The captatio benevolentiae, that an author hesitated taking up a suggestion to publish a book, is the worse for wear from persistent misuse. Usually it is invoked merely to relieve the author of responsibility. In the case of this book on Berg, however, it not only reflects the actual situation, but is crucial to an explanation thereof.

Elisabeth Lafite's kind invitation that the author, using earlier material, write a Berg monograph for the series “Österreichische Komponisten des XX. Jahrhunderts,” aroused misgivings on two counts. First, he feared repeating himself, having published a great deal on Berg in the course of the forty years since coming to Vienna as Berg's student. He tried to avoid that insofar as possible, but could not eliminate all duplication between the chapter “Reminiscence” and the essay in Klangfiguren. Only texts that do not appear in the author's other books are incorporated into this volume.

In the meantime compendious works on the composer have been published. That raised the question whether a monograph might not be superfluous.

However, consideration of these, the author's own objections, led to his decision to accept the invitation. The bulk of his work on Berg consisted of the analyses and reflections he had contributed to the book published by Willi Reich in 1937, which was meant to be a preliminary study only. That book has long been out of print.