In a number of his early compositions, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
expressed the strong emotions stirred in him by the poetry of Richard
Dehmel. Among these seminal works, Verklärte Nacht (1988) stands out
for the beauty and strength of its chromatic language, drawing on
Wagner's advances in Tristan und Isolde for its emotional impact.
The program of Verklärte Nacht is a love story. Yet, in both its
content and psychology, the work clearly anticipates the innovative
twentieth-century music Schoenberg himself helped to forge.
Pierrot Lunaire, one of Schoenberg's best-known and most striking
works, was composed in 1912. It is a music setting for solo voice and
chamber ensemble of 21 poems by Albert Giraud, translated into German by
the Expressionist poet Otto Erich Hartleben. In this satiric work,
evoking moods that are by turns ironic, melodramatic, and sinister,
Schoenberg incorporates a highly specialized use of the speaking voice,
the singing-speech delivery call Sprechstimme, within an instrumental
framework of jolting atonality.
Both Verklärte Nacht and Pierrot Lunaire deeply influenced the
development of the Second Viennese School and, in time, the course of
twentieth-century music. They are reprinted here from authoritative
editions.