Pierrot

Schönberg – Pierrot Lunaire op. 21 (1912)
for voice, piano, flute (piccolo), clarinet (bass clarinet), violin (viola), cello.

Completed in 1912, it is perhaps Schoenberg's most famous work, for its innovative timbres, its expressive power, and its unique vocal technique.
Based on 21 poems by the Belgian symbolist Albert Giraud (1884), in the German translation by Otto Eric Hartleben, divided into three groups of seven, the romantic image of Pierrot, a melancholic and sad hero, is distorted into grimaces, projected into grotesque, ironic images, and hallucinatory visions, thanks to the alienated vocality of the Sprechgesang and the extraordinary instrumental inventions that accompany it.
In this work, the voice uses the Sprechgesang (or Sprechstimme) technique for the first time, which is neither intoned singing nor recitation. singing. In the preface to the score, which will serve as the standard, the composer rigorously establishes the rules of interpretation. The voice must strictly adhere to the rhythmic notation, bringing the word to touch the note, but never to fix it, allowing the intonation to oscillate in a continuous crescendo and diminuendo and connecting with a sensitive portamento to the following syllable. The orchestration is the most varied and dazzlingly inventive. In only six of the 21 pieces does the instrumental group appear as a whole to create a complex polyphonic texture around the voice, while in the others the instruments intervene in groups of two, three, or four, and in the seventh piece, "The Sick Moon," a solo flute counterpoints the voice. Compositionally, Schoenberg experiments with great freedom and variety. Some pieces (e.g., No. 13) have an amorphous continuity, almost a stream of consciousness. Others, like No. 8, are based on small generative cells. Still others employ ostinatos, still others, canons.
Piece No. 18, "Der Mondfleck," displays incredibly intricate polyphony. It is almost a three-part fugue, its form obscured at times by the interplay of other parts and occasional supplementary notes. The clarinet and piccolo form canons diminished by the first two voices. A third, independent canon is created by the violin and cello. Halfway through the piece, the piccolo and clarinet, which are playing at twice the speed of the lead voice, reach the end of the canon and then reverse their motion, forming diminishing retrograde canons.
The polyphonic pattern, characterized primarily by intervals of the 7th and 9th, creates complex and subtle chromatic relationships, creating a cutting atmosphere that ties in well with the hallucinatory images of Hartleben's German text, far superior to Giraud's somewhat saccharine and aestheticized original.

Click the image to enlarge.

Back