Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg constitutes an emblematic work for the music of the 20th century.  The innovation introduced by Schoenberg through the elimination of tonality, and the consequences this had for the later developments of New Music (from the fifties to the present day); the way in which the composer elaborated the newly rediscovered genre of melodrama,   transforming   it   in   an   entirely   original   way;   the   new   paths   opened   by Sprechgesang for the utilization of the voice, as well as the decisive influence of Pierrot on the  works  of  other  important  composers,  such  as  Ravel  (Trois  poèmes  de  Mallarmè,  1913) and   Stravinsky (Poésies de la lyrique japonaise, 1915) (Philippot Michel, 1974) are only a few  of  the  issues  that  have  been  dealt  with  in  the  extended  literature  with  reference  to  this work.

The  subject  of  the  present  study  is  an  examination  from  a  performer’s  perspective,  of whether Pierrot Lunaire should be viewed as a concert piece or a music theatre work.

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