[NewMusic] Partched

[Matthew Goodheart]

I  agreeing that "Sprechstimme" did not emerge full formed out 
Shoenberg's head as a some grand new vocal style.  Here's way I 
understand it, there was a loose popular practice going on, probably 
with roots in recitative, and in popular music probably with a wide 
variation of expressions- a sort of Sprechgesang with it's roots 
ultimately in recitative and popular music.  What it seems to me 
happened was that he borrowed elements of the style, gave it his own 
twist and attempted to codify it; there's no doubt a deliberate 
reference to the popular style, but it's "elevated" to a "high art 
style," at least I would guess in Schoenberg's mind. So it's related, 
an imitation, but also a new thing. And it became codified.

There's disagreement about Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Königskinder 
(1897), which may have used either a form of Sprechstimme or 
Sprechgesang. Shoenberg may have meant something similar in 
Gurre-Lieder, written the year before Pierrot.

Just splittin' some hairs. . . and I'm definitely not an expert in 
this. . .

mg

On Apr 24, 2007, at 8:26 PM, Phillip Greenlief wrote:

> Also, Shoenberg is credited with inventing "Sprechstimme" style for
> Pierrot lunaire, though the related "Sprechgesang" was earlier and
> probably an attempt to emulate a popular style in the late 19th cent.
> (Or so says the Grove. . . )
>
>
> PG:
> That was the doctrine we were led to believe at my particular school. 
> It
> was a popular style in the pre-turn of the century period; it could
> therefore be easily associated with a character like Pierrot. There 
> were
> numerous performance posters from that era in the Schoenberg Institute
> among his papers/collection.