The Music of The Music of Igor StravinskyIgor Stravinsky

Paris, May 1913

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Rite

NOT!

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Igor Stravinsky

I. Stravinsky’s Sound Worlds & Influences

A. Ballet Music (Petrushka)

B. Music of Classical Pd. (Symphony in C)

C. Russian Folk Music (The Wedding)

D. Russian Orthodox Music (Credo, 1932)

E. Schoenberg’s Serialism (Elegy for J. F. K.)

F. Jazz/Popular Music (Russian Scherzo)

II. Stravinsky I: Russian Period (1910-20)

B. Musical Education w. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

•Russian Folk Elements (Nationalism)

•Late Romantic Orchestration

C. Serge Diaghilev and the Ballet Russé (1910-13)The Firebird/

•All 3 based on Russian Folk Tales•All 3 incorporate Russian Folk Melodies•All 3 use large Romantic-Style Orchestra

D. The Firebird 1910

•Late Romanticism/Tonal Harmony•Innovation: Passages use Octatonic Scale

A. Stravinsky’s Dates 1882-1971

Petrushka/The Rite of Spring

c dc e f g a b cc# d# f# g# a#

Octatonic Scale: Alternates Whole Steps & ½ Steps

II. Russian Period (1910-20), cont.E. Petrushka (1911)

•Began as Piano Concerto, but piano used percussively

•Innovation: Frequent use of Polychords (Petrushka chord)

F. The Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps, 1913)

•Exploration of New Rhythmic Possibilities

III. Stravinsky II: Neo-Classical Period (1920-1951)

A. Social & Political Context

B. Pulcinella = Reworking of music by G. B. Pergolesi (early classical)

C. Musical Characteristics of Neo-Classicism

•Traditional Forms•Steady Pulse (often with repetitive rhythmic cells)

•Smaller performing forces•Clear textures w. little doubling

•Revived interest in imitation & counterpoint

•Dissonance

•Wind instruments favored over strings

•Strident or percussive sonoritiesMod

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•Russian elements recede/Smaller Performing Forces

D. Important Neo-Classical Compositions

•Symphonies of Wind Instruments

•L’historie du soldat (A Soldier’s Tale)

•Symphony of Psalms

A. W.W. II = immigration to U. S.

B. Robert Craft & Influence of Schoenberg’s Serialism.

IV. Stravinsky (III): Serial Period (1951-

1971)

IV. The Rite of Spring

A. Wright’s Rite

•percussive orchestra•irregular accents•osinato figures•polymeters, polychords, polyrhythms

B. The Critic’s Rite•rhythmically complex: either incomprehensible; or complex for the sake of complexity

4. Regular beats, but irregular (or mixed) meter

6. Rhythmic cells in irregular/asymmetrical patterns

C. Stravinsky’s Rite1. Beats divided irregularly

3. Patterns presented both “horizontally” and “vertically”

2. Many rhythmically complex layers

5. Polychords (two different “normal” chords sound together)

q q ee q