Analise Pierro

THE MUSIC OF PIERROT LUNAIRE: AN ANALYTIC APPROACH
Author(s): David H. Smyth

Source: Theory and Practice, Vol. 5, No. 1 (July, 1980), pp. 5-24
Published by: Music Theory Society of New York State
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41330184
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ARTICLES ~ " "
SC UPEN BERG ' S PIE
THE MUSIC OF PIERROT LUNAIRE

AN ANALYTIC APPROACH
David H. Smyth
Cornell University
[This paper was read at the annual meeting, of the Music Theory Society of
New York State, Onondaga Community College , April 1980.]
Despite the acknowledged importance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, no

thorough analysis of the music exists.^ Descriptions of the piece general-
ly focus on one or more of the following aspects: 1) the poetry and its
images, 2) the Sprechstimme technique / 3) the instrumentation , or 4) the
music itself. While these topics are treated in varying combinations and
with varying degrees of thoroughness, it is my impression that for each of
these aspects, certain pitfalls have prevented the emergence of a good
close reading of the music.
These pitfalls will be identified in the first section of this essay as I

discuss each aspect of the piece in turn. Attention will be given to alter-
native viewpoints that might provide more successful analytical approaches.
The second section is comprised of an analysis of a single number, "Eine
blasse Wscherin," illustrating the application of techniques I have found
effective in coming to grips with this rich and complex music. A final sec-
tion explores some implications of this type of analysis for the cycle as a
whole .
PIERROT LUNAIRE: FOUR ASPECTS
Music and Text
No analysis of texted music can afford to ignore the text: a careful and
sensitive reading of it must inform the analytical process. There is a
complex interplay between the poetry and the music; they illuminate each
other in turn, requiring constant revision and reinterpretation of one's
readings of both. The poetry of Pierrot Lunaire is extremely rich in re-
current symbols and images, and has led some authors to give extensive in-
^"Analyses of eleven numbers from the cycle are presented in the author
M. A. thesis, "Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire: Chronology, Form, and Set
Structures" (Cornell University, 1978) . Some material used in the present
essay is drawn from the thesis.
6
terpretations. Unf ortunately, these often retain only a tenuous connection

with the structure of the music itself , if any. The first example that
comes to mind is Kathryn Bailey's assertion that the melodic contour of the
passacaglia motive (E, G, E-flat:*^) is the perfect musical representation
of the "giant black moths" mentioned in the text of "Nacht.
Schoenberg addressed several remarks to the general subject of music and

text. In an essay written the same year as Pierrot, "The Relationship to
the Text," he bemoans the "false and banal" notion that musical meaning de-
pends on the conjuring up of mental images through the medium of the
He makes the somewhat surprising claim that he knew some Schubert songs
"perhaps even more profoundly" before he learned their texts. ^ And he con
tinues:
For me, even more decisive than this experience was

the fact that, inspired by the sound of the first
words of the text, I had composed many of my songs
straight through to the end without troubling myself
in the slightest about the continuation of the poetic
events, without even grasping them in the ecstasy of
composing, and that only days later I thought of look-
ing back to see just what was the real poetic content
of my song. It then turned out, to my greatest aston-
ishment, that I had never done greater justice to the
poet. 5
(In a later essay, "This is My Fault," Schoenberg says certain composers

misunderstood these remarks, and carried their consequences to ridiculous
extremes, ) ^
Schoenberg prepared a radio broadcast entitled "An Analysis of the Four Or-
chestral Songs, Opus 22" which was delivered by Hans Rosbaud on February 22,
1932.7 In this talk, he explains that at this time (around 1912) he was
seeking a new mode of musical expression - one that would not rely solely
2
Kathryn Bailey, "Formal Organization and Structural Imagery in Schoen-
berg1 s Pierrot Lunaire ," Studies in Music (University of Western Ontario),
Vol. 2 (1977), pp. 93-107.
3
Reprinted in Style and Idea, ed. by Leonard Stein (London: Faber and
Faber, 1975), pp. 141-45.
^ Ibid ., p. 144.
5 Ibid.
6Ibid., pp. 145-47.
^Translated by Caludio Spies, in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. Ill, No.

