A Life Immersed in Sound and Emotion Alban Maria Johannes Berg, born February 9, 1885, in Vienna, Austria, was a composer whose relatively brief life yielded a body of work that profoundly reshaped the landscape of 20th-century music. Though initially drawn to literature, a path he seriously considered pursuing, Berg’s destiny lay within the realm of sound. His father, Konrad Berg, managed a successful export business, providing a com…