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A Pierrot ensemble is a
musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...
comprising
flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
,
clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
,
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
,
cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
and
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. This ensemble is named after 20th-century composer
Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
’s seminal work ''
Pierrot Lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a me ...
'', which includes the quintet of instruments above with a narrator (usually performed by a
soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261  Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
).


History

The quintet of instruments used in ''Pierrot Lunaire'' has been used in the twentieth century by different groups, such as The Fires of London, who formed in 1965 as "The Pierrot Players" to perform Pierrot Lunaire, and continued to concertize with a varied classical and contemporary repertory. This group began to perform works arranged for these instruments and commission new works. While standard chamber ensembles (such as
string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
s or
piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music. The term can also refer to a group of musi ...
s) continued to be extremely popular among 20th-century composers, the Pierrot ensemble represents an example of the many kinds of non-standard
chamber Chamber or the chamber may refer to: In government and organizations * Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests *Legislative chamber, in politics * Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...
ensembles that have been used in
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
since the beginning of the 20th century. The number of compositions written for Pierrot Ensemble is limited by the inherent unbalance of the ensemble (two strings, plus two winds, plus piano). More frequent are works that introduce additional instruments, typically more strings, and especially
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
which obtains a small, and inexpensive, chamber ensemble with three families of instruments represented.


Doublings

Doublings are a standard compositional device used to extend an ensemble instrumental color. In Schoenberg's ''
Pierrot Lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a me ...
'', the flutist is asked to play
piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...
, the clarinetist is asked to play
bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...
. Other common doublings might include E clarinet (as in
Carter Carter(s), or Carter's, Tha Carter, or The Carter(s), may refer to: Geography United States * Carter, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Carter, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Carter, Montana, a census-designated place * Carter ...
's ''Triple Duo''),
alto flute The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, the second-highest member below the standard C flute after the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the ...
.


Notable Pierrot ensembles

*
Fires of London The Fires of London, founded as the Pierrot Players, was a British chamber music ensemble which was active from 1965 to 1987. The Pierrot Players was founded by Harrison Birtwistle, Alan Hacker, and Stephen Pruslin.''Who’s Who 1975'', page 13 ...
(Founded as the Pierrot Players) (1965-1987, UK) * Da Capo Chamber Players (1970, USA) *The New Music Players (1990, UK) *Standing Wave (1991, Canada) *Brightwork New Music (2013, USA) *What Is Noise (2014, USA) *Ensemble Namu 나무앙상블 (2017, South Korea)


Works for Pierrot ensemble

*
Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
: ''
Pierrot Lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a me ...
'' (1912) + voice (usually soprano) ** The originary work after which the ensemble is named. * Amaury du Closel: ''Stolpersteine'' (2021) *
John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harb ...
: ** ''Die Kürze'' (1970) ** ''Chaconne'' (2001) *
Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his Serialism, serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia t ...
: ''Arie da Capo'' (1979) *
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Ellen Taaffe Zwilich ( ; born April 30, 1939) is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, ne ...
: ''Intrada'' (1983) *
Gérard Grisey Gérard Henri Grisey (; ; 17 June 1946 – 11 November 1998) was a twentieth-century French composer of contemporary classical music. His work is often associated with the Spectralist Movement in music, of which he was a major pioneer. Biograp ...
: ''Taléa'' (1986) *
Zhou Long Zhou Long (; born July 8, 1953) is a Chinese American composer. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Biography Zhou Long was born in Beijing, China. Born into an artistic family, he began studying piano from an early age. Due to the artist ...
: ''Dhyana'' (1989) *
Steven Mackey Steven ("Steve") Mackey (born February 14, 1956) is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator. Life As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are i ...
: ''Indigenous Instruments'' (1989) *
Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City, ...
: ''Paradigm Exchanges'' (1991) *
Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann (1973) is a Peruvian composer, naturalized Brazilian, who currently resides in the United States. Biography Born in Lima, he began musical studies at the age of six, continuing to study the violin with Luis Fiestas ...
: ** ''Siray I'' (1995) ** ''Siray III'' (2018) *
Michael Torke Michael Torke (; born September 22, 1961) is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Torke was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended Wilson Elementary School, graduated from Wauwatosa East High School, an ...
: ''Telephone Book'' (1995) * Dorothy Hindman: ''Setting Century'' (1999) * David Lang: ''Sweet Air'' (1999) * Carolyn Yarnell: ''Lapis Lazuli'' (2007) *
Jean-Louis Agobet Jean-Louis Agobet (born 21 April 1968) is a French composer. Agobet was born in Blois Loir-et-Cher. He studied with Philippe Manoury at the Conservatoire de Lyon. Following a residence at the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg conductor Fran ...
: ''Eclisses'' (2008) *
Fabien Levy Fabien is both a French given masculine name and a French surname. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Fabien: * Fabien Audard (born 1978), French professional football (soccer) player * Fabien Barthez (born 1971), ...
: ''A propos'' (2008) * Greg Caffrey: ''These are the Clouds about the fallen sun'' (2013) *
Caio Facó Caio Facó (born May 16, 1992) is a Brazilian composer. Biography Facó worked as a composer in residence for Ensemble MPMP (Portugal, 2017) and Orquestra de Câmara de Valdivia (Chile, 2017–19). He also worked with the International Contemp ...
: ''Sopros do Estuário'' (2017)


