A Pierrot ensemble is a

musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group, musical group, or a band is a group of people who perform Instrumental music, instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist ...

comprising flute,

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. This ensemble is named after 20th-century composer

Arnold Schoenberg 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 ...

’s seminal work '' Pierrot lunaire'', which includes the quintet of instruments above with a narrator (usually performed by a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

History

The quintet of instruments used in ''Pierrot lunaire'' has been used in the twentieth century by different groups, such as The Fires of London, who formed in 1965 as "The Pierrot Players" to perform Pierrot lunaire, and continued to concertize with a varied classical and contemporary repertory. This group began to perform works arranged for these instruments and commission new works. While standard chamber ensembles (such as

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

s or

piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in European classical music, classical chamber music. The term can also ...

s) continued to be extremely popular among 20th-century composers, the Pierrot ensemble represents an example of the many kinds of non-standard chamber ensembles that have been used in

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

since the beginning of the 20th century. The number of compositions written for Pierrot Ensemble is limited by the inherent unbalance of the ensemble (two strings, plus two winds, plus piano). More frequent are works that introduce additional instruments, typically more strings, and especially

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

which obtains a small, and inexpensive, chamber ensemble with three families of instruments represented.

Doublings

Doublings are a standard compositional device used to extend an ensemble instrumental color. In Schoenberg's '' Pierrot lunaire'', the flutist is asked to play piccolo, the clarinetist is asked to play

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...

. Other common doublings might include E clarinet (as in Carter's ''Triple Duo''), alto flute.

Notable Pierrot ensembles

* Fires of London (Founded as the Pierrot Players) (1965-1987, UK) * Da Capo Chamber Players (1970, USA) *The New Music Players (1990, UK) *Standing Wave (1991, Canada) *Brightwork New Music (2013, USA) *What Is Noise (2014, USA) *Ensemble Namu 나무앙상블 (2017, South Korea)

Works for Pierrot ensemble

: '' Pierrot lunaire'' (1912) + voice (usually soprano) ** The originary work after which the ensemble is named. * Amaury du Closel: ''Stolpersteine'' (2021) * John Harbison: ** ''Die Kürze'' (1970) ** ''Chaconne'' (2001) * Milton Babbitt: ''Arie da Capo'' (1979) * Richard Festinger: ''Ontogenesis'' (1978) * Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: ''Intrada'' (1983) * Gérard Grisey: ''Taléa'' (1986) * Zhou Long: ''Dhyana'' (1989) * Steven Mackey: ''Indigenous Instruments'' (1989) * Gunther Schuller: ''Paradigm Exchanges'' (1991) * Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann: ** ''Siray I'' (1995) ** ''Siray III'' (2018) * Michael Torke: ''Telephone Book'' (1995) * Dorothy Hindman: ''Setting Century'' (1999) * David Lang: ''Sweet Air'' (1999) * Carolyn Yarnell: ''Lapis Lazuli'' (2007) * Jean-Louis Agobet: ''Eclisses'' (2008) * Fabien Levy: ''A propos'' (2008) * Greg Caffrey: ''These are the Clouds about the fallen sun'' (2013) * Caio Facó: ''Sopros do Estuário'' (2017) * Christopher Healey: ''Gardens of my Heart'' (2018) * Basil Considine: ''On the Sweet Shores of Napoli'' (2021) * Basil Considine: ''...So Wrong'' (2023) * Lior Navok: ''Quicksand'' (2023)

Works with alternative/additional instruments

* Maurice Ravel: 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913) + 2nd flute, 2nd clarinet, and voice *

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

: 3 Japanese Lyrics (1913) + 2nd flute doubling piccolo, 2nd clarinet, and voice * Manuel de Falla: '' Harpsichord Concerto'' (1926) + oboe, harpsichord instead of piano * Hanns Eisler: **''Palmström'' (1926) +

(without piano) **''14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben'' (1941) + viola * Olivier Messiaen: '' Quatuor pour la fin du temps'' (1941) (without flute) * Juan Carlos Paz: ''Dedalus'' (1950) * Peter Maxwell Davies: '' Eight Songs for a Mad King'' (1969) +

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

and percussion * Sean Friar: Scale 9 (2009) + percussion - flute (quintet), + percussion (sextet), + viola, and percussion (septet) *

Donald Martino Donald James Martino (May 16, 1931 – December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer. Biography Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino attended Plainfield High School. He began as a clarinetist, playing jazz for fun and ...

