The Genesis of Schoenberg`s Pierrot lunaire

Berlin Origins
The Genesis of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire
The period leading up to the composition of Pierrot
lunaire in the spring of 1912 was marked by a profound creative crisis and a questioning of his most
basic ideas about art, creativity, and the nature of
music.
January 28: … proposition to compose a cycle Pierrot lunaire for
Dr. Zehme’s intended recital. Holds out the prospect of a large
fee (1000 Marks). Have read the preface, looked at the poems, am
enthusiastic. Brilliant idea, absolutely to my liking. Would want to
do this even without a fee. That is why I made another proposition:
instead of a fee, royalties from performances. More acceptable to
me, since I am not able to work on command anyway. This way,
however: if I succeed in writing these melodramas, then she should
perform them and pay me the agreed upon royalties for twenty to
thirty evenings. Quite likely to be accepted.
February 17th (Saturday). Find out from Gutmann that Dr. Zehme
is hesitant about accepting my conditions. Quite unpleasant, since I
was really counting very much on that money. Yet at the same time
I feel somewhat relieved, because I had felt quite depressed about
having to compose something I actually didn’t feel compelled to do.
It seems as if my fate wants to keep me from even the most minor
artistic sin. Since the one time I do not have the courage to decline
a sum of money offered to me and which I need sorely, nothing
comes out of the negotiations. This way I will always remain clean
and will only have committed a sin in my thoughts. Is that not bad
enough? Anyway it depresses me, and I feel very despondent.
March 12: In the morning was very much in the mood to compose.
After a very long time! I had already considered the possibility that
I may not ever compose again at all. There seemed to be many reasons for it. The persistence with which my students nip at my heels,
intending to surpass what I offer, this puts me in danger of becoming their imitator, and keeps me from calmly building on the stage
that I have just reached. They always bring in everything raised to
the tenth power.
And it makes sense! It is really good. But I do not know whether
it is necessary. At least not whether it is necessary to me. That is
why I am now forced to distinguish even more carefully whether
I must write than earlier. Since I do not care all that much about
originality; however, sometimes it does give me pleasure, and in any
case I like it better than un-originality. Then came the preoccupation with theoretical matters. Doing that, very definitely dries one
out. And maybe this is the reason why I suddenly, for about two
years, no longer feel as young. I have become strangely calm! This
is also evident when I conduct. I am missing the aggressive in myself. The spontaneous leaving of all constraints behind oneself and
attacking, taking-over. Maybe this will change for the better since
I am now composing once more anyway. Or could it be that this
is better. I remember having written a poem ten to twelve years
ago where I wished to grow old and undemanding, calm. Now, as I
suddenly see the earlier possibilities of unrest again, I almost have a
yearning for them. Or are they already here again?
[March 13]. I should actually work out my lecture on Mahler which
I will be giving in Prague on the 25th. However, for the next few
days I would rather be composing. Yesterday, the 12th, I wrote the
first of the Pierrot lunaire melodramas. I believe it turned out very
well. This provides much stimulation. And I am, I sense it, definitely moving towards a new way of expression. The sounds here truly
become an almost animalistically immediate expression of sensual
and psychological emotions. Almost as if everything were transmitted directly. I am anxious to see how this is going to continue.
But, by the way, I do know what is causing it: Spring!!! Always my
best time. I can already sense motion inside myself again. In this I
am almost like a plant. Each year the same. In the spring I almost
always have composed something.
After the explosively prolific years 19081909, during which he composed a series of
masterpieces including the Second String
Quartet, Op. 10, the Three Piano Pieces,
Op 11, the Book of the Hanging Gardens,
Op. 15, the Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op.
16, and the opera Erwartung, Op. 17 [Expectation], Schoenberg suddenly found
himself unable to compose. He completed
no pieces in 1910, devoting himself instead
to writing a harmony book and painting;
in 1911 he only managed to complete the
Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19, five of which
were composed in one day, and the song
Herzgewächse, Op. 20, for high soprano
and chamber ensemble.
Mounting financial pressures, an unpleasant
episode with a neighbor that threatened
to turn violent, and the possibility of professional advancement persuaded Schoenberg to move with his family back to Berlin
in October 1911. Starting in January 1912
he began keeping a diary concerning his
life, works, and relationships in Berlin. Several entries also concern the commission
from the singer/actress Albertine Zehme
(1857-1946) to compose settings of Albert
Giraud’s Pierrot lunaire poems, in the translation by Otto Erich Hartleben. The beginning of the composition of Pierrot on March
12, 1912 marked the end of a long creative
dry spell. The final movement of Pierrot was
completed July 9, 1912.
Zehme’s handwritten copy of the Pierrot Poems with Schoenberg’s musical sketch.