Austrian Folk Figure. The daughter of famed architect Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler, she charmed inter-war Vienna society with her vivacious personality and intellect. Her death at 18 from polio inspired composer Alban Berg to write his great Violin Concerto (1936), which he dedicated "To the Memory of an Angel". Its first section is a "musical portrait" of Manon; the second depicts her death struggle and culminates in her soul achieving final peace. It was Berg's last completed work. He died in December 1935, and the Concerto proved to be his own Requiem as well as Manon's.
Austrian Folk Figure. The daughter of famed architect Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler, she charmed inter-war Vienna society with her vivacious personality and intellect. Her death at 18 from polio inspired composer Alban Berg to write his great Violin Concerto (1936), which he dedicated "To the Memory of an Angel". Its first section is a "musical portrait" of Manon; the second depicts her death struggle and culminates in her soul achieving final peace. It was Berg's last completed work. He died in December 1935, and the Concerto proved to be his own Requiem as well as Manon's.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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