Works with alternative/additional instruments

*
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
: 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913) + 2nd flute, 2nd clarinet, and voice *
Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
: 3 Japanese Lyrics (1913) + 2nd flute doubling piccolo, 2nd clarinet, and voice *
Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...
: **''Palmström'' (1926) +
soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261  Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
(without piano) **''14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben'' (1941) + viola *
Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...
: ''
Quatuor pour la fin du temps ''Quatuor pour la fin du temps'' (), originally ''Quatuor de la fin du temps'' ("''Quartet of the End of Time''"), also known by its English title ''Quartet for the End of Time'', is an eight-movement piece of chamber music by the French composer ...
'' (1941) (without flute) *
Juan Carlos Paz Juan Carlos Paz (5 August 1897 – 26 August 1972) was an Argentine composer and music theorist. Paz was born in Buenos Aires, either in 1897 or in 1901, where he studied piano with Roberto Nery and composition with Constantino Gaito and Eduar ...
: ''Dedalus'' (1950) *
Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music ...
: ''
Eight Songs for a Mad King ''Eight Songs for a Mad King'' is a monodrama by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a libretto by Randolph Stow, based on words of George III. The work was written for the South-African actor Roy Hart and the composer's ensemble, the Pierrot Player ...
'' (1969) +
baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
and percussion *
Donald Martino Donald James Martino (May 16, 1931 – December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer. Biography Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino attended Plainfield High School. He began as a clarinetist, playing jazz for fun and p ...
: ''Notturno'' (1973) + percussion; winner of the 1974
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
*
Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...
: ''For Frank O'Hara'' (1976) + percussion *
Ralph Shapey Ralph Shapey (12 March 1921 – 13 June 2002) was an American composer and conductor. Biography Shapey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is known for his work as a composition professor at the University of Chicago, where he taught ...
: ''Three for Six'' (1979) + percussion *
Joan Tower Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New York ...
: ''Noon Dance'' (1982) + percussion *
Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He performed his works and other 20th-century music as pianist and conductor. He composed more than ...
: ''New York Notes'' (1982) + 1 or 2 percussionists and electronic sounds *
Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...
: ''Triple Duo'' (1983) + percussion *
Salvatore Sciarrino Salvatore Sciarrino (born 4 April 1947) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. Described as "the best-known and most performed Italian composer" of the present day, his works include ''Quaderno di strada'' (2003) and ''La porta d ...
: ''Lo Spazio inverso'' (1985) + celesta *
John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harb ...
: ''The Natural World'' (1987) + soprano *
William Susman William Joseph Susman (born August 29, 1960) is an American composer of concert and film music and a pianist. He has written orchestral and chamber music as well as documentary film scores. Music Susman's music is inspired by Afro-Cuban montuñ ...
: ** ''Twisted Figures'' (1987) +
mallet percussion A keyboard percussion instrument, also known as a bar or mallet percussion instrument, is a pitched percussion instrument arranged in a similar pattern to a piano keyboard and played with hands or percussion mallets. While most keyboard percussion ...
** ''Camille'' (2010) with
piano four-hands Piano four hands (french: À quatre mains, german: Zu vier Händen, Vierhändig, it, a quattro mani) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is ...
*
John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
: ''Seven'' (1988) + viola *
Kamran Ince Kamran N. Ince (spelled İnce in Turkish, born May 6, 1960) is a Turkish-American composer. He is the winner of many prestigious awards, including a Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize, and various others. His ...
: ''Waves of Talya'' (1989) + percussion *
Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since ...
: ''Tracking Pierrot'' (1992) + percussion *
Jacob Druckman Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. Life A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1 ...
: ''Come Round'' (1992) + percussion *
Laura Schwendinger Laura Elise Schwendinger (born January 26, 1962) was the first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin's Berlin Prize. Biography Schwendinger was the first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin Prize, and her opera Artemisia, is t ...
: ** ''Fable'' (1992) + percussion ** ''Songs of Heaven and Earth'' (1997) + percussion, harp and voice ** ''Mise-en-scene'' (2011) + percussion ** ''Artist's Muse'' (2017) + percussion *
Chen Yi Chen Yi may refer to: * Xuanzang (602–664), born as Chen Yi, Chinese Buddhist monk in Tang Dynasty * Chen Yi (Kuomintang) Chen Yi (; courtesy names Gongxia (公俠) and later Gongqia (公洽), sobriquet Tuisu (退素); May 3, 1883 – June ...
: ''Sparkle'' (1992) + 2 percussionists,
double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
*
Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...
: ''Plektó'' (1993) + percussion *
Mario Davidovsky Mario Davidovsky (March 4, 1934 – August 23, 2019) was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions ca ...
: ''Flashbacks'' (1995) + percussion *
Gérard Grisey Gérard Henri Grisey (; ; 17 June 1946 – 11 November 1998) was a twentieth-century French composer of contemporary classical music. His work is often associated with the Spectralist Movement in music, of which he was a major pioneer. Biograp ...
: ''Vortex Temporum'' (1996) + viola * Robert Paterson: ** ''Quintus'' (1996) + percussion (without flute) ** ''Sextet'' (1999) + percussion ** ''The Thin Ice of Your Fragile Mind'' (2004) + percussion ** ''Eating Variations'' (2006) +
baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
and percussion (without piano) ** ''Winter Songs'' (2008) +
bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...
and percussion ** ''Hell's Kitchen'' (2014) + percussion ** ''Summer Songs'' (2016) +
soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261  Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
and percussion ** ''Spring Songs'' (2018) +
tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
and percussion ** ''Autumn Songs'' (2019) +
mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...
and percussion ** ''Listen'' (2022) +
choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
and percussion *
Mel Powell Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein) (February 12, 1923 – April 24, 1998) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the founding dean of the music department at the California Institute of the Arts. He served as a music educator for over ...
: ''Sextet'' (1996) + percussion *
Lior Navok Lior Navok (born September 6, 1971) (Hebrew: ליאור נבוק) is an Israeli classical composer, conductor and pianist. He was born in Tel Aviv. His music has been performed internationally by orchestras and ensembles including the Oper Frankf ...
** ''Sextet'' (1998) + percussion ** ''Elegy to the Future'' (2001) + percussion *
Steven Stucky Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Life and career Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he ...
: ''Ad Parnassum'' (1998) + percussion *
Steven Mackey Steven ("Steve") Mackey (born February 14, 1956) is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator. Life As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are i ...
: ''Micro-Concerto'' (1999) + percussion *
Fred Lerdahl Alfred Whitford (Fred) Lerdahl (born March 10, 1943, in Madison, Wisconsin) is the Fritz Reiner Professor Emeritus of Musical Composition at Columbia University, and a composer and music theorist best known for his work on musical grammar and cogn ...
: ''Time After Time'' (2000) + percussion * Rytis Mazulis: ''Canon mensurabilis'' (2000) + viola *
Tristan Murail Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work ''Gondwana''. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His fa ...
: Winter Fragments (2000) + electronic sounds *
Frederic Rzewski Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. His major compositions, which often incorporate social an ...
: ** ''Pocket Symphony'' (2000) + percussion ** ''Brussels Diary'' (2010) *
George Perle George Perle (6 May 1915 – 23 January 2009) was an American composer and music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. This serialist style, an ...
