Pierrot Lunaire
Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire, ("three times seven poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire'"), commonly known as Pierrot Lunaire
' ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the moonlight"), Op. 21, is a
song cycle by
Arnold Schoenberg. It is a setting of twenty-one selected poems from
Otto Erich Hartleben's translations of
Albert Giraud's cycle of French poems of the same name. The work's premiere was at the
Berlin Choralion-saal on
October 16 1912, with
Albertine Zehme as the vocalist.
The solo soprano sings the poems in the
Sprechstimme style, which complements the mood of the poems aurally. The work is atonal, but not twelve-tone as Schoenberg did not begin experimenting with twelve-tone music until later in his career.
The work originated in a commission by Albertine Zehme for a cycle for voice and piano, setting a series of poems by the Belgian writer
Albert Giraud. The verses had been first published in 1884, and later translated into German by
Otto Erich Hartleben. Schoeberg began on March 12 and completed the work on
July 9 1912, having expanded the forces to what has become known as the
"Pierrot ensemble", consisting of
flute (doubling on a
piccolo),
clarinet (doubling on bass clarinet),
violin (doubling on
viola),
cello, and
piano.
Pierrot plus percussion (or
Pierrot plus for short) is a common variation. After forty rehearsals, Schoenberg and Zehme (in
Columbine dress) gave the premiere at the
Berlin Choralion-saal on
October 16 1912. Reaction was predictably mixed, with
Anton Webern reporting at the premiere whistling, laughing, but in the end "it was an unqualified success".
[Quoted in Winiarz.] There was some criticism of blasphemy in the texts, to which Schoenberg responded, "If they were musical, not a single one would give a damn about the words. Instead, they would go away whistling the tunes".
[Quoted in Hazlewood.] The show took to the road throughout Germany and Austria later in 1912.
"Pierrot Lunaire" consists of three groups of seven poems: in the first group,
Pierrot sings of love, sex and religion; in the second, of violence, crime, and blasphemy; and in the third of his return home to
Bergamo, with his past haunting him. Schoenberg, who was fascinated by
numerology, also makes great use of seven-note motifs throughout the work, while the Pierrot ensemble (with conductor) comprises seven people. The piece is his opus 21, contains 21 poems, and was begun on
March 12 1912. Other key numbers in the work are three and thirteen: each poem consists of thirteen lines (two four-line verses followed by a five-line verse), while the first line of each poem occurs three times (being repeated as lines seven and thirteen).
# Mondestrunken (Moon-drunk)# Colombine# Der Dandy (The Dandy)# Eine blasse Wäscherin (A Faded Laundress)# Valse de Chopin# Madonna# Der kranke Mond (The Sick Moon)# Nacht (Passacaglia) (Night)# Gebet an Pierrot (Prayer to Pierrot)# Raub (Theft)# Rote Messe (Red Mass)# Galgenlied (Gallows Song)# Enthauptung (Beheading)# Die Kreuze (The Crosses)# Heimweh (Homesick)# Gemeinheit! (Mean Trick!)# Parodie (Parody)# Der Mondfleck (The Moonspot)# Serenade# Heimfahrt (Barcarole) (Journey Home)# O Alter Duft (O Old Perfume)
Pierrot Lunaire is a work of many contradictions: the instrumentalists, for example, are soloists and the orchestra at the same time; Pierrot is both hero and fool, acting in a drama that is also a concert piece, performing cabaret as high art and vice versa, and doing it with song that is also speech; and his is a male role sung by a woman, who shifts between the first and third persons.
The instrumentation of each song is varied so that no two successive numbers have the exact same tone colors. The entire ensemble plays together only during the last poem. Schoenberg used the technique of
Klangfarbenmelodie in this work, as well as innovative musical techniques to add some sort of structure between the poems. With tonality, such structure would be trivial to produce because of expected
resolution. However, with
atonality, this is more difficult. One such solution was
ostinato patterns to aid in creating aural structure and divisions between the work.
The expressionistic settings with their echoes of German cabaret and musical parodies bring the text vividly to life. Sprechstimme, literally "speech-voice" in German, meaning speak-singing, is a style in which the vocalist uses the specified rhythms and pitches, but does not sustain the pitches, allowing them to drop or rise, in the manner of speech.
Schoenberg also used a variety of older forms, including
canon,
fugue,
rondo,
passacaglia and free
counterpoint. The poetry is a German version of a rondeau of the old French type with a double refrain. Each poem consists of three stanzas of 4 + 4 + 5 lines, with line 1 a Refrain (A) repeated as line 7 and line 13, and line 2 a second Refrain (B) repeated for line 8.
*Becker, John.
Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire: A Groundbreaker April 12 2005 accessed July 23 2006.
*Hazlewood, Charles.
Discovering Music, BBC Radio 3 June 24 2005. Accessed July 23 2006.
*Winiarz, John.
Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire: an Atonal Landmark April 1 2000 accessed July 23 2006.
*Dunsby, Jonathan.
Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire. Cambridge University Press. 1992.
*
Manuscript of the score at the
Arnold Schönberg center *
Luna Nova New Music Ensemble: Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire A Study Guide featuring
a complete performance 
