Truth, Gender, and Sex: Berg's Schnitzler and Motivic Processes in “Reigen,” Op. 61

Abstract

The motivic language in Berg's orchestral piece “Reigen,” from his Three Orchestral Pieces, op. 6, is intertextually inflected by his readings of Schnitzler, as evidenced by writings in his notebook and copy of Schnitzler's play of the same name. Furthermore, Schoenberg's ideas on motive illuminate Berg's motive processes and transformations, and a close musical analysis, informed by literary insight, reveals that the “liberation of the sensual” is central to Berg's compositional process. Despite previous assertions of a structural correlation of music to play, Berg's “Reigen” emerges as distinctly different from the play, in that it musically articulates the liberation of the sensual, while the satire can only imply it.