Pelleas und Melisande

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Pelleas und Melisande, Symphonic Poem for orchestra, is composer Arnold Schoenberg's first completed orchestral work (), and his opus 5. A symphonic poem, the work was completed in February 1903, when Schoenberg was 28. Pelleas und Melisande is based on Pelléas et Mélisande, the play by Maurice Maeterlinck. When Schoenberg began composing Pelleas und Melisande in 1902, he was unaware that Claude Debussy's opera of Maeterlinck's play was about to premiere in Paris. It was published in 1912.

Instrumentation

Schoenberg's work is in D minor and requires for performance:

• Woodwinds:
• 3 flutes
• 1 piccolo (one of the flutes sometimes takes a second piccolo part)
• 1 English horn
• 3 oboes (one sometimes doubling on a second english horn part)
• 3 clarinets - clarinets in A and in B-flat
• bass clarinet (one of the clarinets also has a second bass clarinet part)
• 3 bassoons
• 1 contrabassoon

• Brass:
• 8 horns tuned in E and in F
• 4 trumpets tuned in E and in F
• an alto trombone
• 4 tenor-bass trombones
• contrabass tuba

• Strings:
• harps (2 or 4)
• 16 first violins
• 16 second violins
• 12 violas
• 12 cellos
• 8 basses and the following

• Percussion (3 players):
• 4 timpani
• triangle
• cymbals
• tam-tam
• large tenor drum
• bass drum
• glockenspiel

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Even so, the huge orchestra of Pelléas (quadruple woodwind, eight horns, four trumpets, five trombones, tuba, two harps, much percussion and strings) is handled with unexpected bravura and an astonishing range of texture and colour.

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The work is in one continuous movement in many connected sections. The major sections are as follows:

• Die ein wenig bewegt — zögernd
• Heftig
• Lebhaft
• Sehr rasch
• Ein webig bewegt
• Langsam
• Ein webig bewegter
• Sehr langsam
• Etwas bewegt
• In gehender Bewegung
• Breit

This piece made the first notated use of a trombone glissando as Golaud led Pelleas to the underground tombs.

References

1. Schoenberg, Arnold. Five Orchestral Pieces and Pelleas und Melisande in Full Score. New York: Dover Publications reprint of two CF Peters originals (1912), 1994. ISBN 0-486-28120-5.
2. Craft, Robert. The Music of Arnold Schoenberg, Vol. V, liner notes. KOCH International Classics, 3-7471-2 H1. New York, 2000.

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Last updated on Sunday July 20, 2008 at 16:00:20 PDT (GMT -0700)
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