treatment of the piano in the orchestral a …
TRANSCRIPT
TREATMENT OF THE PIANO IN THE ORCHESTRAL
WORKS OF IGOR STRAVINSKY
by
JAMES F. RAUSCHER, B.M.E., M.M.
A DISSERTATION
IN
FINE ARTS
Submitte(d to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved
Accepted
December, 1991
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A project of this scope could not have been completed without the help
of many individuals. I would like to express my appreciation to all who were
involved in this paper from its conception to its completion. A special word of
appreciation is extended to the following.
I would like to thank Dr. William Westney, who, as my main advisor,
applied piano professor, mentor, and friend, has been an inspiration and
guiding force in my musical development for the past six years. Appreciation
is also expressed to the four other members of my committee for their
assistance and constructive criticisms.
Dr. Dale Roller, retired Chairman of the Division of Fine Arts at
Amarillo College, has been a constant source of encouragement and support in
urging me to complete my doctoral studies. Janice Gillham and Nancy
Klingslick of the Lynn Library/Learning Center at Amarillo College were
instrumental in helping to obtain needed database information as well as
musical scores and reference materials.
A special word of appreciation is expressed to Mr. Terry Moore,
Associate Professor of Modern Languages at Amarillo College, for his
painstaking translation into English of the German dissertation by Paul Terse,
Studien zur Verwendung des Konzertflugels im Opernorchester in der Zeit.
Appreciation is expressed to four music publishing companies for
graciously consenting to allow the quoting of musical excerpts from their
cop5n-ighted scores: CPP Belwin, Inc.; Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.; G. Schirmer,
Inc.; and European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and
Canadian agent for Schott of London.
I give praise and thanks to the triime God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
All abilities and talents which I possess come from Him, and this document
was accomplished through the prayers of many people.
u
I express my appreciation and love to my parents, Francis and Shirley
Rauscher, who nurtured my love for music from an early age and encouraged
and supported me in every step of my career. The solid family life which they
provided me along with my sisters, Mary and Terri, was the foundation upon
which I have built my adult life. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Vanessa,
and my two children, John and Ann, whose constant support, faith, and love
during all of the difficulties experienced throughout the degree program have
made it possible for me to complete my studies; they are the three main
reasons for which I finished this project.
n i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT vi
LIST OF TABLES viii
LIST OF FIGURES ix
PREFACE xii
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION 1 ^
Role of the Piano in the Modem Orchestra 2
Piano in the Orchestra Prior to Stravinsky's
Compositions 3 '
Orchestral Works with Piano 4 J
Limits of the Study 7
Methodology of the Study 8
II. THE EARLY WORKS: 1909-1920 11
L'Oiseau de Feu (Original 1910 version) 11
Petrouchka 12
Le Chant du Rossignol 24
Suite L'Oiseau de Feu 29
III. THE MIDDLE PERIOD WORKS: 1920-1955 37
Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra 38
Concerto for Piano and Winds 44
Oedipus Rex 59
Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre 63
Capriccio 67
Symphony of Psalms 70 ^
Persephone 75
Scherzo a la Russe (Symphonic Version) 80
Scenes de Ballet 82
IV
._!
Symphony in Three Movements 82
Greeting Prelude for Orchestra 92
IV. THE LATE WORKS: 1957-1966 94
Agon 95
Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremiz Prophetse 98
Movements for Piano and Orchestra 102
A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer 106
The Flood 107
Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam 108
Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore I l l
Requiem Canticles 114
Stravinsky's Attitudes Regarding Non-traditional
Usage of Piano 116
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 119
Doublings with Other Instruments 119
Octave Usage 121
Pianistic Effects 122
Percussive Effects 123
Pedal Usage 124
Solo Passage-work 124
Conclusion 125
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 126
APPENDIX 130
ABSTRACT
Igor Stravinsky was one of the first composers to use the pianoforte as
an integral member of the symphonic orchestra. The inclusion of piano within
the orchestra spans nearly his entire creative output, from L'Oiseau de Feu of
1909 to Requiem Canticles of 1966, in a total of twenty-two separate works.
The ways in which Stravinsky treated the piano within the orchestra, and the
changes in this treatment which took place during his compositional career,
form the basis of this study.
Scores of each work were analyzed in terms of Stravinsky's treatment
of the piano within the orchestral texture, particularly in regard to the
following: doublings with other instrimients; octave usage; pianistic effects
such as glissandi, trills, arpeggiated figures, alternating hand passages, and
tremolos; percussive effects; use of pedals; solo passage work; proportion of
piano usage to entire work; and treatment of rhythm in piano usage. A table
showing the analysis of each work is given in the Appendix. The discussion
of individual works is divided into three chapters dealing with the early,
middle, and late compositional periods, respectively. Treatment of the piano
in each work is discussed, accompanied by pertinent examples from the score.
The last chapter of text contains a summary of the material presented
and states conclusions which have been drawn: Stravinsky's earliest uses of \^
the piano in the orchestra were primarily as a soloistic instrument or as a
doubling instrimaent within the context of a huge orchestra, in accordance with
his Russian compositional training. As he moved toward a thinner, more
contrapuntal style which relied on concertato principles, the role of the piano
increased in importance because its percussive and pol5rphonic qualities so
closely matched the aesthetic he was working to achieve. Finally, when he
turned to serialism in the 1950s, the piano's tone became primary in impor
tance as a distinct color in his textural and tonal spectrum, and its usage
primarily as a single line instrument reflected the more pointillistic approach
vi
to composition in the final works. Composers, conductors, and pianists in
particular will benefit from studying his unique treatment of the piano within
the orchestra.
Vll
LIST OF TABLES
1. Chronological Listing of the Orchestral Works of Igor Stravinsky Containing Piano 5
2. Chronological Listing of the Orchestral Works of
Igor Stravinsky Not Containing Piano 6
3. L'Oiseau de Feu (Original 1910 version) 133
4. Petrouchka 134
5. Le Chant du Rossignol 137
6. Suite L'Oiseau de Feu 139
7. Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra 141
8. Concerto for Piano and Winds 142
9. Oedipus Rex 145
10. Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre 147
11. Capriccio 149
12. Symphony of Psalms 152
13. Persephone 154
14. Scherzo a la Russe (Symphonic Version) 156
15. Scenes de Ballet 157
16. Symphony in Three Movements 158
17. Greeting Prelude for Orchestra 160
18. Agon 161
19. Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae 162
20. Movements for Piano and Orchestra 163
21. A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer 164
22. The Flood 165
23. Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam 166
24. Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore 167
25. Requiem Canticles 168
V l l l
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Petrouchka^ measures 26-31 14
2. Petrouchka^ measures 226-232 15
3. Petrouchka, measures 305-311 16
4. Petrouchka, measures 466-481 18
5. Petrouchka, measures 737-747 19
6. Petrouchka, measures 972-977 21
7. Petrouchka, measures 1063-1067 22
8. Petrouchka, measures 1188-1202 23
9. Le Chant du Rossignol, measures 21-32 26
10. Le Chant du Rossignol, measures 150-156 27
11. Le Chant du Rossignol, measures 460-465 28
12. Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 21-23 30
13. Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 74-78 31
14. Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 230-233 33
15. Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 270-273 34
16. Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 331-335 35
17. Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 398-404 36
18. "Marche," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 1-4 39
19. "Marche," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 26-29 40
20. "Galop," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 1-5 41
21. "Galop," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 6-12 42
22. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 31-36 47
23. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 50-57 48
IX
24. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 256-276 50
25. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 307-316 51
26. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 328-332 53
27. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. II, measures 408-418 54
28. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. II, measures 419-428 55
29. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. Ill, measures 480-489 57
30. Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. Ill,
measures 600-605 58
31. Oedipus Rex, measures 31-33 60
32. Oedipus Rex, measures 496-501 61
33. Oedipus Rex, Act II, measures 127-137 62
34. "Danse," from Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre, measures 1-6 64
35. "Excentrique," from Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre, measures 37-48 65
36. "Madrid," from Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre, measures 63-65 66
37. Capriccio, measures 79-84 68
38. Capriccio, measures 446-450 69
39. Symphony of Psalms, measures 1-5 71
40. Symphony of Psalms, measures 17-21 72
41. Symphony of Psalms, measures 50-52 73
42. Symphony of Psalms, measures 133-136 74
43. Persephone, measures 1-3 76
44. Persephone, measures 120-123 77
45. Persephone, measures 561-563 78
46. Persephone, measures 743-745 79
47. Scherzo a la Russe, measures 41-49 81
48. Scenes de Ballet, measures 273-274 83
49. Symphony in Three Movements, measures 1-5 85
50. Symphony in Three Movements, measures 34-38 86
51. Symphony in Three Movements, measures 67-72 87
52. Symphony in Three Movements, measures 151-156 88
53. Symphony in Three Movements, measures 543-547 89
54. Symphony in Three Movements, measures 655-668 90
55. Symphony in Three Movements, measures 593-597 91
56. Greeting Prelude for Orchestra, measures 1-5 93
57. Agon, measures 190-203 96
58. Agon, measures 495-501 97
59. Agon, measures 512-519 99
60. Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae, measures 33-36 100
61. Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae,
measures 310-312 101
62. Movements for Piano and Orchestra, measures 1-12 103
63. Movements for Piano and Orchestra, measures 51-61 104
64. Movements for Piano and Orchestra, measures 86-88 105 65. A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer, measures
150-157 106
66. The Flood, measures 180-188 108
67. The Flood, measures 405-408 109
68. Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam, measures 5-10 110
69. Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam, measures 15-17 I l l
70. Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam, measures 130-134 . . . 112
71. Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore, measures 1-8 113
72. Requiem Canticles, measures 85-87 114
73. Requiem Canticles, measures 302-305 115
XI
PREFACE
A voluminous amount of material has been written about the music of
Igor Stravinsky. His works for solo piano and for solo piano with orchestra
have been considerably analyzed, researched, and discussed. Charles M,
Joseph in particular has written extensively about Stravinsky's solo piano
music and the importance of the piano in his compositional technique, in A
Study of Igor Stravinsky's Piano Compositions and Stravinsky and the Piano.
To date, however, little has been written regarding Stravinsky's use of the
piano as an orchestral instrument, which leaves a small gap in the total
understanding of Stravinsky's perceptions of the possibilities for piano usage.
It is hoped that this paper will, in some small way, begin to fill that gap.
Xll
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In considering the possibilities of the pianoforte as a musical instrument in connection of my Concerto, I was confronted with the fact that the treatment of the instrument by the composers of the nineteenth century made no appeal to me whatever in the sense which I desired to employ it. The composer has a definite obligation to his art which is destroyed if he is fettered by conventions. . . . If Schumann had held to the conventions of Scarlatti, there would have been no Schumann as we know him.
It is in orchestral employment that the piano appears to me as a wonderful percussion instrument. The piano has its own individuality and its own significance. Like all art, it is subject to a chronological development. In the past the piano has been treated at times as though it were a vocal instrument-that is it was made to sing, in fact it was cheated out of ever5d:hing but its own very evident and individual character as a percussion instrument.
This concept of the piano seemed to be developed in my mind for a long period of time like a great tree. During the past year, it bore fruit in my Concerto. I have endeavored to restore the piano to its rightful place as a percussion instrument.^
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971) made these comments about
the piano and its possibilities as an orchestral instrument in the mid 1920s.
His position as a composer at the forefront of his generation had already been
established in the previous decade with the scores of L'Oiseau de feu,
Petrouchka, and Le Sacre du Printemps. Though hailed as a visionary, he
seemed to view himself more as a reactionary, pulling away from the excesses
and opulence of nineteenth century romanticism. As can be ascertained from
the above quotation, he admired the piano for its percussiveness and its
mechanical, impersonal quality, and he emphasized these traits in his writing
for the piano. He would continue to compose for the next forty years, and the
^J. F. Cooke, "Chronological Progress in Musical Art," The Etude 44 (August 1926): 559-560, as quoted in Charles M. Joseph, Stravinsky and the Piano (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1983), p. 158.
piano would often be an important component in expressing his most profound
thoughts.
Stravinsky was one of the first composers to use the pianoforte as an
integral member of the symphonic orchestra. The inclusion of piano within the
orchestra spans nearly his entire creative output, from the early L'Oiseau de
Feu of 1909 to Requiem Canticles of 1966, one of his last works. The ways in
which Stravinsky treated the piano within the orchestra and the changes in
this treatment which took place from the beginning to the end of his
compositional career form the basis of the present study.
Role of the Piano in the Modem Orchestra
Although many orchestral works which include piano have been written
in the twentieth century, a study of several standard orchestration books in
print reveals very little written on the role of the piano in the modern
orchestra. Gordon Jacob comments only that the harp, celesta, and piano
cannot be classified within strings, woodwinds, brass or percussion; the harp
is now a regular member of the orchestra, and the others are sometimes used
for special effects.^ H. Owen Reed's book dealing with scoring for percussion
makes no mention of the piano as being a member of the percussion section.^
Walter Piston's definitive book on orchestration does contain a short chapter
dealing with keyboard instruments, in which he mentions that use of the piano
as an orchestral instrument did not come to pass imtil the twentieth century.
He cites the chief use of the piano within the orchestra as that of doubling
other instruments, "by [which] an incisiveness, due to the percussive quality
^Gordon Jacob, Orchestral Technique, A Manual For Students, 3rd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 3.
^H. Owen Reed and Joel T. Leach, Scoring For Percussion, and the Instruments of the Percussion Section (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969).
of the piano, is imparted to any instrimaent or group-strings, woodwind, brass,
or percussion, in all registers."*
Piano in the Orchestra Prior to Stravinskv's Compositions
After the practice of utilizing a keyboard instrument in the role of a
continuo within the orchestra died out in the early nineteenth century, the
piano was not generally considered to be a member of the ensemble; when it
appeared with orchestra, it was as a solo concerto instrument. Hector Berhoz
(1803-1869), one of the greatest orchestra tors of all time, was probably the first
composer to use the piano within the orchestra in a non-concerto work in his
oratorio, Lelio. In his Treatise on Instrumentation, he stated:
Thanks to the high degree of perfection attained by our skilled manufacturers, the pianoforte may now be considered from two viewpoints: either as an orchestral instrument or as a small v orchestra complete in itself. Only once has it been employed in the same fashion as the other instruments, so as to add its peculiar resources to the ensemble of the orchestra and to create effects which could not be attained in any other way [referring to his own work, Lelio].^
Berlioz credited Beethoven for pointing out ways in which the piano could be
used non-soloistically within the orchestra:
Certain passages in Beethoven's concertos ought to have drawn the composers' attention to this point long ago. They have surely admired the wonderfiil effect in Beethoven's Concerto in E flat, produced by the slow chord figurations of both hands in the high region of the piano, while the flute, clarinet, and bassoon play the melody over eighth-notes of the strings in contretemps.^
^Walter Piston, Orchestration (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1955), p. 341.
^Hector Berlioz, Treatise on Instrumentation, enlarged/revised Richard Strauss, trans. Theodore Front (New York: Edwin F. Kalmus Publishing, 1948), p. 153.
^Berlioz, p. 154.
In Russia, where Stravinsky grew up, the piano was infrequently used
within the orchestra. Stravinsky's only composition teacher, Nikolay Rimsky-
Korsakov, who was well-known for his brilliant orchestrations, commented in
his Principles of Orchestration:
The use of a piano in the orchestra (apart from pianoforte concertos) belongs almost entirely to the Russian school [Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko and Moussorgsky's Boris Godounov are ^ particularly interesting in this respect-translator's note]. The object is two-fold: the quality of tone, either alone, or combined with that of the harp, is made to imitate a popular instrument, the guzli (as in Glinka), or a soft peal of bells. When the piano forms part of an orchestra, not as a solo instrument, an upright is preferable to a grand, but today the piano is gradually being superseded by the celesta, first used by Tschaikovsky.^
Stravinsky, then, had as models the music of his teacher and the music of
other prominent Russian composers to help mold his concepts of sound and
orchestration, and the use of piano as an orchestral instrument was a distinct
part of that overall concept.
Orchestral Works with Piano
Approximately one-half of Stravinsky's works for orchestra include piano
in the instrimientation. Some orchestral works also include parts for chorus
and/or soloists. The twenty-two works which will form the basis for this study
are presented in Table 1. This is followed by Table 2, listing the orchestral
works which do not include piano.
^Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Principles of Orchestration, trans. Edward Agate (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1964), pp. 30-31.
Table 1: Chronological Listing of the Orchestral Works of Igor Stravinsky Containing Piano
Work Date
L'Oiseau de Feu
Petrouchka
Le Rossignol /Le Chant du Rossignol
Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Oedipus Rex
Quatre Etudes for Orchestre
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
Symphony of Psalms
Persephone
Scherzo a la Russe
Scenes de Ballet
Symphony in Three Movements
Greeting Prelude for Orchestra
Agon
Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae
Movements For Piano and Orchestra
A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer
The Flood
Variations: Aldous Huxley In Memoriam
Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore
Requiem Canticles
1909-1910 (revised 1919)
1911 (revised 1947)
1914-1917
1921
1924 (revised 1950)
1927
1914-1929 (revised 1952)
1929 (revised 1949)
1930 (revised 1948)
1934 (revised 1949)
1945
1945
1945
1955
1957
1958
1959
1961
1962
1964
1965
1966
Table 2: Chronological Listing of the Orchestral Works of Igor Stravinsky Not Containing Piano
Work
Faun and Shepherdess, Op. 2
Symphony in E Flat, Op. 1
Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 3
Feu D'Artifice, Op. 4
Zvezdoliki (le Roi des Etoiles)
Le Sacre Du Printemps
Bayka (Renard)
Suite No. 1 For Small Orchestra
Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Pulcinella
Mavra
Apollo Musagetes
Le Baiser De La Fee
Concerto in D for Violin
Divertimento (Suite of Baiser)
Jeu de cartes
Concerto in E flat (Dumbarton)
Symphony in C
Danses concertantes
Circus Polka
Four Norwegian Moods
Ode
Babel
Concerto in D
Orpheus
Canticum Sacrum
Abraham and Isaac
Date
1906
1905-1907
1907-1908
1908
1911-1912
1911-1913 (revised 1947)
1915-1916
1917-1925
1920 (revised 1945-1947)
1919-1920
1921-1922
1927-1928 (revised 1947)
1928 (revised 1950)
1931
1934 (revised 1949)
1936
1937-1938
1939-1940
1941-1942
1942
1942
1943
1944
1946
1947
1955
1962-1963
Limits of the Studv
Although Stravinsky's early works were written for a standard sized or
enlarged orchestra of the time, he began in the 1920s to experiment with
different combinations and groups of instruments; this experimentation would
continue throughout the rest of his life. Thus, many of his orchestral works
contain non-standard instrumentation in one form or another. Because of this,
limitations were set to determine which works would be considered for the
purposes of this study. Chamber works, with one player to a part, were
excluded. These included: Three Japanese Lyrics of 1913, written for high
voice and chamber orchestra consisting of two flutes, two clarinets, piano, and
string quartet; Ebony Concerto of 1945, for solo clarinet and jazz ensemble; the
Septet of 1953, for clarinet in A, bassoon, horn, piano, violin, viola, and
violoncello; and Introitus: T. S. Eliot In Memoriam, for male chorus, harp,
piano, two tam-tams, two timpani, solo viola, and solo double bass.
Only original works have been included in the study; orchestrations of
other composers' music, such as Stravinsky's orchestration of Valse Brillante
in E Flat by Frederic Chopin for Diaghilev's ballet Les Sylphides in 1909, were
not considered. Tango, an orchestration of an earlier solo piano piece, is listed
by some sources as having piano in the orchestration, but this refers to a
version scored by Felix Guenther which was approved by Stravinsky;
Stravinsky's own orchestration of the work in 1953 did not include piano. Les
Noces was not included because its instrumentation of chorus, four pianos, and
percussion does not allow for interaction of the piano with any of the standard
sections of an orchestra.
The score for the opera The Rake's Progress lists "pianoforte" in the
instnmientation, but this part only appears as a solo accompaniment in
recitative passages, never in combination with the rest of the orchestra.
Moreover, the part is usually performed on harpsichord, as evidenced by this
reminiscence of Stravinsky's wife. Vera, about a performance of the opera in
Italy:
8
I thought, too, during the wait, about some of the echoes in the opera from Igor's so-called private life; of how the card game stemmed from his own fondness for cards, of how the harpsichord arpeggios imitate Igor's way of shuffling them, and of how the staccato of that instrument recalls his way of snapping them on a table.®
Also, Robert Craft; commented on rehearsing The Rake's Progress in
1968: "The harpsichord is distinguished by a no less painfiil pitch discrepancy
. . . and the instrument is amplified to something near the level of the Mormon
Tabernacle organ at triple /."^ Therefore, it seems clear that Stravinsky had
the harpsichord, and not the piano, in mind for this particular work.
Methodologv of the Studv
Scores of each of the twenty-two works cited in Table 1 have been
analyzed in terms of Stravinsky's treatment of the piano within the orchestral
texture. In particular, the following areas will be discussed.
Doublings with other instruments. Piston specifies doubling as the
foremost reason for using piano in the orchestra, due to its percussive quality,
which can then be imparted to any instrument in all registers. He further
states that the high register of the piano is especially effective in adding
brilliance to the upper woodwind sound. ° Stravinsky had very decided views
on the subject of doubling, which he expressed during his series of lectures at
Harvard in the late 1930s:
In every case the doubling of parts weighs down the music and v constitutes a peril that can be avoided only by proceeding with infinite tact. Such additions call for a subtle and delicate
/ • / V
®Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft;, Themes and Conclusions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), p. 56.
^Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Retrospectives and Conclusions (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), p. 299.
^°Piston, p. 341.
proportioning that itself presupposes the surest of tastes and a discriminating culture.
