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Breaking Free: The World of the Second Viennese School in 5 Objects
The number 23

Tom McKinney visits Nos 13 and 23 Pyrkergasse on the outskirts of Vienna; Beethoven having lived in the former address and Arnold Rose in the second. Both Beethoven and Rose were key to the Second Viennese School, and Berg was fascinated by the number 23 while Schoenberg was fearful of the number 13.

Alban Berg’s work may have broken with the tonal traditions of Bach and Mozart, but he followed at least one of their compositional practices: numerical symbolism.

The number 23 was Berg’s signature.

It recurs in his work and guides the structure of many of his pieces, with important moments occurring in gaps of 23 bars, or significant melodies entering at bar 23.

Some have suggested that Berg had a bizarre irrational fear of the number 23, which could have developed from a serious asthma attack suffered on the 23 July, possibly in 1908 when he was 23.

Afflicted with a more typical numerical phobia, Schoenberg was terrified of the number 13. It's said that on his 76th birthday (13th September), he was plunged into depression upon someone mentioning that 7+6=13. Schoenberg died the following year in July… on Friday 13th.

[No. 23 - n/a]

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