2, (Spring/Summer, 1965), pp. 1-21. A reprint appears in Perspectives on
Schoenberg and Stravinsky, ed. by Benjamin Boretz and Edward Cone (New York:
Norton, 1972), pp. 25-45.
7
on traditional word painting, yet needed text to supply formal organization.

With regard to his method of setting text, he said:
my music. . . took representational words into ac-

count in the same way as abstract ones: it furthered
the immediate, vivid rendering of the whole and of
its parts, according to the measure of their mean-
ing within the whole.
Thus we cannot expect to derive musical meaning from a string of represen-

tational words and their corresponding musical gestures. Rather, the entire
process of the text, including its potential to communicate on a deep psycho-
logical level, will be seen to guide the course of the music. Theodore W.
Adorno made this observation about the psychological aesthetic of express-
ionism:
Passions. . . are no longer simulated, but rather

genuine emotions of the unconscious - of shock, of
trauma - are registered without disguise through
the medium of the music. ^
Compare this statement to Schoenberg1 s final entry in his Berlin diary, made
on the day he completed "Gebet an Pierrot," the first poem of the cycle he
set to music:
I believe it is going well. There are many inspira-

tions. And I proceed directly, I feel, toward a
new expression. The sounds here become a frankly
animalistic, immediate expression of the sensual and
psychological emotions. Almost as though everything
were transferred directly. I am curious to see how
the rest will go.^
In his foreword to the score of Pierrot, Schoenberg warns the performers
not to try to shape the mood of the pieces according to the meaning of the
words; such text painting as he intended is included in the music as it is
written, and further interpretations will detract from, rather than add to,
the performance. ^
Finally, regarding the Pierrot poems, Schoenberg wrote to Marya Freund, who
studied and performed the recitation:
8 Ibid., p. 21.
^Theodore W. Adorno, The Philosophy of Modern Music, trans, by A. Mitchell
and W. Blomster (New York: Seabury Press, 1973), p. 39.
Stuckenschmidt, Schnberg: Leben, Umwelt , Werke (Zrich: Atlantis

Verlag, 1974), p. 180 (translation by the author). Humphrey Searle trans-
lated this work as Arnold Schoenberg: His Life , World , and Work (New York:
Schirmer Books, 1977).
^Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (Wien: Universal Edi

1914) , Vorwort .
8
I apparently have taken a decidedly more naive view

of these poems than most people, and I am not en-
tirely doubtful that this is so thoroughly unjusti-
fied. Anyway, I am not responsible for what people
insist on reading into the words. If they were
musical, not one of them would give a damn for the
words. Instead, they would go away whistling the
tunes.
While the poetry generally guides the course of the music, and there are
many specific examples of word painting, the musical structure of Pierrot
Lunaire obviously cannot be revealed through study of the libretto alone.
Sprechstimme
In some discussions of Pierrot, description of the technique of delivery of

the text substitutes for analysis of the music. Schoenberg recognized, la-
ter in his life, that the success Pierrot enjoyed was partly due to its
novelty; the speech/song delivery certainly must have caught many audience
members by surprise.
Each performer who undertakes the recitation must decide the degree to which
the nota ted pitches of the voice part ought to be projected. The notation
on a five line staff makes possible (at least in theory) a bel canto per-
formance. Schoenberg1 s later Sprechstimme parts (in Moses und Aron and A
Survivor From Warsaw, for example) do not admit this possibility: they are
notated on a single line, with occasional ledger lines. I believe this la-
ter notation represents Schoenberg 1 s solution of the problem faced by per-
formers of Pierrot ; paradoxically, the less precise notation is a more ex-
act representation of the effect Schoenberg desired.
Instructions for the performance of Sprechstimme in Pierrot are given in

the foreword to the score: the part is not to be sung (this point is re-
iterated in several of the composer's letters); a sort of speech/song is
intended, with the pitches indicated, then left through a rising or falling
glissando. It should be remembered that the work was commissioned by
Albertina Zehme - a dramatic speaker, not a singer. In Music in the Twen-
tieth Century, William Austin points out that different performers create
very different results in their attempts to comply with the instructions.
He transcribes excerpts from several recordings to show the considerable
range of variants."^
12
Letter of December 30, 1922, given in Joseph Rufer, The Works of Arnold
Schoenberg, trans, by Dika Newlin (London: Faber and Faber, 1962), p. 40.
"^Schoenberg, Vorwort . See also the instructions on the performance of

the speaking part which stand at the bottom of the first page of "Gebet an
Pierrot," the first number Schoenberg set to music.
^William W. Austin, Music in the Twentieth Century (New York: Norton,

