and Berg saw operatic potential in Büchner's mad murderer and dark social criticism.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=175, 181}}

Berg grew up playing a broad opera repertoire [[piano four hands]] with his sister [[Smaragda Berg|Smaragda]], and his taste was wider than Schoenberg's or Webern's.{{sfnm|Schroeder|1999|1loc=185–186, 209–210|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=175–176}} A frequent opera-goer, he attended multiple rehearsals for the 1908 Vienna premiere of Paul Dukas' ''[[Ariane et Barbe-bleue]]'', and studied the score and its "thousands of splendid passages".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=175–176, quoting Berg's letter to Helene}} He may have learned from Schreker's ''[[Der ferne Klang]]'', having prepared its piano-vocal score in 1911{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=79–80}} (but disliked Schreker's next opera ''[[Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin]]'').{{sfn|Schroeder|1999|loc=210}} At forums like the [[Café Museum]], he met innovative figures across styles, including popular composers [[Erich Korngold]], [[Franz Lehár]], and [[Oscar Straus (composer)|Oscar Straus]], through [[Viennese coffee house culture]].{{sfn|Schroeder|1999|loc=185–186, 209–210}} He knew Claude Debussy's ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' as a model of modernist Literaturoper, a direction he had explored in drafting a libretto (without music) from [[Franz Grillparzer]]'s play ''{{ill|Die Ahnfrau|de}}''. As in ''Pelléas'', Berg linked ''Wozzeck''<nowiki/>'s scenes with short interludes,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=181, quoting Berg's letter to Webern}} yet he kept Büchner's jagged brutality and eerie realism.{{sfnm|Hall|2011|1loc=26–38|Watkins|2003|2loc=232–241}}

He worked mainly from writer {{ill|Paul Landau|de}}'s ''Wozzeck–Lenz:'' Zwei Fragmente (''Wozzeck'' and ''[[Lenz (fragment)|Lenz]]'': Two Fragments; 1909, reprinted 1913; {{ill|Insel–Verlag|de}}), which mostly just resequenced Franzos's 26 scenes.{{sfnm|Perle|1980|1loc=24, 28n16|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=179}} Theater director {{ill|Arthur Rundt|de}}, whose scene cuts Berg mostly followed, had used it in 1914.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=179}} That year, scholar {{ill|Hugo Bieber|de}} tied the play to Clarus's Woyzeck.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=182, citing Hugo Bieber's "Wozzeck und Woyzeck"}} In 1919, scholar [[Georg Witkowski]] issued a critical edition claiming Franzos's omissions, edits, and additions ruined Büchner's play.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=182–183, citing Georg Witkowski's 1919 "Büchners Woyzeck"}} Berg mostly chose Franzos's freer, livelier text, which polarized grotesque and tragic aspects, over Witkowski's. Franzos's publisher lost rights, so Berg left his title. Franzos's dramatic form shaped Berg's operatic acts (exposition, development, catastrophe). Berg's staging and lighting synced time and action as Franzos's sequential flow suggested ("The drama ... must go forward ... breathlessly", Berg replied to writer [[Hanns Heinz Ewers]]'s 1925 offer to collaborate).{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=179 quoting Franzos, 183–184}} As became habit, Berg added bits of his life: scripted coughs echo his [[asthma]], and the Doctor's salamanders line mocks [[Paul Kammerer]], the scientist–musician once loved by his wife, {{ill|Helene Karoline Berg|lt=Helene|de}}.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=38–43, 182, 243, 319}}{{efn|Kammerer was scandalized by fraud allegations and died by suicide in 1926.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=53}}}} Berg's epilogue was not Franzos's or Landau's final scene,{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=34, 41}} but it was more Franzos's invention than Büchner's.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=183–184}}

===1914–22: History of composition process===
====1914–1916: Genesis amid war====
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}}On frugal {{lang|de|[[:de:Sommerfrische|Sommerfrischen]]|italics=no}} (summer vacations), first at his wife's [[family farm|family's farm]] and villa in [[Trahütten]], Berg [[precomposition|precomposed]] ''Wozzeck'' from as early as 1914, conceptualizing and [[Sketch (music)|sketch]]ing perhaps two scenes while continuing Three Orchestra Pieces. He hesitated when Schoenberg said the play was unsuitable.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=36, 46, 108, 147, 175–178, 185–186, 295}} Then war erupted, and his patriotism was cooled by [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Karl Kraus]]'s attack on "the cash register of world history".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=147–149, quoting Karl Kraus's 1914 "{{lang|de|In dieser grossen Zeit|italics=no}}" ("In these great times")}} Long [[Death anxiety|fearing death]] from [[Acute severe asthma|severe asthma]], then a possibly [[allergy]]-related [[somatic symptom disorder]], he was first deemed unfit.{{sfnm|Perle|1980|1loc=19|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=23–26, 150–151, quoting Berg's 1912 letter to Schoenberg: "I went to a professor in Vienna [whose] opinion is that it is a nervous irritability or an oversensitivity of the mucous membranes ... of the nose [which] are extremely irritated by pollen in the air ... caus[ing symptoms]"}} Pupil [[Theodor W. Adorno]] saw the [[substance dependence]] and [[hypochondriasis]] of a [[tortured artist]] in his [[self-medication]] and physician visits, including to [[Sigmund Freud]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=23–26, 393, {{lang|lt|et pass.}}; Berg's remedies included [[opioid]] analgesics, laxatives, [[cocaine]] solution, [[menthol]], Arsenferratone, and [[Brunswick Mum]]; quoting Adorno: "Part of this hypochondria came from addiction"; "Berg lived, as he once said, from aspirin and tea, and he probably enjoyed the euphoric aspects of illness"; "[he was of] that generation of artists who felt the ailing [[Tristan]] to be a model"}} "[H]ad I been declared fit ... my spirit would ... have broken", he wrote Schoenberg, rejecting "a past time and a beloved place" as evoked by a [[bell]] to bait "curious Russian heads" from [[trench]]es to shoot.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=13–14, 30n9, quoting Berg's 1914 letter to Schoenberg}} In mid-1915, Berg was [[Conscription|conscripted]] anyway and bought the play while finishing Three Orchestra Pieces.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=141, 150, 175–178, 181, 473n5}}

[[File:Karl Kraus, 1913 (SOA Praha) cr.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.75|[[Karl Kraus (writer)|Karl Kraus]], 1913]]

That winter, he began another opera with the working title ''[[Nacht (Nokturn)]]'' (''Night/[[Nocturne]]''; 1915–1917, unfinished).{{efn|Drafts surfaced in 2006.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=175–178, 473n9}}}} In it, a [[Autobiographical novel|semi-autobiographical]] "He" falls asleep discussing philosophy with the subconscious "[[Other (philosophy)|Other]]". Then a [[dream sequence]] by turns nostalgic, erotic, and nightmarish ends with a film{{efn|Berg used film in his next opera, ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]''.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=328}}}} showing a dark mountain forest thinning upon the [[snow line]] to sky and [[snow field]]s at dawn. This echoes other [[monodrama]]s like Schoenberg's ''Erwartung'' and ''[[Die glückliche Hand]]'' (''The Lucky Hand''), and Strindberg's  ''{{lang|sv|Jakob brottas}}'' (''Jacob Wrestles'').{{sfnm|Busch|2010|1loc=94–103|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=175–178}} Berg used musicodramatic ideas from ''Nacht (Nokturn)'', like snoring, in ''Wozzeck''.{{sfn|Busch|2010|loc=103–104}}

He was still sketching ''Wozzeck''<nowiki/>'s outline, in 4 acts and 23 scenes as of February 1916.{{sfnm|Hall|2011|1loc=28–31|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=151, 474n38, citing [https://viewer.onb.ac.at/13225E3D/1 one of Berg's ''Wozzeck'' notebook with the ''Wozzeck'' scene outline]}}  He wrote Helene of Austrian [[Prisoners of war in World War I|prisoners of war]] "imprisoned and starving in unheated [[prisoner-of-war camp|stall]]s" under the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]]{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=20, quoting Berg}} and was himself first assigned 30-hour guard-duty shifts in Vienna.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=151}} He wrote that April of seeing fellow soldiers, including deserters, confined and [[strappado]]ed at a [[military base]] in [[Bisamberg]], where he was then on office duty:{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=151, quoting Berg's 14 April 1916 letter to August Göttel}}{{blockquote|Their arms are crossed and tied behind ... then hoisted up on a tree so that the prisoner can only stand on his toes. When he can do that no more, he hangs until he faints from the pain. The barracks are atop a remote hill ... an hour up a path through a sea of dust and excrement. It is surrounded by pickets and barbed wire, and we can leave only on Sundays. The barracks outdo any description. Completely lice-ridden. [...] I'll have to tell you [more] in person.}} He never saw combat{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=15}} and served as a [[one-year volunteer]] ({{lang|de|Einjährig-Freiwillige|italics=no}}) officer, including at the [[Minister of War (Austria-Hungary)|Imperial War Ministry]]—more likely via his brother Karl (Charly or Charley), also posted there, than Helene's illegitimate father [[Franz Joseph I of Austria]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=12, 31–32, 150–153, 223, 435, 442, citing Karl Berg's letter of having "offered [Berg] a position at the War Ministry" and questioning [[Soma Morgenstern]]'s account}} In August, he wrote Helene: "For months I haven't done any work on ''Wozzeck''. Everything suffocated, buried!"{{sfn|Hall|2011|loc=33, quoting Berg's 22 August 1916 letter to Helene}}