It is often believed that power can be increased indefinitely by multiplying the doubling of orchestral parts-a belief that is completely false: thickening is not strengthening. In a certain measure and up to a certain point, doubling may give the illusion of strength by effecting a reaction of a psychological order on the listener. The sensation of shock simulates the effect of power and helps to establish an illusion of balance between the sounding tonal masses. A good deal might be said in this connection about the balance of forces in the modem orchestra, a balance which is more easily explained by our aural habits than it is justified by exactness of proportions.^^
Octave usage. The appearance (or lack) of octaves will be discussed in
each of the works imder study. Stravinsky himself said that "octaves are
peculiarly pianistic. No other instrument produces them so well."^^
Pianistic effects. Effects such as glissandi, trills, arpeggiated figures,
alternating hand passages, and tremolo have been identified throughout the
twenty-two works.
Percussive effects. Passages in which the percussive nature of the piano
is exploited are identified and discussed.
Use of pedals. Stravinsky rarely indicated for the performer to use the
damper pedal, in either the solo works or the orchestral works. He once made
the comment that his childhood piano teacher's "only idiosyncrasy as a teacher
was in forbidding me all use of pedals; I had to sustain with my fingers, like
an organist-an omen, perhaps, as I have never been a pedal composer. " ^ He
did, however, reveal a marked preference for the una corda pedal, frequently
indicating that it should be used.
^^Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music, trans. Arthur Knodel and Ingolf Dahl (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947), pp. 130-131.
^^Stravinsky, Themes and Conclusions, p. 99.
^^Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Memories and Commentaries (London: Faber and Faber, 1960), pp. 25-26.
10
Solo passage work. Passages in which the piano is treated as a solo
instrument wiU be discussed.
Proportion of piano usage to entire work. An analysis is given for each
work of the number of measures containing piano versus the number of
measures in the entire work.
Treatment of rhythm in piano usage. In the discussion of each work,
comments are made relative to the importance of the piano part in a rhythmic
context.
A complete and detailed analysis of each work studied is contained in
the appendix. A table has been prepared for each work, showing specific
doublings, octave usage, pianistic effects, percussive effects, pedal usage, and
solo passagework, and the measure number(s) in which they appear. Because
it would be impossible to discuss every instance of piano usage in any of the
works, certain examples will be presented which illustrate specific important
usages; for a complete analysis of piano usage, refer to the appendix. Major
trends within each of these categories will be discussed in Chapter V.
CHAPTER II
THE EARLY WORKS: 1909-1920
L'Oiseau de Feu (Original 1910 version)
Stravinsky's earliest works for orchestra, those written before 1909, did
not include piano in the orchestration, as can be seen in Table 2. His first
orchestral work to include piano was his transcription of Frederic Chopin's
Valse Brillante in E flat Major, Op. 18, for Sergei Diaghilev's ballet Les
Sylphides in 1909. It is impossible to say to what extent the piano was utilized
in this transcription for, according to Dominique-Rene de Lerma's guide to
publications of Stravinsky's music, this arrangement is unpublished and/or
lost. "* The first original orchestral composition to include piano was L'Oiseau
de Feu, written from 1909 to 1910 for Diaghilev and his Ballet Russe. The
score called for an extremely large orchestra of two piccolos, two flutes, two
oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons,
contrabassoon, four horns, three tnmipets, three trombones, tuba, three
onstage trumpets, two onstage tenor tubas, two onstage bass tubas, timpani,
triangle, tambourine, cymbals, bass dnmi, tam-tam, glockenspiel, xylophone,
celesta, three harps, piano, and the usual complement of strings. Stravinsky
once made the comment that "the orchestral body of The Firebird was
wastefiiUy large, but I was more proud of some of the orchestration than of the
music itself."^^
It is highly possible that Stravinsky used the piano in these works for
Diaghilev simply because it was available to him for the first time; another
^*Dominique-Rene de Lerma and Thomas J. Ahrens, Igor Fedorovitch Stravinsky, 1882-1971; A Practical Guide To Publications of His Music (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1974), p. 119.
^^Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Expositions and Developments (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962), p. 131.
11
12
supposition is that he was following the example of his composition teacher,
Rimsky-Korsakov, whose views on the subject have already been mentioned.
Whatever the reason, the piano played a very small and unimportant role in
Stravinsky's first uses of it, at least in the original score of L'Oiseau de Feu.
(This situation would change radically when Stravinsky, who had arranged a
suite for concert performance in 1911, reorchestrated the suite in 1919 for a
greatly reduced orchestra, which will be discussed in depth later in this
chapter.) Out of 1,294 total measures, the piano only appears in twenty-eight,
as can be seen in Table 3 of the Appendix; in general, it doubles the celesta
and/or harps, occasionally doubling the high winds or full orchestra. No solo
passages are given to the piano, and tfie entire part seems superfluous.
Instead, the celesta is given a far more important role, appearing frequently
in solo and accompanimental passages.
Petrouchka
Stravinsky was to give the piano a major role in his next orchestral
work, however. After the success of L'Oiseau de Feu, he had already been
commissioned by Diaghilev to compose the music for Le Sacre du Printemps.
Speaking of that time in his autobiography, he stated:
Before tackling the Sacre du Printemps, which would be a long and difficult task, I wanted to refresh myself by composing an orchestral piece in which the piano would play the most important par t -a sort ofKonzertstUck. In composing the music, I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios. The orchestra in turn retaliates with menacing trimipet blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet. Having finished this bizarre piece, I struggled for hours, while walking beside the Lake of Geneva, to find a title which would express in a word the character of my music and, consequently, the personality of this creature.
One day I leapt for joy. I had indeed found my t i t le-Petroushka, the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries. Soon aft;erwards Diaghileff" came to visit . . . I played
13
him the piece I had just composed and which later became the second scene of Petroushka.^^
Diaghilev was extremely excited about Stravinsky's new piece and
convinced him to write a complete score for a new ballet utilizing its ideas.
The result, of course, was Petrouchka, which premiered in 1911 and was
another resoimding success for Stravinsky and Diaghilev's Ballet Russe.
The work is divided into four parts; each part, except the first, is
preceded by a cadence on the snare drum. The piano appears in 539 of a total
of 1267 measures, or nearly one-half of the score, and is most prominent in the
first part and the second part (which was the music first composed); Table 4
in the Appendix gives a complete listing of usage. In many instances, it
appears as a soloist, representing Petrouchka. At other times, it doubles
various other instnmients to create a sharper, brighter sound. Figure 1
illustrates a t5T)ical doubling with high winds: piccolo, flute, and oboe, from
near the beginning of the work. The piano doubled with these instruments
creates a more percussive attack to each note, defining and enunciating the
sound. The doubling is exact in all respects: pitch, articulation, and dynamics.
The piano spans three octaves; the piccolo and flute double the highest note,
the oboe doubles the middle octave, and no instrument doubles the lowest
octave. The particular timbre of each instrument's tone can be heard in this
type of doubling, yet they all blend together to create a new timbre. This
passage is also noteworthy for its rhythmic complexity of septuplets and
quintuplets in the main melodic line moving over a steady stream of quarter,
eighth, and sixteenth notes.
Figure 2 shows a doubling in the lower register, with bass clarinet,
bassoon, timpani, cello, and double bass (clarinets also double the right hand
notes in the middle register). This is not an exact doubling; note the four
^^Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1936), pp. 31-32.
14
^ • < ; • ^ I 3 1 . J 1
MIT.)
Figure 1: Petrouchka, measures 26-31. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
thirty-second notes which the piano plays in the measure before and the third
measure aft;er square 48 versus the triplet in all other parts-the piano plays
an extra B natural. Also, the left-hand part of the piano sustains while all
other instruments except bassoon I release at square 48. This passage recurs
several times in slightly varied form throughout the work and provides a good
example of Stravinsky's fondness for shifting meters.
15
riM.
•at laf fc^_=:
TVy«>.ULni M * 0
Tr«Mk.l
^^^mm^'^^ Tl«».
•J>.
PIkae
TlaJ
TU.D
Tla.
'OaU*
mifmart.
Figure 2: Petrouchka, measures 226-232. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
16
The beginning of the "Danse Russe" is illustrated in Figure 3. The piano
is doubled by nearly all of the winds, with trombones, harp, and strings
doubling certain beats for emphasis. This passages foreshadows Stravinsky's
growing interest in the wind soimd which would culminate in his Concerto for
Piano and Winds in 1924. The "whiteness" of the music has often been
DANSE RUSSE
CU>.IJI l«BV
Figure 3: Petrouchka, measures 305-311. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
17
commented upon; no doubt the passage was inspired by the white keys on the
piano and the ability of a pianist's hand to move rapidly up and down the keys
in blocked chords. The repeated chords in the left hand are not particularly
pianistic in nature and are quite difficult to execute because of the speed
required in getting the piano action to repeat. This type of writing reflects
Stravinsky's growing perception of the piano as a percussion instrimient. Note
that every note played by the other instruments is doubled by the piano, except
for the bottom note of the harp in the second, fourth, and sixth measures of the
example.
This passage appears again as a solo for piano in slightly altered form,
at rehearsal number 82. An unusual direction is given to the performer at this
point: / subito left ped. The left (una corda) pedal is typically used in very
soft passages where a more muffled sound is desired. Stravinsky, however,
was specific in stating his desire for it to be used in this and other forte
passages. The slight change in tone quality which results was more to his
liking. The fact that this was not a mere misprint is substantiated by a
comment from the diary of Robert Craft, Stravinsky's musical assistant and
protege for the last twenty-five years of his life:
At the rehearsals [in Caracas, from October 28 to November 3, 1962] I. S. tells the Petrushka pianist to open the lid all of the way, to use the left pedal only, to play forte and secco, and as I have heard these directions a hundred times, I should record them as definitive.^^
The second part of the score contains the original music which
Stravinsky first composed and played for Diaghilev, in which the piano is
treated throughout as a solo instrument, representing Petrouchka. The so-
called "Petrouchka chord," the juxtaposition of two major chords a tritone
apart, can be seen in Figure 4, at number 97. This example clearly shows that
^''Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Dialogues and a Diary (London: Faber and Faber, 1968), pp. 310-311.
18
* • "
, J f f . f f i* f 1
;.?r^^r ^ ^ . ' ^
-.. 1 =-£-£ r v—» ( t* c •
I I I i 1 ' '
AAW^T-
PI»o
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t r V ^ _
J = | i «j
- '''^
-
i i >>
^
» ' ^
1* ' ^ =
k ^ « " „ -TT- *•• t * - j g = : ^
[ 1 1 1
^ - ^ ^ - ^ - ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Figure 4: Petrouchka, measures 466-481. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
the sound of this chord was derived by means of the black and white keys of
the piano. Throughout this passage, the left hand remains on the black keys
and the right hand on the white keys. Note that the passage beginning at
number 98 is a single note run, alternating between the hands, and at square
99, becomes a rapid alternation between the hands on every other note.
19
Figure 5, taken from the third part, shows a very interesting type of
doubling with rhythmic variations. At square 150, three solo instruments:
flute, trumpet, and piano, play the same melodic phrase, but in differing time
values; the flute moves in eighth notes, the trumpet in sixteenth notes, and the
piano in sixteenth note triplets. These instruments represent the three main
protagonists of the ballet: the ballerina (flute), the blackamoor (trumpet), and
Laoto eaotabUa(tampo dlVaUe,J:Wi
>iD^ riu.Lii
atampo < > i . J l 1 i'Hi''i' pJ^ls 12 j^^j
Tm
Clt>.LII
n»t.iiial
^ ^ vu.
L.J uJ L^ ^ L, uJ U L^
Figure 5: Petrouchka, measures 737-747. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
20
Petrouchka (piano). In the third measure after square 150, the trumpet joins
the flute in playing the same rh5rthm, but the piano continues to play sixteenth
note triplets repeating at the octave, symbolizing the blackamoor's gaining of
the ballerina's affections and her rejection of Petrouchka.
The fourth and last part of the original 1911 score of Petrouchka
contains very little writing for the piano. Stravinsky corrected this deficiency
when he revised the score in 1947, giving the piano an equally prominent role
to the other three parts. The following examples are taken from the revised
score.
A passage of rapidly repeating fifths alternating between the hands
occurs several times in the fourth part, as shown in Figure 6. This use of
repeated notes, again not particularly pianistic, is another foreshadowing of
Stravinsky's evolving style which would become so prominent in the works of
the 1920s. The harp doubles the notes of the piano in this example, but one
at a time.
Figure 7 illustrates yet another foreshadowing of what would become a
part of the neoclassical style of the 1920s, the use of diatonic scalar passages.
The two hands move in parallel motion at the interval of a fifth. While no
instrument exactly doubles the notes of the piano, all notes played in the
passage are contained in the "white" key of C Major; there are no chromatic
alterations. This is an excellent example of the compositional language which
became known as "pandiatonicism," where the combination of diatonic parts
results in a type of static harmonic activity.
At number 228, Stravinsky gives the piano a measured tremolo of two
full chords alternating between the hands: a four note A major chord in second
inversion for the right hand and a five note G sharp half diminished seventh
chord in third inversion for the left hand. This continues for the next thirty-
seven measures. It is doubled, but never exactly, by horns, trumpet III,
strings, and harp on the second half of each beat, and by winds in measured
tremolo with variations. Short solo lines in many different instruments weave
21
(Siol —
nta.t.njit
Krti
Figure 6: Petrouchka, measures 972-977. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
in and out through the texture. This passage is another example of how
Stravinsky was able to create a feeling of static or unchanging harmony in a
passage of music while sustaining interest.
Stravinsky not only doubled the piano with other instruments to achieve
a particular tone color, he sometimes experimented with differing articulations
22
Tr»ti t t l l l l laBk
• la. I
Tla. It
'Calla
Figure 7: Petrouchka, measures 1063-1067. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
23
between instruments. Figure 8 provides an example: the piano and clarinet
double the same sextuplet run in the same octave, but the clarinet is clearly
instructed by the slur to play legato, whereas the piano's part is marked with
staccato and leggiero. The piano's staccatos enunciate each note of the clarinet,
and the overall effect is a unique one, for this occurs as the scuffle takes place
between the blackamoor and Petrouchka, resulting in the latter puppet's
"death." Petrouchka's flight from his rival is represented in the piano by
THE SCUFFLE Blackamoor and Petrousbka
^ S 2 ] kleoo ooMO J : too
Figure 8: Petrouchka, measures 1188-1202. Copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
24
alternating octave passages of varying length, ending with a glissando doubled
by strings that signifies his falling to the groimd. After his "death," the piano
is not heard again.
Although the work was conceived as a type of piano concerto, and the
piano is treated soloistically in several sections, its contributions to the score
in non-soloistic ways are extremely important. Stravinsky obviously saw great
possibilities in its use as a doubling instnmient and as a means of adding new
color to his orchestration. He would continue to turn to the piano in many of
his new works.
After Petrouchka, Stravinsky poured all of his energy into Le Sacre du
Printemps, whose premiere caused the famous riots in Paris in 1913. The
score does not include piano in the orchestration and, therefore, does not fall
under the scope of this study. It is possible that Stravinsky did not want to
create another Petrouchka, and so may have intentionally omitted the piano.
Perhaps the piano just did not fit into his tonal ideas for Le Sacre.
Le Chant du Rossis noi
In the fall of 1913, after the completion of Le Sacre du Printemps,
Stravinsky returned to a work first begun even before the composition of
L'Oiseau de Feu. He had composed the first act of an opera entitled Le
Rossignol in 1908, and now set about completing the work. His compositional
style had changed dramatically in the previous four years, however, and Acts
2 and 3 ended up being a radical departure from his original music. The
earlier Act 1 did not contain piano in the orchestration, but the new Acts 2 and
3 saw a change in orchestration which included the addition of piano, again
signaling Stravinsky's growing interest in the piano as an orchestral
instrument. Stravinsky was aware of the extreme difference between the old
and new music, and equally aware that he could never again write in the older
style; consequently, he was never really satisfied with the opera. Years later,
he would comment:
25
I can only attribute the musical style of the later acts-the augmented seconds, parallel intervals, pentatonic tunes, orchestral devices (tremolos, muted brass, cadenzas, etc.) to the great difficulty I experienced in returning to the opera at all after five years, and especially after Le Sacre du Printemps.^^
In 1917, he recast the music of Acts 2 and 3 as a symphonic poem and
later a ballet, entitled Le Chant du Rossignol. Always experimenting and
searching, Stravinsky began at this time to decrease the size of his orchestra
and to treat it in fimdamentally new and different ways. As he would later
state in his autobiography:
I ought to mention here a concert which had a certain importance for me in view of my new orchestral experiments. On December 6 a first performance of Le Chant du Rossignol was given at Geneva at one of the subscription concerts of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the direction of Ernest Ansermet. I say new experiment because, in this symphonic poem, written for an orchestra of ordinary size, I treated the latter more as a chamber orchestra, and laid stress on the concertante side, not only of the various solo instruments, but also gave this role to whole groups of instruments. This orchestral treatment was well adapted to music full of cadenzas, vocalises, and melismata of all kinds, and in which tutti were the exception. I enjoyed the performance greatly, for the rendering was careful and highly finished.^^
The piano is quite prominent in Le Chant du Rossignol, appearing in
more than one-third of the work, although it is not used soloistically as often
as in Petrouchka. It is generally doubled by one or more other instruments in
a variety of different combinations, as is shown in Table 6 in the Appendix.
The most common instruments doubled with piano are the harp, the flute and
the piccolo; less frequently, the piano is doubled with brass or string
instruments. Glissandi are frequent, as are tremolos played with alternating
hands, both on single notes and on chords. Although there are some
^^Stravinsky, Memories and Commentaries, p. 131.
^^Stravinsky, An Autobiography, p. 84.
26
indications ofsforzando, the piano is not used very much for percussive effects.
Pedal markings are occasional but rare; several times Stravinsky again calls
for use of the una corda pedal in a forte passage with sforzando, as in Figure
9 below, just as he did in Petrouchka. Use of the damper, or right pedal, is
indicated by the sign for laisser vibrer (let vibrate), which is a slur extending
from a note head, and/or the indication of "Ped." Both of these methods for
using the damper pedal can also be seen in Figure 9.
«r B a H. 16312
Figure 9: Le Chant du Rossignol, measures 21-32. Cop)rright 1921 by Edition Russe de Musique, printed by arrangement, Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
27
Figure 10 gives an example of a soloistic passage for piano, doubled by
first and second violins and viola. The pentatonic passage was again probably
inspired by the black keys of the piano and is very reminiscent of passages
from Petrouchka. A solo trumpet echoes the passage in canon one measure
later. Again the piano is instructed to use the una corda pedal along with e
sempre poco sf (always a little sforzando).
Several times the piano doubles short melismatic rims of the flute,
sjnnbolizing the living nightingale, usually in septuplets. With the appearance
rrkkl
Figure 10: Le Chant du Rossignol, measures 150-156. Copyright 1921 by Edition Russe de Musique, printed by arrangement, Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
28
of the mechanical nightingale of the fairy tale, the piano assumes a more
static, mechanical role, playing a pianissimo tremolo in single notes a tenth
apart with alternating hands for eighteen measures.
The piano represents the retum of the living nightingale with flutters
and runs either in solo or doubling the flute or clarinet. It also has an
important solo of a different type closer to the end of the work, given in Figure
11, where a single c'" is repeated seventeen times while winds tremolo
n,iM.
f i f «
OkOTi
C«K U ( l
cu, UtiV
Bkk*
T - l l l
*-kin
c-a.
^
^
M m to* ^ * » « . «r ^ ' f—r-ir-T'
Figure 11: Le Chant du Rossignol, measures 460-465. Copyright 1921 by Edition Russe de Musique, printed by arrangement, Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
29
underneath, very likely representing the crying out of the bird in finstration
and despair.
Suite L'Oiseau de Feu
Just as the piano became an important component in Stravinsky's
completion of Le Rossignol and Le Chant du Rossignol, so it would become
much more important in his resetting of the music from L'Oiseau de Feu in the
1919 orchestral suite. While the original ballet score utilized the piano in only
twenty-eight measures, the revised suite contained music for piano in 135 of
its 568 total measures. The celesta was much more prominent in the original
score; in the revised 1919 suite it does not even appear. In fact, Le Chant du
Rossignol would prove to be the last score in which Stravinsky used the celesta
until Movements for Piano and Orchestra in 1955. Much of what was
originally written for the celesta was given instead to the piano, indicating
both Stravinsky's desire to scale down the size of his orchestra and the growing
importance of the piano in his orchestral concept.
In the first section of the suite, the piano is generally given rapid, single
note runs, often divided between the hands. These are soloistic in nature and
can be readily discerned through the texture. Figures 12 and 13 on the
following pages give two such examples. The melisma shown in Figure 12 was
originally performed on the celesta; on piano the figure sounds brighter and
clearer. This run is not doubled by any other instrument and probably depicts
the fluttering wings of the firebird. Figure 13 shows an extremely active
passage for piano and winds, in which no parts are doubled, but piccolo, flute
and clarinet share the upward sweep with the piano. Again, the piano sound
clearly cuts through the texture and is soloistic in nature. The last measure
of the example (one measure after square 18) shows an upward sweep on white
keys in the right hand and on black keys in the left hand, showing again
Stravinsky's fascination with this combined sound and its derivation.
30
P.l.gr.
Cor. Ingl. (ob.ll.)
CornI
Figure 12: Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, 1919 reorchestration, measures 21-23. Copyright by Edwin F. Kalmus, printed by CPP/Belwin, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
31
r.ri«|i|!^
Fl.„.
