“La Chanson de la Potence”
Albert Giraud (1860-1929)
La maigre amoureuse au long cou
Sera la dernière maîtresse,
De ce traîne-jambe en détresse,
De ce songe-d'or sans le sou.
Cette pensée est comme un clou
Qu'en sa tête enfonce l'ivresse:
La maigre amoureuse au long cou
Sera sa dernière maîtresse.
Elle est svelte comme un bambou;
Sur sa gorge aanse une tresse,
Et, d'une étranglante caresse,
Le fera jouir comme un fou,
La maigre anioureuse au long cou!
With a metrical duration of 13 measures (plus an anacrusis) and an overall existence of slightly less than 20 seconds, "Galgenlied"--the 12th of Arnold Schoenberg's Dreimal Sieben Gedichte from the minor Belgian Symbolist Albert Giraud's 50 Rondels Bergamaques--is the shortest, most concise movement of the former's 1912 melodrama Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21.
As the fifth poem of the second-of-three parts, it is scored for piccolo, viola and violoncello trio with accompanying recitation. Thus, instrumentally, it can be grouped with movements three, four and eight as an instrumental trio plus vocal recitation. (The fifth movement "Valse de Chopin" does in fact utilize three instrumentalists, however the clarinet player is asked to change to bass clarinet within the course of the movement itself.)
For the most part, "Galgenlied" exists in a sort of bifurcated universe of sprechstimme and lower strings. It is worth noting, however, that this universe is still in a rather malleable state, quite susceptible to changes of theoretical design and analytical segmentation.
“Galgenlied”
(German translation by Otto Erich Hartleben)
Die dürre Dirne
Mit langem Halse
Wird seine letzte
Geliebte sein.
In seinem Hirne
Steckt wie ein Nagel
Die dürre Dirne
Mit langem Halse.
Schlank wie die Pinie,
Am Hals ein Zöpfchen--
Wollüstig wird sie
Den Schelm umhalsen,
Die dürre Dirne!
After the initial E4 pickup, the recitation (which for the purposes of this analysis, regardless of its historical implications within the Germanic theatrical tradition, relies upon faithful duplication of the actual pitches specified in the score) meanders through several pitch class collections beginning with one of Schoenberg's favorite opening vocal tetrachords 4-17 (0347)--e.g. Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15, No. 11. (Or in descending order of specificity with regards to the limited jargon of tonality: the augmented ninth/Major-minor/Stravinsky-cum-Steely Dan chord.)
Seemingly unaffected by the pianissimo viola/cello dyads interjecting from below, the recitation moves swiftly and consonant-laden through the first stanza at roughly one line per measure. And as each measure of recitation contains only four pitch classes, the first three bars can be identified as a three tetrachord string--4-17, 4-11 (0135), 4-12 (0236), respectively--although given the musico-textual elision from measure three to four perhaps the pc space here is best described as a A-sharp, G-sharp, B, D, (B-flat), (A-flat)--G, (B), (B) or 5-16 (01347).
As for the aforementioned viola/cello dyads, they have their genesis in the third 16th subdivision of measure two where the first double-stop for both instruments occurs. Here the cello sounds a minor six A-F under the E-flat-D major seventh of the viola, thus creating the vertical simultaneity 4-Z29 (0137). And as this is one of the only two all-interval-tetrachords that exist in 12-tone equal temperament, and the only simultaneity in the piece to receive a specific mode of attack (>), the previous 11-1, 9-2, 6-10, 4-10 dyads (and for that matter all possible dyads henceforth) are subsequently explained.
Of particular note is beat two of the fourth measure where the strings, weary of the tyranny of Schoenberg's imposed rhythmic unison, rise up against their master with the cello's 16th figure of insurrection B, C-sharp, A-sharp, G-sharp. This four-note collection--4-10 (0235)--thus contrasts with the viola's single 16ths D and C. A gesture such as this would seem unnatural, and at the very least non-sequitur according to the axioms of Schoenbergian logic, were it not for its almost verbatim repetition in the following measure.
However, here the rhetorical relationship is reversed with the viola playing a 4-12 (0236) collection above the cello's C and B-flat. And while the two tetrachords are indeed slightly different (by only one prime form digit, to be exact), the linking interval class--ic 2--remains the same. Significant not only as the first major disruption of rhythmic unison amongst the strings (the cello's C3 in the last 16th of the second measure is more of a passing-tone-like gesture), it marks the beginning of their quest for contrapuntal independence, albeit an independence tempered with integration.