1966), pp. 194-211.
9
Schoenberg made the following remarks to Hans Rosbaud concerning the arrange-
ments for the 1940 recording:
I was a little annoyed by the idea of over-emphasis

on the speaker - who, after all, never sings the
theme, but, at most, speaks against it, while the
themes (and everything else of musical importance)
happen in the instruments.1^
Thus I ascribe limited importance to the notated pitches of the vocal part.
While it is clear that there will be some structural correspondence between
the reciter's part and the instrumental music, the ensemble's role is not
that of an accompanist. Since the pitch material actually projected by the
reciter is ambiguous and changeable, the musical structure of the cycle
should be sought first in the instrumentalists' parts.
Instrumentation (and an aside concerning chronology)
Description of the instrumental ensemble and its deployment throughout the

cycle is not a simple matter, and as in the case of Sprechstimme , the novel-
ty of this chamber group has attracted much attention in writings about
Pierrot Lunaire . In its final form, the score calls for five players doub-
ling on nine instruments: paino; clarinets in A and B-flat bass clarinet;
flute/piccolo; violin/viola; and cello. No two numbers employ exactly the
same ensemble .
To further complicate matters, this final ensemble evolved during the course
of the cycle's composition, and to date, many chronological problems remain
unsolved. Rather than entering into a discussion of the sources of chrono-
logical information for Pierrot, which are obscure and sometimes contradic-
tory, I present Table I, a summary of the chronology representing my colla-
tion of a number of sources.16 Reinhold Brinkmann is currently preparing
an edition of Pierrot for the complete edition of Schoenberg' s works. It
can be hoped that the critical report accompanying his edition will provide
a detailed study of all the chronological sources (manuscripts, sketches,
letters, and other documents) . It will be shown below that careful atten-
tion to the chronology of the composition of the cycle can illuminate a num-
ber of analytical aspects. But neither description of the ensemble nor the
chronology itself constitutes more than the beginning of an analysis.
The Music
Few writers have tackled the problems of the purely musical organization of
Pierrot Lunaire . The most frequently encountered claims concerning Schoen-
15Letter of February 15, 1949, given in Rufer, p. 40.
16Rufer, p. 41; Jan Maegaard, Studien zur Entwicklung des dodekaphonen

Satzes bei Arnold Schoenberg (Copenhagen: W. Hansen Musikf or lag , 197 2),
Vol. 1, pp. 72-14; and Reinhold Brinkmann, "On Pierrot's Trail," Arnold
Schoenberg Institute Journal , Vol. 2 (1977), pp. 42-48.
10
Tahle I
CHRONOLOGY (1912)
Final
(Published) Date Date

Order3, Title Begun Finished
9 "Gebet an Pierrot" March 12 March 12
5 "Valse de Chopin" ? May 7
3 "Der Dandy" April 1 April 2
2 "Columbine" ? April 20
(April 10?) b
I "Mondes trunken" April 17 April 29
II "Rote Messe" April 22 April 24
17 "Parodie" ? May 4
7 "Der kranke Mond" April 18 April 18
4 "Eine blasse Wscherin" April 18 April 18
13 "Enthauptung" ? May 23
8 "Nacht" May 9 May 21
19 "Serenade" April 25 April 25
20 "Heimfahrt" April 25 May 9
16 "Gemeinheit" April 26 June 6

