9/25/06 Trevor de Clercq TH513 Headlam

Cycles and Wedges in Berg op. 4

Berg Altenberg Lieder op. 4, no. 2:

As other analyses of his music have made clear, Berg often uses symmetrical divisions of
the chromatic scale as the foundation for deriving the pitch content of his compositions. In op.
4/2, this apparent foundation is the octatonic scale. While each individual octatonic scale is not
perfectly symmetrical within the octave since it does not directly map to its own inversion, the
inversion of an octatonic scale does create another octatonic scale and thus has symmetrical
properties. The pseudo-symmetrical nature of the octatonic scale becomes more obvious when
we view the scale as a combination of multiple cycles, interleaved into or overlaid onto one
another. It is through exactly this mixing of multiple cycles by which Berg constructs his
octatonic sound fields in op. 4/2.
A testament to his compositional ingenuity, Berg does not construct these octatonic
sound fields in the same way. If we look, for example, at the horn and bassoon lines of mm. 3-4,
we can see the culmination of an octatonic scale as shown in Figure 2. In these bars, Berg
linearly expands a string of major-third sonorities, each separated from the next by a minor third.
One can see thus how Berg has overlaid one 3-cycle on top of another at the distance of a 4-cycle
to culminate in an octatonic pattern. A second example of a prominent octatonic flavor occurs in
the vocal line of mm 1-2. The two descending perfect fourths separated by a half-step in
measure 2 are particularly informative, for as Figure 2 shows, the octatonic scale can also be
derived from two 3-cycles separated by a 5-cycle. This 5-cycle moves even more conspicuously
into the foreground with the solo cello arpeggiation at the end of bar 6.
Berg also relies on single cycles in this piece as the basis for lines and sections,
presumably in relief to the predominant sonorities of mixed-cycle pitch content. At the middle
of bar 5, for example, a world of whole-tone harmony opens up in the orchestral parts,
unmitigated by non-member tones until near the end of bar 6. Acting as a sort of linear glue

7, a chromatic cello line descends from an e n to a c n, an inner-voice manifestation of a 1-cycle

between the octatonic sound of bar 4, through this whole-tone area, and to the stark chord in bar

that delimits the major-third sonority used so prominently throughout the work.
This chord in bar 7 to which the cello line leads may come as a mild surprise to the
listener. In a piece of otherwise unquestionably non-tonal harmonic surroundings, the bar-7
chord stands as a little window back to tonality, sounding like a TZ 97 in B-minor. The chord can

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9/25/06 Trevor de Clercq TH513 Headlam

also be viewed as the combination of a 3-cycle in the upper voices with an f n in the lower voices,
i.e. a 3-cycle+. Perhaps it is just this ambiguity between tonal and atonal worlds that Berg seeks
to elucidate through his use of this chord at this climatic point in the song. As a 3-cycle+
sonority, the chord in bar 7 also stands as a seed for the octatonic material, all of which derives
from the combination of 3-cycles with non-member tones (although the non-member tones are

Finally, I would like to pull the f n out of this chord in bar 7, the f n of course being the
merely other 3-cycles).

important role of the f n throughout the piece. One only has to look at the first and last notes of
crucial tone that transforms the 3-cycle into a mixed harmony, and show how Berg reinforces the

the orchestral part to see that the f n acts as a kind of bookend for the accompaniment, sounded by
the piano at the beginning of the piece and then transferred to the basses at the end where it

as shown in Figure 3, this wedge having f n as its axis of symmetry. Via this wedge of alternating
closes a canon between the voice and cello. Also, the voice outlines a sum-10 wedge in bars 3-4

notes, Berg moves progressively from one interval to the next largest interval by step. Thus, the
wedge displays a mini-exposition of the multitude of interval cycles used in the song. But
despite the variety of interval cycles in this piece, Berg organizes almost all of them around the
normative structure of the octatonic scale, thereby giving cohesiveness to a fairly complicated
sonic texture.

Berg Altenberg Lieder op. 4, no. 3:

Much as the wedge plays a significant role in op. 4/2, the wedge becomes increasingly
important as a fundamental structural device in op. 4/3. For this song, the wedge is the
normative structure that imparts symmetry of the chromatic scale to the piece. The proliferation
of these wedges also leads towards a saturation of chromatic information, perhaps foreshadowing
twelve-tone techniques that became more standard for atonal composers in later parts of the
century.
The wedge beginning in bar 18 most clearly shows how Berg leads to an aggregate pitch
collection. This wedge appears as a result of the build-up of tones in the orchestral part. Figure

The wedge does not directly unfold to produce the aggregate since the notes b b –a–c–b n exist as
5 organizes the notes into a more clearly visible wedge structure, specifically a sum-9 wedge.

