Analysis on Mondestrunken by A.Schoenberg & White Serpent Tale

Mondestrunken(Moondrunk) from Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg


     Pierrot Lunaire is one of the most famous expressionistic and atonal compositions of Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg is known for his 12 tone technique or serialism.The melodrama Pierrot Lunaire consists of poems divided into three parts. Each parts have 7 poems in it (total of 21 poems).  He used the whole tone scale in his sprechstimme composition, Pierrot Lunaire.  In Sprechstimme, the vocalists uses specified rhythms and pitches but the pitches does not sustain, shifting up and down according to the manner of the speech. Pierrot Lunaire utilizes a variety of classical forms such as fugue, canon, rondo, free counterpoint and passacaglia. The poem is in German which is doubled refraining three stanzas of 4, 4 and 5.  The narrator delivers the poem within singing style of sprechstimme along with instrumental accompaniment. Schoenberg, who is the creator of the whole tone technique, uses the atonality and serialism freely and yet orderly in many of his compositions. However, during the composition of Pierrot Lunaire, which was composed during 1912, Schoenberg has not yet devised the twelve tone technique. In contrast of String Trio which is one of his late work of 1946, during his composition of Pierrot Lunaire, he was fascinated by numerology(study of the purported divine, mystical or other special relationship between a number and some coinciding observed (or perceived) events.) which influenced him in composing Mondestrunken  which has influenced him to utilize number "7" quite a lot of time in his piece. Also, as it can be explored all through out the piece Mondestrunken, that Schoenberg favored using asymmetrical phrases with alternating between 7 and 8 notes of 16th note figurations.


I will be examining into Mondestrunken thorougly on it's use of musical elements and it's deep analysis. Mondestrunken is a the first poem of the first section, in sprechstimme form.

Instrumentation:

In the composition, the flute, violin, cello, narrator(Soprano) and piano all have different entrances with different melodies forming a polyphonic texture. Compared to his later work “String Trio”, the melodies are lyrical. Despite of harsh dissonances, the melodic line is not angular in comparison with String Trio. This piece is rather canonic and highly repetitive. The constant occurrence of changing of metre from 2/4 to 3/4 and crossbar phrasing in flute section makes a polyrhythmic texture overall.

Imitations of 7 note sequence:

Sequence of descending seven notes (G# E C D Db F) motif at the intro at piano section is repeated until bar 5, which is imitated by the violin with the same sequence of notes. Then, in bar 7, flute follows the 7 note sequence(G# E C D Db F) in the same notes.
The sequence of previous 7 notes motif (G# E C D Db F) played by piano. The sequence is refrained at bar 25 by piano with the same notes in an octave higher and in the exact same rhythm.



7 notes sequential motif is extended into a canonic cycle in bar 25 between violin, piano and flute. This canonic variation of 7 notes sequential motif creates hypnotizing effect and mysterious atmosphere. This motif is repeated many times all throughout the piece with overlapping melodic motif.

ii) Imitation of performance techniques
In bar 19, the flute starts the trill with G flat in a descending melodic contour, then the piano imitates the trills and it is succeeded to the flute again in F.



Wide leaps of notes and dissonances:
One of the major characteristics of A.Schoenberg is that he uses harsh dissonances and tone clusters. In this piece, dissonances with unexpected dynamics and angular melodies can be found. The use of tone clusters with large dynamics are often seen in many expressionistic compositions of Arnold Schoenberg..
In bar 15, piano plays a tone cluster in pp and light texture of the notes in staccato which enhances the contrasts with the reoccurring 7 notes motif followed with sf. Extreme dynamics such as sf are often emphasized by the previous light texture created with pp and staccato and pizzicatos on strings. By creating a conrast in dynamics, the piano right hand melody(G# E C D B C F) is brought out.

Tone Clusters:
Tone cluster is the clump of dissonant notes played all together.
Tone cluster is usually very dissonant and sounds very rough, which brings out the contrast between light texture of staccatos.

Mirror Line Melody:


Broken Bridge (Duan qiao) from The White Serpent Tale (Bai She Zhuan)

The White Serpent Tale, also called White Maiden is written in many different forms in Chinese. In a version of Chinese Opera (Jingju), it usually consists of a percussive traditional drum which are the erhu and vocalist of each characters. The White Serpent Tale is a regional tale of a white serpent becoming a human after praying to Heshang and get married to a man. This Jingju depicts love,sacrifice and  Buddhism. One of the major traits of Chinese Opera is that the vocals sing in very distinct intonations according to the speech manners along with the instrumental accompaniment. Chinese Opera is in a form of conversation lead the vocalist to sing. However, when the vocalist character speaks, according to his/her speech manner, the melodic contour of the speech changes.

1. Ritardando and Accelerando in the intro and ending (taping off)
The video clip below starts with the conversation between Bainiangzi (White lady) and her husband. As the singing is about to start, Luo enters and Bainiangzi starts singing. As it is written on the music score as Liushuiban on the top left corner of the music score, meaning "Flowingly" the introduction of the song starts slowly and as the vocal sings, it gradually take its speed up. In the intro section, the Bainiangzi starts off the lyrics with conversational speech and sudden rise in pitches leading up to the beginning of the song.



2. Bending of notes
Bending of notes, or a slur, is another major traits among Chinese Operas. The Erhu plays along the vocal melodic line. Erhu and female vocalist has a similar style in that they both utilize slurs of notes and connecting most of the syllable. The slurs on the score indicates the continuous flow of each notes. The slurring of each notes is significant in that, slurring gives an conversational atmosphere and continuous melodic shape. Bar above the numbers represents extending the previous note to the next note, making the vocal melody line more lyrical.



2. Instrumentation:
Guzheng creates heterophonic texture which provides both rhythmic function and lyrical function to the overall piece. The Erhu and vocalist singing and playing the same melody along with the percussions Bhan provides homophonic texture to the piece. Upper melody line is the vocal melody, and the lower melody line represents both Erhu and Guzheng instrumental accompaniment. Percussion notation is not marked on the music score. However, in the youtube video clip attached in previous page, Bhan is accompanied following the music score rhythm.

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