(April 20?) c
14 "Die Kreuze" April 27d July 9

21 " alter Duft" May 30 May 30
18 "Der Mondfleck" ? May 28
6 "Madonna" ? May 9
10 "Raub" ? May 9
15 "Heimweh" May 5 May 22
12 "Galgenlied" ? May 12
aThe order of pieces given in th

script of the piece, now in possession of the Library of Congress-
Id
Rufer reads April 20; Maegaard reads April 10.
CRufer reads April 26; Maegaard reads April 20.
^Ruf er and Brinkmann read April 27 ; Maegaard reads June 27 .
11
berg's music of this period are couched in the negative: the music is "a-
tonal," "athematic, " "non-repetitious," and so on, Jan Maegaard explains
the difficulties many analysts encounter in this way:
It is inherent in the spiritual attitude of expres-

sionism that formal devices should not be clearly
recognizable from the sounding surface of the music;
for expressionism is to a large extent an adventure
into the subconscious. ... It may, nay it must be
difficult to detect, just because it is hidden, and
be difficult to realize, because formal devices
working on this deeper level have different func-
tions to fulfill than formal devices on the upper
level.
And Pierre Boulez has pointed out that certain formal devices which are read-
ily visible (passacaglia, canon, and fugue) have received an inordinate amount
of attention, considering that only three numbers (8, 17, and 18) feature
their use.^ The music of the rest of the cycle has been largely ignor
New vistas can be opened on the elusive music of Pierrot Lunaire through the
use of relatively recent developments in the analysis of pitch structures in
"atonal" music- Throughout this study, I use Allen Forte's system for naming
and comparing pitch class sets as explained in The Structure of Atonal Mu-
sic. i assume basic familiarity with his vocabulary (though I will give
some parenthetical definitions along the way) . Robert Morgan and Joel Les-
ter are among the authors whose work concerning dissonant prolongations and
voice leading in "atonal" music has suggested analytical modes of thought
employed in the analysis that follows.20
"EINE BLASSE WSCHERIN"
Let us begin our analysis of "Eine blasse Wscherin" according to our own
advice - with some general observations about the text. The poem, like
l^Jan Maegaard, "Some Formal Devices in Expressionist Works," Dansk Aar

for Musikforskning (1961), p. 75.
Q
Pierre Boulez, "Sprechen, Singen, Spielen," Melos , Vol. 38 (November,

1971), p. 457. See the works by Bailey and Stuckenschmidt cited above, and
George Perle1 s liner notes for the Columbia recording of Schoenbergfs works,
Vol. 1.
lallen Forte, The Structure of Atonal Music (New Hav

Press, 1973) .
20Robert Morgan, "Dissonant Prolongations: Theoretical and Compo

Precedents," Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring, 1976), pp. 49-
92; Joel Lester, "A Theory of Atonal Prolongations," (unpublished manuscript
provided by the author - a reworking of material from his Ph.D. disserta-
tion, Princeton University, 1970) .
12
each of the Pierrot Lunaire rondels, has thirteen lines deployed in three
stanzas which might be represented as ABCD EFAB GHIJ^ with the repeated let-
ters denoting repeated lines. These poetic returns obviously suggest musi-
cal returns, and it can be shown that Schoenberg took advantage of this pos-
sibility in various ways in the setting of different numbers.
My analysis is illustrated in Example 1. The full score is given, including

the piano reduction Schoenberg provided in the printed score. Below this
are two reductive layers which are intended to clarify the pitch structures.
The music of the fourth number can be divided into the following sections:
an instrumental introduction, bars 1 to 5; the setting of the first stanza,
bars 5 to 9; the second stanza, bars 9 to 13; and the final stanza, bar 13
to the end. (Dotted double bar lines in the reductions denote these divi-
sions. ) Overlappings and the subdivisions of these sections will be dis-
cussed below; each section will be treated in turn.
Directions for perfonnance are given at the outset: the tempo indication is
"flowing, but richly varied, J = 60-92"; instructions in the score read:
"the instruments are to play with completely similar tone, without any ex-
pression; the recitation should sound as an accompaniment to the instruments:
it is Nebenstimme throughout, the instruments are Hauptstimme . "
The instrumental introduction establishes a homorhythmic trichordal norm of

