The Glenn Korff School of Music will present Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Kimball Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public. It will also be webcast.
“This is not something that gets played a lot, and it’s probably not going to get played again for a long time,” said Stanley Kleppinger, an associate professor of music theory who helped organize the performers. “People should get out to see this because it’s unlike anything they’ll ever see.”
The chamber ensemble for this work, conducted by Jeffrey McCray, an associate professor of bassoon, includes faculty members John Bailey, Clark Potter and Karen Becker, as well as master’s student Lucas Willsie and DMA alumnus Kurt Knecht. These performers collaborate with Donna Harler-Smith, a professor of voice, who initially approached Kleppinger with the suggestion of performing the piece.
The setting of 21 poems by Albert Giraud follows Pierrot, a clowning character from the Italian commedia dell-arte theatrical tradition, as he engages life’s largest issues: love, religion, violence and regret.
Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” is considered a masterwork. It features 21 movements set to Giraud’s poems, translated from French into German by Otto Erich Hartleben.
It is a difficult piece filled with many dark moments.
“This is the time period when Sigmund Freud is still alive. We’re all worrying about the darkest part of our psyches. And it’s in the same time period as Edward Munch’s “The Scream” painting,” Kleppinger said. “That’s what art was doing in Europe at this time. It was a dark, angry, disturbed place to be and music was just in the right place at the right time.”
The title, “Pierrot Lunaire” means moonstruck Pierrot or crazy Pierrot. It is based on the commedia dell’arte, a form of theatre characterized by masked “types” that began in Italy in the 16th century. Troupes of actors would travel from town to town and improvise comedies for the locals.
Kleppinger described the piece as something in between singing and speaking, and the music is also incredibly difficult for each of the performers.
McCray said the piece is “terrifying” as the conductor.
“It’s only five players and one singer, so from that perspective, you might ask yourself, ‘Does this piece need a conductor?’ McCray said. “But because of the way it’s written, it’s so active, and the parts are so disconnected at times, it needs a traffic cop.”
McCray is planning for this to become a regular ensemble in the Glenn Korff School of Music that plays new music comprising of students and perhaps also faculty.
“There’s this whole body of musical literature out there that is too big to be chamber music, but it’s too small to be really a part of your symphony orchestra or wind ensemble curriculum,” McCray said. “We might call it a new music ensemble or contemporary music ensemble but I plan on exploring literature as far back as the early 20th century.”
For more information, or to watch the live webcast of the concert, visit http://music.unl.edu.
