Pierrot ensemble
A Pierrot ensemble is a musical ensemble comprising flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, frequently augmented by the addition of a singer or percussionist, and/or by the performers doubling on other woodwind/stringed/keyboard instruments. This ensemble is named after 20th-century composer Arnold Schoenberg’s seminal work Pierrot Lunaire, which includes the quintet of instruments above with a narrator (usually performed by a soprano).
History
The quintet of instruments used in Pierrot Lunaire became the core ensemble for many contemporary-music ensembles of the twentieth century, 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 (and others like it) began to perform works arranged for these instruments and commission new works especially to take advantage of this ensemble's instrumental colors.[1]
While many professional chamber ensembles (such as string quartets and piano trios) continued to focus on musical literature of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Pierrot ensemble became one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music of the 20th century, and continues to be popular with composers and performers today.
Doublings
Doublings are often called for in music written for Pierrot ensemble. For example, in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, the flutist is asked to play piccolo, the clarinetist is asked to play bass clarinet (as in Earle Brown's "Tracking Pierrot"), or saxophone, and (much more unusually) the violinist is asked to play viola. Other common doublings might include E♭ clarinet (as in Carter's Triple Duo), alto flute, or even harpsichord (as in Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King).
Notable Pierrot ensembles
- Da Capo Chamber Players
- Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble
- eighth blackbird
- Fires of London
- Lunatics at Large
- New York New Music Ensemble
- Piccola Accademia degli Specchi
- Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble
- Psappha New Music Ensemble
- Standing Wave
- The New Music Players
- What Is Noise
- Ensemble Namu 나무앙상블 (Seoul, South Korea)
Works for Pierrot ensemble
- Caio Facó: Sopros do Estuário (2017)
- Juan Carlos Paz: Dedalus (1950)
- Milton Babbitt: Arie da Capo (1979)
- Martin Bresnick: My Twentieth Century (2002) + viola
- Earle Brown: Tracking Pierrot (1992) + percussion
- John Cage: Seven (1988) + viola
- Elliott Carter: Triple Duo (1983) + percussion
- Chen Yi: Sparkle (1992) + 2 percussionists, double bass
- Sebastian Currier: Static (2003); winner of the 2007 Grawemeyer Award
- Mario Davidovsky: Flashbacks (1995) + percussion
- Jacob Druckman: Come Round (1992)
- Hanns Eisler: Palmström (1926) + soprano (without piano)
- Mohammed Fairouz: Unwritten (2010)
- Manuel de Falla: Harpsichord concerto (1926) + oboe (the keyboard is the harpsichord)
- Morton Feldman:
- The Viola in My Life 2 (1970) + viola (the keyboard is a celesta)
- I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstenberg (1971) + percussion and soprano
- For Frank O'Hara (1976) + percussion
- Greg Caffrey:
- These are the Clouds about the fallen sun (2013)
- The Garden of Earthly Delights (2016) + percussion
- for peace comes dropping slow (2017)
- Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold (2018)
- Three movements on the work of William Scott (2017) + percussion
- Stuart Greenbaum: Book of Departures (2007) + percussion
- Gérard Grisey:
- Taléa (1986)
- Vortex Temporum (1996) + viola
- Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann:
- Siray I (1995)
- Siray III (2018)
- Stephen Hartke: Meanwhile: Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays (2007) + viola (rather than violin) and percussion
- John Harbison: The Natural World (1986) + soprano
- Jennifer Higdon: Zaka (2003) + percussion
- Dorothy Hindman: Setting Century (1999)
- Kamran Ince: Waves of Talya (1989)
- David Lang: Sweet Air (1999)
- Fred Lerdahl: Time After Time (2000) + percussion; finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize
- Fabien Levy: A propos (2008)
- Steven Mackey:
- Indigenous Instruments (1989)
- Micro-Concerto (1999) + percussion
- Donald Martino: Notturno (1973) + percussion; winner of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize
- Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) + baritone and percussion
- Rytis Mazulis: Canon mensurabilis (2000) + viola
- Tristan Murail: Winter Fragments (2000) + electronic sounds
- Lior Navok
- Sextet (1998) + percussion
- Elegy to the Future (2001)
- Robert Paterson:
- Autumn Songs (2019) + mezzo-soprano and percussion
- Sextet (1999) + percussion
- Spring Songs (2018) + tenor and percussion
- Summer Songs (2016) + soprano and percussion
- The Thin Ice of Your Fragile Mind (2004) + percussion
- Winter Songs (2008) + bass-baritone and percussion
- Hell's Kitchen (2014) + percussion
- Summer Songs (2016) + soprano and percussion
- George Perle: Critical Moments 2 (2001) + percussion
- Mel Powell: Sextet + percussion
- Steve Reich: Double Sextet (2007) can be performed either by Pierrot ensemble with tape or by 12 players; winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize
- Frederic Rzewski: Pocket Symphony + percussion
- Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire (1912) + voice (usually soprano)
- Gunther Schuller: Paradigm Exchanges (1991)
- Salvatore Sciarrino: Lo Spazio inverso (1985) + celesta
- Ralph Shapey: Three for Six (1979) + percussion
- Steven Stucky: Ad Parnassum (1998)
- William Susman:
- Twisted Figures (1987) + mallet percussion
- The Starry Dynamo (1994)
- Camille (2010) with piano four-hands
- Michael Torke: Telephone Book (1995) {comprising Yellow Pages (1985), Blue Pages (1995), and White Pages (1995)}
- Joan Tower: Petroushskates (1980)
- Theo Verbey: Perplex (2004) + vibraphone
- Rolf Wallin: The Age of Wire and String (2005)
- Graham Waterhouse: Irish Phoenix (2017) + soprano
- John Woolrich In the Mirrors of Asleep (2007)
- Charles Wuorinen: New York Notes (1982) + 1 or 2 percussionists and electronic sounds
- Iannis Xenakis: Plektó (1993) + percussion
- Carolyn Yarnell: Lapis Lazuli
- Zhou Long:
- Five Elements (2002) + percussion; also exists in a version with Chinese instruments
- Dhyana (1989)
Notes
- ^ Goodwin, Noël (2001). "Fires of London". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
References
Christopher Dromey, The Pierrot Ensembles: Chronicle and Catalogue, 1912-2012 (London: Plumbago, 2013).
External links
- From the Arnold Schoenberg Center
- Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien
- Art of the States: Pierrot ensemble American works for Pierrot ensemble
- Barbara White
- Pas mon ami Pierrot Blog post by American composer Kyle Gann on the Pierrot Ensemble