texture, and already with the first two chords, Schoenberg introduces the
voice crossings and octave transfers which will play an important part in
enriching the texture and creating the structure of the piece. (Octave
transfers are shown by dotted lines in Example 1.) The multiple gestures of
the introduction are separated by rests, giving the first five measures a
halting rhythm, but repetition of pitch material and certain linear pro-
gressions provide continuity. Bars 1 to 3 can be heard as a prolongation of
B-D-F, set 3-10, with both and D transferred by octave. The decoration of
this sonority creates a line in the top voice (D, E, D, D-sharp) , the pitch
content (pc) of which will prove to be very important throughout the number.
The sum of all the pitch material in measures 1, 2, and 3 is 6-Z39, a set
which will recur at other structurally significant points. In the gesture
in bars 4 and 5, the triadic set 3-11 is prolonged: first, the "C-sharp mi-
nor triad" is decorated by a neighboring triad, then the top voice G-sharp
is transferred down an octave, where it supports its own 3-11 triad before
returning to its original register. Note that in the immediate foreground,
both the flute and the violin unfold set 3-11 (albeit as "major triads") as
their first three eighth notes in bar 4. The final chord in the introduc-
tion is 3-4, a new trichord, though both E and G-sharp are invariant with
the first chord of the phrase. The remaining pc in this 3-4 (A) has al-
ready been introduced in the top voice of the above mentioned neighbor com-
plex - and like the other features discussed above, will prove to be impor-
tant throughout the piece (especially in conjunction with E and the other
pcfs of the top register line). Incidentally, Schoenberg's so-called "sig-
nature hexachords" (6-Z19 and 6-Z44) appear in turn here. (Forte has point-
ed out Schoenberg 1 s tendency to "sign" his works: SCHonBErG in German
spelling of note names equals 6-Z44; 6-Z19 is its partner sharing the same
interval vector.
21-Allen Forte, "Schoenberg 1 s Creative Evolution: The Pat

Musical Quarterly, Vol. LXIV, No. 2 (April, 1978), pp. 133-76.
13
The reciter presents the first line of text with a chromatic set (5-1) which
includes the pc's of the top register line, E-flat, D , and E. In bar 6, the
instruments play a rhythmically augmented version of a gesture Allan Lessem
calls the "Pierrot Motive." (This motive will be discussed in some detail
in the final section of this paper.) The first two trichords are both 3-3,
as is the penultimate one, where a special articulation mark in all parts
(O) stresses its importance. The voice has a rest here, as well. The
top voice of this chord is high E (the previous F-sharp and D-sharp sound,
in retrospect, like neighbors; each member of the complex is supported by
the same harmony) . The high E drops a minor ninth (to E-flat) at the end of
the phrase. (While interval class 1 - minor second, major seventh, minor
ninth, etc. - is admittedly quite strongly represented in much atonal mu-
sic, the minor ninth in particular stands out in many places through Pier-
rot . ) Note also the persistence with which E sounds in the middle voice in
this phrase. In bar 7, the instrumentalists play five trichords as the re-
citer completes her line; they conclude their little phrase with 3-12 (the
augmented triad), as they did in bars 3 and 6. D-sharp is restored to the
highest register here. The next instrumental phrase, in bars 7 and 8, pro-
longs 3-5 in quite a literal way, during which time the D-sharp is transfer-
red down through two octaves and then brought back to its original high
register at the beginning of the next phrase. A and E are both transferred
as well; their positions are exchanged in the first chord of the next
phrase, though the pitch content is identical to that of the first 3-5. In
bar 8, D-sharp again passes to E (note the articulation mark in the clarinet
part) , and as the setting of the first stanza ends in bar 9, the instruments
present 6-Z39 again, with E the lowest voice, and A the highest.
A texture change, to more independent and rhythmically active lines, occurs