====1917–1918: Resolve and state collapse====
In early 1917, Berg wrote playwright {{ill|Erhard Buschbeck|de}} that his two opera ideas were "equally old".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=177, quoting Berg's letter to Buschbeck}} That summer, he worked on ''Wozzeck'' while on several weeks' leave at Trahütten, as was his habit, composing at the piano from early morning. In the afternoon, he sketched outside, [[Mushroom hunting|foraging mushrooms]] and hiking the mountains, lakes, and springs before reading himself to sleep. Helene identified this "love of nature" in his music, including ''Wozzeck''.{{sfnm|Hailey|2010|1loc=12–13, quoting Helene's {{lang|de|"Dokumentation"|italics=no}}|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=147, 185–186, 295}} He marked [[1917]] as the symbolic year he committed to ''Wozzeck'' in one of then few letters to Schoenberg that August.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=178, 473n10: "as always the date was largely symbolic"; quoting Berg's 13 August 1917 letter to Schoenberg}} He saw more [[Conquest#Subjugation|subjugation]] than [[poverty]] in ''Wozzeck'', likely from his war service,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=185, 474n31, citing Berg}} which in the same letter he called "[[slavery]]" that might go on "for years".{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=19–20, 188, quoting Berg's 13 August 1917 letter to Schoenberg}} Asked what "inner point of contact" moved him to adapt the play in a 1930 interview, he said:<ref name="Berg 2014">{{cite book |author-last=Berg |author-first=Alban |chapter=A Conversation with Alban Berg, by Oskar Jancke |editor-last1=Simms |editor-first1=Bryan |title=Pro Mundo–Pro Domo: The Writings of Alban Berg, edited with commentaries by Bryan R. Simms |url=https://archive.org/details/promundoprodomow0000berg |language=English |publication-place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |publication-date=2014 |pages=327 |isbn=978-0-19-976406-8 |access-date=26 October 2025}}</ref>{{blockquote|There was probably some natural relationship between me and this poem.{{efn|In German literary and aesthetic thought since the {{lang|de|[[Sturm und Drang]]|italics=no}}, {{lang|de|Dichter|italics=no}} (poet) has been applied to any creative artist and poem any creative work.{{cn|date=October 2025}}}} But ... ''Wozzeck'' is no simple 'we-poor-people' play. What happened to Wozzeck can happen to any poor person, regardless of what type of clothing he wears. It can happen to anyone who is subjugated by others and cannot defend himself.}}

[[File:Jännerstreik 1918 in Wiener Neustadt.png|thumb|[[Austro-Hungarian strike of January 1918]]]]

In summer 1918, on six weeks' regiment leave at Trahütten, Berg revised the libretto as he finished two scenes (likely the second scenes of acts 1 and 2).{{sfnm|Hailey|2010|1loc=12–13, quoting Helene's {{lang|de|"Dokumentation"|italics=no}}|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=147, 179, 185–186, 295, citing [https://viewer.onb.ac.at/10010C1E/1 Berg's second ''Wozzeck'' sketchbook]}} That June, he wrote Schoenberg that he had been "degraded to the point of [[Self-hatred|self-loathing]]" during the war (in 1924, he drafted a letter to Kraus confiding he had experienced [[suicidal ideation]]).{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=151}} "There's a bit of me in [Wozzeck]", he wrote Helene that August, "since I have been spending these war years just as dependent on people I hate ... in chains, sick, captive, resigned, [[humiliation|humiliated]]."{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=181, 474n22, quoting Berg's 7 August 1918 letter to Helene}} Days later, he wrote his friend and colleague [[Anton Webern]], "the fate of this poor man [Wozzeck], exploited and tormented <em>by all the world</em> ... touches me", praising the drama's "unheard-of intensity of mood".{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=20, quoting Berg's 19 August 1918 letter to Webern}} He planned to use traditional song forms and variations, and to alternate [[Subject (music)|them]]atic and ''Erwartung''-inspired scenes. He gave the Captain and Doctor more {{lang|de|[[Sprechgesang|Sprechstimme]]}} (half-singing, half-speaking) roles, as in [[Melodrama#19th century: operetta, incidental music, and salon entertainment|melodrama]], later shifted to conventional singing ones.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=187–188, 474n41, quoting Berg's 19 August 1918 letter to Webern}}

[[File:Egon Schiele - Kauerndes Menschenpaar (Die Familie) - 4277 - Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.jpg|thumb|left|In [[The Family (Schiele)|''The Family'']] (1918), Egon Schiele envisions a family. That year, he died of Spanish flu. He had designed the poster for a 1912 Living Austrian Composers concert featuring Berg's music.{{sfn|Brand|Hailey|Harris|1987|loc=vii, 93, 95–98}}]]That year, Schoenberg hired him at the [[Society for Private Musical Performances]] to help with administration, rehearsals, music arrangements, and writing.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=161–162}} The Bergs caught [[Spanish flu]] that fall, and the pandemic worsened [[Shortage#Labour shortage|labor shortage]]s and hunger,{{efn|This hunger led to the creation of the {{ill|Volksernährung|de}} and featured in the {{ill|Lebensfähigkeitsdebatte Österreichs|de}}.{{cn|date=October 2025}}}} both of which were prevalent amid the war and [[aftermath of World War I|its aftermath]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=161–163}} His family's farm and country [[estate (land)|estate]] at [[Lake Ossiach]], the Berghof,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=12–13, 16, 108}} faced nearby [[food riot]]s (in [[Villach]]){{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=161, quoting Johanna's 5 August 1918 letter to Berg}} and [[business failure]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=164}} Writer [[Stefan Zweig]] recalled "starving and freezing millions crowd[ing Vienna]", where "revolution or ... catastrophe" seemed possible amid unfolding [[state collapse]], including the [[dissolution of Austria-Hungary]] and nearby [[German revolution of 1918–1919]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=161, quoting Zweig's memoir ''[[The World of Yesterday]]''}} That November, Berg's military service ended with several [[World War I armistice (disambiguation)|armistice]]s and [[History of Austria-Hungary during World War I#Analysis of defeat|Austro-Hungarian defeat]]. "I am again a person!", he told Buschbeck.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=5–9, 161}}

====1919–1922: Progress through war's aftermath====
In July 1919, Berg set the final, symmetrical order of ''Wozzeck''<nowiki/>'s scenes, finishing act 1 in four weeks before pausing in August to copy parts for the Three Orchestra Pieces. Composer and pianist [[Erwin Schulhoff]], a wounded veteran, played [[Piano Sonata (Berg)|Berg's Piano Sonata]] in Prague{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=95}} and hoped to premiere them there and in Dresden, through the [[Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden]].{{sfnm|Hall|2011|1loc=40–41, quoting Berg's and Schulhoff's letters|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=188–189}} In concert advertisements he sent to Berg for these "Progress Concerts", he tied the [[revolutions of 1917–1923]] to a spiritual "revolution in art".{{sfn|Hall|2011|loc=40–41, quoting Berg's and Schulhoff's letters}}

That fall, Berg and Helene were being drawn into what she called the "Berghof Catastrophe": having enabled his composing with an [[appanage]], his mother Johanna (née Braun) sought their help (and received only his) co-managing the Berghof, with its [[guest house]] and [[tavern]]. Wartime mismanagement was culminating in bitter disagreement and lasting feuds among the Bergs and their families gathered there partly for food.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=162–174, 429–430, quoting Helene Berg's name for the affair}} The government had instituted [[production quota]]s and resorted to the [[confiscation]] for [[food rationing]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=108, 162–163}} "[D]espite ... freezing and having nothing to live on", Berg emphasized that he was <em>"happy"</em>, recalling war "years of suffering and humiliation at a low rank, not composing a single note" to Schulhoff in November 1919.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=161, 471n52, quoting Berg's 27 November 1919 letter to Schulhoff}}

