Sonata for Piano, Op.1

In the autumn of 1904, Alban Berg started studying counterpoint, music theory, and harmony with Arnold Schoenberg. Three years later, by 1907 he began composition lessons, and focused his attention on the sonata form. A number of pages that have not seen the light of day date from that period, the early sonata sketches eventually culminated in Berg's Piano Sonata, Op. 1. The Sonata is Berg's only piano work attributed by a number. It was published in 1910, but the exact date of composition is unknown. Sources suggest that the Sonata was composed between 1907 and 1908. At that time, Berg had already become an author of a number of amateur works and sketches. Having begun and set aside five unfinished piano sonatas, the composer eventually completed one of them and honored it with appearing in the list of his works under opus 1. From that moment on, Schoenberg's student already considered himself an active composer. Starting a popular catalog with a piano sonata is a worthy step. Before Berg, in 1853, so did Johannes Brahms, and a little later, in 1909 - Sergei Prokofiev. Berg's one-part Sonata opus 1 is the work of a young man, very musical in nature, but still devoid of landmarks. The structure, the themes, the rhythm and the tonality - everything in this work is still blurred, indefinite and aimless. The sonata is not in the typical classical form of three or four contrasting movements, although it was originally intended to be a more traditional multi-movement work, the opening movement followed by a slow movement and a finale. However, for a long period he lacked any ideas for these other movements Berg turned to Schoenberg, who commented that the lack of inspiration meant that '[Berg] ... had said all there was to say'. Then the young man decided to publish the finished movement and let it stand by itself. While composing the sonata, Alban Berg did not know yet that he will ingeniously embody the ideas of his teacher Schoenberg (free atonality, dodecaphony, and serial technique), that his style would be defined as expressionism, and the themes of his two future operas would revolve around the disintegration of the personality. For the time being he was still resigning in vague and wonderful dreams. On the last page of this small work, where the author put a remark "very gently", the musical language suddenly becomes clearer, and it turns out that this music still has some tone - B minor. The e premiere of the Piano Sonata, Op. 1 was given in Vienna on 24^th April 1911 by Etta Werndorff. Other works by Berg and Anton Webern were also played at that concert. Pianist Léo-Pol Morin notably performed the work for its Parisian premiere in 1922, eleven years later. The work underwent alterations for republication and further changes were made in 1925 for publication of a "revised edition"