게오르그 뷔히너의 드라마 보이체크〈Woyzeck〉와 알반 베르크의 오페라 보체크〈Wozzeck〉

Abstract

Georg B&uuml;chner( 1813-1837) is a German realistic dramatist as well as a revolutionist who led the students’ social movement in early 19th century. His unfinished drama <Woyzeck> was the first work in the history of German literature in which the protagonist was a character from the socially suppressed fourth class. B&uuml;chner's pursuit of abandoning the conventional ethics and customs of his contemporary society was well reflected in the formal aspect of this work, as he employed an open form as opposed to the classical formal aesthetics that pervaded at that time. B&uuml;chner's drama <Woyzeck> was recreated as an opera < Wozzeck > by Alban Berg, an expressionistic atonal musical composer in the early 20th century, in which the open form of the original work was modified to a closed form of a traditional style. This was contrasted with the pursuit of B&uuml;chner, since his introduction of an open form was based upon his anti-idealistic view of the conventional society. This seem to be in part due to Franzos misinterpretation of the original work, caused by his lack of understanding of B&uuml;chner's stance behind it, as well as to the challenge atonal music was facing in general at that time. For Berg, it was one of his tasks to establish a new sense of unity and comprehensibility of atonal music. For this, Berg employed various traditional forms as well as the leading motive technique. A pre-contemporary poet's political intentions and revolutionary creative ideas finaly obtained an expressive power through the modern techniques of a contemporary musical composer who remained faithful to the pure sprit of music.