Figure 13: Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, 1919 reorchestration, measures 74-78. Copyright by Edwin F. Kalmus, printed by CPP/Belwin, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
32
Figure 14, taken from the "Infemal Dance," offers an excellent example
of how Stravinsky's concepts in orchestration had changed in the ten years
between the original ballet score and the revision of 1919 from which the
example is taken. In the original, the solo line is given to the piccolo clarinet.
In the revised suite, however, the flute and piano are given the melodic line,
with violin I partially joining in the second measure and beyond. It is not an
exact doubUng, however, for every other note is displaced at the octave, with
the flute taking the higher octave and the piano the lower. The diverging
octaves give each instnunent's tone color more presence, while still
maintaining the effect of a doubled solo line. Piano notes contain laisser vibrer
and sf sempre indications. Xylophone, harp, and piccolo double the end of the
phrase for emphasis.
Whereas the beginning sections of the suite utilize the piano mainly in
single note runs divided between the hands, the "Infemal Dance" exploits
another facet of piano technique, that of octaves. In Figure 15, the piano first
has alternating octaves between the hands, with the inner note repeating, and
then both hands in parallel octaves. These octaves double with the flute and
oboe in the high register and the horns in the lower register, and are in canon
with trumpet and trombone.
Another pianistic device used with great effect in this suite is the
glissando, which appears no fewer than fourteen times in the work. Figure 16
shows the beginning of a section in which the piano executes six upward
glissandi on the white keys while the harp executes glissandi both up and
down on the "black key" notes, creating a dazzling whirl of soimd.
The piano is doubled less often with the string section. One excellent
example is contained in Figure 17, in which the right hand doubles the violin
I and II notes, and the left hand doubles the viola, cello, and double bass notes;
all strings play pizzicato with the exception of one chord.
The completion of the revised suite of L'Oiseau de Feu marked a turning
point in Stravinsky's compositional style. As he entered the 1920s, his
33
..Mi n.ricc
Figure 14: Sui^e cfe L'Oiseaw cfe Fei/, measures 230-233. Copyright by Edwin F. Kalmus, printed by CPP/Belwin, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
constant experimentation with the orchestra and concepts of sound would lead
him into what would become known as the "neoclassical" movement.
Violc
piu. t atmyrtf
Figure 15: Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 270-273. Copyright by Edwin F. Kalmus, printed by CPP/Belwin, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
n.ricc
Coral
plaa
Figure 16: Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 331-335. Copyright by Edwin F. Kalmus, printed by CPP/Belwin, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
36
Okal
Figure 17: Suite de L'Oiseau de Feu, measures 398-404. Copyright by Edwin F. Kalmus, printed by CPP/Belwin, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
CHAPTER III
THE MIDDLE PERIOD WORKS: 1920-1955
As can be seen in the revised scores of Le Rossignol and Suite L'Oiseau
de Feu, Stravinsky was moving towards an aesthetic which called for a smaller
orchestra, treated more in a concertante manner. The piano was growing more
important as a part of this aesthetic, as evidenced by its increasing number of
appearances. The works of the 1920s would reveal his quest for new means
of expression through varied instrumental combinations.
A pivotal work of this time period is Les Noces (The Wedding), which
was begun shortly after the completion of Le Sacre du Printemps. Forty years
later, Stravinsky would recollect:
I began the composition of Les Noces in 1914 (a year before Renard) in Clarens. The music was composed in short score form by 1917, but it was not finished in full score until three months before the premiere, which was six years later. No work of mine has undergone so many instrumental metamorphoses. I completed the first tableau for an orchestra of the size of Le Sacre du printemps, and then decided to divide the various instrumental elements-strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboard (cimbalom, harpsichord, piano)-into groups and to keep these groups separate on the stage. In still another version I sought to combine pianolas with bands of instruments that included saxhorns and fliigelhoms. Then one day in 1921, in Garches, where I was living as the guest of Gabrielle Chanel, I suddenly realized that an orchestra of four pianos would fulfill all my conditions. It would be at the same time perfectly homogeneous, perfectly impersonal, and perfectly mechanical.^°
This statement is important not only because it shows the evolution of
the orchestration for Les Noces, but also because it reflects Stravinsky's
perception of the piano as being impersonal and mechanical, which were
positive attributes of the instmment in his mind. Although the final
instrumentation of four soloists, chorus, four pianos and percussion does not
^°Stravinsky, Expositions and Developments, p. 118.
37
38
constitute an orchestral work for the purposes of this discussion, Les Noces
still must be mentioned in any study of Stravinsky's use and treatment of the
piano.
Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra
In the period from 1914 to 1917, Stravinsky had written two sets of
piano duets, entitled Three Easy Pieces and Five Easy Pieces, so called because
one part in each had been written with Diaghilev (who was not a pianist) in
mind as the performer. In the early 1920s, he decided to set these pieces for
orchestra in the form of two suites. He did not retain the piano in any of the
pieces in Suite No. 1 (which actually was finished after the second suite), but
chose to use piano in two of the four pieces in Suite No. 2, which were settings
of the Three Easy Pieces and the last piece from Five Easy Pieces.
The opening measures of "Marche," which begins Suite No. 2, are
contained in Figure 18 on the following page. Immediately one can see the
radical change that has taken place in Stravinsky's orchestration. Although
the four standard orchestral families are all present, their numbers have been
drastically reduced. The winds are represented by two flutes, one oboe, two B
flat clarinets, and two bassoons; there is no piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet,
or contrabassoon, among others. Four instruments form the brass component:
one each of horn, trumpet, trombone, and tuba. The snare drum, bass drum
and piano constitute the percussion section, and finally, there is the usual
complement of strings. Not only is the scoring much thinner, but there are few
tutti passages; instead, smaller combinations of instruments banter back and
forth. In Figure 18, notice how the piano is doubled by first and second violins
in the lower octave, and both flutes in the higher octave. The phrase is also
doubled in the lower octave by a dovetaiUng of oboe and clarinet, giving the
oboe the more emphatic accented triplet which begins the phrase and the more
mellow sounding clarinet the legato downward sweep at the end of the phrase.
39 S U I T E N?2
pour petit orchestre / fur kleines Orcnoster / for small orchestra Droits d'cxccutlon reserves AnffBknmg^rteki vorMtalten Performing rights reserved
2 Flautl graiidl
Oboe
2 ClarinetU in Sit
2 Fagotti
Corno In Fa
Tromba in Do
Trombone
Tuba
Calsse clairc Gran Cas.sa
Piano
Violino I
Viollno n
Viola
Violoncello
Contrabass o
I. MARCHE
Igor Strawinsky (•1882)
Figure 18: "Marche," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 1-4. Copyright 1925 (renewed) by J. & W. Chester, Ltd. All rights for United States and Canada controlled by G. Schirmer, Inc.
Figure 19 illustrates number 4 of the "Marche" and is typical of the
writing throughout the movement. In fact, the broken accompanimental figure
in the piano part three measures after number 4 appears in nearly every
measure of the movement. These notes are doubled throughout by the tuba,
snare dnma, bass drum, violin II, viola, violoncello, and double bass, but the
40
C.el. Gr.C.
Piano i m
•if fflji f mj))
\J - J - ^ H ) —
l y i J I W'U 1J
E . . plzx.
Figure 19: "Marche," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 26-29. Copyright 1925 (renewed) by J. & W. Chester, Ltd. All rights for United States and Canada controlled by G. Schirmer, Inc.
resulting effect sounds very lightly and thinly orchestrated. Notice that this
figure is also present at number 4 itself, but relegated to the left hand, while
the right hand plays a two measure phrase doubled with flutes, oboe,
trombone, and violins. The notes in the right hand represent a composite of
the other doubling instruments, compressed to within an octave span. The
writing, especially the rapid diatonic triads, is reminiscent of Petrouchka.
41
Figure 20 shows the beginning of the fourth piece of the suite, "Galop."
Here, the piano is used in a fresh and novel way, stemming directly from
Stravinsky's perception of the piano as a percussion instrument. In the fourth
measure, the piano plays a cluster comprised of the bottom three keys on the
IV. G A L O P
Flauto piccolo
Flauto grande
Oboe
2 Clarinetti in La
2 Fagotti
Corno in Fb
in Do Tromba
in La
Ti-ombono
Tuba
ClaLsse claii-e
Piatte Grand Cassa
Piano
Violino I
\^olino II
Viola
Violoncello
Contrabasso
Figure 20: "Galop," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 1-5. Copyright 1925 (renewed) by J. & W. Chester, Ltd. All rights for United States and Canada controlled by G. Schirmer, Inc.
42
instrument, at the same time as a / / / bass drum crash. The combination of
the two instruments creates a sound which neither could produce alone. It is
a striking effect when heard in the context of the movement.
The last movement is scored much more thickly than the previous
movements, and the instruments are almost constantly performing tutti. A
typical page of the score is given as an example in Figure 21. All instruments
Figure 21: "Galop," from Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra, measures 6-12. Copyright 1925 (renewed) by J. & W. Chester, Ltd. All rights for United States and Canada controlled by G. Schirmer, Inc.
43
are in play. The right hand of the piano is doubled by tmmpet and trombone
at one octave lower. The flutes, oboe, clarinet, hom, violins, and viola play the
same rhythm as the right hand, but on different pitches, in what is a good
example of pandiatonicism. The violoncello doubles the left hand of the piano
exactly, while the double bass part plays the same pitches but singly, in an
ascending and descending pattern.
Throughout the work, the piano is used primarily in a percussive
capacity, providing the steady rhythmic drive which the music demands.
Although it frequently doubles the melodic line, it does not appear as a solo
instrument, but rather as an integral part of the orchestration.
However, even though Stravinsky had used the piano several times
already in his orchestrations, most notably in Le Chant du Rossignol and
Suite No. 2, he still seemed to perceive the piano primarily as a soloistic
instrument. The following comment from his autobiography, dealing with the
composition of L'Histoire du Soldat, is particularly revealing:
I knew only too well that so far as the music was concerned I should have to be content with a very restricted orchestra. The easiest solution would have been to use some such polyphonic instrument as the piano or harmonium. The latter was out of the question, chiefly because of its dynamic poverty, due to the complete absence of accents. Though the piano has polyphonic qualities infinitely more varied, and offers many particularly dynamic possibilities, I had to avoid it for two reasons: either my score would have seemed like an arrangement for the piano, and that would have given evidence of a certain lack of financial means, which would not have been at all in keeping with our intentions, or I should have had to use it as a solo instrument, exploiting every possibility of its technique. In other words, I should have had to be specially careful about the "pianism" of my score, and make it into a vehicle of virtuosity, in order to justify my choice of mediimi. So there was nothing for it but to decide on a group of instruments, a selection which would include the most representative types, in treble and bass, of the instrumental families . . . ^
21 Stravinsky, An Autobiography, pp. 71-72
44
This perception of the piano as a vehicle for virtuosity, coupled with his
conception of it as a percussion instnmient, would result in the Concerto for
Piano and Winds of 1924.
Concerto for Piano and Winds
As already mentioned, in the late teens and early 1920s Stravinsky was
experimenting with diverse and smaller combinations of instruments in his
compositions. Les Noces, written for vocal soloists, chorus, four pianos, and
percussion in its final form, and L'Histoire du Soldat, written for clarinet,
bassoon, comet, trombone, violin, double-bass, percussion, and narrator, are
good examples. Stravinsky was also becoming more interested in the sound
of wind instruments separate from the orchestral string section. In 1920, he
completed t he Symphonies of Wind Instruments, dedicated to Claude Debussy,
and in 1923 he composed the Octet for Wind Instruments for flute, clarinet, two
bassoons, trumpet in C, trumpet in A, trombone and bass trombone. The Octet
was soon followed by another composition utilizing winds, as remembered by
Stravinsky in his autobiography: "Having again used a wind ensemble for
chamber music in the Octuor, I later undertook the composition of my
Concerto, which, as regards color, is yet another combination-that of piano
with a wind orchestra reinforced by double basses and timbals."^^
Stravinsky began this new composition before determining the
instrumentation; it evolved only gradually into a concerto for piano and wind
instruments. Two separate statements by Stravinsky reveal the evolutionary
process that transpired:
. . . at the beginning of the composition I did not see that it would take the form of a concerto for piano and orchestra. Only gradually, while already composing, did I understand that the musical material could be used to most advantage in the piano, whose neat, clear sonority and pol5T)honic resources suited the
22 Stravinsky, An Autobiography, p. 104.
45
dryness and neatness which I was seeking in the structure of the music I had composed.^^
The short, crisp dance character of the Toccata [the first movement], engendered by the percussion of the piano, led to the idea that a wind ensemble would suit the piano better than any other combination. In contrast to the percussiveness of the piano, the winds prolong the piano's sounds as well as provide the human element of respiration.^*
In the Concerto, Stravinsky's conception of the piano as a percussion
instrument crystallized. The piano is treated throughout in a dry, detached
fashion, energizing and driving the rhythm in the first and third movements
by means of continuous streams of sixteenth notes in one or both hands.
Accents and sforzandi abound, and the writing is essentially non-lyric in style.
Passages of chordal octaves and octave runs alternate with more contrapuntal
sections of two or three voices. In general, the piano writing calls to mind the
continuo of the eighteenth century orchestra. Heinrich Strobel, in discussing
this work, commented:
The word *suivi' in the original, indicating the solo piano's dominating role, is not to be understood, however, in the sense of the romantic virtuoso concerto with effective sound passages, but rather in that of a fluid, motor-like concertato style as found in the concerti of Bach and Vivaldi.^^
The work begins with a slow introduction for winds, in dotted rhythms,
reminiscent of the French Overture style of the Baroque period. Years later,
Stravinsky would comment about his intentional use of this stylistic
convention:
Dotted rhythms are characteristic eighteenth-century rhythms. My uses of them in . . . works of that period, such as the
^^era Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents (New York: Faber and Faber, 1978), p. 197.
^*Vera Stravinsky, Pictures and Documents, p. 252.
^^Heinrich Strobel, Stravinsky: Classic Humanist, trans. Hans Rosenwald (New York: Merlin Press, 1955), p. 105.
46
introduction to my piano Concerto, are conscious stylistic references. I attempted to build a new music on eighteenth-century classicism, using the constmctive principles of that classicism (which I cannot define here) and even evoking it stylistically by such means as dotted rhythms.^^
Stravinsky's compositions of this time, in which he used the principles and
evoked the styles of eighteenth century classicism, are now commonly referred
to as the "neoclassical" works (although perhaps "neobaroque" is more
appropriate).
The piano enters for the first time at a sudden change in tempo to
"Allegro," which is shown in Figure 22 on the following page. The writing is
angular and percussive, with both hands playing in octaves; the right hand
part also contains inner notes. Every note played by the orchestra is contained
in the piano part; all instruments are present, but the writing is fragmented
so that each instrument plays only a few notes. Despite the lightness of the
scoring, however, the overall effect is still that of an orchestral tutti, such as
one might expect in a concerto from the Classical period, but with a much
clearer, cleaner texture.
As mentioned above, the chordal octave passages for piano alternate
with more thinly scored contrapuntal passages such as the one contained in
Figure 23, shown on page 48. At number 8, the solo piano appears with oboe
and English hom in a passage similar to a baroque trio sonata, with each
instrument playing a distinctly individual line. The piano part itself is in
three-voice counterpoint. In the fourth measure after number 8, two horns
enter, doubling the left hand octaves, building the passage toward the cUmax
of the first section. The section which begins in the sixth measure after
number 8 again shows the use of fragmented doubling to achieve the effect of
a tutti without overthickening the texture. The flute and clarinet partially
^^Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Conversations with Igor Stravinsky (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), p. 18.
47
A - U e p r o Js 104
Pier.
Fi. t.2
Ok. 1.2
C.I.
U . U l . 2 |
I
Piaio
1.2
Car.
3.4
1.2
Tr-kr
3.4
Tr-ii
2.3
Taka
Tinp.
C-B.
B.ftH.i87ee
Figure 22: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 31-36. Cop)nnght assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
toeo,/^p f^c<>*/^P
fc ?£, ;?? EW" PI. 1.2
CI. It 1.2 [
F»».l
C-hg
Tr-kkt.2
Tr.K t
Figure 23: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 50-57. Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
49
double the highest notes of the piano, while the bassoon, contrabassoon, tuba,
timpani, and contrabass help to sustain the left hand octave. Three homs play
a variant of the piano's sixteenth-note figure, augmented in duration to eighth
notes.
In addition to the thickly scored octave passages and the more thinly
scored contrapimtal passages already mentioned, a third type of writing for the
piano which occurs frequently is that of altemating the hands back and forth,
on either chords, octaves, or single notes, so that the hands do not strike
together throughout the passage. An example is given in Figure 24, which
occurs near the end of the first movement. At the top of the page, five
measures before square 39, the right hand plays successive single or double
notes followed by one chord in the left hand. Certain notes in the right hand
are punctuated by oboes and clarinets. At square 39 all other instruments
drop out, and the piano begins a type of cadenza, which can be seen as another
stylistic reference to classical forms. The writing, however, is remarkably
strict and rigid, allowing for none of the freedom normally associated with a
cadenza. The hands are in strict and regular alternation throughout, with the
right hand playing chordal octaves and the left hand playing single notes, in
a constant stream of sixteenth notes. The time signature changes with each
measure, creating a feeling of shifting accents and instability. As the cadenza
builds to a climax, the horns and high winds reenter, again punctuating
certain chords; at this point, the notation changes from sixteenth notes to
eighth notes, and the section is marked Piu mosso. The ending of the cadenza
leads to a dramatic silence, seen in Figure 25. The movement closes with a
return to the slow theme of the introduction, this time accompanied by the
piano, as also seen in Figure 25. The piano provides a steady current of
sextuplets in the right hand and quarter note triplets in the left hand, which
continues the rhythmic instability set up in the cadenza and drives the
movement forcefiiUy to its close.
Ok. 1.2
CI .
ri u i .2 [
PiiDw
Ok. 1.2
C. I .
CI. U I. 2 I
Piaoa
riacn
PiaD«
Figure 24: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 256-276. Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
51
Ok. t . 2
C.I.
CI. It 1. 2 (
Pitaa
Car. t [
[ f Maestoso, J: 48 (Largo del principo)
n. 1.2
Ub. 1.3
ri.iti.3[
Figure 25: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 307-316. Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
52
The second movement of the work caused Stravinsky many problems
and much anguish, in both its composition and its performance. In one of his
many dialogues with Robert Craft, he mentioned:
As for the composer's memory, I will cite the story of Schoenberg, who, after having interrupted the composition of Moses und Aron for a long interval, complained of his inability to recall what he had already written. I experienced something similar to this while composing the second movement of my piano concerto. Some pages of the manuscript disappeared mysteriously one day, and when I tried to rewrite them I found I could remember almost nothing of what I had written. I do not know to what extent the published movement differs from the lost one, but I am sure the two are very unlike. . . . I have already told how at the first performance of this same piano concerto I was obliged to ask the conductor to remind me of the theme of the second movement. (A large psychological problem is involved with this movement, evidently.)^^
The final, published version of the second movement opens with a solo
passage for piano, shown in Figure 26, accompanied by an obligato for two
homs. The writing is more lyric, but its lyricism is countered by the thick, low
scoring of the left hand. The passage is restated by the fiill orchestra, with the
piano playing thick chords in a more accompanimental role.
The slow section is interrupted by a passage marked "Cadenza (poco
rubato)" which is given in Figure 27. This cadenza is much freer than its
counterpart in the first movement and begins with a doubling of low to high
brass, each instrument being given several notes, creating an extremely
effective buildup to the highest notes. The piano part is rhythmically very
complex. A similar cadenza occurs near the end of the movement; the end of
the cadenza is shown at the top of Figure 28.
One of the few indications for damper pedal occurs in the second
measure of this example. Stravinsky uses the French phrase laissez vibrer
along with its symbol. This cadenza leads back to the retum of the opening
27 Igor Stravinsky, Expositions and Developments, p. 46-47.
53
II
FLAUTO CR.
I
2 0BOI
II
CORKO INCL.
I
2 CLAR. IN LA
II
I
2 FACOTTI
II
PIANO
I . II
4 CORNI IN FA
111. IV
I . I !
4 TROMBB
III. IV
TROMBOKI 1.11
TROMBONB III TUBA
TIMPANI I
C-BASSI [
B.AH. 18766
Figure 26: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. I, measures 328-332. Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Itmfrt
Figure 27: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. II, measures 408-418. Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
55
ilnernle
Plino
I - tni'ttrM titter
,= Doppio valorc—tempo primo (J tM
PItno
:i> Doppio valore —tempo primo (J sSi)
Figure 28: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. II, measures 419-428. Copyright 1947 assigned to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
56
theme, this time given to both piano and solo oboe; the moment is very
poignant and beautiful, and the subtle differences between the oboe and piano
writing tend to bring out each instrument's individual tone color.
The third movement returns to the same fast tempo of the first
movement but is lighter in character than the preceding two. The piano part
is written in a "perpetual motion" style of nearly continuous sixteenth notes in
one or both hands; this predominates throughout the movement. Figure 29
gives a typical example: note the steady stream of sixteenth notes in the right
hand. The angularity of the right hand writing gives a suggestion of
S5mcopation and shifting accents. The left hand part displays a new concept
of octave writing which Stravinsky would later use frequently and with great
effect, especially in his Symphony in Three Movements: the notes are moving
upward by step, as in a scale, but instead of every note being doubled at the
octave, only every other note is doubled. This could not have been written
merely to simplify the performance of the passage, as there are many other
more difficult octave passages for the left hand in the work, but was quite
probably an experiment in thinning the texture.
Figure 30, which is from near the end of the work, shows an orchestral
tutti in which nearly all of the instruments double the right hand part. Every
note in the wind parts is separated by a breath mark (with the exception of
bassoon), which tends to make each note more distinct and imitate the decay
of the piano's tone. The left hand part again is written in partial octaves.
