Albert Giraud (; 23 June 1860 – 26 December 1929) was a Belgian poet who wrote in French.

Biography

Giraud was born Emile Albert Kayenbergh in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

, Belgium. He studied law at the University of Leuven. He left university without a degree and took up journalism and poetry. In 1885, Giraud became a member of

La Jeune Belgique ''La Jeune Belgique'' (meaning ''The Young Belgium'' in English) was a Belgian literary society and movement that published a French-language literary review ''La Jeune Belgique'' between 1880 and 1897. Both the society and magazine were founded b ...

, a Belgian nationalist literary movement that met at the Café Sésino in Brussels.''Albert Giraud's Pierrot Lunaire'', translated and with an introduction by Gregory C. Richter. Giraud became chief librarian at the Belgian Ministry of the Interior. He was a

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

poet. His published works include '' Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques'' (1884), a poem cycle based on the

commedia dell'arte Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...

figure of

Pierrot Pierrot ( , ; ), a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, has his origins in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a hypocorism, diminutive of ''Pierr ...

, and ''La Guirlande des Dieux'' (1910). The composer

Arnold Schönberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

set a German-language version (translated by Otto Erich Hartleben) of selections from his '' Pierrot Lunaire'' to innovative

atonal music Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a ...

. In a different, late romantic style, some of Hartleben's translations found their way into the vocal works of

Joseph Marx Joseph Rupert Rudolf Marx (11 May 1882 – 3 September 1964) was an Austrian composer, teacher and critic. Life and career Marx was born in Graz and pursued studies in philosophy, art history, German studies, and music at Graz University, earnin ...

Works

*'' Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques'' (1884) *''Hors du Siècle'' (poems written between 1885 and 1897) *''Le concert dans la musée'' (1921) *''Le Miroir caché'' (

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s) (1921)

Notes

References

*''Albert Giraud's Pierrot Lunaire'', translated and with an introduction by Gregory C. Richter, Truman State University Press, 2001. *Albert Giraud, "Pierrot Lunaire," Schoenberg's selection, translated by Cecil Gray http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/music/pierrot/pierrot.pdf . *Albert Giraud, ''Le Miroir caché'', Éditions de la Vie Intellectuelle, Bruxelles, 1921. *Arnold Schoenberg, "Complete performance: Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire," Ricardo Muti & Chicago SO, recorded February 2012, with English subtitles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2cBUJmDr8. {{DEFAULTSORT:Giraud, Albert 1860 births 1929 deaths Belgian poets in French Symbolist poets