This chapter discusses English composer Tim Ewers’s Moondrunk (2000). This short piece is a confident and clearly imagined setting of an English translation of the first poem of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 masterpiece for voice and ensemble, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21. Though brief, it should prove a useful and characterful item for a recital programme, especially one containing lengthier pieces, perhaps based around other works from the Second Viennese School or, alternatively, a collection of songs about the moon. The tessitura is wide-ranging, but within the reach of most voices, although a female voice was originally envisaged, in direct reference to Schoenberg’s seminal work. The musical idiom is pleasingly logical in its chromaticism, with frequent use of tritones. As always, when singing unaccompanied, the vocalist will need to be scrupulous about tuning intervals, avoiding microtonal slippage. Despite moments of freedom and rubato, rhythmic discipline is an important factor, and a sense of pulse needs to be preserved. Within this modest time span, the singer has to create and sustain a welter of shifting nocturnal moods, both threatening and intoxicating.
Symbolism and theatre of masques: The deathly carnival of la belle époque
