In view of the quantity and quality of holdings of music materials of all epochs, up to the latest international productions of sheet music, the music collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek forms part of the world’s leading music libraries. One important institutional collection mandate is directed to artistic and biographic sources on composers and musicians from Bavaria.

On the series d#sonances

The concert series "d#sonances. Modern musical art in Bavaria" is a cooperation of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek with the associations of musical artists Tonkünstlerverband Bayern e. V. and Tonkünstler München e. V.

On the concert

The fourth concert of the series is titled "The Bavarian Pierrot – melodramas and harlequinades".

The world of music commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Viennese Arnold Schoenberg this year, whose musical setting of the poems from Albert Giraud’s cycle of poems "Pierrot lunaire" has added an important further chapter to the history of music in many aspects: He further developed the singing voice in the melodrama to a new, expressive vocal performing style. The ensemble line-up used by Schoenberg (two wind instruments, two string instruments, piano) also developed into a standard of many ensemble instrumentations of new music in the 20th century. The programme traces this development. The programme ranges from two piano melodramas by the composer Pauline Erdmannsdörfer and the melodramas by Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt, which were arranged for the instrumentation according to Schoenberg only in the 21st century, up to a contemporary work by Johannes Schöllhorn. The composer, who was born in Murnau, also created a lovely ensemble setting of the Pierrot lunaire musical setting by Max Kowalski, who had created his musical setting only one year after Schoenberg. The programme is complemented by short instrumental works, which make reference to "Pierrot" in various settings – also from a Bavarian perspective.

Since 2015, there has taken place an annual work phase of Ju[mb]le, the Youth Ensemble for New Music in Bavaria, where young musicians embark on the adventure of new music.

Under the artistic direction of Johannes X. Schachtner, widely acclaimed guest concerts have taken place, for example at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg. In addition to the working phase in early summer, former members have come together since 2020 under the name Ju[mb]leX to present extraordinary concert programmes as individual projects.

On the programme

With works by:
Claude Debussy
Pauline Erdmannsdörfer
Max Kowalski
Franz Liszt/Bernhard Weidner
Christoph Martin Redel
Johannes X. Schachtner
Johannes Schöllhorn
Richard Wagner/Bernhard Weidner

Information on the event at a glance