in the setting of the second stanza, probably because of the text: a light
wind ripples the water. Between two poles of 3-3 (G-sharp - F - E in
bar 9, and C-sharp - F - E in bar 12) is stretched a decorated descending
chromatic line from F to F played by the flute. The only pc's missing from
this line are supplied by the violin's descending minor ninth E, D-sharp.
Meanwhile, the clarinet unfolds 6-Z28 (a set whose Z partner will be repeat-
ed at the climax of the number) in a swooping melody which establishes D in
the top register. At the end of bar 10, the violin echoes the decorated
chromatic descent of the flute. These tw instruments settle on a trilling
sonority (F-sharp - E) in bar 11, where the clarinet plays a melodic presen-
tation of 6-Z39: this structural set recurs as the rondel lines of the poem
return. Here, note the C-sharp octave transfer and the augmented triad (A,
F, C-sharp) which closes the statement.
An interesting structural elision provides a smooth connection between

stanzas. The trichordal texture of the opening is restored in bar 12 as the
reciter finishes the rondel lines. The top voice (played by the violin, col
legno) descends E, D, C: compare the vocalists pitches for "wscht zur
Nacht-" and the flute's initial pitches in the following measure. Further
connection between the instrumentalist's phrases is evident in that 3-2 ap-
pears at the end of the preceding phrase and at the beginning of the new one,
with two pc's held invariant, though transferred by octave. The sum of the
instrument's pitch material in bar 12 is 6-1, a chromatic set which is per-
haps reminiscent of the chromatic instrumental lines in the setting of the
second stanza.

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18
In the long phrase which rises in preparation for the climax of the number,
the flute plays 7-28, (I will have more to say about this set in the final
section of the paper.) Note the pair of 3-5* s in bar 13 (E - D-sharp - B-
flat and E - D-sharp - A) which anticipates the pair repeated at the climax
in the following measure, and recall the earlier prolongation of this set.
Each of the pc's of the high point has been prepared by its introduction in
a lower register. The highest and lowest pitches in this number are con-
trasted here; the pair of 3-5's in bar 14 makes 6-Z49 (partner of 6-Z28,
given in the swooping clarinet melody in bars 9 and 10) . The melodic minor
third (actually compound) A, F-sharp in the top voice is echoed by the recit-
er's sung c, A in bar 14 , and then again by the clarinet A , F-sharp in
bar 15. There follows another rhythmically augmented version of the Pierrot
Motive (the last three eighth notes of bar 15, and the first four of bar 16) ,
with 3-4 forming a connection between the end of the preceding gesture and
the beginning of this one. Here, E passes to E-flat once again in the high-
est register; and this time the line is completed by the D violin harmonic
repeated at the end of the piece. Note that each of these structural line
pitches is supported by the same harmony (3-4); and see also the final three
pitches of the reciter's part.
Several features of "Eine blasse Wscherin" which may have appeared to be

important at the outset turn out to be "red herrings" in the final analysis.
The initial prolongation of 3-10 (B-D-F) is such a feature, for after bar 3,
this particular trichord does not appear again. So, too, although to a
lesser degree, is the tendency of 3-12 (the augmented triad) to appear at
cadences (e.g. bars 3, 6, 7, and 9). And although 6-Z39 appears at the
opening, at the close of the first stanza, and at the return of the rondel
lines in bar 11, it does not occur again; nor does its partner ,6-ZlO.
Nevertheless, the number is bound together by local prolongations and by re-

peated step motions in the top register. The structural line E, D-sharp, D
is entirely isolated in the highest register (excepting only the F-sharp in
bar 6 and the C-sharp in bar 10) . Careful control of trichord types is evi-
dent: a count (excluding the trichords formed in the more animated middle
section) reveals that out of the 66 trichords used, 46 are either 3-2, 3-3,
3-4, or 3-5. These are the only trichords which have only one semitone in
their interval vectors. 3-1, the chromatic trichord, does not appear (ex-
cept in bar 10, in the middle section) ; and 3-9, the only trichord not con-
tained within the structural set 6-Z39, appears only once. Numerous octave
transfers provide a strong continuity of structure and pitch content, es-
pecially between phrases and gestures.
The top register line E, D-sharp, D is first presented in the introduction.