The second stanza begins conveniently enough at rehearsal number five, and in terms of the recitation's pitch material, it continues from whence it ended with yet another 4-12 tetrachord. Measure six offers up the first actual vocally segmented pentachord--5-22 (01478)--which is a not-too-distant cousin of the five-note pitch class collection present in the strings 5-6 (01256). Upon first glance, it is certainly tempting to identify the viola/cello double-stops in this measure, and in the measure that follows, as two distinct four-note simultaneities: 4-7 (0145) and 4-10 (0235), respectively. Such a decision could indeed be deemed appropriate, and in so doing, important comparative results--such as both collections share a similar prime form--are in fact revealed. Nonetheless, such a segmentation would tend to obscure what are probably the more significant results: the aforesaid string and recitation pentachord relationship, and that when combined with the recitation's 4-4 (0125) tetrachord in measure seven, the pitch class content of the strings material (C, C-sharp, D, D-sharp, A, A-sharp, B) actually completes the 12-tone aggregate...for the first of only one other time in the piece!
[N.B. It happens again, in measure twelve of all places.]
“Gallow's Song”
(English translation by Stanley Appelbaum)
The haggard harlot
With a long neck
Will be his last
Lover.
In his brain
Is stuck like a nail
The scraggy harlot
With a long neck.
Slender as a pine,
On her neck a little braid--
Lustfully she will
Hug the rogue's neck,
The scraggy harlot.
Also of considerable importance here is the accelerando indication, or perhaps more astutely, the realization that up until this point Schoenberg has provided six measures in a very fast, but nonetheless stable tempo. However, beginning here at measure seven, he allots two measures to arrive at the faster tempo (quarter = 144-152), then two measures existence within that tempo, followed by two-point-something measures of an accelerando unto the end.
The decimal ambiguity exists because as it is published in the 1914 Universal Edition, the piccolo has too many beats in her last measure. Thus, one must assume that the C8 in the downbeat of measure 13 is in fact a 16th.
At any rate, the symmetry--pickup and six measures/six measures and some change--is simply amazing; the numerological implications of said symmetry--6+6=12--is almost frightening.
And as if to help elucidate the asymmetric structure of the three stanza/thirteen line rondel form itself (i.e. 4+4+5=13), Schoenberg graciously provides a quicker tempo (from the original quarter = 120 to quarter = 144-152) at the beginning of the third stanza. The recitation retreats back to familiar territory with another 4-12 tetrachord, while the viola performs a wholesale repetition of its "a-minorish" 5-23 (02357) figure from the previous measure, the only instrument (except for a few repeated B3s in the voice more than three bars removed) daring enough to execute such redundancy. (As mentioned later, she will transgress once more--this time from the end of measure 11 to the end of the movement, almost.)
The last two measures of the movement show the Viennese master, and his contrapuntal acumen, at their collective bests. Here, a descending line of recitation (from G4 to A3: F, E, D-sharp, C-sharp, B) is complemented by an ascending piccolo figure (chromatically from D-sharp5 to C6 and on through C8 by means of hexachord 6-16 [014568]) at approximately a 2:1 mensuration ratio. Further embedded within the severity of this contrary motion are ever condensing cello double-stops (opci +19, +19, +18, +18, +16, +16, +13, +13, +10) and a doggedly static line of viola opci +11s--carried over from the previous measure, nonetheless--moving yet again in unison rhythm with one another. Nevertheless, for what appears to be the first time in nearly 16 seconds, both voice and instruments are united under a common cognitive cause--the sheer saturation of musical contour space.
The sonic totality of such basilar saturation, while merely a blip in the Cartesian space-time of an already aphoristically brief movement, is indeed quite overwhelming. Finally, as if to prove the validity of yet another aphorism obviously invoked by Schoenberg in this movement (something about good things coming to patient Boehm doublers), the piccolo--in only her second, and ultimately last, appearance thus far in the movement--offers up a quick 3-4 (015) tri-chordal collection bringing our beloved Pierrot that much closer to Bergamo.
Save for the beheading and crucifixion that follow, of course.
Bibliography:
Bain, Reginald F. atonalAssistant v2.09d.
Boulez, Pierre. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Lied der Waldtaube, Erwartung. Sony Music, 1978.
Ensemble Modern. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Kammersymphonie. BMG Music, 1993.
Schoenberg, Arnold. Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21. Universal Edition: Vienna, 1914.
Straus, Joseph N. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. Third Edition. Pearson Education Inc.: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 07458, 2005.