The slow introductory material of the first material reappears one final
time immediately before the end of the work. This is followed by a fast
passage in octaves for the piano, punctuated in the middle of each beat by full
orchestra, which brings the work to a close.
In the Concerto for Piano and Winds, Stravinsky's concepts of piano
utilization within the orchestra found fiiU fruition. Methods of use which can
already be seen in Petrouchka are here employed to their fiillest extent. The
percussive aspects of the piano which Stravinsky so admired had been solidly
57
PI. 1.2 I
Figure 29: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. Ill, measures 480-489. Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
and definitively incorporated into the work. His treatment of piano in the
orchestra would not change significantly for the next twenty-five years, but
would rather continue along the same lines as in the Concerto.
58
FI. 1.2
Cl.lt I. 21
f la t . M« Mareafo
Figure 30: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Mvt. Ill, measures 600-605. Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
59
Oedipus Rex
The next large scale work in which Stravinsky would include piano was
the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, which premiered in 1927. This work was, in
fact, the first time since Le Sacre du Printemps of 1914 that Stravinsky
returned to the use of the standard symphony orchestra, but used it in new
ways.
Roman Vlad, in his book on Stravinsky, commented that, in contrast to
the works of the 1914 period, his new instrumental writing bore the mark of
his experience with individualized groups. ® In Oedipus Rex, the piano
appears in only 132 of 1268 total measures, exclusively in doublings with other
instruments. It is used again in a percussive context, propelling the rhythm
of the passages in which it appears and adding its particular color to the tonal
palette. The piano is most frequently doubled with the harp and/or timpani,
the low strings, or the high winds; it appears less frequently with brass and
high strings. Octaves appear frequently in one or both hands. There are few
pianistic effects: no glissandi and few arpeggiated figures. Pedal indications
are sparse, and the piano is rarely used in a soloistic context. For a complete
analysis of piano appearances and usage, refer to Table 9 in the appendix.
Figure 31 gives a page of the score from near the beginning of the work.
The piano is doubled in pitch and rhjrthm by timpani, harp, and low strings in
a percussive context, but the registers differ between the instruments. The
timpani, violoncelli, and double basses are confined to a span of a major third,
repeating each pitch three times. The harp covers the distance of an octave,
repeating the inner pitch three times in each group, and the piano spans the
distance of two octaves, playing single notes which do not repeat. This ostinato
passage recurs several more times in the work.
^^Roman Vlad, Stravinsky, trans. Robert Craft and Andre Marion (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 102.
60
Cl.tlk
T.Ctlll
Figure 31: Oedipus Rex, measures 31-33. Copyright 1949 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
61
A similar passage in which piano is doubled by timpani is shown in
Figure 32. A study of the left hand part reveals that Stravinsky quite possibly
desired to have a pitch of Gj as the lowest note, but as the lowest note of all
pianos at that time was Ag, he had to settle for this pitch. (In a contemporary
performance of this work, the pianist should consider changing the pitch in
question to a Gj if an instnmient is available which is capable of producing
that pitch, such as a Bosendorfer Imperial Grand.)
Cir
T i . , .
ri im
t . l l
TU
T.Ctlll
C.I.
Figure 32: Oedipus Rex, measures 496-501. Copyright 1949 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
62
Figure 33 shows an example of a more soloistic use of piano in the score
of Oedipus Rex. Each hand plays a single note arpeggio; the figure is doubled
by the harp, which plays the same pitches but in a different manner. Each
instrument's tone color thus achieves greater individuality while retaining the
doubling called for in the passage. The writing is reminiscent of the second
movement of the Concerto for Piano and Winds; the arpeggio in Figure 33 is
similar in nature to the one already illustrated in Figure 27.
Figure 33: Oedipus Rex, Act II, measures 127-137. Copyright 1949 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
63
Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre
Stravinsky had traveled to Madrid in 1917, and the visit had made a
deep and vivid impression on his mind. In remembrance of his visit, he
composed a short piece for the pianola, a mechanical piano popular in Madrid
at the time. In his autobiography, he stated:
The whimsicalities of the imexpected melodies of the mechanical pianos and rattletrap orchestrinas of the Madrid streets and the little night taverns served as theme for this piece, which I wrote expressly for the pianola, and which was published as a roll by the London Aeolian Company. Subsequently, I orchestrated this piece, which was called Madrid, and formed part of my Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre, the others being the three pieces originally written as quartets in 1914. ^
Stravinsky completed this set of pieces in 1929. He included piano in
the first two pieces entitled "Danse" and "Excentrique," as well as in the last
piece, "Madrid." The piano is tacet in the third movement, "Cantique."
In "Danse," Stravinsky continued his use of piano in a rhythmic,
percussive context. The piano plays an ostinato pattern of three measures in
length, which continues unchanged through the entire piece. This pattern is
shown in Figure 34. Harp, timpani, and violoncelli double the pitches of the
piano in varied forms; collectively they form the ostinato.
The piano is used more soloistically in the second piece, "Cantique." A
solo glissando is called for on four separate occasions, doubled on the end notes
by hom. The texture is very thin, frequently with only one pitch sounding at
a time from the combined orchestra. There is a three-measure passage in
which the piano plays with the right hand on white keys in sixteenth notes
and the left hand on black keys in eighth notes, barkening back to Petrouchka.
Figure 35 shows an example of piano doubled with strings, with frequent
octave displacement. For instance, piano and violin I begin on the same pitch,
f Jj", but the violins move up to g" while the piano leaps nearly an octave down
29 Stravinsky, An Autobiography, p. 69.
64 QUATRE ETUDES POUR ORCHESTRE
I DANSE
Con moto J>r26
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1914-1929)
RviKd I9S2
Fl. Piccolo
2 Fl.^randi
Corno-ing
Violc
Violoncelli
C- bass
(«nipr* mf
Figure 34: "Danse," from Quatre Etudes Pour Orchestre, measures 1-6. Revised version copyright 1971 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
to g'; this occurs with each beat. Likewise, every other note of the left hand
is displaced an octave compared to the violoncelli and double basses. This
example also shows the thinness of texture typical of this movement.
"Madrid," the final movement which was originally set for pianola, is
more thickly scored than the other movements. The piano is given some
65
Figure 35: "Excentrique," from Quatre Etudes Pour Orchestre, measures 37-48. Revised version copyright 1971 by Boosey & Hawkes Music PubHshers Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
soloistic passages, but is generally doubled with other instruments and is
treated as a member of the ensemble. It is prominent in another ostinato
passage near the beginning of the piece, doubled with timpani and low strings.
As the piece progresses, Stravinsky gives the piano more thickly scored chordal
66
passages, such as the one given in Figure 36. In general, the hands altemate
back and forth in widely spaced, rapidly moving chords. A final ostinato
pattern, with a thinner texture, brings the work to a close.
1-2
Cor. i^^N^^^
Figure 36: "Madrid," from Quatre Etudes Pour Orchestre, measures 63-65. Revised version copyright 1971 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
67
Capriccio
I worked at my Capriccio all summer and finished it at the end of September [1929]. I played it for the first time on December 6 . . . I had so often been asked in the course of the last few years to play my Concerto (this I had already done no fewer than forty times) that I thought that it was time to give the pubhc another work for piano and orchestra. That is why I wrote another concerto, which I called Capriccio, that name seeming to indicate best the character of the music. I had in mind the definition of a capriccio given by Praetorius, the celebrated musical authority of the eighteenth century. He regarded it as a synonym of the fantasia, which was a free form made up of fugato instrumental passages. This form enabled me to develop my music by the juxtaposition of episodes of various kinds which follow one another and by their very nature give the piece that aspect of caprice from which it takes its name.^°
The Capriccio is written for a standard size orchestra, but with one
unusual feature: the strings are divided into a concertino group of solo violin,
viola, violoncello, and contrabass, and a ripieno group, once again recalling
Baroque practice, this time in the conventions of a concerto grosso. Eric Walter
White, in his study dealing with Stravinsky, comments that "Throughout the
Capriccio, the writing for solo piano is more graceful and less percussive than
in the Piano Concerto." ^^ The piano is also used more as a vehicle for
virtuosity. Rapid runs, often chromatic in nature, arpeggiated figures, trills,
octave runs in one or both hands, and alternating hand passages predominate.
Table 11 in the Appendix gives a detailed analysis of piano usage. Stravinsky
cited the influence of the cimbalom, a Hungarian dulcimer which he had used
in composing the short piece entitled Ragtime, on the composition of the
Capriccio:
I continued to play the cimbalom every day in my Pleyel Studio in Paris between the wars, though I wrote no more music for it
30 Stravinsky, An Autobiography, p. 159.
^^Eric Walter White, Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works, 2nd ed. (London and Boston: Faber and Faber, 1979), p. 358.
68
because of the difficulty of finding good players. Nevertheless, some of the piano writing in my Capriccio is cimbalomist in style, especially the cadenza in the second movement, which is a kind of Rvunanian restaurant music.^^
Figure 37, taken from the first movement, shows the type of writing
common to much of the work. Each hand performs runs or arpeggiated figures
PUBO
TiB.
Tlk.
Tt .
n»<«
Figure 37: Capriccio, measures 79-84. Revised version copyright 1952 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
^^Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Dialogues and a Diary (London: Faber and Faber, 1968), p. 54.
69
comprised of single notes, weaving together in a loose type of counterpoint.
The measure before nimiber 14 and the fourth measure after number 14 both
contain chromatic scales in the right hand. The left hand throughout plays an
arpeggiated figure. The solo piano is accompanied, but not doubled, by high
winds executing trills and rapidly repeating notes. The general effect is one
of playfulness and lightheartedness, coupled with a different kind of virtuosity.
One new technical device makes its appearance in the Capriccio: the
use of extremely rapid repeating notes, such as in the passage in Figure 38,
PUao
•Ul .
T k .
Tel.
m s
Figure 38: Capriccio, measures 446-450. Revised version copyright 1952 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
70
taken from the third movement. Although the piano had been given repeated
note passages as early as in Petrouchka (see Figures 5 and 6), these earher
appearances had been measured and not as fast. The repeated notes at square
84 in Figiu-e 38 are to be played as rapidly as possible and illustrate a way in
which to make the piano prolong its pitch, along with demonstrating great
virtuosity.
Symphony of Psalms
The Symphony of Psalms was composed in 1930, commissioned by Sergei
Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its fiftieth
anniversary. The work is written for chorus and orchestra, with several
unusual features in the orchestration. Stravinsky omitted the clarinet, violin,
and viola sections, instead writing two piano parts; this would be his only
orchestral work utilizing this combination of instruments.
The pianos are treated throughout in a percussive fashion similar to
other works already discussed, helping to sustain the rhythmic drive. At
times, the pianos double each other, and nearly all appearances are doubled
by one or more other instruments. Octaves occur frequently in one or both
parts; there are few glissandi or other pianistic effects. There are several
indications for use of the una corda pedal; the laissez vibrer symbol indicating
use of the damper pedal seldom appears. One or both pianos frequently
perform a soloistic fiinction in short passages.
Figure 39 contains the first page of the score of Symphony of Psalms.
The pianos appear in measures one and four in a chord which occurs several
more times throughout the movement. The pianos are doubled exactly by
winds, trombones, percussion, harp, and low strings. The spacing of the
opening chord is suggestive in its pianistic spread, as one of the largest chords
which could be played by one hand on the piano, and the mirror image of the
low and high chords corresponds to the mirror image of the left and right
hand. The other instruments double every note with none added.
SYMPHONY OF PSALMS 71
T e m p o Jroa
(Symphonie de Psaumes) I
i r t ^ ^ FLAl'TI 6RA.<«DI
FLAUTO GRANDE ( p t i PICCOLO)
CORNO INGLESE
CONTRA FAGOTTO
TROMBA PICCOLA RE
PlAROrORT! 1.2
ViniONTELLI
CONTRARASSI
IGOR STRAVINSKY 1830
Figure 39: Symphony of Psalms, measures 1-5. New revision copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
72
Figure 40 illustrates a highly inventive doubling between the two piano
parts. Piano II contains the same notes as the right hand part of Piano I, but
is marked Una corda (secco) whereas the notes of Piano I are not marked at
all, and would should be played more legato. This combination of sounds
results in a crisper, more pointed attack on each note.
A good example of incomplete doubling, which is similar in style to the
Concerto, is given in Figure 41. The sixteenth-note pattern played by
Piano II's right hand is doubled completely by two flutes in a higher octave,
and partially by a third flute and three bassoons, resulting in a thinner texture
than if each instrument played every note. This pattern is augmented to
eighth notes in the Piano I and harp parts. Notice that the last chord of the
example is another statement of the opening chord given in Figure 39.
The pianos are tacet in the second movement, but are extremely
prominent in the third movement, which is a setting of Psalm 150 from the
Bible. Referring to this movement, Stravinsky said that "the allegro in Psalm
150 was inspired by a vision of Elijah's chariot climbing the Heavens; never
caul, ttprtttivo
Piano 1
Pl&no t
Gil altri V-C.
Figure 40: Symphony of Psalms, measures 17-21. New revision copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
73
Kl.ir
nkd
(kt»*)
Figure 41: Symphony of Psalms, measures 50-52. New revision copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
74
before had I written anything quite so literal as the triplets for hom and piano
to suggest the horses and chariot."^^ The passage referred to is shown in
Figure 42, and the writing is indeed heroic and awe inspiring. Homs and
pianos double the line, but not quite exactly, with the combination of two
pianos covering a three octave span, and the homs in the middle octaver
Ctr.
Tr-k« •e
Tr-i« Utiit)
Tlap.
S.
A.
T.
B.
Arpt
!y T J kJ .J= 'T J j *• Ij -^—f * Ij ^
PillQ 1
Piti* 2
Figure 42: Symphony of Psalms, measures 133-136. New revision copyright 1948 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
33 Stravinsky, Dialogues and a Diary, p. 46.
75
Persephone
Stravinsky's next work to include piano was a musical melodrama
commissioned by Ida Rubenstein, based on a French setting of the Homeric
hymn to Demeter. Persephone was written in 1933 and 1934, but did not
receive its premiere imtil April 30, 1954, at the Paris Opera. It was not
received well and had relatively few performances. Stravinsky stated on the
occasion of its first performance:
I think I should tell the pubhc that I hate any orchestral effects as a means of embellishment; they should not expect to be enthralled by seductive sonorities . . . I rejected the futility of mere brio years ago . . . I have used a normal orchestra, a mixed choir and a children's choir. '
Piano is used in about one-fifth of the score. As with the other works
of this period, it is primarily used in a percussive fashion, doubling with one
or more other instnmients, sometimes is a soloistic manner. Octaves in one
or both hands are abundant. There are several passages written for
altemating hands, and several glissandi. Scales on white keys appear several
times. The una corda pedal is called for in several different ways: "una corda,"
"Ped. e Sord.," and "Ped. gauche."
The first page of the score is given in Figure 43. The piano executes a
tremolo altemating between the hands, with the lower note repeating; this
writing is very similar to passages discussed in the Capriccio (see Figure 38).
The piano is doubled at the beginning and at the change of pitch in measure
two by xylophone, harps, and strings.
Figure 44 shows a doubling with the foiu* homs and contrabass, which
is marked come prima and continues for several measures past the end of the
example. The homs double exactly the pitches and rhythm of the piano's right
hand part, while the contrabasses double the left hand part. These
instruments play in counterpoint with the winds, voices, and strings.
34 Vlad, Stravinsky, p. 113.
76
PERSEPHONE
Pocmo dc ANDRE GIDE
I PERSEPHONE RAVIE Mnslqac dc
IGOR STRAVINSKY 1>.14, H<^«iiet I t t n
M.M. j
CORNI I I Pa
TROMBONE
TROMBONE Btsso a ^
XILOPUONE
2 ARPE
PIANO
EUMOLPE
VIOLINl
TIOLE
VIOLONCELLI
rOXTRABASSl
Figure 43: Persephone, measures 1-3. New revision copyright 1950 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
77
Fl.Pite.
Fl .Cr.
Cor.
Pltae
Figure 44: Persephone, measures 120-123. New revision copyright 1950 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
78
A more accompanimental use of piano is shown in Figure 45, from the
second movement. The "whiteness" of the music suggests another excellent
example of pandiatonicism. The right hand part of the piano contains
descending C major scales with an intriguing rhythmic effect: seven notes of
the scale are played before the octave which again starts the descent, moving
the beginning of each scale forward one sixteenth note; therefore, it takes
P o c o pill monno J : M r i S r »
T i . ,
Cr C
* ' f
Fiait
r~ r - j f~~ * p •• ' T ~ i i f •> i
Ult-^'L_a_J 1—tv-v-^fc -J ^ ji ^—jA ^ ^ ^
J^4LUg^J^.^fai4L^^|^U^-^£h^^X:i^ ''i i i 'i-=n
Figure 45: Persephone, measures 561-563. New revision copyright 1950 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
79
seven beats for the beginning of the scale to fall on a beat once again. These
scales are doubled by two trombones altemating back and forth. The left hand
part contains octaves moving in quarter notes which are doubled by the
contrabassoon, bass trombone and tuba in altemation, and low strings.
A final example from the score of Persephone is shown in Figure 46,
taken from the beginning of the third movement. The piano is used in a
ni PERSEPHONE RENAISSANTE
I^ento J X to ?."•- —
TltUII
TltLtlClllI
c t i r a i u s i
Figure 46: Persephone, measures 743-745. New revision copyright 1950 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
80
thicker scoring for tutti orchestra. Sustained octaves in the upper middle
register altemate with quintuplet runs in the lower register. The octaves are
doubled exactiy by piccolo, flute, horns, piccolo trumpet, violins and violas, and
on the downbeat of each measure by the harps. The quintuplets in the piano
are doubled in pitch but not in rhythm by bassoons, timpani, and low strings:
each other instrument plays a triplet consisting of three of the five pitches
played by the piano in its quintuplet, while the harp plays a glissando
beginning on the piano's first and lowest pitch.
Scherzo a la Russe (Symphonic Version)
The Scherzo a la Russe was written in 1944, and according to
Stravinsky:
. . . was commissioned by Paul Whiteman for a special radio broadcast. I wrote it originally to exact specifications of his ensemble, then rewrote it for standard orchestra-which gave me some trouble, as the volume of mandolin and guitar in the Trio canon was so much lighter than that of harp and piano.^^
The piano is present in nearly the entire piece, appearing in 190 of 198
measures. Throughout much of the work, it remains in the low register,
doubled with bass driun, playing staccato notes on each beat in a steady pulse.
There are several glissandi doubled by xylophone, and two alternating hand
passages with repeated notes similar to those already seen in other works
discussed. Several scalar passages on white keys call to mind the Concerto and
Petrouchka. The piano is given one lyric passage, played in canon with the
harp, a portion of which is shown in Figure 47. The canon begins in the piano
in the second measure after rehearsal number 10, on the fourth beat, followed
one beat later by the harp. The piano is written with left and right hand
doubling each other two octaves apart, with harp playing in the octave
between, and the canon is exact throughout with no pitch changes.
35 Stravinsky, Dialogues and a Diary, p. 53.
81
Tvum
I SdeVtw
Trt.iei I
35«UTlB(
run«
IwT
3ael*Tla».
Figure 47: Scherzo a la Russe, measures 41-49. Copyright 1945 by Associated Music PubHshers, Inc., renewed 1972, assigned to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
82
Scenes de Ballet
In the 1940s, Stravinsky was requested to compose many and diverse
conmoissions, several of which he accepted. One was from Paul Whiteman for
the Scherzo a la Russe just discussed. Another came from a director of popular
musicals in Philadelphia who asked Stravinsky to write a work for one of his
dance revues. Rather siuprisingly, Stravinsky accepted, and the result was
Scenes de Ballet. Regarding its premiere, he related:
After the first night of the Philadelphia preview run I received a telegram: YOUR MUSIC GREAT SUCCESS STOP COULD BE SENSATIONAL SUCCESS IF YOU WOULD AUTHORIZE ROBERT RUSSELL BENNETT RETOUCH ORCHESTRATION STOP BENNETT ORCHESTRATES EVEN THE WORKS OF COLE PORTER. I telegraphed back: SATISFIED WITH GREAT SUCCESS. Scenes de Ballet is a period piece, a portrait of Broadway in the last years of the War. . . ^
Although Stravinsky broke no new ground in this work, it is nonetheless
a delightfiil and exciting glimpse into his perceptions of contemporary
American popular music. The piano is utilized in the score in much the same
way as the previous works discussed. It frequently doubles the high winds or
the low strings. Some octaves and many arpeggiated rims are present. The
damper pedal is called for more often than usual, and the piano is given
several soloistic passages of a nature recalling the Concerto and other works
on the 1920's. In one passage, illustrated in Figure 48, the piano is given very
large chords, spaced in the same manner as the opening of Symphony of
Psalms (see Figure 39). In this representative passage, the piano sustains the
rhythmic drive of the work, while supporting the harmonic stmcture.
Symphony in Three Movements
According to Eric Walter White, in 1942 Stravinsky began to
contemplate writing another piano concerto, or else a concerto for orchestra
36 Stravinsky, Dialogues and a Diary, p. 50.
CI-UBP)
ClIl(Bb)
i'' "'L!J if LLfU-f I'l m t r LUf ?i*ao<
"I m 11 ^ p p ^ f=*=* ^p arr^: • • ^
^ J
^ 1
Via.