Schulhoff had also circulated an artists' petition espousing [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]] for signatures, and in this November 1919 letter, Berg sympathized but followed Schoenberg in prioritizing [[Music of Austria|Austro]]-[[Music of Germany#Classical music of Germany|German art music]],{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=149–150: The petition was writer [[Romain Rolland]]'s "declaration of mind". Berg followed Kraus and Schoenberg in not signing. Schoenberg "sp[oke] out": "Even before the war [World War I], the greatest German composers were pushed aside and virtually every 'modernist' was proud to take his [[modernism]] from Debussy while wanting nothing to do with me or Mahler. ... Are we now to lose our [[hegemony]] in music too? Certainly art is a common inheritance of all nations, but if this common inheritance is to be spread equally everywhere, then we Germans will have to give our music away with nothing in return. The victors even before the war treated us differently [...]. I'm not for a politics of art but [... w]hen I think of music, I think only of German music!"}} writing Schulhoff that [[German question#Later influence|a nation like Germany]]{{efn|The [[First Austrian Republic]] had just been created from the [[Republic of German-Austria]].}} might "deserve" [[History of Germany during World War I#Defeat and revolt|its defeat]] for how it "treats its greatest".<ref name="Ljubibratić 2024">{{cite journal |last=Ljubibratić |first=Vanja |date=2024 |title=Aesthetic Contrasts and Symbolic Correlations Between Alban Berg and Erwin Schulhoff in Their Letters and Opera Narratives |journal=Musicologica Slovaca |volume=15 |issue=41 |pages=9–11 |doi=10.31577/musicoslov.2024.1.1 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3693/5c162ecb4a850649117c1f62d0074d7774fe.pdf |language=English |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251114160008/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3693/5c162ecb4a850649117c1f62d0074d7774fe.pdf |archive-date=14 November 2025 |access-date=14 November 2025 |quote=Schulhoff [sent] Berg a large extract from Schoenberg's letter, where the latter attacks Schulhoff [...]. Schulhoff then continued that Schoenberg ... suffers from 'war psychosis' [...]. [O]n 27 November 1919, Berg partially responds: '[Y]ou are very much mistaken if you think of me as an imperialist or even a militarist. ... I asked myself whether a nation that treats its greatest [people] like the Germans did does not deserve to be defeated. ... I still believe in the German people ... who name Beethoven and all the greats up to Mahler and Schoenberg. For example, France (despite Debussy, Ravel, Satie) and other lesser countries, did not produce the people who finally had a Karl Kraus ... who was able to prove and show ... the depth of the most impotent government of a Franz Joseph, and the ... idiotic militarism and [[mercantilism]] etc. in [[Prussia]].'}}</ref>{{sfn|Hall|2011|loc=40–41, 195n10, quoting Berg's 27 November 1919 letter to Schulhoff: "whether a people [Volk] who treat their greatest the way the Germans did and do, don't deserve to be conquered"}}{{efn|Innovative classical music had long faced unreliable support despite successes, as with ''Wozzeck''. Amid widespread poverty, Schoenberg's Society was a [[subscription business model]] for sustaining {{lang|de|[[Neue Musik]]|italics=no}} (new music) by composers across Europe through performance. It grew out of open rehearsals. Schulhoff soon co-founded a Prague Society for Private Musical Performances.<ref name="Brand, Hailey, and Harris 1987">{{cite book |editor-last1=Brand |editor-first1=Juliane |editor-last2=Hailey |editor-first2=Christopher |editor-last3=Harris |editor-first3=Donald |title=The Berg–Schoenberg Correspondence: Selected Letters [with Introduction, Translator's Preface, and Annotations] |url=https://archive.org/details/bergschoenbergco0000berg |language=English |others=Book design, Jacques Chazaud |edition=Softcover reprint |publication-place=London |publisher=The Macmillan Press Ltd |publication-date=1987 |pages=xiv–xvii, 263–264, 274n11, 275n1 |isbn=978-1-349-09831-6 |access-date=14 November 2025}}</ref>}} Continuing, he blamed the war and its aftermath on [[capitalism]], militarism, the press, and, uncharacteristically, Jews.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=149, quoting Berg's 27 November 1919 letter to Schulhoff}} He called himself an "[[Antimilitarism|antimilitarist]]" and asked who among the [[Triple Entente|Entente]], "outside Russia", had the same "[[Halo (religious iconography)|ring of idealism]]" to their names as [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]], recently [[Spartacist uprising#Murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht|murdered Spartacist uprising leaders]].{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=20–21, quoting Berg's 27 November 1919 letter to Schulhoff: "fierce antimilitarist"; "I don't think you will soon again find such an enraged antimilitarist as I am"; "What names does the Entente have (outside of Russia) that ring of idealism as these [Luxemburg and Liebknecht] do?"}}

[[File:Burg Landskron 4.jpg|thumb|A view of the village of St. Andrä on [[Lake Ossiach]] near [[Villach]]]]

Berg gradually resisted his family's demands at the Berghof, writing Webern in March 1920 that he would need to earn income by editing, teaching, and writing, including for ''{{ill|Musikblätter des Anbruch|de}}'', the [[music journalism|music journal]] of [[Universal Edition]], in which case he might have even less time, however, to compose.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=167–174, quoting Berg's letter to Webern}} That April, Johanna sold the [[landed property]] as he wished and another family member advised.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=165–166, 167, 188, 295}} In July, he planned three scenes (likely 1, 3, and 5) of act 2 in the shape of four- or five-movement [[symphony]], finishing them by August.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=188, 191, citing Berg's August letter to Kassowitz}}

In 1921, nearing the [[Hyperinflation#Austria|Austrian hyperinflation]], the Society closed,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=188–189}} and Johanna kept planning her family's future.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=15–16, 55–58, 162–167, 188, 370–371}} She had disparaged Helene's [[passive income]] (from [[financial asset]]s in [[Austrian krone]]n) as [[miser]]ly and unreliable,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=108, 163, 165–167, 188, quoting Johanna: "You have only <em>me</em> ... provid[ing] for you because we can't depend on <em>Helene</em>, who won't touch any of her money. That we—Charly and I—work all the time to bring in money and to maintain our assets, this you know [...]"}} and worried that Berg might "live in penury" by "componiererei" (fooling around composing).{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=163, quoting Johanna's 1918 letter to Berg}} With dollars from her late son Herman's Florida [[estate (law)|estate]], she funded New York [[Trust (law)|trust]]s managed by {{ill|Geo. Borgfeldt & Co.|de}}, a firm long tied to the family,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=12–15, 30, 161, 188, 291, 474n42, quoting Johanna's 9 May 1922 letter to {{ill|Geo. Borgfeldt & Co.|de}} in English}} thereby re-enabling Berg's composing career. He finished act 2 in Vienna with Helene at [[Bad Hofgastein]], then act 3 in Trahütten by October.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=188}} While polishing and orchestrating ''Wozzeck'', Berg recalled that Schoenberg had "tried to take away all my pleasure in [the opera]".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=177, 188, 473n7, quoting Berg's May 1922 letter to Helene}} In June 1922, he wrote Schoenberg it was done.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=189}}

==Composition==
===Scoring===
''Wozzeck'' is scored for voices, choirs (men's, women's, and children's), and large orchestra, including onstage musicians four times: a military band (act 1, scene 3), a chamber orchestra (act 2, scene 3), a tavern band (act 2, scene 4), and an out-of-tune, upright tavern piano (act 3, scene 3).<ref name=UE />

====Roles====
:{| class="wikitable"
|+{{sronly|Roles, voice types, premiere cast}}
!Role
![[Voice type]]
!Premiere cast, 14 December 1925<br>Conductor: [[Erich Kleiber]]
|-
|Wozzeck
|[[baritone]]
|Leo Schützendorf
|-
|Marie, ''his common-law wife''
|[[soprano]]
|Sigrid Johanson
|-
|Marie's son
|[[Treble voice|treble]]
|Ruth Iris Witting
|-
|Captain
|buffo [[tenor]]
|Waldemar Henke
|-
|Doctor
|buffo [[bass (voice type)|bass]]
|[[Martin Abendroth]]
|-
|Drum Major
|[[heldentenor]]
|[[Fritz Soot]]
|-
|Andres, ''Wozzeck's friend''
|lyric tenor
|Gerhard Witting
|-
|Margret, ''Marie's neighbor''
|[[contralto]]
|Jessika Koettrik
|-
|First Apprentice
|deep bass
|Ernst Osterkamp
|-
|Second Apprentice
|high baritone
|Alfred Borchardt
|-
|Madman
|high tenor
|Marcel Noé
|-
|A Soldier
|baritone
|Leonhard Kern
|-
| colspan="3" |''Soldiers, apprentices, women, children''
|}

====Instrumentation====
The [[pit orchestra]] is large. The [[woodwind section]] has 4 [[Western concert flute|flutes]] (all double [[piccolo]]), 4 [[oboe]]s (4th doubles [[cor anglais]]), 4 [[clarinet]]s in B{{music|flat}} (1st doubles clarinet in A, 3rd and 4th double [[E-flat clarinet|clarinet in E{{music|flat}}]]), [[bass clarinet]], 3 [[bassoon]]s, and [[contrabassoon]]. The [[brass section]] has 4 [[Horn (instrument)|horns]] in F, 4 [[trumpet]]s in F, 4 [[trombone]]s (1 alto, 2 tenor, 1 bass), and [[tuba]]. The [[percussion section]] has 4 [[timpani]], 2 [[bass drum]]s (1 with [[rute (music)|rute]]), several [[cymbal]]s (1 [[Suspended cymbal|suspended]], 1 attached to bass drum), [[snare drum]], 2 [[tam-tam]]s (1 small), [[triangle (musical instrument)|triangle]], and [[xylophone]]. There is a [[celesta]], a [[harp]], and a standard [[string section]].

The [[military band]] has three sections. Woodwinds include piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in E{{music|flat}}, and 2 bassoons. Brass includes 2 horns in F, 2 trumpets in F, 3 trombones, and tuba. Percussion includes bass drum with cymbals, snare drum, and triangle. Berg marks when these musicians may be taken from the pit in a footnote near the end of act 1, scene 2.

The [[Chamber music|chamber]] orchestra matches Schoenberg's [[Chamber Symphony No. 1 (Schoenberg)|Chamber Symphony No. 1]]. It is mostly [[wind instrument]]s: flute (doubles piccolo), oboe and cor anglais, 2 clarinets (in E{{music|flat}} and A) and bass clarinet, and bassoon and contrabassoon, plus 2 horns. It also has a [[string quintet]] plus [[double bass]].

The tavern band has a [[Clarinet family|clarinet in C]], a [[bombardon]] in F (or [[Mute (music)#Brass|muted]] tuba as substitute), an [[accordion]], a [[guitar]], and 2 [[fiddle]]s.

