Pierrot Lunaire, somehow

At first, when listening to Pierrot Lunaire, Arnold Schoenberg's seminal 21 song-cycle about a drunken clown which marks the pivotal moment in the composer's transition between tonality and complete atonality, one feels the desire to claw one's eyeballs out, or gnaw off one's arm. It is remarkably unlistenable, at first listen. Yet, Schonberg made it possible for John Cage to compose music using an elaborate system of flipping coins and charting their outcomes in the 70's.

Balancing the beauty of Schoenbergs 12-tone technique and Cage's random approach, Sam Renseiw captured a short recital some years ago at a workshop presentation. View the resulting cut-up with sound excerpts from Klovndk by clicking here or mouseplay it by the ear above. (patafilm #228, 02'09'', 9.8 MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version here)