TcL
Figure 48: Scenes de Ballet, measures 273-274. Copyright 1945 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Renewed 1973, assigned to Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
84
with a prominent part for piano, and wrote out sketches for the work. In 1945,
when he was invited by the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society to
provide them with a symphony, he decided to incorporate this material into the
first movement of the new symphony.^'' He also used pre-existing material
as the basis for the second movement:
Franz Werfe l . . . the distinguished poet and dramatist tried to encourage me to write music for his Song ofBernadette film. . . . I actually did compose music for the 'Apparition of the Virgin' scene and this music became the second movement of my Symphony in Three Movements.^^
The piano is utilized extensively in the first movement, because of the
origin of the music. It is silent in the second movement, in which the harp is
given the principal role. Stravinsky had this to say about the origins of the
music and the relationship between the piano and the harp:
The first movement was . . . inspired by a war film, this time a dociunentary of scorched-earth tactics in China. The middle part of the movement-the music for clarinet, piano, and strings, which moiuits in intensity and volimie until the explosion of the three chords at No. 69~was conceived as a series of instrumental conversations to accompany a cinematographic scene showing the Chinese people scratching and digging in their fields.
The formal substance of the Symphony-perhaps Three Symphonic Movements would be a more exact title-exploits the idea of coimterplay among several types of contrasting elements. One such contrast, the most obvious, is that of harp and piano, the principal instrumental protagonists. Each has a large obbligato role and a whole movement to itself and only at the turning-point fiigue, the queue de poisson of the Nazi machine, are the two heard together and alone.^^
Stravinsky's treatment of the piano in this work can be seen as a
summation of all the techniques used in his middle period works. The piano
^'White, p. 122.
^®Stravinsky, Expositions and Developments, p. 77.
^^Stravinsky, Dialogues and a Diary, p. 52.
85
is generally doubled, especially by high winds or low winds and low strings.
Octave writing is abimdant. There are frequent altemating hand passages and
glissandi. The piano primarily drives the rhythm forward in a percussive
manner. Damper pedal usage is minimal; una corda pedal is often called for.
An excerpt of the first page of the score is shown in Figure 49. The
piano's opening glissando is doubled by low winds and the entire string section, J . 160 <J<SO>
FUuto piccolo
Flautl (randi ^
CUrincl l i in SiV 1 (Pel In La>
Clartndlo basso in SA <iV>iClarimlloinSit 3>
Conlrafagotlo
CornI in Fa
Trombt in Do
Violoncello
Conlrab basso
Figure 49: Symphony in Three Movements, measures 1-6. © Associated Music Publishers, Inc., New York, 1946; assigned to Schott & Co., Ltd., London, 1946. © Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott London.
86
punctuated by trombones at the beginning and end of the glissando. The
octaves which follow are doubled by four homs and strings. This section is
very similar in style to parts of the Capriccio.
Figure 50 shows page 8 of the score. The piano is clearly in a soloistic
capacity here, doubled by high and middle strings. The altemation of thick
chords between the hands harks back to passages already discussed in the
Concerto (see Figure 24).
Two other examples from the first movement are given to show their
similarity to the earlier Concerto for Piano and Winds. Figure 51 illustrates
a passage for piano in partial octaves, the use of which can be traced back to
the third movement of the Concerto (see Figure 26), but here carried to a much
greater extreme. The passage is essentially scalar in nature (as can be seen
more clearly in the bassoon, contrabassoon, violoncello, and double bass lines
which double the piano), but becomes quite angular and jagged because of the
Pia
Viol.l
Viol. 2
TOO piiX. arco Q p in .
^^^^M eic.tim. Y
a r t i: pizz. arc^o
^ - F
i arco pizz. arco I . . I r—
pizz. etc. arto vT
. 7—. P<»I
tj-n^N-tf-../ d.
m'FfypF^ ^s^3p i s ^ pizz. arco
^
-I pizz.
^^^sm I" I Vie
V i c .
Cb.
arco pizz. arco pizz.
ete.ttm.
arco pizz.
1i{fegEEtej43Z Vi' 'Jp • • • \r
,\,\f a l
eic.stm.
m=i—^l^ ^m
<fco iPizz. arco
j^P^P pizz.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
^ i g 3 ^ ^m g *N
Figure 50: Symphony in Three Movements, ms. 34-38. © Associated Music PubHshers, Inc., New York, 1946; assigned to Schott & Co., Ltd., London, 1946. © Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott London.
Tr.<Do>
N^
Timp. -^;^jt-f---j=:[-f--fj!:^|'H!t:j^|J-J--f—3^1^-1^^ ir=
T r r r I - Y - T — M ^ f ^ ^ ^ ^ F ^ t ^ ^
Piano
s ^
s ^ p
8—' - • »
SH - f < ? — wmm
=}^
Viol.l
Viol. 2
Vie.
Figure 51: Symphony in Three Movements, ms. 67-72. © Associated Music PubHshers, Inc., New York, 1946; assigned to Schott & Co., Ltd., London, 1946. © Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott London.
88
incompleteness of the octaves. Figure 52 shows a contrapuntal section in
which the piano is again used as a soloist, which is very similar in style to the
sections in the first and third movements of the ConceHo. The influence of
American jazz rhythms, particularly the syncopations of ragtime style, can be
readily seen in this example.
The harp and piano first play together in the tutti which begins the
third movement, shown in Figure 53. The score is similar in its incomplete
doubling to the beginning of the Allegro in the ConceHo (see Figure 22). The
harp and piano are assigned almost the same pitches, although the piano
writing is somewhat thicker. The chordal tenths in the right hand part of the
piano call to mind his spacing of chords in Symphony of Psalms.
Fl.gr. 1
CI.<Sik>J
Cor.<Fa>
Piarto
Viol.l
Viol.2
VU.
Vic.
Cb
I
[iplfji; ^^^^mm^^mm
39 40 poeo mart.
: #
m ^ . r ^ ^^^=^1=
^SEE.f^El f
El^EEESt ^^^^^m = l r ^
_arco
Ei
ttiptengxero
a rco mp _
- - - ^ ^ ^ ^ l i - i ^
^ = ^ ^ wp ifggiero
• ^ = ^ = \ - -
t^^ ^m^
Figure 52: Symphony in Three Movements, ms. 151-156. © Associated Music PubHshers, Inc., New York, 1946; assigned to Schott & Co., Ltd., London, 1946. © Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott London.
142 Con moto <J:108> III 89
' • • I
n-r-l
CL<Si)»^
febsAfc ?^F^
> J ^ >
fMT^M'fV
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Piano
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^ ^ ^P' ' ^ P p r f ^ r^^^g^^^
^:^t=d^l^£|r^:rk. : : : . ; t : :£^^g^k|^^^^[^^^^j^
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vie.
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142 Con moto <J.i08)
Figure 53: Symphony in Three Movements, ms. 543-547. © Associated Music PubHshers, Inc., New York, 1946; assigned to Schott & Co., Ltd., London, 1946. © Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott London.
90
The fiigue referred to by Stravinsky in the earlier quote as being the
queue de poisson of the Nazi Machine is given in Figure 54. Solo trombone
begins with a partial statement of the fugue subject, followed by piano at
rehearsal niunber 170. The harp enters with its statement of the subject one
measure before rehearsal nimaber 172, doubled partially at the octave, while
the piano begins a countersubject.
A fine example of Stravinsky's treatment of piano doubled with strings
is given in Figure 55. The piano doubles three solo strings: violin, viola, and
Tr-bonc 1
Piano'
Alia breve <£): 80) Solo m 170 i3^PF\jFi^p^^^\i==^^^m-<-^i-'-—m^F^ g
i i % "T^JB^
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m 7 EE 5 ^
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171 Ik ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ S ^
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Piano ^ 5i
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^^mm i £ ^ - i « ^ - ^ r J r ^ i ^ ,
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Figure 54: Symphony in Three Movements, ms. 655-668. © Associated Music PubHshers, Inc., New York, 1946; assigned to Schott & Co., Ltd., London, 1946. © Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott London.
./( 91 Pl.p!cc.
Ob. J
1
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Vic.
Figure 55: Symphony in Three Movements, ms. 593-597. © Associated Music Publishers, Inc., New York, 1946; assigned to Schott & Co., Ltd., London, 1946. © Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott London.
92
violonceflo, but only partially; notice the rests in the piano part which
correspond with pitches in the string parts. The piano is used in this case to
reinforce certain pitches in the phrase without completely being a part of its
statement. The ensuing coxmterpoint with the clarinet and bass clarinet is
also worthy of study.
Symphony in Three Movements marked an important tuming point in
Stravinsky's use of piano within the orchestra. Many of the devices which he
had cultivated since the Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra can be found within
its score. With one short exception, twelve years would pass before he would
again incorporate the piano into an orchestra, in which time his compositional
style would once again make a radical change in direction, and with it, a
change in his treatment of the piano within the orchestra.
Greetins Prelude for Orchestra
The short exception mentioned above is a very short little piece which
Stravinsky wrote in 1955 in honor of the eightieth birthday of his fiiend,
Pierre Monteux, based on the popular melody of "Happy Birthday." It is an
unpretentious work, thirty-two measures in length. The piano is included in
the opening and closing statements, treated in much the same way as the
neoclassic works already discussed. The beginning section is given in Figure
56. The piano is given the theme, and doubled by a succession of instruments
beginning with timpani, then bass drum and trombones, through to the horn
section. The piano writing itself illustrates octave displacement of the melody,
with each measure being one octave higher than the one before; this is
comparable to examples found in works as early as L'Oiseau de Feu and
Quatre Etudes.
93
for the 80tli birthday of Pierre Monteux
J , J : 102
Piccolo
Fiauti I.II
Oboi I.II
Clarinetti I.II in Do
Fagotti I.II Contra Fagotto
I.II
Corni in Fa
III. IV
Troinbc I.II in Do
-m ^ 1
Tenori I.II
Trotnboui
Basso & T
m a2
a2
uba I
Timpani
Gran Cassa
Pianoforte
^ ^
m
Violini I
Violini II
Viole
Violoncelli
Contrabassi
s ^
^
i w im
m •fjx
r—r ^ 1 f-
m ^ tj-i n2
IjtB • o— a2
^p^^rr
r
i stni.
S zzl
Jx -
^ i ' / • •
^^m =r-
• ^ -
JTV m
M
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fe. I J: 1
I I
3=
31
i l l iH
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Figure 56: Greeting Prelude for Orchestra, measures 1-5. Copyright 1956 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
CHAPTER IV
THE LATE WORKS: 1957-1966
During the 1950s, Stravinsky's compositional techniques tumed in the
direction of serialism; this style would become the focal point of his last group
of works. His growing interest in serial techniques had come about largely
because of his collaboration with Robert Craft, a yoimg conductor who had
become Stravinsky's musical aide and assistant in the late 1940s. Craft was
vitally interested in the music of the Viennese seriaHsts, and he encouraged
Stravinsky, who had always kept his distance from serialism, especially the
music of Schoenberg, to listen to and study the scores of a wide range of serial
music. Stravinsky's curiosity was stimulated; he grew particularly receptive
to the music of Anton Webern. As the decade progressed, he assimilated the
techniques of serialism into his own unique compositional style.
The piano had been absent from his orchestral scores since the
Symphony in Three Movements of 1945. With the advent of his serial
compositions, however, the piano returned to use, albeit in a different function.
In his last works, Stravinsky seems less concerned with exploiting the
percussive qualities of the instnmient, and more interested in utilizing its
particular tone color in much the same way as he would any other instrument.
The polyphonic capabilities of the instrument (its ability to sound more than
one pitch at a time) are rarely utilized in the final works; instead, the piano
generally plays a single note at a time. It still is frequently doubled with one
or more other instruments to create certain timbres, but quite often it also
appears alone or in counterpoint with other instnmients, adding its own
imique tone color to the overall sonority; these solo appearances are as long as
several measures or as brief as one staccato note. Pianistic devices such as
glissandi are virtually nonexistent, although an occasional tremolo can be
foimd. Damper pedal usage remains minimal, and Stravinsky continues to
show a preference for the use of the una corda pedal.
94
95
Ason
Stravinsky had received a commission from Lincoln Kirstein and George
Balanchine to create a new ballet score for the New York City Ballet, which he
began in 1953, but then shelved for several years because of other projects. By
the time of its completion in 1957, he had fully developed his serial style and
found the need to recast some of the music written earlier.
The score calls for a large orchestra reminiscent of his early ballet
scores, but always divided into small concertante groups; the thin, rather
pointilHstic scoring is reflective of Stravinsky's interest in the music of Anton
Webern. The piano is present in 100 of the work's 620 measures; it is
effectively combined with many of the other instruments of the orchestra, both
in doubled passages and those more contrapuntal in nature. A complete
analysis of piano usage can be found in Table 18 in the Appendix.
The work is composed of a series of dances for varying numbers of
performers, divided at times by short pieces entitled "Prelude" or "Interlude"
for orchestra alone. Most movements are orchestrated for particular groups
of instnunents which do not change within the movement. For instance, the
"Galliarde," for two female dancers, is written for three flutes, mandolin, harp,
piano, timpani, solo viola, violoncello, and double bass I and II. The writing
is very contrapuntal, with little doubhng of parts.
A section of the "Coda" which follows the "Galliarde" is given in Figure
57. Here the piano is used with trombone and bass trombone to state the
twelve-tone row of A-B-B b -C-D b -E b -E li -F Jt -F li -G-D-G|J which was first played
by harp and solo violoncello at the beginning of the movement. The piano and
trombones trade the notes of the row back and forth, at first in varying
rhythms, but beginning at measure 197, with strict rhythmic regularity. The
piano part is marked sempre una corda f, which Stravinsky has shown a
fondness for since Petrouchka', he must have found this particular sound to
work well with the biting staccato attacks of the trombones. The sparsity of
the notes, the single note Hne, and the use of the piano undoubled by other
96
«i.t*i«
f p f p ^
Figure 57: Agon, measures 190-203. Copyright 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
97
instruments in this type of passage are all characteristics of Stravinsky's
treatment of the piano in his late works.
The first page of the "Coda" to the "Pas-de-Deux" is given in Figure 58.
This music is based on a seven-tone row: G-A b -C b -B b -A li -C l| -D b, which is first
stated by strings in its original form followed immediately by its retrograde.
Coda (both daacort) J . t t t
VI. I. II aZoait.
n.i.ir
uois. a2
TI. I.II
T r i laD*
Figure 58: Agon, measures 495-501. Copyright 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
98
The piano enters in measure 496 by stating the first five pitches, then starting
over with the first four pitches; this statement of the row carries over to the
trombone and trumpet and finishes with the strings in measures 498, followed
again by the retrograde. In measure 500, the piano states the entire row; the
last two pitches serve also as the beginning of the retrograde, which is
entwined with the tnmapet. The last note of the retrograde serves to begin the
original row one last time, stated by piano and trumpet. The piano writing is
again predominantly in single notes, although at the end of measure 496 two
pitches are struck together. The notes are divided between the hands, similar
in technique to many of the altemating hand passages encountered throughout
Stravinsky's music.
The end of this same "Coda" is shown in Figure 59, given as an excellent
example of the use of piano as a doubling instrument. Based on the same
seven-tone row, the passage moves in pitch from the low range to the high
range, with a corresponding use of low and high instnmients in the brasses
and strings, reinforced by timpani. Here, the piano is a unifying factor,
playing every pitch. Each pitch is doubled by one or more instruments, but the
doubling changes on each particular note.
Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae
Stravinsky's next work after Agon was based on sections of the book of
Jeremiah from the Bible. It is scored for six solo voices, chorus and a
relatively large orchestra which includes parts for fliigelhom (also referred to
in the score as "Bugle C-alto") and sarrusophone (a double reed brass
instrument comparable in range to a contrabassoon); trumpets and bassoons
are omitted.
The piano appears in only 43 of 419 total measures. It is used almost
exclusively as a doubling instrument in Threni. It doubles the sarrusophone in
several sections near the beginning in a series of repeated low F|J's; one such
passage is shown in Figure 60. In this particular usage, the piano reinforces
99 Quasi stretto, J. tii
,2 —s==iir
* l . M l
i'». I ICE Trb. I :^
T in ,
riaao
) iJ J i I J Z ^
poco ritard.
ry-^ r i f ^ Tif r ^ T
attaeca
Figure 59: i4^on, measures 512-519. Copyright 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
the attack of the sarrusophone and make it clearer and more easily heard; the
blending of the two tone colors certainly creates a unique sound. In a later
passage, the piano doubles timpani and solo Basso II in much the same
manner on a low E b, one of the lowest notes in a basso's range.
100
CORO
^
parlando totto voce
CI. I . I I
Cl.batto
'pF^
Sarru*.
i i i d o . m i ' na (^rn-t i • um:
^E=EB
\f
^Et
l 5 p ^ H
ti-. m fc^ ^
i i
i: ^
ttaceatisiimo
a^^^=fi
i! una eor(/a
^
i
^^i=gil^
1 Plino I i 8 ban. J
4^1 t j . m i 3 ^ ^ a rfp
Cor. to Fa
II *
^ i rt:^ 1 I ^ ^ 5
VI. I
VI. II
vie.
Vc.
Cb.
tfP tfp
M
m
^ ^
pizz.
^ . . . ^ ^
it *> J ' 'r > I/pin.
J M ( •• I
1
i §
i
i
i
Figure 60: Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae, measures 33-36. Copyright 1958 by Boosey & Co., Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
101
One new utiHzation of the piano occurs several times beginning at
measure 310, shown in Figure 61. The piano plays a sustained low FU,
doubled by chorus, harp, timpani, and double bass. The piano part is marked
2 Ped., meaning to use both damper and una corda pedals, and is given the
direction aW estinzione, which, loosely translated, means to sustain until
inaudible. This effect would be very difficult to produce on either wind or
bowed instruments but is a simple matter for the hammered string of the
piano and the plucked string of the harp.
K«pr.
V«.
ceao
A r M
In - v o . ca • Ti oo.mt-n lu . um, Do . mi . nr.
\cantabtle e legale
de la . cu fiu-
""• 1 ^
fitas.
Iliay.
tcceitf IM p
Figure 61: Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremae Prophetae, measures 310-312. Copyright 1958 by Boosey & Co., Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
102
Movements for Piano and Orchpstm
In 1958, Stravinsky accepted a commission from the husband of pianist
Margrit Weber to write a work for piano and orchestra, in which he was given
caHe blanche in all aspects of the composition. The result was Movements for
Piano and Orchestra, which was completed on July 30, 1959, and premiered
shortly afterward with Ms. Weber as soloist. A humorous story was cited in
Robert Craft's diary concerning the composition of this work:
April 17, 1959: I.S. receives a letter this morning from the people who have commissioned his Movements for piano. After reading it he says, *I think I will have to add another minute or two of music ' V. [his wife. Vera]: *So much for "all-encompassing conceptions of form." The artist simply makes it up as he goes along.'*°
No accounts are available as to whether or not Stravinsky actually did "add
another minute or two of music."
The ten minute long Movements is divided into five short movements;
all but the first are preceded by short interludes for various instrumental
groupings without piano, which serve as transitions into the next movements
by sharing their respective tempi. Even a cursory glance at Figure 62, which
presents the first page of the score, reveals this work to be the most
rhythmically complex which Stravinsky ever composed. Despite its rhythmic
complexity, however, the technical treatment of the piano is very similar to
Agon and Threni; single note writing which often alternates between the hands
predominates, and again the score has the pointillistic look of a work by
Webern.
The work is a study in the combination of different instrumental
timbres. Once used, a particular combination is not heard again, as, for
example, the opening combination of flute, trumpet and violins with the piano
seen in Figure 62. William G. Walden notes that there are a total of
*°Stravinsky, Dialogues and a Diary, p. 197.
MOVEMENTS for Piano and Orchestra
103
IGOR STRAWINSKY 1»S8«»
Plaala I
Traaba I
Fiaao
• l a l l a l t n
VI. I. n
Via.
> /
PIftftO
Figure 62: Movements for Piano and Orchestra, measures 1-12. Copyright 1960 by Hawkes & Son, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
ninety-five different such groupings of instnmients within the work.'*
In the second movement, measures 55 to 57, as shown in Figure 63, the
pianist is instructed to produce harmonics by pressing down and holding
*^William Glenn Walden, "Igor Stravinsky's Movements for Piano and Orchestra: The Relationships of Formal Stmcture, Serial Technique, and Orchestration," Journal of the Canadian Association of University Schools of Mwsic 9 (Spring 1979): 73-95.
104
certain notes without sounding, and then striking three other notes staccato,
resulting in the sympathetic vibration of the held notes. This is the only
example in Stravinsky's entire orchestral oeuvre of the use of harmonics on the
piano, or indeed any type of "nontraditional" utilization of the instmment. The
piano is also given several measures of rapidly repeated single notes, as first
seen in the Capriccio; these repeated note tremolos can be seen in measures
53 to 55 of Figure 63.
Piano
Via. Sou
Ve. Salo
Tr. I
Arpa
Piaoo
Vc. Sole
marc. >» jf
Figure 63: Movements for Piano and Orchestra, measures 51-61. Copyright 1960 by Hawkes & Son, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
105
A new type of doubling makes its appearance in the Movements, as
shown in measure 87 of Figure 64. Two instmments (piano and oboe in this
instance) weave or "dovetail" back and forth to create one single line. Notice
that in the quintuplet, the oboe is given the first two parts, the piano is given
the third, they share the fourth, and the oboe is given the fifth to complete the
group. This is a hitherto unseen method of combining the timbres of two
different instmments, where the two instmments in effect become one.
With Movements, Stravinsky showed the complete assimilation of serial
techniques into his compositional style. In his last book written with Robert
Craft, he commented:
The greatest crisis in my life as a composer was the loss of Russia, and its language not only of music but of words. The second great crisis followed The Rake's Progress, though I was not aware of it as such at the time, continuing as I did to move from work to work. The 'period of adjustment' was even longer, and looking back on it now I am surprised myself at how long I continued to straddle two 'styles.' Was it because at seventy unlearning is as difficult as learning? In any case, I now see the Movements as the turn-of-the-corner in my later music.'*^
PiaDO
Ob.
