MHL 603: Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Music

Professor Michael Gilbertson

Unit 1: Modernism and National Identities

Monday, September 17.

Modernism in Eastern Europe and Russia

Repertoire:
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): The Rite of Spring (1913)
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928): Sinfonietta (1926) Mov. I
Bela Bartok (1881-1945): Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936) Mov 1-3

Readings:
Bartok, "The Influence of Peasant Music on Modern Music"
Selections about the Rite of Spring

Assignment: In approximately 300 words, address ONE of the following topics. You
don’t need to answer every question in these prompts. Rather, use them as a starting
point for your own ideas and discussion of the composers and their works.

1. Discuss the importance of folk music in the music of Bartok and, in particular, the role of folk music
in Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta. Why does Bartok think that composers need to do field
work (i.e. collect songs and dances in villages)? How do folk melodies help Bartok find a path to
modern music? Bartok discusses three different ways that a modern composer can make use of peasant
music: 1) take over a peasant melody unchanged or slightly varied; 2) imitate a peasant melody; 3)
capture the atmosphere of peasant music. How are these approaches relevant to each movement of
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta?

2. Stravinsky's essay, "What I wished to express in the Rite of Spring" was published in a Paris newspaper
the morning of the premiere of the ballet. What does Stravinsky mean in the first paragraph by
"abstraction"? Does the composition seem "abstract" to you? Stravinsky describes the "Danse sacrale" (the
Sacrificial Dance) in the next to last paragraph. Can you hear in the music and/or see in the score the
actions that he describes? The melodies in the Rite are based on Russian folk songs, but Stravinsky
doesn't say anything in the essay about Russia or about folk songs. How might you explain it?