Schoenberg – Pierrot Lunaire
[ April 20th, 2009 | No Comments » | by Jason Andrews ]
Schoenberg may not be alive today, but he’s still considered a contemporary composer (like most since the end of the Romantic Era). Either way he is by far one of the most important and influential composers that the world has seen. Check out the video on the last page.
Although this one might freak you out a bit it’s one of the most influential pieces of our time. Starting in the early 1900′s there was a huge movement to try and create the most organic form of music. Composers tried everything from tone rows to completely computer generated and preformed works. Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” was one of the first among many steps in this direction. The piece was a commission by Zehme series of poems by Albert Giruad for voice and piano and later expanded. Schoenberg decided to use the sprechstimme style for the soprano narrator which is a half singing, half talking style. It really gives the piece an errie feel to it. It’s grouped into three sections in which the narrator sings about love, sex and religion. In the second section she sings about violence, crime and blasphemy with the third section being about her trip home. There are several sections to it, of which only one I linked. If you wish to see hear more it’s all over the net. Or even better yet, go out and buy it!
- Mondestrunken (Moon-drunk)
- Colombine
- Der Dandy (The Dandy)
- Eine blasse Wäscherin (A Faded Laundress)
- Valse de Chopin (Waltz of 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 Moonfleck)
- Serenade
- Heimfahrt (Barcarole) (Journey Home)
- O Alter Duft (O Old Perfume)
His idea was that if you created every note (all twelve chromatic pitches) equally and no one note had any importance over the other that it would create an organic composition. He developed this idea further into what we call a tone row. As stated above each note was created equally therefore a note could not be repeated again until all the other notes have been played. A tone row would put all 12 notes in any order and then from that you could play the note backwards (retrograde), invert them, or do a retrograde inversion. While developing this whole system Schoenberg was displeased that he was unable to write a single large work because of the lack of structure. Although Pierrot Lunaire has a decent length to it, the piece is actually several small pieces put together. This idea went on for decades and most thought of Schoenberg as the father of what we call serial music or atonality (Schoenberg preferred the term pantonality). He eventually got the rules set for serialism and created other such works as the “A Survivor of Warsaw” and his other great string quartets.
It might not be pleasing to the ears at first because we are not use to it but it’s definitely nothing to hate or scoff at. This music has as much beauty as a Mozart Symphony. It just takes some getting use to. I guarantee that if one grew up listening to it they would also be humming it wherever they went as well as think that any other form of music is utter garbage. Serialism is really something to appreciate.
Tagged under: 20th century, classical music, Pantonality, Pierrot Lunaire, Schoenberg, Sericla Music, vocals