: ''Critical Moments 2'' (2001) + percussion *
Martin Bresnick Martin Bresnick (born 1946) is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music. Education and early career Bresnick grew up in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and A ...
: ''My Twentieth Century'' (2002) +
viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
*
Zhou Long Zhou Long (; born July 8, 1953) is a Chinese American composer. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Biography Zhou Long was born in Beijing, China. Born into an artistic family, he began studying piano from an early age. Due to the artist ...
:''Five Elements'' (2002) + percussion; also exists in a version with Chinese instruments *
Sebastian Currier Sebastian Currier (born March 16, 1959) is an American composer of music for chamber groups and orchestras. He was also a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007. Life Currier was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and was ra ...
: ''Static'' (2003); winner of the 2007
Grawemeyer Award The Grawemeyer Awards () are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology. The religion awa ...
* Jennifer Higdon: ''Zaka'' (2003) + percussion *
Theo Verbey Theo Verbey (5 July 1959 – 13 October 2019) was a Dutch composer. Biography Theo Verbey was a Dutch contemporary classical composer whose music is performed by orchestras and ensembles throughout the world. His style could be considered to ...
: ''Perplex'' (2004) +
vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
*
Rolf Wallin Rolf Wallin (born 7 September 1957) is a Norwegian composer, trumpeter and avant-garde performance artist. Biography Wallin was born in Oslo, where he studied with Finn Mortensen and Olav Anton Thommessen. He later studied at the University of ...
: ''The Age of Wire and String'' (2005) *
Stuart Greenbaum Stuart Greenbaum (born 1966) is an Australian composer and professor of music composition at the University of Melbourne. He is currently the Head of Composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Greenbaum has had his work performed by b ...
: ''Book of Departures'' (2007) + percussion * Stephen Hartke: ''Meanwhile: Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays'' (2007) + viola (rather than violin) and percussion *
Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...
: '' Double Sextet'' (2007) for Pierrot ensemble with tape or 12 players; winner of the 2009
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
*
John Woolrich John Woolrich ( ; born 1954 in Cirencester) is an English composer. Biography Woolrich has founded a group (the Composers Ensemble), a festival (Hoxton New Music Days), and has been composer in association with the Orchestra of St John's and th ...
''In the Mirrors of Asleep'' (2007) *
Mohammed Fairouz Mohammed Fairouz (born November 1, 1985) is an American composer. He is one of the most frequently performed composers of his generation and has been described by Daniel J. Wakin of ''The New York Times'' as an "important new artistic voice". Fa ...
: ''Unwritten'' (2010) + soprano *
Michael Seltenreich Michael Seltenreich (born 1988 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli composer of contemporary classical music who resides in New York City. He is the sole Israeli composer to win the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award and a recipient of the Israel Prime Minis ...
: ''Sparks & Flares'' (2010) + percussion * Greg Caffrey: ** ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' (2016) + percussion ** ''Three movements on the work of William Scott'' (2017) + percussion ** ''Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold'' (2018) + percussion *
Graham Waterhouse Graham Waterhouse (born 2 November 1962) is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, ''Three Pieces for Solo Cello'' and ''Variations for Cello Solo'' for his own instrument, and string ...
: '' Irish Phoenix'' (2017) + soprano


Notes


References

Christopher Dromey, ''The Pierrot Ensembles: Chronicle and Catalogue, 1912-2012'' (London: Plumbago, 2013).


External links

*From the Arnold Schoenberg Center
Pierrot Lunaire: autograph manuscript

Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble WienArt of the States: Pierrot ensemble
American works for Pierrot ensemble
Barbara White
Blog post by American composer Kyle Gann on the Pierrot Ensemble {{Authority control Chamber music groups Types of musical groups