CI.
Arpa
Figure 64: Movements for Piano and Orchestra, measures 86-88. Copyright 1960 by Hawkes & Son, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
42 Stravinsky, Themes and Conclusions, p. 33.
106
A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer
The piano is again used primarily as a doubHng instmment in A
Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer of 1961, although it does appear several
times without being doubled by any other instnmient. It is present in 60 of
the work's 275 total measures. As is Agon and Threni, the writing is
predominantiy in single notes, such as in the passage foimd in Figure 65,
Taaer* Solo i
Taba
Which of tha pro • phcta, which of the pro • pheta haro
. . . . . . . •>! I tJ ' — " ^ I * I
Figure 65: A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer, measures 150-157. Copyright 1961 by Boosey & Co., Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
107
where the piano is given a jagged, staccato triplet run, doubled inexactly by
bass clarinet. The texture throughout the work remains thin, with the
orchestra again being divided into smaller groupings; note that the passage
contained in Figure 65 is written for only three instruments and solo tenor.
The Flood
The Flood, a musical play "derived principally from the Book of Genesis
and the York and Chester cycles of miracle plays (set down between 1430 and
1500),"*^ was commissioned by the CBS Television Network and premiered
in a broadcast on June 14, 1962. It was written for solo tenor, two solo bassi,
chorus of sopranos, altos, and tenors, five speaking roles, and large orchestra.
The piano is used in 149 of the 582 measures of the score. Treatment of the
piano is very similar to the other late works already discussed, with single note
passages predominating. The piano is quite often doubled, especially by harp
and flute.
An extremely fascinating use of doubling occurs in the passages where
God speaks to Noah; one such passage is given in Figure 66. God's voice is
represented by two solo basses, weaving in and out of unison. The piano
doubles the first solo bass, one or two octaves lower in register, while the harp
doubles the second solo bass in the same register. In my opinion, the overall
effect of this combined doubling conveys the omniscience and overpowering
might of the voice of God in a masterful way never before portrayed.
In the section depicting the flood itself, Stravinsky uses an eerie,
unchanging cluster of sound throughout the entire movement, given to
contrabassoon, harp, piano, and low strings, to create a sense of desolation and
unending isolation from aU Hving things. This chord is reiterated thirty-three
times during the scene and is shown in Figure 67. Each hand of the piano
*^Stravinsky, The Flood (London: Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd., 1962), Titie Page.
GOD OOTT
1 Baaal Ball
J . 86-80 "» 2 " " a
.hmm}rm rm i ,rm rm,nm i rm rmj^aJ. alaaaala
Arpa
«<•«.
Via.
umpr* p • • ! p«al
Cr.C.
i \ I
108
Figure 66: The Flood, measures 180-188. Orchestral Score copyright 1963 by Boosey & Hawkes Music PubHshers Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
part is given a diminished octave, and the sustained sounds are to be held with
the damper pedal, one of the few instances where Stravinsky cafled for its use.
Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam
The short (five minute) set of variations dedicated to his friend Aldous
Huxley's memory was written in 1964. The piano makes only brief
109
Figure 67: The Flood, measures 405-408. Orchestral score copyright 1963 by Boosey & Hawkes Music PubHshers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
appearances, being used in eighteen of the work's 141 total measures. It
appears on five separate occasions as an unaccompanied solo instmment,
performing either a single chord or a quick burst of single notes. In doubHng
usage, it appears six times, each time with a different combination of
instmments. For a complete analysis of usage, refer to Table 23 in the
Appendix.
110
Figure 68 illustrates measures 5 through 10 of the score. In measure 6,
the piano is doubled by harp and the string section moving from low to high
registers; the passage is very similar to the one already discussed in Agon and
shown in Figure 59. The piano once again plays single notes, divided between
the hands, and plays the entire passage.
Figure 68: Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam, measures 5-10. Copyright 1965 by Boosey & Hawkes Music PubHshers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
I l l
In measures 7 and 8, the piano executes a "dovetailed" passage with
harp, similar to those discussed in Movements for Piano and Orchestra and
shown in Figure 59. Another example of "dovetailing" occurs in measures 15
through 17, this time with flute, shown in Figure 69. In this instance, not only
do the two instruments weave back and forth, but the two hands of the piano
part weave back and forth in the manner used so often by Stravinsky.
Figure 70 shows two separate instances of the piano used as an
unaccompanied solo instrument, as mentioned above. In measure 130 to 131,
the piano is given a short passage of single notes alternating between the
hands in a familiar manner, and in measure 134, a short upward sweep is
followed by a brief measured tremolo on two pitches.
Figure 69: Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam, measures 15-17. Copyright 1965 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore
This extremely brief piece for large orchestra was somewhat of an
anomaly for Stravinsky. Written in 1964, this thirty-five measure piece
(including a repeat of all but the last measure) is an exercise in canonic
treatment of a melodic idea, in this case the "Russian popular tune" which
Stravinsky used fifty-five years earHer in the finale of L'Oiseau de feu. The
first page of the two page score is given in Figure 71. UnHke the serial works
of this period, the Canon is written for tutti orchestra throughout. The theme
is actually written in canon with its inversion; the inverted theme begins in
measure 5, followed one beat later by the theme, at the interval of a perfect
CM.I
112
4
I i . '
^ ^
^ • f '
a 5»
1 ^ ^a 2 » 7-
»
Figure 70: Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam, measures 130-134. Copyright 1965 by Boosey & Hawkes Music PubHshers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
fourth. Both versions also appear in augmented form, two beats apart. The
piano part is a focal point in the score, as the left hand is given the inverted
theme and the right hand is given the original theme, both in octaves; both
lines are doubled extensively throughout the orchestra.
113
CANON* lor Coiicerl liilruduclioii or Encore
I'ortissiiMo c Modcruto rianui picvtilo
e r iaul l graiitll
Clalliirtli) lij<i<n III Sib
1.2. 3 Tioi i ibr III l>i>
3.
£ Tioiiilioiii Tetioif
Tiuniliunr liasMi
' u * a liii.^xiiia {KicHlar lunr.
Figure 71: Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore, measures 1-8. Copyright 1973 by Boosey & Hawkes Music PubHshers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
114
Requiem Canticles
The Requiem Canticles of 1966 was Stravinsky's last work to include
orchestra; the only completed composition postdating it is a Hght piece. The
Owl and the Pussycat, for solo voice and piano, although several projects
remained uncompleted. The piano appears only in the "Dies Irae" and the
"Postlude," and is only present in sixteen of the work's 350 measures.
Stravinsky's treatment of the piano in his final work is very similar to his
other works of the serial period. Figure 72 contains two statements of a
Tr. I. II
Trba. I. II S Ua. ^ =
Figure 72: Requiem Canticles, measures 85-87. Copyright 1967 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
115
phrase which occurs five separate times in the "Dies Irae." The piano is
doubled with timpani and full string section in a manner similar to those
already discussed in Agon (Figure 59) and Variations (Figure 68), but is made
more interesting by the inexactness of the doubling, both in rhythm and in
pitch: second violins share the first pitch and the triplet rhythm of beat three,
but diverge in pitch; violas play in the same rhythm and share a common pitch
on each beat, but diverge in pitch between the beats; violoncelli play two
common pitches in the first two beats, but in a different rhythm.
Figure 73 contains the last measures of the Requiem Canticles. The
piano is utilized in a chordal capacity, sounding six pitches, doubled on all
C«»fM«t
Figure 73: i^egwiem Ca;i^tc/es, measures 302-305. Copyright 1967 by Boosey & Hawkes Music PubHshers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.
116
pitches by piccolo, flute, alto flute, harp, celesta, bells, vibraphone, and hom.
It is interesting to note that Stravinsky incorporates the pianistic device of
placing the lowest sound of a widely stretched chord, one which cannot be
reached by the hands of a pianist, before the beat as a tied grace note. It
obviously was more important to him that the piano sound all of the tones
written, even if it meant changing the rhythmic sense of the measure. (One
wonders why he did not assign the lowest notes of the chords to a second
pianist; it is highly possible that Stravinsky, ever the pragmatist, could not
justify another performer for so small a role).
Although the Requiem Canticles was a work specifically commissioned
to be dedicated to the memory of Helen Buchanan Seeger, it must be supposed
that Stravinsky also had in mind his own approaching death and that it would
be his own requiem. It is fitting and beneficial for the purposes of this
particular study that he chose to incorporate the piano into his last major
work, bringing to a close a tradition that had begun with his first major
success nearly sixty years previously.
Stravinskv*s Attitudes Regarding Non-traditional Usage of Piano
. . . And what of the future? I shall continue to trust my taste buds and the logic of my ear, quaint expressions which I may be able to ampHfy by adding that I require as much hearing at the piano as ever before. I know, too, that I will never cross the gulf from well-tempered pitches to sound effects and noise, and never abdicate the rule of my ears.**
This comment, made by Stravinsky to Robert Craft in the early 1960s,
is an eloquent statement of his compositional and musical philosophy of music.
Although one cannot be certain what Stravinsky is referring to as "well-
tempered pitches," I believe he was alluding to the twelve pitches of the
chromatic scale, which can be identified as the twelve different keys within an
44 Stravinsky, Themes and Conclusions, p. 33.
117
octave on the piano. His treatment of the piano within the orchestra reflected
this resolution not to resort to "soimd effects and noise." Through all of the
major stylistic changes which marked his long compositional career, he never
once utilized the instrument in any of the nontraditional methods which were
in vogue during the twentieth century, such as the plucking of the strings with
the fingers; striking of the strings with mallets; use of the prepared piano with
bolts, metal cHps, paper, mbber, felt, etc., attached to or laid across the
strings; striking the wooden cabinet of the piano; or using of electronic
keyboard instruments. The closest he came to a nontraditional usage of the
piano was the one-time use of harmonics in the Movements for Piano and
Orchestra, discussed in Chapter IV.
His contempt for some of these effects is evident in the following
comment:
Progress, or at least invention, might have been detected by the non-initiate in the new techniques for the movement of sound in space. But some of the other 'pioneering' of the period must have seemed to him [the non-initiate] like paring closer and closer to nothingness . . . [for instance] the performances on the woodwork of the piano (after the attractions of 'topless' pianos had been overexposed). . . *
In an earlier dialogue with Robert Craft, when discussing
instrumentation, Stravinsky commented that an "old" instrument, the piano,
interested him more than an Ondes Martinot.*^ This was an electronic music
instrument invented by Maurice Marteriot, first presented in 1928, which used
a keyboard and produced only one note at a time. Vibrato could be created,
and both low and high ranges exceeded the limits of the piano. Wide glissando
sweeps and expressive portamentos were possible. Many of Stravinsky's
*^Stravinsky, Themes and Conclusions, p. 150.
*^Stravinsky, Conversations with Igor Stravinsky, p. 32.
118
contemporaries wrote works for it or incorporating it, including Milhaud,
Jolivet, Ibert, Honegger, Varese, and Messiaen.*^
On still another occasion, he made the following remark about the use
of computers to create music:
At a recent concert featuring one of Bell Laboratory's IBM computers . . . I leamed that the instrument costs more than $100 an hour to rent and a great deal more than that to operate. . . . the concert, by the way, persuasively demonstrated that this new means of communication has as yet nothing to communicate.*®
Stravinsky also refrained from using pianos which had been timed in
non-traditional ways. Regarding quarter-tone pianos, he once commented that
"I remember playing a quarter-tone piano four hands with Hindemith in the
Berlin Hochschule in the 1920's. I also remember my surprise at how quickly
our ears became accustomed to it. . . . Since then I have thought about
quarter-tones but avoided writing them."*^ Although he made this comment
in the 1950s, it would hold true for the rest of his life. He was content to
utilize the piano within traditional means and soimds only.
*^Stanley Sadie, ed.. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 13 (New York: MacmiUan PubHshers Limited, 1980), pp. 540-541.
*®Stravinsky, Themes and Conclusions, p. 20.
*^Stravinsky, Expositions and Developments, p. 103-104.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study has been to docimient Stravinsky's treatment
of the piano as an orchestral instmment and to trace the changes which took
place in this treatment from the beginning to the end of his compositional
career. In particular, six areas have been analyzed and presented in the tables
which form the Appendix at the end of this study: doublings with other
instruments; octave usage; pianistic effects; percussive effects; pedal usage; and
solo passage-work. This next section will simimarize trends discovered in
analyzing each of these areas within the context of the entire orchestral output
and relate these trends in piano usage to the changes in Stravinsky's
compositional style throughout his career.
Doublings with Other Instruments
Although the piano was used to double other instnmients throughout
Stravinsky's orchestral works, the ways in which it was doubled changed
considerably from the early to the late compositions. In the earliest works,
Stravinsky doubled the piano most often in large tutti sections, in combination
with groups of instruments, such as high winds or low strings, or with harp
and/or celesta; less often with individual instruments. Beginning in the 1920s,
he began to double the piano more often with individual instruments, or with
smaller groups of instruments, and frequently used partial doubling of other
instruments, such as has been discussed in the Allegro of the Concerto for
Piano and Winds. Very often, the piano would be given all notes of a
particular musical phrase, while the other instruments would weave in and out
of the phrase. In the serial works toward the end of his life, the piano is
generally doubled by one or sometimes two instruments. Partial doubling and
doubling with slight variations in pitch and rhythm are common. Stravinsky
showed an interest in producing as many different types of tone colors as
119
120
possible, through constantly changing combinations of instruments, and
oftentimes a particular grouping appeared only once in a composition; this
exploration of tone color reached its apex in Movements for Piano and
Orchestra.
Although examples can be found of the piano being doubled with each
instnmient of the orchestra at one time or another, certain instnmients were
doubled much more frequently. Stravinsky showed a marked affinity for the
soimd of piano doubled with piccolo and/or flute, sometimes joined also by oboe
or clarinet. When in the lower registers of the piano, he often doubled the
pitches with bassoon, bass clarinet, and sometimes contrabassoon.
Of the brass family, he seems to have preferred the piano sound doubled
by the horn. Trombone and tuba double the lower registers with less
frequency; the use of sarrusophone combined with piano in Threni creates a
unique timbre. The highest of the brass instruments, the tnmfipet, is rarely
doubled with the piano except in full orchestral tutti sections; when it does
appear with piano, it is often placed one or two octaves lower than the piano
in register. The trumpet does appear frequently in canon with the piano, in
the same register.
The percussion instnmient most frequently doubled with the piano (in
its low register) is the timpani; the combination of timpani, piano, and harp is
used often in the neoclassical works. The xylophone is combined with the
piano's higher register several times in the early and middle period works; it
appears only once with piano in the later works, in two measures of The Flood.
OccasionaUy, the piano is doubled in rhythm by the bass dnun, snare drum,
or other percussion instrument.
Stravinsky evidently regarded the doubling of piano and stringed
instruments as a special problem. In the early 1930s, after completing his
violin concerto, he commented:
For years I had disliked the sounds produced in combination by the percussive strings of the piano and the strings vibrated by the
121
bow. In order to be able to accept this combination of instmments, I felt I had to use the smallest possible grouping, i.e., as two solo instruments, so as to find a way of solving the instrumental and acoustical problems arising from the alliance of the two different types of strings. This is what suggested the Duo Concertant for violin and piano. The wedding of the two instruments seems to make for greater clarity than the combination of pianoforte with several stringed instruments, which tends to sound like an orchestral ensemble.^°
Perhaps because of this reservation regarding the combination of the
percussive piano tone and the bowed string tone, Stravinsky often instructed
string instruments to play pizzicato (pluck with the fingers) when doubled by
piano. However, the piano does still double many passages which are bowed,
especially in the earlier works. When appearing with strings, the piano most
often doubles either the entire section in all registers, or else doubles the
violoncello and double bass in the lower register; it appears with violins alone
much less frequently.
Octave Usage
Octaves seemed to hold a particular fascination for Stravinsky; at times,
they also .seemed to present him with a great problem. It was already
mentioned at the beginning of this study that Stravinsky viewed octaves as
being particularly pianistic and that no other instrument produced them so
well. In 1968, near the end of his life, he commented to Robert Craft: "I had
no sooner forbidden myself to use octaves in one piece than I saw what
richness I could extract from them, and I used them in the next piece all the
time."^^ Octaves appear in his music in diverse ways: each hand playing a
single note one or more octaves apart; one hand playing a line in octaves and
^ ^ a d , p. 116.
"Robert Craft, Chronicle of a Friendship, 1948-1971 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), p. 343.
122
the other playing a single note Hne one or more octaves above or below; one
hand in octaves while the other hand plays something completely different;
both hands striking simultaneously in octaves; hands altemating back and
forth in octaves; hands altemating back and forth with one hand in octaves
and the other on single notes; one or both hands in octaves along with other
chordal tones filled in; partial octave runs in which octaves altemate with
single notes within the same hand.
Octaves appear frequently in the early works; Petrouchka contains
mainly different types of octave writing, as does Le Chant du Rossignol and
the revised Suite L'Oiseau de feu of 1919; Figures 1 and 15 contain good
examples of octave passages. Chordal octaves, in which one or both hands
must play an octave along with one or more chord tones within, occurred
infrequently in Petrouchka, and are more prevalent in the middle period works,
especially the Concerto for Piano and Winds and the Capriccio for Piano and
Orchestra. Partial octaves, already discussed at length, also appear, beginning
with the Concerto for Piano and Winds and culminating in the Symphony in
Three Movements. The use of octaves disappears after the latter work, except
for the anomalous Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore, as Stravinsky
began his compositions in serial style.
Pianistic Effects
Besides octaves, which Stravinsky viewed as being so pianistic, he also
made great use of other pianistic effects such as glissandi, arpeggios, tremolos,
passages which altemate between the hands, and passages which remain on
the white or black keys. Glissandi appear frequently in each of the early
works; appearances in the middle period works are mainly limited to
orchestrations of earHer pieces such as the Suite No. 2 and the Quatre Etudes,
although they reappear in the early 1930s in Symphony of Psalms, Persephone,
and Scherzo a la Russe. Two occurrences of glissandi in Symphony in Three
Movements of 1945 would become the last time he used this effect. There are
123
none in the later works, although he evidentiy still liked the effect of a
gHssando. Late in his Hfe, in discussing Kariheinz Stockhausen's Carre, he
said: "Not only are the sounds attractive, but so are the Aion-sounds. . . I also
like the role of the piano, both solo and in combination; and I like the glissandi
at 67.""
Arpeggios are most prevalent in the early works such as Petrouchka and
Suite L'Oiseau de feu. They appear occasionally in the middle period works
such as Oedipus Rex, but are not present in the late works. Tremolos do occur
in several of the late works, as well as the early and middle period
compositions. Passages altemating between the hands, often at great speed,
occur frequently, especially in the middle period works such as the Concerto
and the Capriccio. Stravinsky must have found this pianistic technique
particularly appealing because of its percussive nature. Although the nature
of his writing in the late works did not dictate much need for the use of
altemating hands, he did write several passages in this manner, in A Sermon,
a Narrative, and a Prayer and Requiem Canticles. One final pianistic effect
worthy of mentioning again is found in Threni, where he instructs the pianist
(and harpist) to let the sound vibrate all' estinzione, or until inaudible.
Percussive Effects
Stravinsky's perception of the piano as a percussion instnmient, which
began early in his career and, by his own statement, reached full fruition in
the Concerto, has been well documented in this study. He treated the piano
in a non-lyrical, dry, detached manner in much of his music, and gave
nimierous and varied types of accents and sforzandos to indicate different
levels of stress which he desired to be place on the attacks. These various
indications of accent are given in the "Percussive effects" column in the tables
of the Appendix.
^^Stravinsky, Themes and Conclusions, p. 25.
124
Pedal Usage
It has already been mentioned that Stravinsky was uncomfortable with
and seldom used the damper pedal, and a glance through the tables confirms
this. The abstinence from use of the damper pedal results in a sharper,
clearer, more percussive tone which is much more in keeping with his
aesthetic. His fondness for the una corda pedal, which is apparent throughout
the orchestral works, is noteworthy, especially in the rather frequent forte
passages which are to be played with this pedal. This again would tend to
reinforce the percussiveness of the piano tone, as the pianist must attack each
note with greater sharpness and precision to obtain a loud tone with the pedal
engaged.
Solo passage-work
Stravinsky's perception of the piano as a solo instrument underwent
major changes throughout his lifetime. In the early works, the solo passages
for piano have a distinctly pianistic character, such as in Petrouchka. When
Stravinsky used the piano, he generally intended to feature it as a concertante
instrument. This attitude still prevailed in the late teens when he wrote
L'Histoire du Soldat. As already has been discussed, he intentionally did not
include piano in it because he felt he would have to make it a vehicle of
virtuosity for the instrument. The solo works for piano and orchestra of his
middle period, the Concerto and the Capriccio, as well the Symphony in Three
Movements, reflected this virtuosic conception. In several of the works of the
1930s, such as Symphony of Psalms and Persephone, he began to integrate the
piano more completely into the orchestral texture, and to rely on it less as a
solo instrument.
This integration became complete in the serial works, in which the piano
is no longer used in the virtuosic sense; instead, it often plays one note at a
time and is exploited more in terms of its tone color. Even in the Movements
for Piano and Orchestra, in which the piano is featured as the solo instrument,
125
it is treated in a more integrated fashion. What prominence it has in this
piece could be due more to its commission as a work for piano and orchestra
than any other factor.
