P ierrot L unaire as Lunar Nexus

Abstract

Abstract My title is a pun on Stravinsky's characterisation of Pierrot Lunaire as the solar plexus of twentieth‐century music. Given its place in the history of musical depictions of moonlight, I characterise Pierrot as the twentieth century's lunar nexus – a place of intersections among literary and musical depictions of moonlight in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first part of this essay is a survey and discussion of the musical topos of moonlight in German and Austrian nineteenth‐century literature and music. I then discuss Schoenberg's depictions of moonlight in key works prior to Pierrot, including Verklärte Nacht, Gurre‐Lieder, Pelleas und Melisande and Erwartung. The third section explores the depictions of moonlight developed across the 21 songs of Pierrot, with special focus on three: ‘Mondestrunken’, ‘Eine blasse Wäscherin’ and ‘Der Mondfleck’.

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