While Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire is not very pleasant to listen to, it does achieve what Schoenberg sets out to accomplish – it tells a story. The music helps to create a picture in your head of what is going on in the story of Pierrot .When you read the text of the work it’s hard to imagine a pleasant tune playing underneath it. Can you imagine
“The haggard harlot
With scraggy gizzard
Will be his ultimate
Paramour.” being sung pleasantly? No it’s not meant to be pleasant, Schoenberg’s story is meant to be dramatic and it’s atonal music emphasizes the drama of the words. However, I also found this piece a little confusing sometimes because the singer is both Pierrot and the narrator simultaneously. Also, because although Pierrot is a man, he speaks in this piece through the voice of a soprano woman. I’m interested as to why Schoenberg chose to make it that way, perhaps it was also to add to the drama of the piece?