===Form===
Like earlier composers, Berg innovated on the operatic tradition. Not wanting ''Wozzeck'' to seem simply post-Wagnerian,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=175, 192–193}}{{efn|Werfel, likely the Bergs' closest literary friend, had disparaged Wagner's "bloated excess" and "garrulous monotony" in favor of Verdi, perhaps shaping Berg's view of Wagner as "antiquated".{{sfn|Schroeder|1999|loc=194, quoting Berg in 1923: "this antiquated Wagner music"}}}} he said he preferred strict [[musical form]] to "the Wagnerian recipe of '[[Through-composed music|through-composing]]'",{{sfnm|Deathridge|2005|1loc=24|Schroeder|1999|2loc=227, quoting Berg's 1929 "Lecture on ''Wozzeck''"}} though the opera remains Wagnerian in many respects.{{sfnm|Deathridge|2005|1loc=24|Hailey|2010|2loc=20}}{{efn|Berg may have stressed form partly to counter his reputation for quasi-[[Romantic music]].{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=17}}}} His hybrid approach is a kind of integrated [[number opera]], where each act and scene instead has an old or abstract musical form, often as a kind of [[word painting]], like the serious [[passacaglia]] for the Doctor's exam, or the [[Prelude (music)|prelude]] and triple [[fugue]] as the Doctor and Captain hint at Marie's infidelity.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=176, 192–193}}

Büchner repeats short phrases as motifs in the text, like "{{lang|de|ein guter Mensch|italics=no}}" (a good person), "{{lang|de|wir arme Leut|italics=no}}" (we poor folk), and "{{lang|de|eins nach dem andern|italics=no}}" (one after the other). He develops some ideas into short, recurring sections, whether from Bible quotes or, like Wozzeck's visions, from [[Apocrypha]]. Berg follows this in the music. Variation techniques dominate act 3, monomaniacally focusing on a pitch (B{{music|natural}}, scene 2), rhythm (scene 3), hexachord (scene 4), key (D minor, interlude), or duration (a ''[[perpetuum mobile]]'' of [[quaver]]s, scene 5). He knew few, if any, would hear all these structures but used their patterns and the play's linked scenes and repeated lines to structure [[Repetition (music)|musicodramatic repetition]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=192–193}}

[[Fritz Mahler]] summarizes the opera's form:{{sfn|Pople|1997|p=148}}

:{| class="wikitable" align="center" style="margin-right: 0;"
|-
! width="190" style="background: Silver" | Drama
! width="65" style="background: Silver"  |
! width="215" style="background: Silver" | Music
|-
! align="center" | Expositions
! align="center" | Act 1
! align="center" | Five character pieces
|-
| Wozzeck and the Captain
| align="center" | Scene 1
| align="center" | [[Baroque suite|Suite]]
|-
| Wozzeck and Andres
| align="center" | Scene 2
| align="center" | [[Rhapsody (music)|Rhapsody]]
|-
| Wozzeck and Marie
| align="center" | Scene 3
| align="center" | Military [[March (music)|march]] and [[Lullaby]]
|-
| Wozzeck and the Doctor
| align="center" | Scene 4
| align="center" | [[Passacaglia]]
|-
| Marie and the Drum Major
| align="center" | Scene 5
| align="center" | ''Andante affettuoso'' (quasi [[Rondo]])
|-
! align="center" | Dramatic development
! align="center" | Act 2
! align="center" | [[Symphony]] in five movements
|-
| Marie and her son, then Wozzeck
| align="center" | Scene 1
| align="center" | [[Sonata form|Sonata]] movement
|-
| The Captain and the Doctor, then Wozzeck
| align="center" | Scene 2
| align="center" | [[Fantasia (music)|Fantasia]] and [[fugue]]
|-
| Marie and Wozzeck
| align="center" | Scene 3
| align="center" | [[Tempo#Basic tempo markings|Largo]]
|-
| Garden of a tavern
| align="center" | Scene 4
| align="center" | [[Scherzo]]
|-
| Guard room in the barracks
| align="center" | Scene 5
| align="center" | ''Rondo con introduzione''
|-
! align="center" | Catastrophe and epilogue
! align="center" | Act 3
! align="center" | Six inventions
|-
| Marie and her son
| align="center" | Scene 1
| align="center" | Invention on a theme
|-
| Wozzeck kills Marie
| align="center" | Scene 2
| align="center" | Invention on a note (B{{music|natural}})
|-
| Tavern
| align="center" | Scene 3
| align="center" | Invention on a rhythm
|-
| Wozzeck drowns
| align="center" | Scene 4
| align="center" | Invention on a [[hexachord]]
|-
|
| align="center" | Interlude
| align="center" | Invention on a [[Key (music)|key]] ([[D minor]])
|-
| Children playing
| align="center" | Scene 5
| align="center" | Invention on a regular [[quaver]] movement
|}

====Themes====
=====Musical=====
Leitmotifs are given to characters like the Captain, Doctor, and Drum Major, whose music recurs when Marie muses on him. Wozzeck has two: one as he runs, and one languidly expressing his misery and helplessness. Marie's motifs convey sensuality, as when she accepts a pair of earrings from the Drum Major.

The central "anguish" motif, sung by Wozzeck (act 1, scene 1), traces a minor chord with an added [[major seventh]]:

{{block indent|<score sound="1"> \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" \remove "Bar_engraver" } \relative c' { \clef bass r8 dis-- b--[ e,--] g4-- } \addlyrics { Wir ar- me Leut! } </score>}}

As in his next opera, ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'', an isolated C-major [[major triad]] signifies affection and money. In his ''Wozzeck'' Lecture, Berg joked, "How could the objectivity [{{lang|de|Sachlichkeit}}] of money ... be better represented?"{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=200, quoting Berg}}

The smallest leitmotif is the single pitch B, symbolizing the murder. Soft at the end of act 2, when Wozzeck, beaten, whispers "{{lang|de|einer nach dem andern|italics=no}}" (one after the other), it intensifies during the murder, expanding from [[unison]] B<sub>3</sub> into crescendoing octaves. Marie's last cry for help spans two [[octave]]s, B<sub>5</sub> down to B<sub>3</sub>.

A pair of chords closes each act, oscillating into a blur.

=====Narrative=====
The plot depicts the [[militarism]], callousness, social exploitation, and casual sadism of a small town.{{cn|date=October 2025}} Transitions between day and night reflect cyclical wartime themes of life and death, as in Schoenberg's {{lang|de|Lied}} "{{lang|de|Der verlorene Haufen|italics=no}}" (referring to [[forlorn hope]]) or the popular soldiers' {{lang|de|[[Volkslied]]}} "{{lang|de|Morgenrot|italics=no}}".{{sfn|Watkins|2003|p=217, 485n18}}{{efn|Webern explored such themes in, among other {{lang|de|Lieder}}, his 1915 setting of "{{lang|de|Der Tag ist vergangen|italics=no}} ("The day has ended"), a pious {{lang|de|Volkslied}} from ''[[Des Knaben Wunderhorn]]''.{{sfn|Watkins|2003|p=229–231}}}}

====Idioms====
=====Expressionism=====
[[Expressionist music]] evokes Wozzeck's and other characters' emotions and thought processes, especially his madness and alienation. Though largely [[atonal]], it generally has some [[Function (music)|function]] in its [[voice leading]] and extended [[tonic (music)|tonicization]]s, and there are [[tonality|tonal]] passages. [[Pitch (music)|Pitch]] and [[Chord progression|harmony]] structure the drama, with recurring [[Set (music)|pitch sets]] for continuity: the [[dyad (music)|dyad]] B–F, a [[tritone]], signifies Wozzeck and Marie's struggle and interpersonal tension, while the dyad B{{music|flat}}–D{{music|flat}}, a [[minor third]], reflects Marie's bond with her son.

Berg adapted tonal juvenilia for ''Wozzeck''. In Marie's Bible scene, he reworked a sonata fragment in [[F minor]] that has been called [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]]esque in its melancholy.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=14, paraphrasing Hailey}} After Wozzeck's [[mad scene]], {{lang|de|"Wo ist das Messer?"}} ("Where is the knife?"; act 3, scene 4) comes an {{lang|it|[[Tempo#Basic tempo markings|adagio]]|italic=no}} interlude adapted from a Mahlerian student piece in [[D minor]]; its climax is a loud, [[Dominant (music)|dominant]]-functioning [[Tone row#total chromatic|aggregate]] sonority crescendoing into a statement of the "anguish" leitmotif (act 3, scene 5, mm. 364–365).{{sfnm|Headlam|1996|1p=159|Ross|2008|2pp=78–79}}

=====Other idioms=====
Folk song and popular dance idioms appear in the field and tavern scenes. Berg transforms a [[polka]] into a {{lang|fr|[[danse macabre]]}} in the later tavern episode (act 3, scene 3). Its opening rhythm is a [[Retrograde (music)|retrograde]] of a [[tango]], alluding to Kraus's play ''Die letzten Tage der Menschheit'' (1915–1922; ''[[The Last Days of Mankind]]''), drafts of which appeared in ''{{ill|Die Fackel|de}}'' by 1916.{{sfn|Watkins|2003|p=231, 233, 237}} Marie's orphan plays among children singing {{lang|de|"Ringel, Ringel, Rosenkranz, Ringelreih'n"}} (like "[[Ring a Ring o' Roses]]") in the epilogue.

