<i><scp>P</scp>ierrot <scp>L</scp>unaire</i> 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’.