Albert Giraud (; 23 June 1860 – 26 December 1929) was a Belgian poet who wrote in French.

Biography

Giraud was born Emile Albert Kayenbergh in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic c ...

, Belgium. He studied law at the University of Leuven. He left university without a degree and took up journalism and poetry. In 1885, Giraud became a member of

La Jeune Belgique ''La Jeune Belgique'' (meaning ''The Young Belgium'' in English) was a Belgian literary society and movement that published a French-language literary review ''La Jeune Belgique'' between 1880 and 1897. Both the society and magazine were founded b ...

, a Belgian nationalist literary movement that met at the Café Sésino in Brussels.''Albert Giraud's Pierrot Lunaire'', translated and with an introduction by Gregory C. Richter. Giraud became chief librarian at the Belgian Ministry of the Interior. He was a

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

poet. His published works include '' Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques'' (1884), a poem cycle based on the

commedia dell'arte (; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...

figure of Pierrot, and ''La Guirlande des Dieux'' (1910). The composer

Arnold Schönberg 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 ...

set a German-language version (translated by

Otto Erich Hartleben Otto Erich Hartleben (3 June 1864 – in Clausthal; 11 February 1905 in Salò) was a German poet and dramatist from Clausthal, known for his translation of ''Pierrot Lunaire''. Childhood, Education and Marriage Orphaned as a child, Hartlebe ...

) of selections from his ''

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 m ...

'' to innovative atonal music. In a different, late romantic style, some of Hartleben's translations found their way into the vocal works of

Joseph Marx Joseph Rupert Rudolf Marx (11 May 1882 – 3 September 1964) was an Austrian composer, teacher and critic. Life and career Marx was born in Graz and pursued studies in philosophy, art history, German studies, and music at Graz University, earnin ...

Works

*'' Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques'' (1884) *''Hors du Siècle'' (poems written between 1885 and 1897) *''Le concert dans la musée'' (1921) *''Le Miroir caché'' (

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

s) (1921)

Notes

References

*''Albert Giraud's Pierrot Lunaire'', translated and with an introduction by Gregory C. Richter, Truman State University Press, 2001. *Albert Giraud, "Pierrot Lunaire," Schoenberg's selection, translated by Cecil Gray http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/music/pierrot/pierrot.pdf. *Albert Giraud, ''Le Miroir caché'', Éditions de la Vie Intellectuelle, Bruxelles, 1921. *Arnold Schoenberg, "Complete performance: Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire," Ricardo Muti & Chicago SO, recorded February, 2012, with English subtitles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2cBUJmDr8. {{DEFAULTSORT:Giraud, Albert 1860 births 1929 deaths Belgian poets in French Symbolist poets