(which would have preceded the first notes of the wedge), leaving only the b b–b n as stranded and
apparent non-wedge members, although as Figure 5 shows, the notes a
c are a wedge pair

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separated wedge members. This same wedge is evident in the opening A-section of the piece,
this time verticalized instead of introduced note-by-note. If one examines the vertical spacing of
these opening chords, however, the same wedge structure as is shown in Figure 5 reveals itself,
only now distributed through the registral breadth of the orchestra. Berg allays the monotony of
repeating this aggregate by rotating the notes through different instrumentations in these opening
bars, thereby creating a sense of motion when in fact the harmonic sonority is completely static.
The saturation of chromatic pitch-class content in the opening and closing chords is

the pitch-class content of the A-sections' melodic line is the note e n, as Figure 6 makes clear.
something that perhaps Berg plays with in the melody of the piece. Conspicuously absent from

Figure 6 also shows how the melodic line in these parts is built from a collection of local 3-
cycles, as well as having a reflected mini-wedge at the beginning. Thus the opening and closing

note. The "unfinished business" of the missing e n (to use Perle's terms) is resolved in bar 13,
vocal lines relate to the aggregate in the orchestral part but include a tension due to the missing

where the vocal line begins a contour that implies a transposed re-entry of the main melody.
This contour goes astray by bar 15, however, possibly due to lack of support from the original
aggregate cluster.
The harmonic support for this B-section melody, though, does include similar sections of
aggregate completion and wedge formation. Starting in bar 8, Berg starts accumulating
chromatic pitch-class saturation. This saturation does not result from an obvious wedge structure
here, but instead is built from clusters of whole-tone content. For example, in bar 9 we see a
proliferation of even whole-tone members [0268] and a use of odd whole-tone members [1359E]

complete aggregate; again, it is e n that has played hooky, this time joined by g n. It should be no
in bar 10. By the beginning of bar 11, however, two notes are noticeably lacking from a

surprise, therefore, that these two same notes begin a wedge that brings Berg to the end of this

closing section, here too Berg removes the d b and b b members from the wedge to create a
bridge section, this wedge shown in Figure 7. Much like Berg displaces wedge members in the

repeated interval that, while seeming like a separate motive, really belongs to the wedge itself.
So just as Berg needed multiple cycles to control and organize the dense octatonic
structure of op. 4/2, Berg requires a structural tool in op. 4/3 to deal with similarly dense pitch
content. While other cycles are noticeable in this song, here the wedge truly rises to become the
main organizational tool. Since a wedge is basically two interleaved 1-cycles, we can therefore
see how both songs use the intertwining of similar yet separate cycles to control pitch content.

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 9/25/06
CYCLES and WEDGES in BERG op. 4 TH513 Headlam
Trevor de Clercq
Figure 1: Form of op. 4, no. 2
Section: A B A'
Measures: mm. 1-3 mm. 3-5 mm. 5-6 mm. 6-7 mm. 8-11
Character: octatonic octatonic whole-tone mixed octatonic canon

œ
? œ œ œ # œ œ # œ b œ n œ # œœ n # œœ n œœ b œ # œœ b b œœ n œœ œ bœ nœ
œ œ œ œ bœ #œ
Figure 2: Octatonic Scale with various derivations; op. 4, no. 2

nœ
Figure 3: Melodic Wedge; op. 4, no. 2, mm. 3-4

& nœ #œ œ œ bœ bœ nœ nœ

Figure 4: Form of op. 4, no. 3

Section: A B A'
Measures: mm. 1-8 mm. 8-11 mm. 11-17 mm. 18-25
Character: agg. wedge whole-tone bridge wedge agg. wedge

Figure 5: Wedge becoming aggregate; op. 4, no. 3

bœ œ œ nœ
& #œ œ nœ bœ #œ nœ nœ
#œ

Figure 6: Melodic PC content; op. 4, no. 3 6

# œ n œ # œ nœ nœ
& œ #œ nœ nœ #œ nœ b œ bœ n œ nœ bœ nœ nœ
6 3 6 3 6 3
3 No E!
Figure 7: Bridge wedge; op. 4, no. 3, mm. 11-16

?œ nœ #œ nœ #œ bœ )
œ
(
#œ nœ nœ bœ ( bœ )