Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5, is a symphonic poem written by Arnold Schoenberg and completed in February 1903. It was premiered on 25 January 1905 at the Musikverein in Vienna under the composer's direction in a concert that also included the first performance of Alexander von Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau . [1] The work is based on Maurice Maeterlinck's play Pelléas and Mélisande , a subject suggested by Richard Strauss. When he began composing the work in 1902, Schoenberg was unaware that Claude Debussy's opera, also based on Maeterlinck's play, was about to premiere in Paris.
The symphonic poem is scored for a large orchestra comprising piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd doubling 2nd piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling 2nd English horn), English horn, E flat clarinet, 3 clarinets in B flat and A (3rd doubling 2nd bass clarinet), bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 8 horns in F, 4 trumpets in E and F, alto trombone, 4 tenor-bass trombones, tuba, timpani (2 players), triangle, cymbals, tam-tam, large tenor drum, bass drum, glockenspiel, 2 or 4 harps, and strings.
The work is in the key of D minor, and is an example of Schoenberg's early tonal works. It is one continuous movement which comprises many inter-related sections. The major sections are delineated by the following tempo markings:
Alban Berg provided a formal outline demonstrating a combination four-movement symphonic form and a single movement sonata form with connections to scenes from the Maeterlinck play. [2] [3]
Sonata form | Introduction (0), First theme group (5), Transition (6) Second theme group (9), short recapitulation (14) | The forest, Marriage of Golaud and Melisande, Pelleas, Awakening of love in Melisande |
Scherzo and episodes | Scherzo (16), episode 1 (25), episode 2 (30) | Scene at the fountain, Scene at the tower, Scene in the vaults |
Slow movement | Introduction (33), Love Scene (36), Coda (48) | Fountain in the park, Love Scene, Death of Pelleas |
Finale/recapitulation | Recapitulation of introduction to first movement (50), principal theme (55), love theme (56), epilogue with further recapitulation(62) | Melisande's death |
Theme groups, similar to the leitmotif, which are associated with individual scenes or people, form the building-blocks of a symphonic development, which has its beginning in the forest scene introducing the first movement, where Golaud meets Melisande and they marry, and continues on through the inner segments of the Scherzo, which portrays the scene at the fountain where Melisande loses her wedding ring and encounters with Golaud's half-brother Pelleas, and Adagio, which portrays the farewell and love scene of Pelleas and Melisande, where Golaud kills Pelleas, and leads to the recapitulation of the thematic material in the Finale, which portrays the death of Melisande. In a letter to his brother-in-law, Alexander Zemlinsky, who wanted to make cuts in Pelleas for a Prague performance he was to conduct in 1918, Schoenberg summarized the fundamental anchoring points of this work: "the opening motif (12/8) is linked to Melisande", which is followed by the "fate motif", and the Scherzo contains "the game with the ring", the Adagio the "scene with Melisande's Hair", and the "love scene; ... the dying Melisande" and "entrance of the ladies in waiting, Melisande's death" in the finale.
Melisande's themes are based on a three-note motive
common to several themes in the work.
The first Melisande theme is followed immediately by the "fate" theme.
After a forceful statement of the fate theme Pelleas' motif (which contains the three note motive from Melisande's theme) is introduced.
Influenced by Pillar of Fire , a ballet version of his Verklärte Nacht by Antony Tudor, which premiered in 1942 in New York, Schoenberg, in American exile, decided for commercial reasons to modify and arrange the work's score for ballet as well, by expanding the one-movement symphonic poem into a multi-movement suite. He first spoke of this in early 1947 in a letter to his son-in-law Felix Greissle. However, the project collapsed due to the intervention of Associated Music Publishers, who managed to prevent authorization. [4]
The Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at Mahler's holiday cottage at Maiernigg. Among its most distinctive features are the trumpet solo that opens the work with a rhythmic motif similar to the opening of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, the horn solos in the third movement and the frequently performed Adagietto.
The Symphony No. 1 in D major by Gustav Mahler was mainly composed between late 1887 and March 1888, though it incorporates music Mahler had composed for previous works. It was composed while Mahler was second conductor at the Leipzig Opera in Germany. Although in his letters Mahler almost always referred to the work as a symphony, the first two performances described it as a symphonic poem and as a tone poem in symphonic form, respectively. The work was premièred at the Vigadó Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary, in 1889, but was not well-received. Mahler made some major revisions for the second performance, given at Hamburg, Germany, in October 1893; further alterations were made in the years prior to the first publication, in late 1898. Some modern performances and recordings give the work the title Titan, despite the fact that Mahler only used this label for the second and third performances, and never after the work had reached its definitive four-movement form in 1896.
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist play of the same name. It premiered at the Salle Favart in Paris by the Opéra-Comique on 30 April 1902; Jean Périer was Pelléas and Mary Garden was Mélisande, conducted by André Messager, who was instrumental in getting the Opéra-Comique to stage the work. It is the only opera Debussy ever completed.
Pelléas and Mélisande is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck.
Pelléas and Mélisande is a Symbolist play by the Belgian playwright and author Maurice Maeterlinck. It's about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters and was first performed in 1893.
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Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher.
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Pelléas et Mélisande is a 162-minute studio album of Claude Debussy's opera, performed by Christine Barbaux, José van Dam, Nadine Denize, Ruggero Raimondi, Frederica von Stade, Richard Stilwell and Pascal Thomas with the Chorus of the German Opera Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. It was released in 1979.
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