In the setting of the first stanza, the high D is withheld: this incomplete
structure is similar to Schenker's "interrupted" structures. In the con-
trasting middle section, E passes to D without D-sharp in the top register;
in lower voices, E goes through D to several times. At the end of the
piece, the line is completed in the highest register for the first time,
while the supporting harmonies are carefully controlled.
19
THE CYCLE AS A WHOLE
In this final section, two examples will be given showing some implications
of this type of analysis for the cycle as a whole. The first is purposely
chosen from "Parodie one of the most frequently described numbers. Mere
description of the multiple canons in this piece is a mechanical task; what
remains is to relate the pitch material within and among the canons to the
structure of the whole (see Example 2), At bar 16, there is a varied return
to the music of the opening which corresponds to the return of the opening
lines of the poem. The return of 6-Z6 has been prepared in the preceding
measures by the voice ("mit Schmerzen") and the succeeding canonic answers
by the viola and clarinet (Example 3) . Fur the more, the apparent breakdown
of strict imitation between the voice and piccolo parts in bar 17 can be ex-
plained: the vocal part leads the canon with a presentation of 6-22 (as at
the beginning of this number), but the piccolo answers with 7-22. This last
set is formed in bar 16 by the combination of the piano1 s 6-Z6 and the C-
couble-sharp in the voice, and it sounds again as the seven-note chord play-
ed by the piano on the downbeat of bar 18. Many further relationships among
the canons can be shown in a similar manner (especially interesting are the
departures from strict answers through the decoration or abbreviation of the
parts) , but further examples are beyond the scope of the present essay.
Allan Lessem took an important step toward a fuller understanding of the

music of Pierrot Lunaire and provided a very helpful key to listening to the
cycle when he pointed out a recurrent motive in his study "Text and Music in
Schoenberg' s Opus 21. 1,22 The seven-note motive he calls the "Pierrot Motive"
appears in almost every number. (It seems no accident that these "thrice
seven poems" should have such a "theme.") Neither Lessem nor I has made an
exhaustive list of occurrences of the motive and related gestures. However,
Lessem1 s work can be taken as a starting point for further analysis incor-
porating pc set analysis and chronological considerations, and such analysis
may yield revealing results.
In "Gebet an Pierrot," the first number set to music, the Pierrot Motive ap-
pears in the second measure of the clarinet part (see Example 4) ; in "Der
Dandy," the next poem he set, bars 2-3 of the piccolo and clarinet parts
(Example 5); and so on. The motive takes on its "definitive" form when
Schoenberg used it as an ostinato figure in "Mondestrunken," begun on April
17: the set here is 7-28 (Example 6). (Note the augmented triad and the mi-
nor ninths G-sharp, G and D, C-sharp.) What is remarkable is that from
April 17 onward, 7-28 takes on structural significance not only as the Pier-
rot Motive, but also in the following presentations:
1. in "Serenade," written April 25, the opening and

closing measures present 7-28 (Examples 7 and 8) .
2. in "Parodie," completed May 4, the final seven note
chord in the piano is 7-28 (Example 9) . Note also
that the opening piano gesture in Example 2 is a
version of the Pierrot Motive.
22Allan Lessem, "Text and Music in Schoenberg 1 s Op. 21, 11 Curr

gy , No. 19 (1975), pp. 103-12.
20
Example 2
"Parodie/1 bars 16-18
Example 3
"Parodie, " bars 13-15
21
Example 4
"Gebet an Pierrot," bars 2-3
Example 5
"Der Dandy," bars 1-2
Example 6
"Monde s trunken, " bar 1
22
Example 7
"Serenade, 11 bars 1-2
Example 8
"Serenade/1 bars 49-51
Example 9
"Parodie," bar 29
23
3. in "Valse de Chopin/1 completed on May 7, 7-28

appears in a modified Pierrot Motive in measure
15 (Example 10) , and again in measure 29 (Example
11) . 7-28 is used as a harmonic unit repeated
five times in bars 34-36 (Example 12 - piano and
flute).
4. in "Madonna/1 completed on May 9, 7-28 is repeated
in the closing measures (Example 13).
Thus we can trace the chronological development of the gesture fron a rela-
tively free melodic shape and rhythm, through its extablishment in a defini-
tive form (set 7-28) as an ostinato pattern, to a final stage where its to-
tal intervallic content (independent of exact pc content, rhythm, and tex-
tural deployment) is used to lend continuity to the music of the cycle. It
is not difficult to imagine the advantages to be gained from a broad appli-
cation of this type of analysis to the elusive music of Pierrot Lunaire .
While the other aspects of the piece, such as the study of the libretto, the
instrumentation, and the problems of performing Sprechstimme are fascinating,
none of them should prevent us from analyzing the music of Pierrot Lunaire .
Example 10
"Valse de Chopin," bar 15
Example 11
"Valse de Chopin," bar 29
24
Example 12
"Valse de Chopin/' bars 34-36
Example 13
" Madonna , " bar 23

