| Summary: | Arnold Schönberg composed Pierrot Lunaire in 1912 in Berlin, for the cabaret singer Albertine Zehme. The work consists of a series of twentyone melologues, on texts by the Belgian symbolist poet Albert Giraud, translated into German by Otto Erich Hartleben, for narrator (Sprechgesang, or 'spoken song') and instrumental ensemble (piano, clarinet in A or bass clarinet in B flat, flute or piccolo, violin or viola, cello, in various combinations depending on the songs). Pierrot Lunaire is one of the most representative compositions of the so-told "atonal" phase of Schönberg’s work, characterized by his abandon of tonal harmonic language. The didactic-course, aimed at students of the lower secondary school, is generally based on the entire cycle and then focuses on the first piece, Mondestrunken (Moondrunk), in order to analyse in more detail a few aspects of the Author’s musical writing.
|
|---|
