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Wikipedia / Pierrot ensemble

A Pierrot ensemble is a musical ensemble comprising flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. This ensemble is named after 20th-century composer Arnold Schoenberg’s seminal work Pierrot lunaire, which includes the quintet of instruments above with a narrator (usually performed by a soprano).

History

The quintet of instruments used in Pierrot Lunaire has been used in the twentieth century by different groups, such as The Fires of London, who formed in 1965 as "The Pierrot Players" to perform Pierrot lunaire, and continued to concertize with a varied classical and contemporary repertory. This group began to perform works arranged for these instruments and commission new works.

While standard chamber ensembles (such as string quartets or piano trios) continued to be extremely popular among 20th-century composers, the Pierrot ensemble represents an example of the many kinds of non-standard chamber ensembles that have been used in classical music since the beginning of the 20th century.

The number of compositions written for Pierrot Ensemble is limited by the inherent unbalance of the ensemble (two strings, plus two winds, plus piano). More frequent are works that introduce additional instruments, typically more strings, and especially percussion which obtains a small, and inexpensive, chamber ensemble with three families of instruments represented.

Doublings

Doublings are a standard compositional device used to extend an ensemble instrumental color. In Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, the flutist is asked to play piccolo, the clarinetist is asked to play bass clarinet. Other common doublings might include Eflat clarinet (as in Carter's Triple Duo), alto flute.

Notable Pierrot ensembles

  • The Fires of London (founded as the Pierrot Players) (1965–1987, UK)

  • Da Capo Chamber Players (1970, USA)

  • The New Music Players (1990, UK)

  • Standing Wave (1991, Canada)

  • Eighth Blackbird (Pierrot + percussion) (1996, USA)

  • Achrome Ensemble (2013, Italy)

  • Brightwork New Music (2013, USA)

  • What Is Noise (2014, USA)

  • Ensemble Namu 나무앙상블 (2017, South Korea)

Works for Pierrot ensemble

Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire (1912) + voice (usually soprano)

  • The originary work after which the ensemble is named.

    Amaury du Closel: Stolpersteine (2021)

John Harbison:

Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann:

Works with alternative/additional instruments

Hanns Eisler:

Richard Festinger:

  • Septet (1987) + viola and percussion

  • A Serenade for Six (1993) + percussion

  • After Blue (1998) + percussion

  • The Coming of Age (2003) + soprano and viola

  • Salvatore Sciarrino: Lo Spazio inverso (1985) + celesta

  • John Harbison: The Natural World (1987) + soprano

William Susman:

Laura Schwendinger:

  • Fable (1992) + percussion

  • Songs of Heaven and Earth (1997) + percussion, harp and voice

  • Mise-en-scene (2011) + percussion

  • Artist's Muse (2017) + percussion

  • Chen Yi: Sparkle (1992) + 2 percussionists, double bass

  • Iannis Xenakis: Plektó (1993) + percussion

  • Mario Davidovsky: Flashbacks (1995) + percussion

  • Gérard Grisey: Vortex Temporum (1996) + viola

Robert Paterson:

  • Quintus (1996) + percussion (without flute)

  • Sextet (1999) + percussion

  • The Thin Ice of Your Fragile Mind (2004) + percussion

  • Eating Variations (2006) + baritone and percussion (without piano)

  • Winter Songs (2008) + bass-baritone and percussion

  • Hell's Kitchen (2014) + percussion

  • Summer Songs (2016) + soprano and percussion

  • Spring Songs (2018) + tenor and percussion

  • Autumn Songs (2019) + mezzo-soprano and percussion

  • Listen (2022) + choir and percussion

  • Mel Powell: Sextet (1996) + percussion

Lior Navok

Frederic Rzewski:

Greg Caffrey:

Elena Doria Winell:

  • "reaching towards, reaching from" (2023) + percussion

  • "blood...all over my hands" (2023) + soprano and percussion

  • Nicholas Tran: "on becoming space // Emergent Becoming" (2023)+ percussion

Armando Bayolo:

  • Action Figure (2001) + percussion

  • Wide Open Spaces (2014) + percussion

  • Nadie puede dar lo que no tiene (2020) + percussion

  • Holbein Dances (2021) - flute and percussion

  • Cancionero de luto (2023) + chorus and percussion

  • Xi Wang: Echo Poem Image (2010) + percussion

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez:

Notes

References

Christopher Dromey, The Pierrot Ensembles: Chronicle and Catalogue, 1912-2012 (London: Plumbago, 2013).

From the Arnold Schoenberg Center