Analise Pierro

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THE MUSIC OF PIERROT LUNAIRE: AN ANALYTIC APPROACH

Author(s): David H. Smyth

SC UPEN BERG ' S PIE

THE MUSIC OF PIERROT LUNAIRE

Despite the acknowledged importance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, no

These pitfalls will be identified in the first section of this essay as I

PIERROT LUNAIRE: FOUR ASPECTS

Music and Text

terpretations. Unf ortunately, these often retain only a tenuous connection

Schoenberg addressed several remarks to the general subject of music and

For me, even more decisive than this experience was

(In a later essay, "This is My Fault," Schoenberg says certain composers

6Ibid., pp. 145-47.

^Translated by Caludio Spies, in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. Ill, No.

on traditional word painting, yet needed text to supply formal organization.

my music. . . took representational words into ac-

Thus we cannot expect to derive musical meaning from a string of represen-

Passions. . . are no longer simulated, but rather

I believe it is going well. There are many inspira-

Stuckenschmidt, Schnberg: Leben, Umwelt , Werke (Zrich: Atlantis

^Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (Wien: Universal Edi

I apparently have taken a decidedly more naive view

In some discussions of Pierrot, description of the technique of delivery of

Instructions for the performance of Sprechstimme in Pierrot are given in

"^Schoenberg, Vorwort . See also the instructions on the performance of

^William W. Austin, Music in the Twentieth Century (New York: Norton,

I was a little annoyed by the idea of over-emphasis

Instrumentation (and an aside concerning chronology)

Description of the instrumental ensemble and its deployment throughout the

15Letter of February 15, 1949, given in Rufer, p. 40.

16Rufer, p. 41; Jan Maegaard, Studien zur Entwicklung des dodekaphonen

(Published) Date Date

9 "Gebet an Pierrot" March 12 March 12

5 "Valse de Chopin" ? May 7

3 "Der Dandy" April 1 April 2

I "Mondes trunken" April 17 April 29

II "Rote Messe" April 22 April 24

7 "Der kranke Mond" April 18 April 18

4 "Eine blasse Wscherin" April 18 April 18

8 "Nacht" May 9 May 21

19 "Serenade" April 25 April 25

20 "Heimfahrt" April 25 May 9

16 "Gemeinheit" April 26 June 6

14 "Die Kreuze" April 27d July 9

18 "Der Mondfleck" ? May 28

15 "Heimweh" May 5 May 22

aThe order of pieces given in th

CRufer reads April 26; Maegaard reads April 20.

^Ruf er and Brinkmann read April 27 ; Maegaard reads June 27 .

It is inherent in the spiritual attitude of expres-

"EINE BLASSE WSCHERIN"

l^Jan Maegaard, "Some Formal Devices in Expressionist Works," Dansk Aar

Pierre Boulez, "Sprechen, Singen, Spielen," Melos , Vol. 38 (November,

lallen Forte, The Structure of Atonal Music (New Hav

20Robert Morgan, "Dissonant Prolongations: Theoretical and Compo

My analysis is illustrated in Example 1. The full score is given, including

The instrumental introduction establishes a homorhythmic trichordal norm of

21-Allen Forte, "Schoenberg 1 s Creative Evolution: The Pat

A texture change, to more independent and rhythmically active lines, occurs

An interesting structural elision provides a smooth connection between

Several features of "Eine blasse Wscherin" which may have appeared to be

Nevertheless, the number is bound together by local prolongations and by re-

The top register line E, D-sharp, D is first presented in the introduction.

THE CYCLE AS A WHOLE