Pierrot ensemble
A Pierrot ensemble is a musical ensemble comprising flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. This ensemble is named after 20th-century composer Arnold Schoenberg’s seminal work Pierrot Lunaire, which includes the quintet of instruments above with a narrator (usually performed by a soprano).

History
The quintet of instruments used in Pierrot Lunaire has been used in the twentieth century by different groups, such as The Fires of London, who formed in 1965 as "The Pierrot Players" to perform Pierrot Lunaire, and continued to concertize with a varied classical and contemporary repertory.  This group began to perform works arranged for these instruments and commission new works.While standard chamber ensembles (such as string quartets or piano trios) continued to be extremely popular among 20th-century composers, the Pierrot ensemble represents an example of the many kinds of non-standard chamber ensembles that have been used in classical music since the beginning of the 20th century.
The number of compositions written for Pierrot Ensemble is limited by the inherent unbalance of the ensemble (two strings, plus two winds, plus piano). More frequent are works that introduce additional instruments, typically more strings, and especially percussion which obtains a small, and inexpensive, chamber ensemble with three families of instruments represented.

Doublings
Doublings are a standard compositional device used to extend an ensemble instrumental color.  In Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, the flutist is asked to play piccolo, the clarinetist is asked to play bass clarinet.  Other common doublings might include E♭ clarinet (as in Carter's Triple Duo), alto flute.

Notable Pierrot ensembles
Fires of London (Founded as the Pierrot Players) (1965-1987, UK)
Da Capo Chamber Players (1970, USA)
The New Music Players (1990, UK)
Standing Wave (1991, Canada)
Brightwork New Music (2013, USA)
What Is Noise (2014, USA)
Ensemble Namu 나무앙상블 (2017, South Korea)

Works for Pierrot ensemble
Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire (1912) + voice (usually soprano)
The originary work after which the ensemble is named.Amaury du Closel: Stolpersteine (2021)
John Harbison:
Die Kürze (1970)
Chaconne (2001)
Milton Babbitt: Arie da Capo (1979)
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Intrada (1983)
Gérard Grisey: Taléa (1986)
Zhou Long: Dhyana (1989)
Steven Mackey: Indigenous Instruments (1989)
Gunther Schuller: Paradigm Exchanges (1991)
Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann:
Siray I (1995)
Siray III (2018)
Michael Torke: Telephone Book (1995) {comprising Yellow Pages (1985), Blue Pages (1995), and White Pages (1995)}
Dorothy Hindman: Setting Century (1999)
David Lang: Sweet Air (1999)
Carolyn Yarnell: Lapis Lazuli (2007)
Jean-Louis Agobet: Eclisses (2008)
Fabien Levy: A propos (2008)
Greg Caffrey: These are the Clouds about the fallen sun (2013)
Caio Facó: Sopros do Estuário (2017)
Christopher Healey: Gardens of my Heart (2018)

Works with alternative/additional instruments
Maurice Ravel: 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913) + 2nd flute, 2nd clarinet, and voice
Igor Stravinsky: 3 Japanese Lyrics (1913) + 2nd flute doubling piccolo, 2nd clarinet, and voice
Hanns Eisler:
Palmström (1926) + soprano (without piano)
14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben (1941) + viola
Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941) (without flute)
Juan Carlos Paz: Dedalus (1950)
Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) + baritone and percussion
Sean Friar: Scale 9 (2009) + percussion - flute (quintet), + percussion (sextet), + viola, and percussion (septet)
Donald Martino: Notturno (1973) + percussion; winner of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize
Morton Feldman: For Frank O'Hara (1976) + percussion
Ralph Shapey: Three for Six (1979) + percussion
Joan Tower: Noon Dance (1982) + percussion
Charles Wuorinen: New York Notes (1982) + 1 or 2 percussionists and electronic sounds
Elliott Carter: Triple Duo (1983) + percussion
Salvatore Sciarrino: Lo Spazio inverso (1985) + celesta
John Harbison: The Natural World (1987) + soprano
William Susman:
Twisted Figures (1987) + mallet percussion
Camille (2010) with piano four-hands
John Cage: Seven (1988) + viola
Kamran Ince: Waves of Talya (1989) + percussion
Earle Brown: Tracking Pierrot (1992) + percussion
Jacob Druckman: Come Round (1992) + percussion
Laura Schwendinger:
Fable (1992) + percussion
Songs of Heaven and Earth (1997)  + percussion, harp and voice
Mise-en-scene (2011)  + percussion
Artist's Muse (2017)  + percussion
Chen Yi: Sparkle (1992) + 2 percussionists, double bass
Iannis Xenakis: Plektó (1993) + percussion
Mario Davidovsky: Flashbacks (1995) + percussion
Gérard Grisey: Vortex Temporum (1996) + viola
Robert Paterson:
Quintus (1996) + percussion (without flute)
Sextet (1999) + percussion
The Thin Ice of Your Fragile Mind (2004) + percussion
Eating Variations (2006) + baritone and percussion (without piano)
Winter Songs (2008) + bass-baritone and percussion
Hell's Kitchen (2014) + percussion
Summer Songs (2016) + soprano and percussion
Spring Songs (2018) + tenor and percussion
Autumn Songs (2019) + mezzo-soprano and percussion
Listen (2022) + choir and percussion
Mel Powell: Sextet (1996) + percussion
Lior Navok
Sextet (1998) + percussion
Elegy to the Future (2001) + percussion
Steven Stucky: Ad Parnassum (1998) + percussion
Steven Mackey: Micro-Concerto (1999) + percussion
Fred Lerdahl: Time After Time (2000) + percussion
Rytis Mazulis: Canon mensurabilis (2000) + viola
Tristan Murail: Winter Fragments (2000) + electronic sounds
Frederic Rzewski:
Pocket Symphony (2000) + percussion
Brussels Diary (2010)
George Perle: Critical Moments 2 (2001) + percussion
Martin Bresnick: My Twentieth Century (2002) + viola
Zhou Long:Five Elements (2002) + percussion; also exists in a version with Chinese instruments
Sebastian Currier: Static (2003); winner of the 2007 Grawemeyer Award
Jennifer Higdon: Zaka (2003) + percussion
Theo Verbey: Perplex (2004) + vibraphone
Rolf Wallin: The Age of Wire and String (2005)
Stuart Greenbaum: Book of Departures (2007) + percussion
Stephen Hartke: Meanwhile: Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays (2007) + viola (rather than violin) and percussion
Steve Reich: Double Sextet (2007) for Pierrot ensemble with tape or 12 players; winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize
John Woolrich In the Mirrors of Asleep (2007)
Mohammed Fairouz: Unwritten (2010) + soprano
Michael Seltenreich: Sparks & Flares (2010) + percussion
Greg Caffrey:
The Garden of Earthly Delights (2016) + percussion
Three movements on the work of William Scott (2017) + percussion
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold (2018) + percussion
Graham Waterhouse: Irish Phoenix (2017) + soprano

Notes
References
Christopher Dromey, The Pierrot Ensembles: Chronicle and Catalogue, 1912-2012 (London: Plumbago, 2013).

External links
From the Arnold Schoenberg Center
Pierrot Lunaire: autograph manuscript
Pierrot Lunaire: complete recording
Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien
Art of the States: Pierrot ensemble American works for Pierrot ensemble
Barbara White
Pas mon ami Pierrot Blog post by American composer Kyle Gann on the Pierrot Ensemble