Berg's notes and sketches for ''Wozzeck'' (and for the march from Three Orchestra Pieces) mingled with fragments of military papers. Drafts include Austrian army [[bugle call]]s rendered atonal in the final score (act 1, scene 2). His war experience of sleeping in barracks informed his word painting of snoring soldiers (act 2, scene 5), which he described as "polyphonic breathing, gasping, and groaning ... the most peculiar chorus I've ever heard ... like some primeval music that wells up from the abysses of the soul".<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Birth of an Opera: Fifteen Masterpieces from Poppea to Wozzeck|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5vxCOmhynP4C&pg=PA375|publisher = W. W. Norton|year= 2013|access-date = 2015-05-09|isbn = 978-0393060430|first = Michael|last = Rose|pages = 375}}</ref>

===Musicodramatic synopsis===
Berg asserted a reciprocal relationship between the music and the drama. In an interview, Oskar Jancke asked whether "the text ... facilitates the understanding of your music", which he said "the public ... grappl[ing] with ... finds unfamiliar". Berg replied: "Yes, but also the reverse. The music also aids in understanding the poem. Basically I have done nothing more than to produce it on a higher level." The music, he added, "neutralize[s] the fragmentary character".{{sfn|Berg|2014|loc=327}}

==== Act 1 ====
''Scene 1 ([[Suite (music)|Suite]])''

Wozzeck shaves the Captain, who orders him to go slow and lectures him on morality. Wozzeck dutifully replies, "{{lang|de|Jawohl, Herr [[Hauptmann]]|italics=no}}" ("Yes sir, Captain"). The Captain scorns his illegitimate son. Wozzeck says it is hard to be good when you are poor, quoting [[Mark 10]]:14, {{lang|de|"Lasset die Kleinen zu mir kommen"}} ("Let the children come to me"). The Captain asks what he means. Growing agitated, Wozzeck cries that if the poor reached Heaven, "we'd all have to manufacture thunder!" to crackling, tumultuous music. Unnerved, the Captain concedes Wozzeck is "a decent man, only you think too much!"

''Scene 2 ([[Rhapsody (music)|Rhapsody]] and Hunting Song)''

Wozzeck and his fellow soldier Andres gather firewood at sunset. Andres sings a hunting song, while Wozzeck is terrified by visions. Calming down, he ominously murmurs that all is still, as if the world were dead. They must return before dark, Andres reminds him. As they do, a funeral march begins. It transforms as night falls and the scene [[segue]]s.{{sfn|Watkins|2003|loc=235–236}}

''Scene 3 ([[March (music)|March]] and [[Lullaby]])''

Morning brings a rowdy military band marching toward Marie's window.{{sfnm|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=217, quoting [[Olin Downes]]|Watkins|2003|1loc=235–236}} She has a wandering eye for the soldiers. Her neighbor Margret notices and teases her about it. Marie slams the window shut and sings a self-soothing [[lullaby]] to her son. Wozzeck arrives and shares not only his visions, but also his affection and money (C-major triad).{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=200}} As he leaves in a hurry, Marie reminds him to look at their boy. She [[lament]]s their poverty. He runs to the doctor.

''Scene 4 ([[Passacaglia]])''

The harried but rational Doctor, whom Wozzeck hails as "Herr Coffin Nail",{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=200}} scolds Wozzeck for disobeying medical orders (Wozzeck is part of a paid experiment requiring [[Adherence (medicine)|adherence]] to a restricted diet and urine collection). The Doctor is so angry that, to medically reassure himself, he takes his own pulse. Then Wozzeck's mental illness becomes apparent, and the Doctor is thrilled at the prospect of publishing a [[case report]].

''Scene 5 ([[Rondo]])''

Marie admires the Drum Major from her doorway. He makes advances. She briefly resists, then yields.

==== Act 2 ====
''Scene 1 ([[Sonata-allegro|Sonata-Allegro]])''

Marie admires the Drum Major's gift (earrings) and puts her son to bed. Wozzeck arrives and asks about the earrings. Doubting that she found a matching pair, as she claims, he gives her money and leaves her wracked with guilt.

''Scene 2 ([[Fantasia (music)|Fantasia]] and [[Fugue]] on Three Themes)''

Echoing the opening, the Captain urges the Doctor to slow down. The Doctor mocks him with dire diagnoses of his ailments. As Wozzeck passes, they hint at Marie's infidelity.

''Scene 3 ([[Tempo#Basic tempo markings|Largo]])''

Wozzeck confronts Marie about her infidelity. She does not deny it. Enraged, he nearly strikes her. She stops him: "Better a knife in my belly than your hands on me". He repeats her words, thinking aloud.

''Scene 4 ([[Scherzo]])''

Marie and the Drum Major dance in the tavern. Wozzeck watches. Soldiers sing a hunter's chorus. Andres notices him alone and asks why. A drunken Apprentice preaches. An Idiot stumbles toward him, crying, {{lang|de|"Lustig, ... aber es riecht ... Ich riech Blut!"}} ("Joyful, ... but it reeks ... I smell blood!")

''Scene 5 (Rondo)''

At night in the barracks, soldiers snore. Unable to stop thinking about Marie, Wozzeck talks to Andres and prays. The Drum Major enters and humiliates Wozzeck with a beating. Roused, some watch. Wozzeck dissociates.

==== Act 3 ====
''Scene 1 (Invention on a Theme)''

At night in her room, Marie reads the Bible and cries for mercy.

''Scene 2 (Invention on a Single Note (B))''

At a forest pond, Wozzeck stabs Marie as she tries to run, declaring that if he can't have her, no one can. A blood-red moon rises.

''Scene 3 (Invention on a Rhythm)''

Wozzeck and Margret dance in the tavern among others as he celebrates doom and the [[Devil]]'s arrival.{{sfn|Watkins|2003|p=237}} He pulls her onto his lap, insults her, and demands she sing. Others see blood on him, raising alarm. He runs.

''Scene 4 (Invention on a [[Hexachord]])''

Wozzeck frantically searches the pond for his knife. Paranoid and psychotic, he speaks to Marie, imagining the blood-red moon exposing him to the world. He drowns (possibly by suicide) in the red, moonlit water, which he sees as blood. The Captain and Doctor, walking slowly nearby, are disturbed by the sound of it and return to town.

''Interlude (Invention on a [[Key (music)|Key]] ([[D minor]]))''

This interlude provides some [[catharsis]].{{sfnm|Headlam|1996|1p=159|Ross|2008|2pp=78–79}}

''Scene 5 (Invention on an Eighth-Note [[moto perpetuo]], ''quasi [[toccata]])'' ''

The next morning, children play and sing in the sunny street outside Marie's door. News of her death spreads. They run to see her corpse. Marie's son appears unaffected by this, even when it is shouted at him. After some delay, he follows, oblivious.

==Reception==
''Wozzeck'' is among the most renowned 20th-century [[modernist]] operas. [[John Deathridge]] called it "one of the undisputed masterpieces of modern opera".{{sfn|Deathridge|2005|loc=24}} Its dissonant, psychological idiom recalls Schoenberg's ''Erwartung'',{{sfn|Franklin|2024|loc=17}} and its tormented, outcast [[antihero]]{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=14}} has prompted comparisons to operas with similar male title roles, such as Giuseppe Verdi's ''[[Macbeth (Verdi)|Macbeth]]'' and ''[[Nabucco]]'', Modest Mussorgsky's ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'', and Benjamin Britten's ''[[Peter Grimes]]''.{{sfn|Fisher|2000|loc=26–27}} ''Wozzeck'' has also been described as more "[[highbrow]]" than ''Grimes'', sometimes polemically.{{sfn|Franklin|2024|loc=15, 37, 50}}

Berg's critical engagement with militarism and war in ''Wozzeck'' faded from view as the work became a repertoire [[Standard (music)|standard]] apart from its original context, not unlike Maurice Ravel's ''[[Le Tombeau de Couperin]]''.{{sfn|Watkins|2003|p=6, 233}} Publicly, Berg mostly focused on his music in ''Wozzeck'' but backed Alexander Landau's 1926 socialist view (Wozzeck's suffering is not his, but ours: we must act, not blame) and {{ill|Otto Brües|de}}'s 1929 view, from the [[Book of Job]] (Wozzeck as [[Job (biblical figure)|Job]]).{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=185, citing Alexander Landau's "Die Musik und das soziale Problem" and Otto Brües's "Über Georg Büchner"}}

''Wozzeck'', Paul Hindemith's ''[[Cardillac]]'', Kurt Weill's ''[[Der Protagonist|Protagonist]]'', and Ernst Krenek's ''Zwingburg'' and ''[[Der Sprung über den Schatten]]'' all premiered within a year of each other.{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=65}} Berg's mixed-form opera has been compared to ''Cardillac'', Ferruccio Busoni's ''[[Doktor Faust]]'',{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=17}} and Strauss's ''[[Ariadne auf Naxos]]''.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=176}}

====Gurlitt's ''Wozzeck''====
''Wozzeck''<nowiki/>'s Vienna premiere also inspired [[Manfred Gurlitt]].{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=20}} Premiered four months after Berg's opera<ref name="Gurlitt"/> and also published by Universal Edition, Gurlitt's ''[[Wozzeck (Gurlitt)|Wozzeck]]'' discomfited Berg.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=20}} They worked without any knowledge of each other,<ref name="Gurlitt">{{cite web|url=http://www.classical-music.com/review/gurlitt-0|title=Gurlitt: ''Wozzeck'' (Roland Hermann, Celina Lindsley, Anton...) – review|website=Classical-music.com}}</ref> and Gurlitt's work has remained in the shadow of Berg's.<ref name="Gurlitt"/> Examining Gurlitt's [[piano–vocal score]], Berg found it "not bad or unoriginal" but a weak "broth ... even for {{lang|de|arme Leut}} [poor folks]". Gurlitt's leaner [[texture (music)|musical texture]]s and [[polystylism]] align with Hindemith and Weill, with frequent, socially oriented use of the chorus. His opera may be closer to Büchner's original conception.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=20}}

===Performance history===
''Wozzeck'' and Berg's strategy made him famous.{{sfnm|Hailey|2010|1loc=17|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=189, 211–213, 216}}