: ''Notturno'' (1973) + percussion; winner of the 1974

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

* Morton Feldman: ''For Frank O'Hara'' (1976) + percussion * Ralph Shapey: ''Three for Six'' (1979) + percussion * Joan Tower: ''Noon Dance'' (1982) + percussion * Charles Wuorinen: ''New York Notes'' (1982) + 1 or 2 percussionists and electronic sounds * Elliott Carter: ''Triple Duo'' (1983) + percussion * Richard Festinger: ** ''Septet'' (1987) + viola and percussion ** ''A Serenade for Six'' (1993) + percussion ** ''After Blue'' (1998) + percussion ** ''The Coming of Age'' (2003) + soprano and viola * Salvatore Sciarrino: ''Lo Spazio inverso'' (1985) + celesta * John Harbison: ''The Natural World'' (1987) + soprano * William Susman: ** ''Twisted Figures'' (1987) + mallet percussion ** ''Camille'' (2010) with piano four-hands *

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

: ''Seven'' (1988) + viola * Kamran Ince: ''Waves of Talya'' (1989) + percussion * Earle Brown: ''Tracking Pierrot'' (1992) + percussion * Jacob Druckman: ''Come Round'' (1992) + percussion * Laura Schwendinger: ** ''Fable'' (1992) + percussion ** ''Songs of Heaven and Earth'' (1997) + percussion, harp and voice ** ''Mise-en-scene'' (2011) + percussion ** ''Artist's Muse'' (2017) + percussion * Chen Yi: ''Sparkle'' (1992) + 2 percussionists,

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* Iannis Xenakis: ''Plektó'' (1993) + percussion * Mario Davidovsky: ''Flashbacks'' (1995) + percussion * Gérard Grisey: ''Vortex Temporum'' (1996) + viola * Robert Paterson: ** ''Quintus'' (1996) + percussion (without flute) ** ''Sextet'' (1999) + percussion ** ''The Thin Ice of Your Fragile Mind'' (2004) + percussion ** ''Eating Variations'' (2006) +

and percussion (without piano) ** ''Winter Songs'' (2008) + bass-baritone and percussion ** ''Hell's Kitchen'' (2014) + percussion ** ''Summer Songs'' (2016) +

and percussion ** ''Spring Songs'' (2018) + tenor and percussion ** ''Autumn Songs'' (2019) + mezzo-soprano and percussion ** ''Listen'' (2022) +

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

and percussion * Mel Powell: ''Sextet'' (1996) + percussion * Lior Navok ** ''Sextet'' (1998) + percussion ** ''Elegy to the Future'' (2001) + percussion * Steven Stucky: ''Ad Parnassum'' (1998) + percussion * Steven Mackey: ''Micro-Concerto'' (1999) + percussion *

Fred Lerdahl Alfred Whitford (Fred) Lerdahl (born March 10, 1943) is an American music theorist and composer. Best known for his work on musical grammar, Music cognition, cognition, Rhythm, rhythmic theory, and pitch space, he and the linguist Ray Jackendoff d ...

: ''Time After Time'' (2000) + percussion * Rytis Mazulis: ''Canon mensurabilis'' (2000) + viola * Tristan Murail: Winter Fragments (2000) + electronic sounds * Frederic Rzewski: ** ''Pocket Symphony'' (2000) + percussion ** ''Brussels Diary'' (2010) *

George Perle George Perle (6 May 1915 – 23 January 2009) was an American composer and music theory, music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonality, atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. Th ...

: ''Critical Moments 2'' (2001) + percussion * Martin Bresnick: ''My Twentieth Century'' (2002) + viola * Zhou Long:''Five Elements'' (2002) + percussion; also exists in a version with Chinese instruments * Sebastian Currier: ''Static'' (2003); winner of the 2007 Grawemeyer Award * Jennifer Higdon: ''Zaka'' (2003) + percussion * Theo Verbey: ''Perplex'' (2004) + vibraphone * Rolf Wallin: ''The Age of Wire and String'' (2005) * Stuart Greenbaum: ''Book of Departures'' (2007) + percussion * Stephen Hartke: ''Meanwhile: Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays'' (2007) + viola (rather than violin) and percussion * Steve Reich: '' Double Sextet'' (2007) for Pierrot ensemble with tape or 12 players; winner of the 2009

* John Woolrich ''In the Mirrors of Asleep'' (2007) * Mohammed Fairouz: ''Unwritten'' (2010) + soprano * Michael Seltenreich: ''Sparks & Flares'' (2010) + percussion * Greg Caffrey: ** ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' (2016) + percussion ** ''Three movements on the work of William Scott'' (2017) + percussion ** ''Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold'' (2018) + percussion * Graham Waterhouse: '' Irish Phoenix'' (2017) + soprano * Gabriel Vicéns: ''El Matorral'' (2022) + vibraphone * Elena Doria Winell: **"reaching towards, reaching from" (2023) + percussion ** "blood...all over my hands" (2023) + soprano and percussion * Nicholas Tran: "on becoming space // Emergent Becoming" (2023)+ percussion

Notes

References

Christopher Dromey, ''The Pierrot Ensembles: Chronicle and Catalogue, 1912-2012'' (London: Plumbago, 2013).

External links

*From the Arnold Schoenberg Center
Pierrot lunaire: autograph manuscript

Pierrot lunaire Ensemble Wien
* American works for Pierrot ensemble
Barbara White
Blog post by American composer Kyle Gann on the Pierrot Ensemble {{Authority control Chamber music groups Types of musical groups