The characteristics of the excitonic absorption and emission around the fundamental bandgap of wurtzite Mg(x)Zn(1-x)O grown on c-plane sapphire substrates by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy with Mg contents between x = 0 and x = 0.23 are studied using spectroscopic ellipsometry and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The ellipsometric data ... were analyzed using a multilayer model yielding the dielectric function (DF). The imaginary part of the DF for the alloys exhibits a pronounced feature which is attributed to exciton-phonon coupling (EPC) similar to the previously reported results for ZnO. Thus, in order to determine reliable transition energies, the spectral dependence is analyzed by a model which includes free excitonic lines, the exciton continuum, and the enhanced absorption due to EPC. A line shape analysis of the temperature-dependent PL spectra yielded in particular the emission-related free excitonic transition energies, which are compared to the results from the DF line-shape analysis. The PL linewidth is discussed within the framework of an alloy disorder model.