Conclusion
Stravinsky's treatment of the piano in the orchestral works written
through the course of his long career can be seen to parallel and reflect the
evolution of his compositional style as a totality. In its earHest uses, it was
used primarily as a soloistic instrument or as a doubling instrument within the
context of a huge orchestra, in deference to his Russian tutelage under
Rimsky-Korsakov. As Stravinsky moved toward a thinner, ascetic, and more
contrapuntal style which relied on concertato principles, the role of the piano
increased in importance because its percussive and polyphonic qualities so
closely matched the aesthetic he was cultivating. Finally, when his
compositional style tumed to serialism in the 1950s, the technical and
polyphonic capabilities of the instnmient became secondary to the piano's tone,
which rose in importance as a distinct color in his textural and tonal spectrum,
and its use primarily as a single line instnmient reflected the more pointillistic
approach to composition in the final works.
The study of Stravinsky's treatment of the piano in his orchestral works
offers a wealth of information to anyone interested in new and creative uses
of the instrument; conductors and pianists in particular will find much of
value. He was a pioneer in the inclusion of the piano as an integral member
of the orchestra, and his unique, fascinating explorations into the possibilities
of piano treatment in the orchestral texture reveal yet another facet of his
genius.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adler, Samuel. The Study of Orchestration. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1982.
BerHoz, Hector. Treatise on Instrumentation. Enlarged/revised by Richard Strauss. Translated by Theodore Front. New York: Edwin F. Kalmus PubHshing, 1948.
Blatter, Alfred. Instrumentation I Orchestration. New York and London: Longman, 1980.
Caesar, Clifford. Igor Stravinsky: A Complete Catalogue. San Francisco: San Francisco Press, 1982.
Craft, Robert. Stravinsky: The Chronicle of a Friendship; 1948-1971. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1972.
de Lerma, Dominique-Ren^, and Ahrens, Thomas J. Igor Fedorovitch Stravinsky, 1882-1971; A Practical Guide to Publications of His Music. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1974.
Eaton, Quaintance. Opera Production, a Handbook. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1961.
Forsyth, Cecil. Orchestration, 2nd ed. New York: The MacmiUan Company, 1949.
Horgan, Paul. Encounters With Stravinsky; A Personal Record. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972.
Jacob, Gordon. The Elements of Orchestration. New York: October House, 1965.
Jacob, Gordon. Orchestral Technique, A Manual For Students, 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Joseph, Charles M. Stravinsky and the Piano. Ann Arbor, IVHchigan: UMI Research Press, 1983.
Joseph, Charles M. A Study of Igor Stravinsky's Piano Compositions. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1974.
126
127
Kennan, Kent. The Technique of Orchestration. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1952.
Lang, Paul Henry. Stravinsky; A New Appraisal of His Work, With a Complete List of Works. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1963.
Libmann, LilHan. And Music at the Close: Stravinsky's Last Years, a Personal Memoir. New York, W. W. Norton, and Co., 1972.
Onnen, Frank. Stravinsky. Translated from the Dutch by M. M. Kessler-Button. Stockholm: The Continental Book Company, 1948.
Piston, Walter. Orchestration. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1955.
Read, Gardner. Style and Orchestration. New York: Schirmer Books, 1979.
Read, H. Owen, and Leach, Joel T. Scoring For Percussion, and the Instruments of the Percussion Section. Englewood CHffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hafl, Inc., 1969.
Redcay, Erwin Thomas. The Piano as an Orchestral Instrument. Doctoral ^ dissertation, Eastman School of Music, 1962.
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay. Principles of Orchestration. Translated by Edward Agate. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1964.
Routh, Francis. Stravinsky. London: J. M. Dent, 1975.
Rubinstein, Arthur. My Many Years. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1980.
Siohan, Robert. Stravinsky. Translated by Eric Walter White. London: Calder and Boyars, 1965.
Stravinsky, Igor. An Autobiography. New York: Simon and Shuster, 1936.
Stravinsky, Igor. A Complete Catalogue of His Published Works. London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1957.
Stravinsky, Igor, and Craft, Robert. Conversations With Igor Stravinsky. Berkeley: University of CaHfomia Press, 1980
Stravinsky, Igor. Selected Correspondence. Translated and edited with commentary by Robert Craft. London: Faber and Faber Co., 1982.
128
Stravinsky, Igor, and Craft, Robert. Dialogues and a Diary. London: Faber and Faber, 1968.
Stravinsky, Igor, and Craft, Robert. Expositions and Developments. Berkeley: University of CaHfomia Press, 1962.
Stravinsky, Igor, and Craft, Robert. Memories and Commentaries. London: Faber and Faber, 1960.
Stravinsky, Igor. Poetics of Music. Translated by Arthur Knodel and Ingolf Dahl. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1947.
Stravinsky, Igor, and Craft, Robert. Retrospectives and Conclusions. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1969.
Stravinsky, Igor, and Craft, Robert. Themes and Conclusions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Stravinsky, Vera, and Craft, Robert. Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents. New York: Faber and Faber, 1978.
Strobel, Heinrich. Stravinsky: Classic Humanist. Translated by Hans Rosenwald. New York: Merlin Press, 1955.
Terse, Paul. Studien zur Verwendung des Konzertflugels im Opernorchester in der Zeit von etwas 1930 bis etwa 1970. Regensburg: Bosse, 1982.
Thomason, Marshall Malone. Neo-Tonality: A Unified Approach to Stravinsky's Neoclassical Music. Dissertation Abstracts International, Vol. 48/05-A, 1987.
Tierney, Neil. The Unknown Country: A Life of Igor Stravinsky. London: R. Hale, 1977.
Toom, Pieter C. van den. The Music of Igor Stravinsky. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Vlad, Roman. Stravinsky. Translated from the Italian by Robert Craft and Andr^ Marion. London: Oxford University Press, 1961.
Walden, William Glenn. Igor Stravinsky's Movements for Piano and Orchestra: The Relationships of Formal Structure, Serial Technique, and Orchestration. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1979.
129
White, Eric Walter. Stravinsky: The Composers and His Works, 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber, 1979.
The tables which follow give a detailed analysis of each orchestral work by Igor Stravinsky which has been discussed in this study. Measure numbers are given in the first column, followed by all pertinent appearances imder the colimMi headings: doubling, octave usage, pianistic effects, percussive effects, pedal usage, and solo passagework. At the end of each table, the total measures containing piano and the total measures of the work are given.
Kev To Instnmaental Abbreviations B belt b.d. brs bsn eel chor cl cym db e.h. fl full orch glock hm hrp marib ob P. I, P. II pelt perc pic sarrus s.d. stngs T tam tba tbn timp tpt vc via vn xylo wnds
bass section of chorus bass clarinet bass drum brass section bassoon celeste chorus clarinet C5nnbals double bass section engHsh hom flute full orchestra glockenspiel hom harp marimba oboe Piano I, Piano II piccolo clarinet (E flat) percussion piccolo sarrusophone snare dnmi entire string section tenor section tam-tam tuba trombone timpani trumpet violoncello section viola section violin section xylophone wind section
131
132
Kev To Other Abbreviations And Svmbols Used accom alt hands arp ben marc, bth hnds
cdnza chrds con diff rthm d/n
gliss l.h. l.v. par ped or Ped pizz r.h. rhy rip s/n syn accents trem u.c. var 3/n
8vaT 15vaT
a solo passage which is accompanimental altemating hands passage arpeggio ben mareato both hands; refers to both hands, each playing octaves, but on different pitches cadenza chords concertino group different rhythm 4 note octave line, with each hand playing an octave on the same pitch in different registers glissando left hand laissez vibrer, or let vibrate partial or incomplete doubling damper pedal pizzicato right hand rhjrthmic doubling, not in pitch ripieno group 2 note octave line, with each hand playing one of the notes syncopated accents tremolo una corda pedal variation; not doubled exactly in pitch or rhythm 3 note octave line, with one hand plajdng two notes an octave apart, the other hand pla5dng a single note one or more octaves away piano plays 1 octave higher than instrument cited piano plays 2 octaves higher than instrument cited
133
Table 3: L'Oiseau de feu (Original 1910 version)
Measure
102
179-180
657-666
667-672
675-681
682-683
Doubling
cel/hrp
full orch
glock/hrp
full orch
eel (15vaT)
pic/fl/ob/ e.hVcl
Octave usage
Pianistic effects
tremolo
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
Solo passagework
Total measures with piano: 28 Total measures of work: 1294
Table 4: Petrouchka
134
Measure
11,21
14-17
25-41
42-61
73-81,95-99 155-163
88-92
130-131
140-144, 151-154
166-194
206-240
249-250
252-254
255-258
264-265
296-299
305-312
313-324
325-340
341-347
348-349,352 353,356-357
363-374
375-386,389
387-388,390 392
iinO-407
Doubling
fVbsn(var)
vn(var)
pic/fl/ob/ tpt(32,35-41)
full orch
bclt/bsn/timp/ vc/dbO.h.) vn/vla(r.h.)
bclt/bsn/timp/ vc/dbO.h.) tptCr.h.)
pic/vc
Octave usage
3/n 8va apart
r.h.
l.h. r.h. in 9ths
l.h. r.h. in 9ths
s/n 15va apart
pic/ob(154,r.h.)
similar to 25-61
similar to 73-99
ob, pic/fl in canon
pic/fl in canon
fl (var)
pic/fl/tpt/ hrp/stngs
fl/hrp(var)
pic/fl/ob/ e.h./clt/bclt/ hm/tpt
hrp/vn(var)
fl/vn(canon)
full orch
- bsn/vla/vc/db
1
1- pic/xylo
s/n 8va apart
s/n 8va
r.h.
r.h.(328, 337-339)
r.h.chordal
l.h.
3/n 8va apart
r.h.chordal
Pianistic effects
gliss(41)
arpeggio
gliss(174)
gliss(312)
alt hands
ghss(339-40)
alt hands
white key runs
1
Percussive Pedal effects usage
mareato sempre
lefl pedal
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X (lyric)
X (accom)
X
X
Table 4: Continued
135
Measure
408-423 425,427,429-430,432-438
449
455-456
467-481
482-490
491-509
510-515
516-517
518-533
536-543
544-552
553-558
559
562
567-569
573-576
610
613
617
745-751
763-765
777
782-784
Doubling
pic/fl(var)
pic/fl/ob/ e.h7cl/tpt
cym
fl/ob/e.h./ cl/bsn/hm/ tpt/s.d.
fl(492-495)
cl/vn(var)
fl/ob/e.h./ bsn/hm/s.dy stngs
tpt/stngs
hrp/stngs
full orch
hm/stngs(par
bsn/tbn/timp/ vc/db
pic/fl
bsn/hm/hrp/ stngs(var)
fl/tpt(var)
fl/vn
ob/bsn/hm/vc
hrn
Octave usage
d/n (incomplete)
d/n
r.h.
chord
) l.h.
r.h. (748-751)
Pianistic effects
r.h. white/ l.h. black alt hands
alt hands trem
alt hands runs
alt hands runs
arpeggios, alt hands runs
alt hands runs
black/white alt hands
alt hands trem
alt hands trem
alt hands
alt hands, repeated notes
both hands alt hands
; both hands alt hands
both hands alt hands
Percussive effects
sf-p
Pedal usage
left pedal
Solo passagework
X X
X
X
X (lyric)
X (accom)
X (lyric)
X (accom)
X (runs)
X
X
136
Table 4: Continued
Measure
785
787-792
793-794
799
803-811
812-819
826-833
875-878
885-890
936-939,942-945,972-979
956-960
1056-1067
1068-1105
1106-1107
1115-1125
1127-1130
1149-1160
1198-1201
1202
1204-1208
1210-1211
1215
Doubling
tba/timp/b.d7 db
hm/tpt/tbn/ stngs
full orch
fl/hm/hrp
hrp/vla(var)
pic/fl
stngs(var)
fl/cl/tpt
• hrp
cl/hrp(var)
hrp
hrp(var)
ob/e.h./cy hm/hrp
pic/fl
cl
cl/fl/pic(par)
vn/vla(var)
fl
vn/vc
Octave usage
l.h.
Pianistic effects
both hands alt hands
both hands alt hands
s/n 15va apart
3/n
bth hnds
bth hnds
3/n 8va
arpeggios
solo line, arpeggioSjChords
alt hands measured trem
alt hands, repeated notes ghss (889-90)
alt hands,re-peated fifths
single chords
Percussive effects
sffF
sf
i
ostinato
sff
alt hands (3rds) ben articulate white keys only
alt hnds,chrds
alt hnds
arpeg,alt hnds
gliss
sf
ben marc.
Pedal usage
ped.
ped.
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Total measures with piano: 539 Total measures of work: 1267
Table 5: Le Chant du Rossignol
137
Measure
1-2
3
4
7-11
13-16
27-32
33-38
44-49
50-53
64-65
67
108
117-118
127-129
130-133
136
137-142
151-159
182-183
193-196
197-202
203-214
215-226
227-237
Doubling
hm/trb/hrp
cl
fl/cKbeat 2)
cel/hrp(var)
vcO.h.)
hrp(52-53)
pic/fl/cel
full orch
h m
stngs,timp
pic/hm/hrp/ stngs
cel(var)
tpt(canon)
fl/cl
hrp( canon)
hrp/vc/db
fl/ob/tpt/ tbn/tba/timp/ stngs
Octave usage
l.h.
3/n(beat 2)
3/n(13-14)
s/n 8va apart
Pianistic effects
gliss. alt hands trem
s/n arpeggio
alt hands trem
arpeggio(beat 1)
alt hands, repeated notes pno on whites, cel/hrp black
alt hands trem, chordal
4 gliss
gliss
s/n arpeggios
all black keys
all black keys s/n alt hands
tremolo on repeated note
Percussive effects
sf downbeat on 28,30,32
Pedal Solo usage passagework
ped.
alt meas: Ped,l.v./ una corda sf
X
X
una corda
X(accom)
Una corda X sempre poco sf
ped.
l.v.
l.v.
Table 5: Continued
138
Measure
247,274 251-258
291-293
295-300
Doubling
fl vn/vla(var)
vc
Octave usage
Pianistic effects
s/n arpeggio
s/n trem on repeated notes
Percussive effects
poco sf
sf
Pedal usage
alt meas:
Solo passagework
X
301-306
312-317
alt hands, repeated notes
alt hands trem, chordal
318-321
332-333
335
345-350
367-384
385-390
391-395
396-403
404-413
460-463
484
489
492
549-576
hrp(320-321)
pic/fl/cl/ eel
hrp(l.h.)
hrp/stngs
ob/clr/hm
vc/db,hrp(400) fVob/cl/hm/ hrp/stgs(403)
fl/cl/hrp/ stgs (par)
stgs(downbeat)
tam/hrp
fl/cl(par)
tam/hrp/vc/db
l.h.sus
l.h.sus
gliss
black keys
gliss
alt hand s/n tremolo at 10th
repeated note
arpeggio
sf
Ped,l.v./ Una corda sf
l.v.
ped.
X
X
Total measures with piano: 224 Total measures of work: 601
Table 6: Suite de L'Oiseau de feu (1919)
139
Measure
22
34
36-37
41,45
47, 49, 50
48
52-54, 56-57
59
62,66
72,73
74-81
204,214,218, 222,224,226, 230
230-237
238,240
241
250,252,254, 256
257-258
266-267
270-271
272-275
276-277
Doubling
fl/vn/vla
cl/bsn/hm
picc/fl
vn/vc (beat 2)
vn (2nd half ol each beat: 52, 54, 56)
hrp
fl
hrp
full orch
fl,pic(233-37), xylo(231,235), hrp(234-237)
picc/fl/ob/cl/ bsn/hm/tpt/ hrp/stgs
fl/bsn/hrp
, vc
fl/hrp
fl/ob/hm
fl/vn
fVob/cl/hm tpt in canon
pic/fVob/cl/ Ibsn/hm/tpt/ tbn/tba
Octave usage
s/n 15va apart
s/n 8va apart
s/n 8va apart
d/n 15va apart
d/n 8va apart
d/n alt
d/n alt
d/ntgthr
Pianistic effects
s/n run
tremolo
gliss (r.h.) arpeggio (l.h.)
arpeggio
arpeggios
gliss (r.h.) arpeggio (l.h.)
gliss
arpeggios gliss (ms. 80)
arpeggio
Percussive effects
sf, >
sf, >
sfff
sf sempre
> each octave
> each octave
Pedal usage
l.v.
l.v.
l.v.(beat 3)
l.v.
l.v.
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
140
Table 6: Continued
Measure
278-279,284 286
288
292-293
295-300
332-343
344-345
362-367
368-375
376-378
380-391
396-403
424-425
428-429
450-453
458-461
462,464
Doubling
, xylo
xylo
xylo
pice
hrp
hm/vc
picc/fVcl
fl,pic(371-375) xylo( 369,373, 375),hrp(372-375)
full orch
hrn/tmp/hrp/ strgs
strgs
hrp G.h.)
hrp G.h.)
strgs
hrp
Octave usage
d/n alt with singlf
d/n alt
s/n 15va apart
s/n 8va apart
Pianistic effects
gliss(bl/wht)
6 gliss
gliss
gliss
gliss
Percussive effects
sff
Pedal usage
l.v.
l.v.
l.v.
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
Total measures with piano: 135 Total measures of work: 568
141
Table 7: Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra
Measure
I. Marche
3-4
7-12,14-24, 27-39
27-28
36
41-42
Doubling
fl,vn ob/cl(par)
tba/vl/vla/ vc/db/b.d.
fl/ob/tbn/vn
fl/hm
tba/vl/vla/ vc/db/b.d.
Octave usage
s/n 8va apart
l.h.
r.h.chordal
l.h.
Pianistic effects
alt hands
Percussive effects
mareato
Pedal usage
Solo passagework
41 fl(r.h.)
Total measures with piano: Total measures of movement:
34 42
II. Valse (tacet)
III. Polka (tacet)
IV. Galop
3
4
5-20
20-21
22-24,26-32
33-34
35-36,43-44
37-38
40-42
45-48
52-64,69-72, 77-80
hm/tbn/tba/ s.dyvla/vc/db
cl/tpt/tbn/ (beat 1), b.d.(beat 2)
tpt/tbn(r.h. 8vaT),tba/vc/ dbO.h.)
pic/fl
pic/fl/ob/vn
full orch
tpt/tbn/vn
ob/tbn/vn tpt(var)
b.dyvc/db hm/tbn(var)
fl/vn/vla
r.h.(13-20)
gliss
3/n 8va
alt hands
s/n 8va
l.h.
s/n 8va
sfff
beat 2: cluster on lowest 3 notes
X(accom)
Ped.
81-122: repeat of 1-44
Total measures with piano: Total measures of movement:
102 122
Table 8: Concerto for Piano and Winds
142
Measure
33-47
49-54
55-58
59-63
64-68
69-86
87-92
93-95
96-103
104-109
110-115
116-119
120-123
125-141
142-162
163-177
192-232
233-238
239-251
252-260
Doubling
tutti orch (partial)
counterpoint w/ob,clt
fl/clt(par) bsn/cbsn/ tba/timp/ cbOh par)
pic/fl/ob/ cl/hm/(par)
hrn(84-86)
ob,cl(var)
tpt(99,8vaT) tbn(96-98)
ob/clt'bsn (par)
pic/fl/tpt
cl(123)
fl/ob/cl(130-131)
pic(150) fl/ob/cl(148-150,var)
db(168-172) bsn(172-177, var)
Octave usage
both hands, r.h. chordal
s/n& 3/n 8 or 15va apart
s/n,3/n & d/n(61-63 scalar run)
d/n partial
l.h.84-86
l.h.
l.h.
d/n(par)
r.h.chord-al(128-13i;
l.h.
Pianistic effects
106-107 alt hands
alt hands
)
l.h.168-172
Percussive effects
s/(47)
syn accents
syn accents
syn accents
accents
shifting >, meter
marcatissimo, accents
shifting >
shifting >
LITERAL RECAPITULATION OF MEASURES 33-86
LITERAL REPEAT OF MEASURES 96-108
ob/cl/bsn(par) alt hands shifting >,
Pedal usage
l.h. sustained octave
Solo passagework
X(tutti)
X
X
X
X
X(accom)
X
X(accom)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Table 8: Continued
143
Measure
261-282 283-312
313-327
Mvt. II:
328-336
337-344
345-350
354-361
362-370
371-400
412-421
422-425
431-435
Mvt. Ill:
436-450
451-458
459-464
465-490
491-500
506-516
517-524
Doubling
hm(par)fl/ ob/eh/cl(297) tpt(298-299)
tutti orch
e.h.(334) cl(335)
tpt,bsn/hm/ tbn/timp/cb
fl(345-346) ob(345-350)
tbn/tba/timp/ c/b( 354,360, par)
e.h.(var)
tpt/tbn/tba/ timp/cb(par) (var)
ob(var)
cl/bsn/hm (436)
hm(459)
timpG-h.)
