Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 01/31/2006, uploaded on 01/11/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The character of Pierrot, a shortened form of the name Pierre (Peter), originated during the 17^th century as one of the stock characters of Commedia dell’Arte. He was originally portrayed as a buffoon, and a trademark characteristic of Pierrot is his naiveté. In many representations, he is seen longing for the love of Columbine, usually unsuccessfully as she typically breaks his heart by leaving him for Harlequin. During the first half of the 1800s, the character of Pierrot was forever solidified by the famed pantomime Jean-Gaspard Deburau, whose performances served as the archetype for all future reincarnations of the character. Many artists began to turn sympathy towards Pierrot and the plight of the sad clown. By the close of the century, he had further become a representation of the artist himself and the proponents of the various schools of thought—the Decadents, the Symbolists, the Modernists—used him to their own explicit purposes.

Prior to Claude Debussy, few of the major composers had depicted Pierrot in their works. Telemann included a section inspired by him in his Burlesque Overture; Mozart, in his 1783 “Masquerade;” and, Robert Schumann, in Carnaval. Between 1881 and early 1883, Claude Debussy produced two settings of poems based on Pierrot, after which followed many more musical portraits by other composers including Arnold Schoenberg’s famous Pierrot lunaire. The second of Debussy’s two settings, that of Paul Verlaine’s Pantomime, was composed in 1882 or early 1883. Like the composer’s earlier Banville setting, there is a humorous quality to music in its angular rhythms and melodic lines. Yet, here the humor is darker to match Verlaine’s depiction of Pierrot as a gluttonous drunkard. Debussy’s focus, however, is not upon Pierrot’s plight, neither Cassandre’s concern for his disinherited nephew or Harlequin’s machinations to kidnap Columbine of the second and third stanzas, but instead on Columbine herself. She alone appears noble compared to the other three and Debussy’s treats her so in the dramatically different music accompanying the fourth stanza. Yet, the darkly comical music of the opening, embellished with the wordless melismas of the voice, concludes the song.    Joseph DuBose

Pantomime, from Quatre chansons de jeunesse       Claude Debussy

Pantomime (Paul Verlaine)

Pierrot, who is nothing like Clitandre,

Empties a flask without further ado,

And, practical fellow, cuts into a paté.

Pierrot, who is nothing like Clitandre,

Empties a flask without further ado.

Cassandre, at the end of the path,

Sheds a concealed tear

Over her disinherited nephew.

That rascal Harlequin schemes

The kidnap of Columbine

And whirls about four times,

And whirls about four times.

Columbine is dreaming, surprised

At sensing a heart caught on the breeze

And at hearing voices in her heart,

And at hearing voices in her heart.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.