Glenn Gould and Patricia Rideout: Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire

Glenn Gould and Patricia Rideout perform poems 1, 2, and 5 from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Poem texts in German and English below.

1. Mondestrunken (Moondrunk)

Den Wein, den man mit Augen trinkt,
Gießt Nachts der Mond in Wogen nieder,
Und eine Springflut überschwemmt
Den stillen Horizont.

Gelüste schauerlich und süß,
Durchschwimmen ohne Zahl die Fluten!
Den Wein, den man mit Augen trinkt,
Gießt Nachts der Mond in Wogen nieder.

Der Dichter, den die Andacht treibt,
Berauscht sich an dem heilgen Tranke,
Gen Himmel wendet er verzückt
Das Haupt und taumelnd saugt und schlürit er
Den Wein, den man mit Augen trinkt.


The wine we drink through the eyes
The moon pours down at night in waves,
And a flood tide overflows
The silent horizon.

Longings beyond number, gruesome sweet frissons,
Swim through the flood.
The wine we drink through the eyes
The moon pours down at night in waves.

The poet, slave to devotion,
Drunk on the sacred liquor,
Enraptured, turns his face to Heaven
And staggering sucks and slurps
The wine we drink through the eyes.



2. Colombine -- Columbine

Des Mondlichts bleiche Bluten,
Die weißen Wunderrosen,
Blühn in den Julinachten -
O brach ich eine nur!

Mein banges Leid zu lindern,
Such ich am dunklen Strome
Des Mondlichts bleiche Blüten,
Die weißen Wunderrosen.

Gestillt war all mein Sehnen,
Dürft ich so märchenheimlich,
So selig leis - entblättern
Auf deine brauenen Haare
Des Mondlichts bleiche Blüten!


The moonlight's pale blossoms,
The white wonder-roses,
Bloom in July nights.
O could I pluck but one!

To soothe my deepest sorrow,
Through darkening streams I seek
The moonlight's pale blossoms,
The white wonder-roses.

All my longings would be satisfied,
Dared I as gently
As a fairy sprite to scatter
Over your brown tresses
The moonlight's pale blossoms.



5. Valse de Chopin (Waltz of Chopin)

Wie ein blasser Tropfen Bluts
Färbt die Lippen einer Kranken,
Also ruht auf diesen Tönen
Ein vernichtungssüchtger Reiz.

Wilder Lust Accorde stören
Der Verzweiflung eisgen Traum -
Wie ein blasser Tropfen Bluts
Färbt die Lippen einer Kranken.

Heiß und jauchzend, süß und schmachtend,
Melancholisch düstrer Walzer,
Kommst mir nimmer aus den Sinnen!
Haftest mir an den Gedanken,
Wie ein blasser Tropfen Bluts!


As a bleached drop of blood
Stains a sufferer's lips,
So lurks within this music
The lure of annihilation.

In untamed strains the chords disorder
Despair's icy dream-
As a bleached drop of blood
Stains a sufferer's lips.

Fierce, exulting, sweet, and yearning,
Melancholy dismal waltzes,
You cling to my consciousness,
You are borne on my thoughts
Like a bleached drop of blood.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• glenn
• gould
• patricia
• rideout
• pierrot
• lunaire
• schoenberg
• sprechstimme
• atonal
• pantonal
• albert
• giraud
• classical
• avant
• garde

[synesthetically]

Beauty isn't the point of Pierrot Lunaire - it's more meant to be psychological, more than a little scary, and it falls pretty well in line with expressionism. Look up some translations of the lyrics if you really want to see.

[OAmus]

well, isn't that what music basicly is...?

[Rkmajora]

I can understand the use of this music in its exploration, I just think it tends to be played too fast to where I can't really understand the transitions and they all blend together into tumbling grey pebbles. When you hear something as simple as Prokofiev's the fight for instance, it's played very fast and sounds chaotic, though I can actually understand it. So I'm thinking Schoenberg meant for it to not be understood, unless you analyze it and take what you like from it.

[jenko701]

This music haunts me ,I love it ,I cant explain why .

[P1B1U1H1]

@synesthetically It becomes intensely beautiful if you hear it over and over again. Tears you apart actually. In some ways, this is the greatest composition of the twentieth century.

[falicapte]

@CrystalFlames looolllssssss

[donaldfiebing]

wow! reine Kunst! ich kannte das Video noch nicht. Danke

[N6NZE]

I read Pierrot Lunaire as a dramati-sation of the Belgian debate about poetry in which Giraud's poems translated by Hartleben demonstrate more sympathy for aspects of the rich and powerful Symbolist aesthetic than he is usually credited with.

Within the cycle there are fifty mini cycles, with a degree of formal ambivalence that perfectly matches that of their substance.ABBA, ABAB ABBA is itself a cyclic pattern, first line becoming the last.

[cinderburster]

Not everything in the world is pleasant, and Schoenberg, as well as other Expressionist artists (Munch, for example) were experimenting with depicting the darker sides of human experience, especially insanity. This piece isn't meant to be pretty or even enjoyable--it's meant to express the degradation of the human mind, and it does that exceedingly well.

[redkeithh]

Just because the sane (and even gifted) are able to portray insanity doesn't mean that insanity loses much of its eerie power. As we observe in this performance.

[OAmus]

You are getting into semantics. For me, any type of organized sound expressing or designed to arouse emotion is Music, notwithstanding whether you like it or not.