====1921–23: Promotion, funding, and publication====
Schoenberg saw ''Wozzeck''<nowiki/>'s ''{{lang|de|Particell|italics=no}}'' (short score) in 1921 and urged Universal Edition's [[Emil Hertzka]] to publish the imminent piano–vocal score by Berg's pupils (mostly [[Fritz Heinrich Klein]] but also Gottfried Kassowitz): "This is an <em>opera!</em> Genuine <em>theater</em> music! Everything is flawlessly done, as though Berg had never composed anything but theater music!"{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=115, 154–155, 166, 177, 188–189, 474n43}}

With funds from dedicatee [[Alma Mahler]] and a loan from May Keller, with whom his sister Smaragda then had a [[lesbian]] relationship,{{efn|Smaragda briefly married Adolf Freiherr von Eger, son of the [[Austrian Southern Railway]] director, in 1907. Her lesbianism became evident through affairs with {{lang|fr|diseuse|italics=no}} {{ill|Marya Delvard|de}}, actress {{ill|Erika Stiedry-Wagner|de}}, and her sister-in-law Alice Berg. She also competed with Berg for Helene. They accepted her. Helene wrote Berg, "Did I come out and say that same-sex love was degenerate? ... Let's call it a love of beauty." Still, when Berg sought the blessing of Helene's (legitimate) father, he wrote that Smaragda's sexuality was his family's "desperate sorow".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=13, 46–47, 51, quoting Helene and Berg}} Berg altered the form and text of [[Frank Wedekind]]'s plays in ''Lulu'' to humanize the lesbian Countess Geschwitz, whose near-final music has two motifs linked to Marie in ''Wozzeck'': the F–B "waiting" [[ostinato]] and an F{{music|#}}–G–B–C{{music|#}} chord.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=198–199, 324–327, 330–331, 475n61}}}} Berg paid Universal Edition to print private piano–vocal score copies in 1922. He sold few but sent many to critics, conductors, and theaters in early 1923.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=189, 211–212}} In April, ''[[Die Musik]]'' published the lullaby with {{ill|Ernst Viebig (Komponist)|lt=Ernst Viebig|de}}'s rapt review: "It is in the <em>form</em> of the piece that the composer opens up new paths", "perhaps" to a "truly 'musical opera'".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=193–194, 211–212}}

In exchange for ''Wozzeck'', Universal Edition published Three Orchestra Pieces,{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=146, 211–212}} two of which ({{lang|de|Präludium}} and {{lang|de|Reigen}}) Webern debuted at [[Heinrich Jalowetz]]'s and {{ill|Paul Pella|de}}'s "Austrian Music Week" in Berlin, drawing more press.{{sfnm|Hailey|2010|1loc=17|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=145–146}}<ref name="Moldenhauer and Moldenahuer 1978">{{cite book |last=Moldenhauer |first=Hans |author-link=Hans Moldenhauer (musicologist) |date=1978 |title=Anton von Webern: A Chronicle of His Life and Work |publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd |pages=253, 663n20 |isbn=978-0-394-47237-9}}</ref>

====1923–24: Scherchen premieres requested suite====
When [[Gustav Havemann]]'s Quartet played [[String Quartet (Berg)|Berg's String Quartet]] at the 1923 Salzburg [[International Society for Contemporary Music]] festival, [[Hermann Scherchen]] asked for a ''Wozzeck'' suite. Berg gave him the march, lullaby, and Bible scene as ''Three Fragments for Voice and Orchestra from the Opera "Wozzeck"''. Intended for Berlin, Scherchen premiered them at Frankfurt's 1924 {{lang|de|[[ADMV|Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein (ADMV)]]|italics=no}} festival to acclaim.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=212–213}}

====1925: Kleiber premieres ''Wozzeck''====
In late 1923, Berg had pianist [[Ernst Bachrich]] play ''Wozzeck'' excerpts for Berlin State Opera conductor [[Erich Kleiber]] in Vienna. Kleiber agreed to stage it. Universal Edition deemed this the best premiere offer.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=213}} Berg helped with staging and rehearsals. Many were held, and intendant [[Max von Schillings]] quit over a funding clash. The dress rehearsal drew music writers [[Paul Stefan]] from Vienna and {{ill|Erich Steinhard|de}} from Prague, and composers including [[Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt]], Adorno, and [[Stefan Wolpe]].{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=213}}

The 14 December 1925 premiere was a ''[[succès de scandale]]'' with some disruptions.<ref name="Walsh">{{harvnb|Walsh|2001|pp=61–63}}</ref> ''Wozzeck'' achieved sustained expressive coherence despite its post-tonal musical language.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=17}} From Germany to London and New York, the press covered it at length.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=214}}

It was staged throughout Germany and Austria until [[Nazi Germany]] forbade "[[degenerate music]]".<ref name="Walsh"/>

====1926: Protests at Czech ''Vojcek''====
In 1926, [[Otakar Ostrčil]] translated and led the Czech-language premiere of ''Wozzeck'' (''Vojcek''){{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=214}} at [[National Theatre (Prague)|Prague's National Theatre]]. Some "[[National Fascist Community|Czech Nationalists]] (virtually Nazis)" and "[[KDU-ČSL|clerical lobbies]]" staged <em>"purely political!"</em> disruptions, Berg wrote Adorno: "To them I am the Berlin Jew Alban (Aaron?) Berg. Ostrčil bribed by the Russian [[Bolsheviks]], the whole thing arranged by the '[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion|Elders of Zion]]' etc."{{sfn|Adorno and Berg|2005|loc=85}}

Antonín Šilhan wrote as much in ''[[Národní listy]]'', and {{ill|Emanuel Žak|cs}} tied the opera's degeneracy to [[Jewish Bolshevism]] in ''{{ill|Čech (noviny)|lt=Čech|cs}}'', while [[Zdeněk Nejedlý]] mocked them, praising ''Wozzeck'' in ''[[Rudé právo]]''. The Bohemian State Committee quickly banned it.<ref name="Locke 2008">{{cite journal |last1=Locke |first1=Brian S. |title=The "''Wozzeck'' Affair": Modernism and the Crisis of Audience in Prague |journal=The Journal of Musicological Research|date=2008 |volume=27 |pages=63–98 |doi=10.1080/01411890701804788}}</ref>{{sfnm|Adorno and Berg|2005|1loc=85|Simms and Erwin|2021|2loc=215}}{{efn|Brian S. Locke called the "''Wozzeck'' Affair" the "most important event at the Czechs' National Theater in the interwar period".<ref name="Locke 2008"/>}}

====1927: Leningrad triumph and silence====
In 1927, the [[Association for Contemporary Music]], led by [[Nikolai Roslavets]], staged ''Wozzeck'' at Leningrad's [[Mariinsky Theatre]] with [[Boris Asafyev]]'s assistance,{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=199–201}} {{ill|Дранишников, Владимир Александрович|lt=Vladimir Dranishnikov|ru}} conducting. Berg rode trains for about three days to attend the first performances and wrote journalist [[Soma Morgenstern]] that he was "celebrated [as] never ... before".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=215}} Here ''Wozzeck'' was, he continued, "a sensation ... in purely artistic, not political, terms".{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=215}} He wired Helene "huge, tumultuous success", but reviews were mixed.{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=199}} [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] attended all eight or nine performances.<ref>{{cite news |last=Loomis |first=George |title=A Firmly Middle-Class ''Wozzeck'' |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1 December 2009 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/arts/02iht-loomis.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307014909/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/arts/02iht-loomis.html |archive-date=7 March 2017 |access-date=19 October 2025}}</ref>{{sfn|Ho|2011|loc=117–118}}

Amid [[Stalinism]] and worsening [[Germany–Russia relations|relations with Germany]],{{sfn|Perle|1980|loc=199–201}} ''Wozzeck'' was not restaged in Russia until 2008.{{sfn|Loomis|2009}}

====1929: Small-town arrangement and lectures====
[[Oldenburgisches Staatstheater]] conductor [[Johannes Schüler]] proved that ''Wozzeck'' could succeed in a small-town theater with few rehearsals.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=215}} Berg and [[Erwin Stein]] cut sections from four to three musicians, yielding an orchestra of about 60.{{sfn|Simms|1996|p=36}}<ref>[http://www.universaledition.com/Alban-Berg/composers-and-works/composer/51/work/7265 "Alban Berg – ''Wozzeck'' – reduced version (Stein)"], [[Universal Edition]]. Retrieved 12 November 2013.</ref> Berg first gave his "Lecture on ''Wozzeck''" before this premiere, then in 11 more cities.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=215}}

====1930: Viennese premiere and polemic====
For ''Wozzeck'''s 1930 Austrian premiere, led by Vienna's [[Clemens Krauss]], Berg gave tickets to friends, family, and his illegitimate daughter, Albine Wittula. While on better terms with Kleiber, Berg was pleased with Krauss's performance and touched by his opera's hometown success. ''Neue Freie Presse'' critic [[Julius Korngold]] wrote a polemical review:{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=216}}{{blockquote|If there is ... "atonal" music, it is ... a music that cannot be ... deduced given its fanatic attachment to [[chromaticism]]—in both vertical [harmonic] and horizontal [melodic] dimensions. ... [W]e have here "negative composing" ... with its conscious dethronement of the evolving tonal system and rejection of tonal relationships and a tonal center.}} In reply, Berg framed atonality as tradition-based harmonic innovation in a revised "Lecture on ''Wozzeck''" ("The 'Atonal Opera'") he delivered at the {{lang|de|Kulturbund}} (cultural association) and in a scripted [[Radio Wien]] talk "What Is Atonal?" with critic Julius Bistron.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=216}}

====1931: Philadelphia and New York====
Kleiber gave the ''Wozzeck'' Fragments their 1930 U.S. premiere at the [[New York Philharmonic]], priming opera-goers. "Like Debussy in his ''Pelléas'', Berg sought ... to probe the depths of consciousness", wrote [[Lawrence Gilman]] in the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]''.{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=216}}

