Applied Music
‘Der Kranke Mond’ from Pierrot Lunaire
(Schoenberg)
When?
1912
Where?
Austria (Vienna)
For whom?
For the public (although probably quite an elite circle consisting of critics and fellow
artists) Schoenberg described it as a melodrama. Today it is referred to as a Musical
theatre piece. Der kranke mond translates as the sick moon. Pierre lunaire means the
moon-struck clown and tells the tale of a sad clown who is obsessed with the moon,
possibly through madness.
Musical features indicative of the style
This is an example of expressionism a movement that developed in art, literature,
drama and music during the early 20th century particularly in Germany and Austria. Its
aim was to give expression to inner fears and obsessions through such means as
distorted images in painting or heightened speech and scenes of extreme violence in
plays. It is also connected to Freud’s Psychological theories of the subconscious.
Musically Schoenberg used extreme chromaticism and dissonance as the primary
means of expression. Schoenberg used a poem by Belgian poet Albert Giraud.
Vocabulary



Atonal – Music that acts without a home note (i.e. the tonic) and as such
is not in any particular key.
Portamenti – A slide between two notes. This is a technique used in
expressionist music which creates the effect of half speaking half singing
known as Sprechgesang.
Augmentation – literally ‘get bigger’. This can be either rhythmically or
harmonically when referring to intervals.
Analysis
First 3 bars uses all 12 notes of the chromatic scale making this piece atonal. The
disturbing images of the poem are expressed through: Enormous melodic leaps (flute
bars 9-10; Fragmented melody (bars 14-15); Extreme range (voice bar 15); Extreme
dynamic (flute bar 14); Sprechgesang. The complete work requires an ensemble of
five players in addition to the reciter. In this particular work Schoenberg uses only flute
and voice. As such he can exploit the flutes very low notes without fear of them being
masked by other instruments.
Sprechgesang
Schoenberg explained that the rhythms of the vocal part should be strictly observed but
that the pitch of the notes with crosses through them stem should be immediately
quitted in an upward or downward direction. Most singers achieve this with a
portamenti slide between notes.
Structure and Style
No formal musical structure. The text consists of three stanzas, with lines of 8
alternately weak and strong syllables. However to express the volatile state of mind of
the performer Schoenberg avoids using the same music for each of the three verses,
seperates them with passages for flute and even writes phrases of very irregular lengths
to avoid any sense of musical symmetry.
Instead of repetition Schoenberg’s music reacts to the imagery of the movement, using
a wide vocal range (nearly two octaves) and an unpredictable variety of semitone
movement (bars 1-2), angular leaps (bar 14), and an abrupt change of direction (bar
23).
There are a few small scale repetitions. The notes of ‘an Sehnsucht’ are repeated for
‘tief erstickt’ and the flute part in bars 22-24 consists of a long descending sequence.
Most obvious use of repetition occurs at the end of the vocal part where three
contrasting lines of text are set to the same pattern of pitches. Use of Augmentation in
bar 25.
Texture
Thin two part texture consisting of flute and voice, allows every word to be heard.
Neither part shares any common melodic material could be viewed as a type of
counterpoint having two independent melodic lines.