Inside Pierrot lunaire

by Phyllis Bryn-Julson

*Inside Pierrot lunaire: Performing the Sprechstimme in Schoenberg's Masterpiece* is a handbook on the performance and interpretation of the recitation in Arnold Schoenberg's *Pierrot lunaire*, op. 21. Presenting a guide for the listener and an aid to the interpreter of the 21 melodramas, the book provides an original English translation of each poem, annotated with references to other poems in the cycle, including some of the texts Schoenberg omitted. The volume also offers an analysis of the Sprechstimme in each melodrama in the context of the surrounding texture and directed by the principles of analysis Schoenberg established in his essays and lectures. *Inside Pierrot lunaire* makes a case for the importance of the notated pitches in a correct performance of the Sprechstimme. Acclaimed singer Phyllis Bryn-Julson and music theorist Paul Mathews provide a method for performing the Sprechstimme that considers Schoenberg's performing directions, his sometimes-contradictory statements,