In 1931, the [[Philadelphia Grand Opera Company]], working with the [[Curtis Institute of Music]] and [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], staged the U.S. premiere of ''Wozzeck'' at [[Metropolitan Opera House (Philadelphia)|Philadelphia's Metropolitan Opera House]] under [[Leopold Stokowski]]. Composer [[George Gershwin]] rode a special ''Wozzeck'' train from New York (he met Berg in 1928 via pianist Josefa Rosanska, called Josephine Rosensweet, [[Rudolf Kolisch]]'s soon-to-be wife, and heard the [[Kolisch Quartet]] play [[Lyric Suite (Berg)|Berg's ''Lyric Suite'']]).{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=216–217, 274, 481n50}} Calling the audience "brilliant", ''[[The New York Times]]''<nowiki/>'s conservative critic [[Olin Downes]] wrote of an "astonishing" success and hailed Berg's word painting:{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=217}}{{blockquote|You may hear the military band approaching, the crackling and cutting of the wood for the captain's fire, feel the approach of darkness and find reflected in the instruments the sulphurous sky of the field scene, and the setting of the sun. Or you will feel the blinding, insane thought of murder in Wozzeck's brain, and may be conscious, with weird distinctness and psychology of effect, of bubbles rising into the pool into which Wozzeck's body has sunk. All ... synthesized and reflected as in a transparent mirror [...]. ... [T]his score ... is beautiful.}}

Gilman agreed:{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=217}}{{blockquote|The layman, if he can accustom himself ... will find ... bitter and piercing loveliness, ... intensity, a compassionate wisdom [and] suffusing tenderness ... reveal[ing] Berg [as a] poet ... a pitiful humanitarian, even (let us whisper it!) a shameless romanticist—a social and spiritual rebel, no less than an aesthetic one.}}

Later that year, Stokowski's Philadelphia team staged ''Wozzeck'''s second U.S. premiere at New York's [[Metropolitan Opera]], prompting another Downes review:{{sfn|Simms and Erwin|2021|loc=217}}{{blockquote|[Berg] is Wozzeck himself, and we ... know Wozzeck's terrors of the strange things ... his premonitions which he cannot explain, of the evil that dogs him, his hallucinations, his murderous revolt. This is the psychological and emotional quality of the music.}}

====1932–52: British broadcasts and premiere====
In 1932, [[Henry Wood]] led the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] in a studio performance of the ''Wozzeck'' Fragments broadcast by Schoenberg pupil [[Edward Clark (conductor)|Edward Clark]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/eblj/1985articles/pdf/article3.pdf|author=Nicholas Chadwick|title=Alban Berg and the BBC|website=Bl.uk|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref> In 1934, [[Adrian Boult]] conducted ''Wozzeck'' in a [[Queen's Hall]] concert performance also broadcast by Clark.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trevor-bray-music-research.co.uk/Bridge+LinB/ch6_62.html|title=Frank Bridge: A Life in Brief ~ Isolation: 62|first=Trevor|last=Bray|website=Trevor-bray-music-research.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/apivor/warlock_circle.htm|title=Memories of 'The Warlock Circle' |author=Denis Apivor|website=Musicweb-international.com}}</ref> In 1952, it was staged at the [[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden.<ref name="Walsh" />

====Effect on Berg====

[[File:Alban Berg en Maurice Corneil de Thoran (1932).jpg|thumb|Berg examines the score of ''Wozzeck'' with Brussels conductor [[Maurice Corneil de Thoran]] in 1932.]]

''Wozzeck'' brought Berg financial comfort, mostly via royalties from performances in Central Europe,{{cn|date=October 2025}} nearly until his 1935 death. He traveled not only to Germany, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Russia, and England, but also to Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, France, and Italy for performances of and talks about the opera.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=17}}

Busy attending to his success and enjoying independence, he declined vacations with Schoenberg and Schreker's offers of a [[Berlin University of the Arts|Berlin Musikhochschule]] appointment.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=17}} He benefited from new relationships with Kleiber, [[Karl Böhm]], and [[Gian Francesco Malipiero]], and was appointed to the ADMV jury.{{sfn|Hailey|2010|loc=17–18}}

===Influence===

====Krenek====
Berg and Krenek were acquainted at the {{lang|fr|[[salon (gathering)|salons]]|italics=no}} of Alma Mahler,{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=79}} a close friend of the Bergs{{sfn|Schroeder|1999|loc=194}} and the wife or lover of [[Gustav Mahler]], Kokoschka, and Werfel. Krenek studied ''Wozzeck'''s piano–vocal score and wrote Berg with praise and questions about vocal writing while working with Kokoschka on ''[[Orpheus und Eurydike]]'' in 1923.{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=79}} Berg replied with examples from Wagner, Mozart, and Bach, stressing music adapted to singers' limits and his varied use of voice ("the supreme instrument") for dramatic effect.{{sfn|Schroeder|1999|loc=79, 227}}

Krenek denied modeling ''Orpheus'' on ''Wozzeck'', but Berg likely influenced him. [[Hans Hartleb (director)|Hans Hartleb]] saw parallels in the operas' violence and music of "fatalism, melancholy, and sensuality" for Eurydike and Marie{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=79}} (whose role, he wrote, such music elevated).{{sfn|Stewart|1991|loc=337}}

====Berio====
In [[Sinfonia (Berio)|''Sinfonia'']] (1968–69), [[Luciano Berio]] quotes the rising orchestral chords Berg uses in the word painting of Wozzeck's drowning.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

==Other arrangements==
Besides Stein's arrangement,{{sfn|Simms|1996|p=36}} [[John Rea (composer)|John Rea]]'s arrangement is for 22 singers and 21 instrumental parts.<ref name=UE>{{cite web|url=http://www.universaledition.com/Alban-Berg/komponisten-und-werke/komponist/51/werk/6746|title=Alban Berg – ''Wozzeck'' – Reduzierte Fassung (21 instrumente) – John Rea|publisher=[[Universal Edition]]|access-date=9 December 2010}}</ref>

==Recordings==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year !! Wozzeck !! Marie !! Doktor !! Hauptmann !! Andres !! Margret !! Tambourmajor !! Chorus and Orchestra !! Conductor !! Label / Notes
|-
| 1949 || Heinrich Nillius || [[Suzanne Danco]] || [[Otakar Kraus]] || Parry Jones || Frank Vroons || [[Mary Jarred]] || [[Walter Widdop]] || [[BBC Chorus]] and [[BBC Symphony Orchestra|Symphony Orchestra]] || [[Adrian Boult]] || SOMM Ariadne (radio broadcast, [[Royal Albert Hall]], issued 2023)
|-
| 1951 || [[Mack Harrell]] || [[Eileen Farrell]] || Ralph Herbert || Joseph Mordino (Soldat, Idiot) || [[David Lloyd (tenor)|David Lloyd]] || [[Edwina Eustis Dick|Edwina Eustis]] || [[Frederick Jagel]] || [[New York Philharmonic]] || [[Dimitri Mitropoulos]] || Columbia (FCX 157–158)
|-
| 1955 || [[Tito Gobbi]] || [[Dorothy Dow]] || [[Italo Tajo]] || [[Hugues Cuénod]] || [[Petre Munteanu]] || Maria Teresa Mandalari || [[Mirto Picchi]] || RAI Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of Rome || [[Nino Sanzogno]] || RAI / Myto (sung in Italian)
|-
| 1965 || [[Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau]] || [[Evelyn Lear]] || [[Karl-Christian Kohn]] || [[Gerhard Stolze]] || [[Fritz Wunderlich]] || Alice Oelke || Helmut Melchert || Chorus and Orchestra of the [[Deutsche Oper Berlin]] || [[Karl Böhm]] || Deutsche Grammophon – [[8th Annual Grammy Awards|1966]] [[Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording]]
|-
| 1966 || [[Walter Berry (bass-baritone)|Walter Berry]] || [[Isabel Strauss]] || Karl Dönch || Albert Weikenmeier || Richard van Vrooman || Ingeborg Lasser || [[Fritz Uhl]] || Chorus and Orchestra of the [[Paris Opera]] || [[Pierre Boulez]] || Columbia – [[10th Annual Grammy Awards|1968]] Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording{{efn|The set included a bonus LP of Berg's lecture on ''Wozzeck'', read in English by [[Noël Goodwin]], with music examples conducted by Boulez.}}
|-
| 1970 || [[Toni Blankenheim]] || [[Sena Jurinac]] || [[Hans Sotin]] || [[Gerhard Unger]] || Peter Haage || Elisabeth Steiner || [[Richard Cassilly]] || Chorus of the [[Hamburg State Opera]]; [[Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg|Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra]] || [[Bruno Maderna]] || Arthaus Musik (directed by [[Rolf Liebermann]])
|-
| 1979 || [[Eberhard Waechter]] || [[Anja Silja]] || [[Alexander Malta]] || [[Heinz Zednik]] || [[Horst Laubenthal]] || Gertrude Jahn || [[Hermann Winkler (tenor)|Hermann Winkler]] || Wiener Staatsopernchor; [[Vienna Philharmonic]] || [[Christoph von Dohnányi]] || Decca
|-
| 1987 || [[Franz Grundheber]] || [[Hildegard Behrens]] || [[Aage Haugland]] || [[Heinz Zednik]] || [[Philip Langridge]] || Anna Gonda || {{ill|Walter Raffeiner|de}} || Wiener Staatsopernchor; [[Vienna Philharmonic]] || [[Claudio Abbado]] || Deutsche Grammophon
|-
| 1994 || [[Franz Grundheber]] || [[Waltraud Meier]] || Günter von Kannen || [[Graham Clark (tenor)|Graham Clark]] || [[Endrik Wottrich]] || Dalia Schaechter || Mark Baker || Chorus and Children's Choir of the [[Deutsche Oper Berlin]]; [[Staatskapelle Berlin]] || [[Daniel Barenboim]] || [[Teldec]]
|-
| 2003 || [[Andrew Shore]] || [[Josephine Barstow]] || Clive Bailey || Stuart Kale || Peter Bronder || [[Jean Rigby]] || [[Alan Woodrow]] || Philharmonia Orchestra || [[Paul Daniel]] || Chandos (Chan 3094; sung in English)
|-
| 2006 || Franz Hawlata || [[Angela Denoke]] || Johann Tilli || Hubert Delamboye || Robert McPherson || Vivian Tierney || [[Reiner Goldberg]] || Vivaldi Chorus; IPSI; Petits Cantors de Catalunya; Orchestra & Chorus of the Gran Teatre del [[Liceu]] || [[Sebastian Weigle]] || Opus Arte (directed by [[Calixto Bieito]])
|-
| 2017 || [[Roman Trekel]] || [[Anne Schwanewilms]] || [[Nathan Berg]] || Marc Molomot || Robert McPherson || [[Katherine Ciesinski]] || Gordon Gietz || [[Houston Grand Opera]] Children's Chorus; [[Shepherd School of Music]]; [[Houston Symphony]] || [[Hans Graf]] || Naxos
|}

