Dissertation Index



Author: Weytjens, Stephan

Title: Text as a Crutch in Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” op. 21? An Analysis of the Relationship between Textual Aspects and Musical Structure in Free Atonality

Institution: Catholic University of Leuven

Begun: January 1998

Completed: December 2003

Abstract:

Among the criticisms regarding Arnold Schoenberg's free atonal compositions, one concept frequently comes up. It argues that Schoenberg needed the crutch of a text to be able to compose atonal pieces of greater length. Fervent opponents of atonality have often used this argument to justify their claims that atonality would unavoidably lead to an impasse. In fact, in order to legitimate his later twelve-tone method even Schoenberg himself eventually admitted the necessity of a text-based approach in free atonality. Nowadays this concept of the text as a temporary makeshift is still frequently taken for granted. In practice, though, such a dependence on a text often appears to be a rather complex matter. This becomes particularly obvious in Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” op. 21 (1912), a work that - also in this respect - can be considered as a key work in the composer’s oeuvre. “Pierrot Lunaire” appears indeed not only as a real laboratory in which a plethora of widely divergent text-music relationships is displayed, but also as a melting pot of purely musical structural devices. By means of a thorough immanently technical analysis of the musical score, in combination with a study of the structural and semantic aspects of the poetic text of Giraud/Hartleben, this dissertation sheds a new light on the question of how the dependence on a text may interact with a perfectly autonomous musical construction in free atonal music.

Keywords: "Pierrot Lunaire", music analysis, free atonality, music and text

TOC:

INTRODUCTION (p.I-VIII)

No. 1 "MONDESTRUNKEN" (pp. 1-20)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 2 "COLOMBINE" (pp. 21-42)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 3 "DER DANDY" (pp. 43-66)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 4 "EINE BLASSE WÄSCHERIN" (pp. 67-82)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 5 "VALSE DE CHOPIN" (pp. 83-104)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 6 "MADONNA" (pp. 105-118)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 7 "DER KRANKE MOND" (p. 123-136)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL



No. 8 "NACHT" (pp. 137-154)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 9 "GEBET AN PIERROT" (pp. 157-172)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 10 "RAUB" (pp. 173-194)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 11 "ROTE MESSE" (pp. 195-210)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 12 "GALGENLIED" (pp. 211-220)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 13 "ENTHAUPTUNG" (pp. 221-248)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 14 "DIE KREUZE" (pp. 249-280)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 15 "HEIMWEH" (pp. 281-306)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 16 "GEMEINHEIT" (pp. 307-330)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 17 "PARODIE" (pp. 331-356)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 18 "DER MONDFLECK" (pp. 357-372)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 19 "SERENADE" (pp. 373-394)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 20 "HEIMFAHRT" (pp. 395-414)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


No. 21 "O ALTER DUFT" (pp. 415-430)

I. STRUCTURAL LEVEL

1. Level of the form
A. Analysis of the parameters
B. Motivic analysis
2. Level of the syntax
3. Level of the syllables

II. SEMANTIC LEVEL


CONCLUSION (pp. 431-438)


BIBLIOGRAPHY (pp. 439-442)



Contact:

Stephan Weytjens
Pelgrimstraat 1/16
BE - 3000 Leuven
Belgium
s_weytjens@hotmail.com
+ 32/16 222 4


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