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ARTICLES ~ " "
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.]
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.
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6
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.
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7
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:
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.
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8
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
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.
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.
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9
Schoenberg made the following remarks to Hans Rosbaud concerning the arrange-
ments for the 1940 recording:
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.
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-
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10
Tahle I
CHRONOLOGY (1912)
Final
2 "Columbine" ? April 20
(April 10?) b
17 "Parodie" ? May 4
13 "Enthauptung" ? May 23
6 "Madonna" ? May 9
10 "Raub" ? May 9
12 "Galgenlied" ? May 12
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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:
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
Let us begin our analysis of "Eine blasse Wscherin" according to our own
advice - with some general observations about the text. The poem, like
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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.
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 . "
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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.
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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.
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19
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.
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:
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20
Example 2
Example 3
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21
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
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22
Example 7
Example 8
Example 9
"Parodie," bar 29
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23
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
Example 11
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24
Example 12
Example 13
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