==Film adaptation==
The [[Hamburg State Opera]]'s 1970 production was filmed at a deserted castle for director {{ill|Joachim Hess (director)|de|3=Joachim Hess (Schauspieler)|lt=Joachim Hess}}'s 1972 TV film ''Wozzeck'', broadcast on [[Norddeutscher Rundfunk]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Berg: Wozzeck, 1970/Hamburg DVD |url=https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-13849/ |first=Robert |last=Levine |work=Classics Today}}</ref>

==References==
===Notes===
{{notelist|45em}}

===Citations===
{{reflist|20em}}

===Bibliography===
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Adorno and Berg|2005}}|reference=[[Theodor W. Adorno|Adorno, Theodor W.]] and Alban Berg. 2005. ''Correspondence 1925–1935'', ed. Henri Lonitz, trans. Wieland Hoban. Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7456-2336-8}}. (Trans. of ''Briefwechsel 1925–1935''. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1997.)}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Barnouw|1999}}|reference=[[Dagmar Barnouw|Barnouw, Dagmar]]. 1999. "''Wiener Moderne'' and the Tensions of Modernism". ''Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: A Companion to the Second Viennese School'', ed. Bryan R. Simms, 73–128. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|978-0-313-29604-8}}.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Busch|2010}}|reference=Busch, Regina. 2010. "A Descriptive Overview of Berg's ''Night/Nocturne''". ''Alban Berg and His World'', intro. Regina Busch, ed., trans, and cmt. Christopher Hailey, 91–132. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-691-14855-7}} (hbk). {{ISBN|978-0-691-14856-4}} (pbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Deathridge|2005}}|reference=[[John Deathridge|Deathridge, John]]. 2005. "Wagner and beyond". ''The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera'', ed. Mervyn Cooke, 14–25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-78009-4}} (hbk). {{ISBN|978-0-521-78393-4}} (pbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Fisher|2000}}|reference=Fisher, Burton D. 2000. ''Macbeth''. Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series. Miami: Opera Journeys Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-930841-10-9}} (pbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Franklin|2024}}|reference=Franklin, Peter. 2024. ''Britten Experienced: Modernism, Musicology, and Sentiment''. London and New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-1-032-66660-0}} (hbk). {{ISBN|978-1-032-66663-1}} (ebk). {{ISBN|978-1-032-66664-8}} (pbk). {{doi|10.4324/9781032666631}}.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Görner|2020}}|reference={{ill|Rüdiger Görner|lt=Görner, Rüdiger|de|Rüdiger Görner|display=1}}. 2020. ''Kokoschka: The Untimely Modernist'', trans. Debra S. Marmor and Herbert A. Danner. London: Haus Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-912208-82-1}} (ebk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Griffel|2018}}|reference=[[Margaret Ross Griffel|Griffel, Margaret Ross]]. 2018. "A Brief History of Operas in German". Vol. 1, ''Operas in German: A Dictionary'', ed. Margaret Ross Griffel, xv–xxvi. London: Rowman & Littlefield. {{ISBN|978-1-44-224797-0}} (ebk). {{ISBN|978-1-44-224796-3}} (hbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Hailey|2010}}|reference=Hailey, Christopher. 2010. "Berg's Worlds". ''Alban Berg and His World'', ed. Christopher Hailey, 3–32. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-691-14855-7}} (hbk). {{ISBN|978-0-691-14856-4}} (pbk).}}
* {{cite book|last=Hall|first=Patricia|year=2011|title=Berg's Wozzeck|series=Studies in Musical Genesis, Structure, and Interpretation|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534261-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ccgGgFN-F8C}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Headlam|1996}}|reference=Headlam, David J. 1996. ''The Music of Alban Berg''. Composers of the Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-300-06400-1}} (hbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Ho|2011}}|reference=Ho, Allan B. and Dmitry Feofanov. 2011, rev 2014. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20230315221907/https://www.siue.edu/~aho/ShostakovichWars/SW.pdf The Shostakovich Wars]''.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Perle|1980}}|reference=[[George Perle|Perle, George]]. 1980. ''The Operas of Alban Berg, Vol. I: Wozzeck.'' Berkeley: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-06617-5}}.}}
*{{cite book|last=Pople|first=Anthony|author-link=Anthony Pople|title=The Cambridge Companion to Berg|series=[[Cambridge Companions to Music]]|date=24 April 1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=0521563747|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_o7e7}}
* {{cite book|last=Ross|first=Alex|author-link=Alex Ross (music critic)|title=[[The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century]]|year=2008|publisher=Picador|location=New York|isbn=978-0-312-42771-9|edition=1st Picador}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Shreffler|1999}}|reference=Shreffler, Anne C. 1999. "Anton Webern". ''Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: A Companion to the Second Viennese School'', ed. Bryan R. Simms, 251–314. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|978-0-313-29604-8}} (hbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Schroeder|1999}}|reference=Schroeder, David. 1999. "Alban Berg". ''Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: A Companion to the Second Viennese School'', ed. Bryan R. Simms, 185–250. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|978-0-313-29604-8}}.}}
* {{cite book|last=Simms|first=Bryan R.|year=1996|title=Alban Berg: A Guide to Research|publisher=Routledge}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Simms|1999a}}|reference=Simms, Bryan R. 1999. "Introduction". ''Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: A Companion to the Second Viennese School'', ed. Bryan R. Simms, xi–xiv. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|978-0-313-29604-8}}.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Simms|1999b}}|reference=Simms, Bryan R. 1999. "Arnold Schoenberg". ''Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: A Companion to the Second Viennese School'', ed. Bryan R. Simms, 129–184. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|978-0-313-29604-8}} (hbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Simms and Erwin|2021}}|reference=Simms, Bryan R. and Charlotte Erwin. 2021. ''Berg''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-093144-5}} (hbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Stewart|1991}}|reference=Stewart, John Lincoln. 1991. ''Ernst Krenek: The Man and His Music''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-07014-1}} (hbk).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Walsh|2001}}|reference=[[Stephen Walsh (writer)|Walsh, Stephen]]. 2001. "Alban Berg". In ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', ed. [[Amanda Holden (writer)|Amanda Holden]]. New York: Penguin Putnam. {{ISBN|0-14-029312-4}}.}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
*[[Theodor W. Adorno|Adorno, Theodor W.]] (1991), ''Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link''. Trans. Juliane Brand and Christopher Hailey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-33016-5}}
* Bailey Puffett, Kathryn. 1997. "Berg's aphoristic pieces". ''[[Cambridge Companions to Music|The Cambridge Companion to Berg]]'', ed. [[Anthony Pople]], 83–110. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-1-139-82807-9}}.
*Bonds, Mark Edward (June 2020). "&thinsp;'''Wozzeck''{{'}}s Worst Hours': Alban Berg’s Presentation Copy of ''Wozzeck'' to [[Eduard Steuermann]]". ''[[Notes (journal)|Notes]]'', 76(4), 527–534. {{JSTOR|27079692}}
*Jarman, Douglas (1979), ''The Music of Alban Berg''. London and Boston: Faber & Faber {{ISBN|0-571-10956-X}}; Berkeley: University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-03485-6}}
*Jarman, Douglas (1989), "Alban Berg, ''Wozzeck''". ''Cambridge Opera Handbooks''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-24151-0}} (cloth) {{ISBN|0-521-28481-3}} (pbk).
*Schmalfeldt, Janet (1983), "Berg's ''Wozzeck''", ''Harmonic Language and Dramatic Design''. New Haven: Yale University Press {{ISBN|0-300-02710-9}}.

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Wozzeck|''Wozzeck''}}
* {{IMSLP|work=Wozzeck, Op.7 (Berg, Alban)|cname=''Wozzeck''}}
* {{YouTube|kXBVu1s-5E0|How does Berg use Sprechgesang in ''Wozzeck''? (The Royal Opera)}}
* [https://viewer.onb.ac.at/1187F7E1/2 Photos of the Berg family, including at the Berghof]
* [https://opera-inside.com/wozzeck-by-alban-berg-the-opera-guide-and-synopsis/ Portrait of the opera in the online opera guide opera-inside.com]

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