Pelleas und Melisande
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Pelleas und Melisande, Symphonic Poem for orchestra, is dodecaphonic composer Arnold Schoenberg's first completed orchestral work ([1]), 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 premier in Paris. It was published in 1912.
Schoenberg's work is in D minor and requires for performance three flutes, one piccolo (one of the flutes sometimes takes a second piccolo part), one cor anglais, three oboes (one sometimes doubling on a second English horn part), three clarinets - clarinets in A and in B♭, and a bass-clarinet (one of the clarinets also has a second bass-clarinet part), three bassoons, a contrabassoon, eight horns tuned in E and in F, four trumpets tuned in E and in F, an alto trombone, four tenor-bass trombones, and a contrabass tuba, four timpani, two harps, sixteen first violins, sixteen second violins, twelve violas, twelve cellos, eight basses and the following percussion:
- triangle
- cymbals
- tam-tam
- large tenor drum
- bass drum
- glockenspiel
The work is in one continuous movement in many connected sections, opening
Die 
ein wenig bewegt — zögernd.
The Dover Publications reprint of the work the score contains 123 pp.
This piece made the first notated use of a trombone glissando as Golaud lead Pelleas to the underground tombs.
[edit] References
- 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.
- ^ Craft, Robert. The Music of Arnold Schoenberg, Vol. V, liner notes. KOCH International Classics, 3-7471-2 H1. New York, 2000.
