"" (The Wine) is a

concert aria A concert aria is normally a free-standing aria or opera-like scene (''scena'') composed for singer and orchestra, written specifically for performance in concert rather than as part of an opera. Concert arias have often been composed for particula ...

for soprano and orchestra, composed in 1929 by Alban Berg. The lyrics are from

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literary ...

's translation of three poems from

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...

's ', as is the secret text of Berg's '' Lyric Suite''.Pople, Anthony (1991). ''Berg: Violin Concerto'', p. 21. . "Die Seele des Weines" (The Wine's Soul), "Der Wein der Liebenden" (The Wine of Lovers), and "Der Wein des Einsamen" (The Wine of the Lonely One). The aria was dedicated to Ružena Herlinger, its commissioner, and first performed in Königsberg on June 4, 1930, with Hermann Scherchen. Berg - Der Wein series prime form

The piece includes a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of a

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

( bars 39, 181) and includes an alto saxophone. The

tone row In music, a tone row or note row (german: Reihe or '), also series or set, is a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets ...

contains a complete ascending D

harmonic minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which al ...

and the remaining five notes are ordered so that in the inverted form they arpeggiate a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

added sixth chord The term ''sixth chord'' refers to two different kinds of chord, the first in classical music and the second in modern popular music. The original meaning of the term is a ''chord in first inversion'', in other words with its third in the bass ...

with blue third (G, F, D, D, B). The central sonority of the work, as characteristic of Berg's later music, comprises triads separated by half an octave: F and B ( in German: H) superimposed over a low D. These two letter names, H and F, are presumably a reference to Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, and the title may be a reference to her husband's wine cellar. The music of the central section of a ternary ABA structure "is a palindrome within itself," with the outer sections being

through-composed In music theory of musical form, through-composed music is a continuous, non- sectional, and non- repetitive piece of music. The term is typically used to describe songs, but can also apply to instrumental music. While most musical forms such as t ...

.Pople (1991), pp. 17–18. Bars 112 to 140 are then heard in retrograde as bars 140 to 170.

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Annelies Kupper Annelies Kupper (21 July 1906 – 8 December 1987), was a German operatic soprano, particularly associated with Mozart and the German repertory. Kupper was born at Glatz (now Kłodzko) in Lower Silesia. She studied in Breslau and was a music te ...

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (german: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestr ...

, conducted by Hermann Scherchen (1957) (Scherchen also conducted the premiere) Compositions by Alban Berg Les Fleurs du mal in popular culture Twelve-tone compositions 1929 compositions Arias in German Soprano arias {{composition-stub