Editing Alban Berg (section)

===''Wozzeck'' (1917–1924) and ''Lulu'' (1928–1929)===
From 1915 to 1918 Berg served in the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]]. During a period of leave in 1917 he accelerated work on his first opera, ''[[Wozzeck]]''. After the end of World War I, he settled again in Vienna, where he taught private pupils. He also helped Schoenberg run his [[Society for Private Musical Performances]], which sought to create the ideal environment for the exploration and appreciation of unfamiliar new music by means of open rehearsals, repeat performances, and the exclusion of professional critics.

In 1924 three excerpts from ''Wozzeck'' were performed, which brought Berg his first public success. The opera, which Berg completed in 1922, was first performed on 14 December 1925, when [[Erich Kleiber]] conducted the first performance in Berlin. Today, ''Wozzeck'' is seen as one of the century's most important works. Berg made a start on his second opera, the three-act ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'', in 1928 but interrupted the work in 1929 for the concert aria ''Der Wein'' which he completed that summer. ''Der Wein'' presaged ''Lulu'' in a number of ways, including vocal style, orchestration, design and text.{{sfn|Antokoletz|2014|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qrkTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 55]}}

Other well-known Berg compositions include the ''[[Lyric Suite (Berg)|Lyric Suite]]'' (1926), which was later shown to employ elaborate cyphers to document a secret love affair; the post-Mahlerian [[Three Pieces for Orchestra (Berg)|Three Pieces for Orchestra]] (completed in 1915 but not performed until after ''Wozzeck''); and the [[Kammerkonzert (Berg)|Chamber Concerto]] (''Kammerkonzert'', 1923–25) for violin, piano, and 13 wind instruments: this latter is written so conscientiously that [[Pierre Boulez]] has called it "Berg's strictest composition" and it, too, is permeated by cyphers and posthumously disclosed hidden programs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://musopen.org/fr/education/instrument/piano/great-composers/20th-century-composers/alban-berg/|title=Alban Berg|website=musopen.org|language=fr|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-date=24 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824002422/https://musopen.org/fr/education/instrument/piano/great-composers/20th-century-composers/alban-berg/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was at this time he began exhibiting [[tone cluster]]s in his works after meeting with American avant-garde composer [[Henry Cowell]], with whom he would eventually form a lifelong friendship.<ref>Sachs, Joel (2012). ''Henry Cowell: A Man Made of Music'', pp. 191–192. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-510895-8}}</ref>