Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Text: pp. 830-840

Stravinsky
• Participated in or began
most significant musical
developments of the first
half of the 20th century
• Enormously influential
• Born near St. Petersburg,
Russia
• Moved to Paris 1911;
Switzerland 1914; Paris
1920; Hollywood 1940;
New York 1969
 Different Style Periods
• Stravinsky experimented with-–and created!—many
different styles over the course of his career
• We’ll see how at different times in his career, he
incorporated Russian folk music, jazz and popular music,
earlier baroque and classical techniques, and serialism,
all while maintaining his own personal style traits
• We’ll categorize his output chronologically into 4 periods
(2 videos):
– His Russian period
– The War years (WWI)
– His neoclassical works
– His 12-tone period (briefly)
 Videos you’ll need for his Russian
period and the war years
• Petrushka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvXlFKvpoOg&t=1838s
• Rite of Spring, Joffrey recreation, Part I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo4sf2wT0wU
• Rite of Spring, Joffrey recreation, sacrificial dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_7ndqgwxcM
• Rite of Spring, Pina Bausch choreography, sacrificial dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7pV2cX0qxs
• Rite of Spring, Danse des adolescents, score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKoO_3-I1dw
• L’histoire du soldat: three dances—tango, waltz, ragtime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owao3dPFqZI
• Les Noces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXR81dLjjE&t=158s
 Early Works:
The Russian Period (to 1918)
• Influence of Russian Rimsky-Korsokov
(his teacher)
• Influence of Russian folk song (denied by
Stravinsky)
• Orientalism/exoticism/primitivism
• Many early works were collaborations
with the Ballets russes, intended for
export to Paris: Firebird (1910),
Petrushka (1910-11), The Rite of Spring
(1913)
 Petrushka
• Listen to opening
• The opening scene presents blocks of static
harmony with repetitive melodic and rhythmic
patterns.
• Seemingly unrelated musical events interrupt each
other, creating an aural equivalent to Picasso’s
cubism.
• Stravinsky borrows several Russian folk tunes and
simulates folk harmony (see HWM Example 31.7).
• To depict the supernatural, Stravinsky draws upon a
biting octatonic sound.
• The “Petrushka chord” is derived from an octatonic
scale (see HWM Example 31.8).
 The Rite of Spring
• Stravinsky had a vision: “The idea of Le
Sacre du printemps came to me while I
was still composing The Firebird. I had
dreamed a scene of pagan ritual in
which a chosen sacrificial virgin danced
herself to death. . .”
 Collaboration:
• Igor Stravinsky, music
• Vaslav Nijinsky, choreography
• Nicolai Roerich, sets and costumes
• Sergei Diaghilev, impresario
 The Ballet
• Joffrey reconstruction (1987; opening):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=jF1OQkHybEQ
• Pina Bausch (1975; sacrificial dance):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=s7pV2cX0qxs
• Also see José Navas, Akram Khan, Marie
Chouinard, and many, many (over 200!)
others
 Le Sacre du printemps
• Caused a riot at its premiere in at the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris;
the performance had to be halted
• Why the riot?
• Complexity or drastic simplification?
The Rite of Spring: primitivism
• Parisian audiences would have seen
Russian folk, peasant, rural, pagan
culture as “primitive”
• A primitivist strain runs through modern
culture
• Modern primitivism can be seen in
many works of cubism and fauvism
Picasso: Les
Demoiselles d
’Avignon
 Primitivism
– New language based on rhythm
• Exhilarating, irregular rhythms & meter
• Complex textures pile up rhythms & motives
– Strong reaction against Romanticism
• Tough, precise, barbaric music with no Romantic
sentiment or emotionalism
• Melody reduced to motives & fragments
• Frequent dissonance as motives pile up
• Tonality anchored by ostinato & pedal tones, not
by diatonic scales
– Extraordinary ear for new colors
S based on ballet scenario
H polytonal/octatonic; static blocks; some harsh dissonance;
opening chord of Danse des adolescentes features all 7 notes
of the A-flat harmonic minor scale
M octatonic; folk; short repeated motives; grace notes; ostinati
R syncopation; irregular, rapidly changing meter; meter often
reduced to pulse; ostinati
G ballet
T often very polyphonic; layers of two or more strands of music;
sudden changes in texture; ostinati create static blocks of
sound over which fragments of melody come and go
D large range
O Bassoon in high register; strings as rhythmic, not melodic
instruments, preference for winds, percussion; dry, not lush
timbre; Stravinsky often links a motive with a specific
instrumentation
Traits forged during his Russian period:

• Undermining meter through unpredictable

accents and rapid changes of meter
• Frequent ostinatos
• Static blocks of sound juxtaposed or layered
• Discontinuity and interruption
• Dissonance based on diatonic, octatonic,
and other collections
• Dry, antilyrical, but colorful use of
instruments
 War Years: 1914-1918
• Stravinsky exiled in Switzerland
• War-time economy required him to turn to
small musical ensembles
• Small orchestra
• Histoire du soldat: violin, double bass, clarinet,
bassoon, cornet, trombone, percussion
• Les Noces: 4 pianos and percussion
• Octet for Wind Instruments
• Note that although these pieces seem pared
down, they still have traits from his Russian
period
 Questions for reflection:

• Why did the audience riot at the premiere of Le

Sacre?
• Why were modernist artists in all domains
obsessed with primitivism?
• How is primitivism related to 19th-century
exoticism?
• Which of Stravinsky’s style characteristics carry
over from his Russian period to later periods?