Octave Pianistic usage effects
r.h.chordal alt hands
l.h.313-317 s/n 318-323 d/n 324-327
l.h.chordal
d/n chordal
r.h.chordal
lh354-355, 360-361
broken
l.h.
r.h.
l.h.
lh436-444
l.h. runs
l.h.
r.h.chordal
cl(506,514,var) 3/n alt hrn(508,516)
cbG.h.) fl/cl(520,524, var)e.h.(523-524)ob(524)
hands(507, 515)
l.h.
alt hands
Percussive Pedal effects usage
shift meter
accents, low thick chords
accents
accents, s/ l.v.
accents
shifting >
shifting >
shifting >, sempre sf
Solo passagework
X(cdnza) X
X(accom)
XGyric)
X(accom)
XGyric)
X(cdnza)
XGyric)
X( accom)
X(cdnza)
XGyric)
XGyric)
X
X
X(accom)
X(accom)
X
X ^v
X
Table 8: Continued
144
Measure Doubling
525-537 538-548
549-551
Octave usage
r.h.chordal
3/n alt hands
Pianistic effects
Percussive effects
alt hands on repeated notes
552-554
555-561
562-566
567-578
579-594
595-602
603-614
615-630
631-636
640-646
657-664
tba(8vaT)
db
tutti orch
fl/ob/e.h./ cl(623-625) cbG.h.) tutti(628-630)
db
tpt/tbn/tba
tutti, on second part of each beat
r.h. run
l.h.tenths
lh577-578
l.h.
r.h.chordal l.h.(par)
l.h. a
r.h.chordal
both hands
d/n, min 6th apart
alt hands
syn accents sf, hemiola
tres court
shifting >
shifting >
shifting meter
Pedal usage
l.v.
l.v.(605)
l.v.
m,arcatissim,o
Solo passagework
X X(accom)
X(accom)
X
X
X
X
X(accom)
X(accom)
X
X
X
X
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
592 664
145
Table 9: Oedipus Rex
Measure
12-20, 23-31, 100-111
112-116
123-128
132-134
135
141-142
145-150
150-154
159-161
162
162-165
204-211
219-221
222-227
228-231
334-340
444-452
492-494, 503-505, 513-515, 521-524
495-502, 506-512, 516-520
ACT II:
531-532
656
677-688
Doubling
timp/hrp (8vai)
tpt/tbn/r/B
wnds/brs
timp/stmgs
timp, tutti
pclt(r.h.) tbn (l.h.) Creon(var)
Creon/vc/db
hrp,hm
pclt/clt
timp
hrp,vln
bsn
fl/ob/e.h./ hm(r.h.) tpt/tbnG.h.)
bsn
timp/hrp (8va>L)
hrp(r.h.) tbn/cbG.h.)
fl/ob/hm/ tpt/voices
timp
hrp(var)
hrp(var)
timp/hrp/vc/ cb(pizz)
Octave ] usage (
s/n brken
both hands
s/n broken
both hands
3/n broken
both hands
s/n 22va apart
l.h.
l.h.
3/n
l.h.
r.h.chordal
Pianistic affects
alt hands
both hands alt hands
s/n brken
both hands
both hands
arpeggio
arpeggio
Percussive effects
ma mareato
sf
offbeats
sf
accents
sff
lowest register
low,thick repeated chord
Pedal usage
l.v.,Ped.
Ped.
Ped.
Ped.
l.v. Ped.
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X(accom)
X(accom)
146
Table 9: Continued
Measure
759-771
980-983
1214-1222
1235-1240
Doubling
timp/hrp/db vc(diff rthm)
fl/cl/hm/tpt/ strings(pizz)
bsn/vc/db(var) timp/tba(var)
bsn/vc/db timp/tba
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Octave Pianistic usage effects
both hands
3/n & 2/n
3/n & 2/n
132 1268
Percussive Pedal effects usage
low, thick repeated chord
accented ped.
s/,ostinato
ostinato
Solo passagework
Table 10: Quatre Etudes pour Orchestra
147
Measure
I. Danse:
4-45
Doubling
vla/vc(var)
II. Excentrique:
16
18
21
24
27-30
31-32
34
35-36
37-51
52-54
70-71
III. Cantiqu
TACET
rv. Madrid
25
27-51
33-34
52-53
53-54
55
56-61
64
66-67
70-71
hrn(var)
vc
hm(var)
hm(var)
h m
vn
bclfcb
stngs(octave displacement)
fl/vc(53)
hrn/stngs(var)
e:
bsn
timp/stngs (var)
fl(var,r.h.)
bsn/tpt/tbn
vc/db
ob/hm/stngs
vn I(var)
hm/tpt
hrn/tpt/tbn
hrn
Octave usage
l.h.chorda
Pianistic effects
glissando
glissando
r.h. white l.h. black
glissando
glissando
1
both hands chordal
both hands chordal
both hands chordal
Percussive effects
ostinato
poco sf on single note
sff
ostinato
ostinato
mareato
sff sub.
Pedal usage
Ped.
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Table 10: Continued
148
Measure
73
Doubling Octave Pianistic usage effects
both hands chordal
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
Solo passagework
X
76 fl/vn(var) glissando
77-78 hm(var)
82-87
88-91
95-98
99-113
113
stngs(rhy)
vc/db(var)
timp/stngs
both hands chordal
l.h.
ostinato
ostinato
ostinato l.v.
X
X(accom)
X(accom)
X
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
145 280
Table 11: Capriccio
149
Measure
1-4,10-13
4,13
19-22
26-31
32-39
40-46
47-80
81-88
89-102
103-105
106-115
116-121
122-124
125-131
132-134
135-147
136,138
148-163
165-168, 175-176
168-174, 179-192
177
Mvt. II:
195-196
200-201
202
203
204-210
Doubling
brs/timp/ con stngs
tutti orch
timp
fl(var),db
Octave usage
Pianistic effects
both hands trill
d/n &8/n
d/n &s/n
d/n
timp/vc/db(var)
rip vn/vla (var)
3/n repeated
timp/vc/db(var)
clt/con vn(var) broken
bsn/tpt/tba/ timp/con stgs
tutti orch
d/n & s/n
r.h.run
s/n broken repeated notes
alt hands
alt hands
chrom runs
alt hands
l.h. arp
alt s/n
alt hands
alt hands
alt hands
alt hands
both hands trill
s/n 15va apart
d/n
l.h.
trill
scalar
alt hands
triKr.h.)
alt hands
Percussive Pedal effects usage
ostinato: ben mxircato
ostinato
marc. >
ostinato
ostinato
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X( accom)
X(accom)
X
X
X
X
repeated notes
Table 11: Continued
150
Measure
211-213
214-220
222-249
253-254
258-263
268-277
278-279
Mvt. Ill:
281-290
292-298
298-300
301-321
322-330
331-367
368-372
373-386
387-412
413-424
425-426
427-430
431-433
434-440
441-443
447-451
451-460
461-484
485-492
493-498
Doubling
con vc
pic/con vn/ vla( 305-307)
con vn(var)
con vc(var)
hm/stngs
ob/clt/bsn/ stngs
tutti(var)
fl/cl/bsn
Octave usage
d/n,l.h.
s/n 8va
3/n
d/n run
r.h.
d/n runs, r.h.chordal
r.h.runs, broken
Pianistic effects
arpeggios
trill,arp
alt hands,trill
alt hands,trill
scalar
alt hands
alt hands s/n repeated
arpeggios
l.h.arpeggios
d/n chordal
alt hands
both hands
both hands
both hands
l.h.
s/n 8va
trem on repeated note
double notes
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
shifting >
l.v.
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X(cdnza)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
151
Table 11: Continued
Measure
499-518
525-527
Doubling
tutti orch
Total measures with piano: Total measure of work:
Octave usage
3/n
Pianistic effects
alt hands
485 527
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
Solo passagework
X
X
152
Table 12: Symphony of Psalms
Measure
1,4,8,14
Doubling Octave usage
Pianistic effects
Percussive Pedal Solo effects usage passagework
fl/pic/ob/ both hands spacing of e.hTbsn/ (tenths) chord based cbsn/tbn/timp/ on extended bd/hrp/vc/db hand position
12-13
15-25
47(P.I)
48,52
49-52
65-67
72-78
Mvt. II:
TACET
Mvt. Ill:
4-6
7-8, 21-22
14-19
35
38-39
40-43(P.I)
44-45(P.I)
40-45(P.II)
46-47
48-51
53-60
61-64
fl
as in ms. 1
fl/bsn(P.II) hrp(P.I)
fl/pic(P.I) bsn(P.II)
fVob/cbsn/ vc/db(P.II) ob/bsn(P.I)
timp/hrp
fl/ob/e.h./ cbsn/tpt/tbn
hrp/vc/db
tbn
fl/ob(var)
pic/fl/tpt
vc/db
fl/ob/hm
tutti orch
bsn
s/n 15va apart
s/n 15va apart
as in ms.l
s/n 15va apart(P.I)
d/n (P.I) s/n 15va apart(P.II)
s/n 15va apart(P.I) d/n (P.II)
l.h.
l.h., r.h. tenth
s/n 8va, 5 oct. span P.I & II
l.h.
scalar
as in ms. 1
both hands alt hands
s/n
s/n
l.h.
alt hands
s/n alt hands
P.II secco P.II u.c.
marcatissim.o
accents
poco sf sempre
l.v.(tres
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
sonore)
Table 12: Continued
153
Measure
65-71
87-98
Doubling
hrp/cb
fl/ob/tpt
109-112(P.II) hrp(rhy)
112-114(P.I) pic/fl
121
124-125
126-129
130-131
132-137
138-141
142-150
163-205
210-212
tbn
fl/oKP.I) timp/vc/db(II)
fl/tpt(P.I) hrp/vc/db(II)
hm/hrp/vc/db
fl/ob/tpt/vc(I) tbn/db(II)
cbsn/db
timp/hrp
fl/ob/e.h./ cbsn/tpt/tbn
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Octave Pianistic usage effects
l.h.
l.h.
both hands chordal
l.h.
both hands alt hands
s/n 15va l.h.(II) glissando
both hands
s/n 15va l.h. glissando
r.h.broken
s/n 8va
l.h., r.h. tenth
164 378
Percussive effects
sf sempre
accents
poco sf sempre
brillante marc.
Pedal usage
l.v.
pedale de gauche
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
Table 13: Persephone
154
Measure
1-14
58-66
72-85
95-104, 117-126
185-187
189
205
211
213
217
221
226
240-241
245-255, 273-275
284-285
285-292
303-306, 352-355
328-341
380-406
554
556-560
561-565
645-660
661
737,740
743-751,
Doubling
hrp
pic(r.h.) obO.h.)
hm(r.h.) dbG.h.)
timp/hm(l.h.) vla/vc/db(r.h.)
vc/db
timp(var)
timp(var)
vn Il(var)
timp(var)
bsn(var)
bsn
pic/fl/ob/ hrn/hrp
hrp
pic/fl/hrn
vc/db
db
hrp
hm/chor/ stngs
fl/ob/e.h.
tbn/tba
hrp
clt/bclt
pic/fl/clty hrn/tpt
fl/bsn/hm/
Octave usage
3/n w/re-peat note
s/n 15va
l.h.
l.h.
3/n w/re-peat note
lh& 3/n
l.h.
3/n
3/n
l.h.
l.h.
s/n 15va
Pianistic effects
alt hand trem
alt hand
2 glissandi
alt hands
s/n scalar
both hands
l.h.
l.h.
3/n 8va
white scales
both hands
Percussive effects
sffz, >
sf
poco sfz
accents
stacc runs
Pedal Solo usage passagework
Ped.
X
X
X
X
X
una corda X
l.v.
Ped., l.v. X
Ped. e Sord.
X
Ped.gauche X (659)
X
Ped
Table 13: Continued
155
Measure
784-796
798-801
Doubling
tpt/hrp/stngs
Octave usage
Pianistic effects
Percussive effects
Pedal Solo usage passagework
Ped, l.v. X
866-869 tpt/hrp(var)
877-887 bsn/timp/hrp s/n vc/db(var) w/triplet
l.v., una corda
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
202 1053
156
Table 14: Scherzo a la Russe (Symphonic Version)
Ik M
Measure
1-20
21-23
23
24-25
26-37
33,37
39-56
59-61
62-81
82-84
84
85-86
87-98
33,37
99-102, 107-108, 109-114
103-106
115,117, 120
121-122
123-136
138-144 150-156
145-149
157-161
162-198:
Doubling
b.d.
tba/perc
xylo
b.d.
bsn/tba/perc
xylo
hrp( canon)
fl
b.d.
tba/perc
xylo
b.d.
bsn/tba/perc
xylo
hrp
pic/fl/tpt
vla/vc/db
pic/fl/ob/ clt/bsn/hm/ hrp
tutti orch
hrp
pic/fl/tpt
tutti orch
Octave usage
l.h.tenth
3/n
s/n 15va
l.h.tenth
3/n
r.h.
d/n sus.
d/n & 3/n
r.h.
l.h.
Pianistic effects
glissando
glissando
glissando
glissando
alt hands w/ repeat note
alt hands w/ repeat note
Repeat of Opening Scherzo, ms. 1-37
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
190 198
Percussive Pedal effects usage
low,stacc repeated notes
same as above
same as 1-20
same as above
loWjStacc repeated notes
same as above
same as 1-20
same as above
offbeat sff
l.v.
Solo passagework
X
X
XGyric)
XGyric)
X
X
X
X
Table 15: Scenes de Ballet
157
Measure
1-3. 8-10
145
146-149
153-156
157-160
161-166 171-174
175
176-179
180-181
199-206
264-271
272-282
309-312
328-333
408-413
429-440
Doubling
pic/fl/ob/ cl/hm/tpt/ tbn/stngs
ob/cl(rhy)
ob/cl(rhy)
fl/cl/hm/ vn(var)
fl/ob/cl
pi c( part)
bsn/vc(var)
tutti orch
vc/db
tutti orch
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Octave usage
r.h. G.h.9th)
s/n 8va
l.h.chordal r.h.chordal tenth
d/n & 3/n
tenths in both hands
Pianistic effects
arpeggio
arp. runs
arp.runs
arp.chord
arp. run
87 440
Percussive effects
sf
sf
repeated chords for rhythm
poco sf
Pedal usage
l.v.
right and left pedal
right and left pedal
Ped., l.v.
left pedal
left pedal
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
Table 16: Symphony in Three Movements
158
Measure
1,8,10,11
2-3.9,11-12
14-19
32-53
54-62
63-77
78-80
109-123
150-162
165-169
173-185
204-206, 209-211, 216-218
229-230, 236-237
262-264
267-270
278-288
289-299
300-304
307-334
335-356
361-363
368-384
385
386-395
396,407
Doubling
bclt/bsn/cbsn/ stngs
hm/stngs
tutti wnds/ brss/vc/db
vn/vla(part)
bclt/bsn/stngs (var),tba(par)
bclt/bsn/cbsn/ vc/db
bsn/tbn/tba
vc
tutti orch
bcltd.h.)
vn/vla(part)
fl/ob/clt/ hrn/vn/vla
fl/vn/vla
tim/vc/db(var)
bclt/bsn/cbsn/ stngs
Octave usage
l.h.
d/n
both hands r.h.chordal
both hands
Pianistic effects
glissando
alt hands chordal
both hands alt hands, r.h. partial scalar
s/n & 3/n
l.h.,3/n
chordal
r.h.(part)
chordal
r.h.chordal
alt hands
contrapuntal
contrapuntal
contrapuntal
contrapuntal
alt hands
contrapuntal
alt hand/2nds
alt hand runs
alt hand runs
alt hand chrdal
contrapuntal
both hands alt hands
l.h. glissando
Percussive effects
accents
marcatissimo
sfff, Aon every note
shifting accents
shifting accents
Pedal usage
l.v.(57,59)
Ped.,l.v.
una corda
repeating chords Ped.
l.h. offbeats
ostinato
marc.
marc.
accented
una corda
una corda
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
397-399, hm/stngs d/n accents
Table 16: Continued
159
Measure
408-410
Mvt. II:
TACET
Mvt III:
543-547, 551-554 562-569
559
585-586
587-591
592-597
601
619-626
627-629
640-646
657-665
665-683
688-695
709-710
720
722-725
730-738
740-745
746-747
Doubling
fl/ob/cl/hm/ timp/hrp/stng (var)
hrp/stngs(var)
fVob/cl/hm/ vn Il/vc/db
soli vn/vla/vc
hrn(var)
tutti orch
hrn(var)
pic/fl/ob/clt/ hrn/tpt/timp/ hrp/stngs
tbn(canon)
pic/fl/ob/clt/ h m
timp/bd/hrp/ stngs
pic/fl/ob/clt/ hm/ tp t
pic/fl/ob/clt/ hm/hrp/stngs
bsn/vla/vc/db
tutti orch
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Octave Pianistic usage effects
both hands rh chordal
both hands alt hands
arpeggios
l.h.
glissando
glissando
s/n 8va
d/n chdl
3/n 8va chordal
3/n alt hands
both hands ninths
both hands chordal
d/n & 3/n alt hands
l.h. r.h. chordal tenth
340 747
Percussive effects
sempre stacc. marc.
ben marc.
accents
Pedal usage
una corda
una corda
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
160
Table 17: Greeting Prelude for Orchestra
Measure
1,4
2-3,5-6
6-10
22,25
23-24,26-27
27-32
32
Doubling
timp/b.dytbn/ tba
tbn /hm
fl/ob/clt
timp/b.dVtbn/ tba
tbn/hrn
pic/fl/ob/clt
tutti orch
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Octave usage
l.h. has 1 octave
octave displaced
3/n
l.h. has 1 cx:tave
octave displaced
3/n
both hands rh adds lower 9th
Pianistic effects
alt hands
alt hands
alt hands
alt hands
21 32
Percussive effects
accents
accents
Pedal usage
Solo passagework
161
Table 18: Agon
Measure
1-3
10-13, 23-25
166-167
171-178
182-183
191-206
208-227
244-247
253
352-354
356
358
360-361
362-364
464-471, 485-490
496-497
500-501
512-515
560-563
570-573, 583-585
620
Octave Doubling usage
hrp/stngs(piz)
cb
timp ,hrp( 172-178)fl.III (var.177-178)
tbn(rhy.canon)
tbn(rhy.canon)
hrp
vc
fl
cl/fl(par)
fl(par)
stngs(par)
fl/cl, stngs(par)
hrn(canon)
hm/tpt/tbn/ tmtm/timp/ stngs(part)
hrp/stngs
cb
tutti orch on final chord
Pianistic effects
Percussive effects
secco sf
Pedal usage
l.v.
Solo passagework
X(cptl)
piano sustains
sernpre una corda f X
sempre sec-co(una corda sf
X
X
X
X
X
ben mareato
accents
l.v., Ped.
secco sf
X
X
Total measures with piamo: Total measures of work:
100 620
162
Table 19: Threni: Id Est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae
Measure
35,37-41
69,71
73-75
82-87, 135-141
218,221-223, 226-228
243-245
310-311,314, 318-319
385
391
399
403
Octave Doubling usage
sarrus
cb(74-75)
sarrus
timp/basso II
hrp/timp/vc/db 3/n
coro/hrp/timp/ db
ob/e.h.
ob/hm
hrp
Pianistic effects
all'estinzione (to inaudible)
Percussive effects
secco
Pedal usage
una corda, l.ped. f
una corda, l.ped. f
left ped.
2 Ped.
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
Total measures with piano: Total measures in work:
43 419
Table 20: Movements for Piano and Orchestra
163
Measure
1-14
18-26
27-30
31-39
42
Mvt. II:
46-50
51-67
Mvt. Ill:
74-78
83-84
86-87
89
Mvt. IV:
100-105
108-109
113-119
121-122
127-135
141-144
147-168
171-173
180-183
192-193
Doubling
fl/tpt/vn(l) tpt(3)
vla/vc(19-21, par)vc(23-26)
db(46)
solo vla/vc (par)
ob(dovetail)
db(168)
vc(173)
hrp/cel
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Octave usage
r.h.(l-brkn'
Pianistic Percussive effects effects
alt hands
repeated note tremolo
)
132 193
Pedal usage
Pedum Ped
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
164
Table 21: A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer
Measure
I. Sermon
TACET
II. Narrative
143-147
153-154
156-161
164-165
165-167
179-182
208
211-215
III. A Prayer
231-234, 244-246, 249-275
Doubling
bclt(159-161)
stngs
fl
hrp/db
Octave usage
Pianistic effects
alt hands
alt hands
s/n alt hand trem
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
una corda
Solo passagework
X(accom)
X
X
X(accom)
X
X
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
60 275
Table 22: The Flood
165
Measure
1
4-5
61
62,63
64
65
69
150-151
181-215,217-221,224-233, 235-246
250-251
255-258
274-276
299-300
302
307
319-321
324
327
349
357-358
399
402-452
455
458-464, 466-475
486-489
490
494-495
Doubling
fl/cbsn/hrp
hrp(par)
hrp
bclt/tba/hrp
cbsn/hrp
bclt/tba/hrp
fl/tpt
• SoloBassI, , hrp/SoloBassII
(var)
fl/marib/xylo
tpt(var)
fl(var)
hrp(par)
vc
hrp
marib(dvtl)
pic/fl(var)
hrp(rhy)
pic/fl(var)
SoloBassI, hrp/SoloBassII
fl
fl/cbsn/hrp
timp/hrp
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Octave usage
dimSth both har
Pianistic effects
ids
149 582
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
2 Ped.
u.c. & Ped, ff
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
166
Table 23: Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam
Measure
1
6-9
15-17
73,79,84
85
103
111
130
131
134
136
Octave Doubling usage
tpt/tbn
hrp/stngs(par)
fl(dvtl)
ob/hm
cl/fl
hrp(var)
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
Pianistic effects
18 141
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
Ped
Solo passagework
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
167
Table 24: Canon for Concert Introduction or Encore
Octave Pianistic Percussive Pedal Solo Measure Doubling usage effects effects usage passagework
1,3,18,20 tutti orch both hands chordal
5-17,22-34 cl/hrp/vn/vla both hands (r.h.)bsn/cbsn/ tbn/tba/vc/db a.h.)
35 tutti orch both hands chordal
Total measures with piano: 31 Total measures of work: 35
168
Table 25: Requiem Canticles
Measure Doubling
81-82,85-86,87
88-90
94,96-97
289,294, 299,304-305
timp/stngs (par)
timp/stngs (par)
pic/fl/hm
Octave usage
Pianistic effects
alt hands
sustained chords
Percussive effects
Pedal usage
Solo passagework
Total measures with piano: Total measures of work:
16 350