Chapter 45 Stravinsky

CHAPTER 45
Calculated Shock: Stravinsky
and Modernist Multimedia
Copyright © 2020 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

A Caricature of Stravinsky at the Keyboard

Copyright © 2020, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
The Rite of Spring: Collaborative Multimedia, Part 1
I. The Rite of Spring: Collaborative Multimedia
A. Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
1. Russian composer, pianist, conductor
2. Serge Diaghilev commissioned three ballets: The Firebird, Petrushka,
The Rite of Spring
3. WWI: refuge in Switzerland, then France
4. WWII: emigrated to United States in 1945, became U.S. citizen
5. held concert tours around the world
6. musical style evolved: post-Impressionism, primitivism, controlled
Classicism, twelve-tone works
7. great orchestrator: polished brightness, clear texture
8. output: orchestral music; ballets; operas; other theater works;
choral, chamber, and piano music; songs

Calculated Shock: Stravinsky and Modernist Multimedia
• Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
• Russian composer
• Embodied the most significant
impulses of his time
• Serge Diaghilev and Russian Ballet
– Firebird (1910)
– Petrushka (1911)
– The Rite of Spring (1913)

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)
Stravinsky--constantly reinvented himself.
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Father was a famous operatic bass singer.
Studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov
Was a neoclassicist--a composer who retained musical elements from the past
while experimenting with new ones.
France, 1920
Came to Los Angeles at beginning of WWII, 1939.
Lectured at Harvard; citizenship in 1945.
Later in life, he started writing 12-tone music--a break from his earlier style.
One of the century’s 2 greatest composers (Schoenberg)
Connected well with audiences.
Died 1971 in New York City; buried in Venice, his favorite city.

Igor Stravinsky Other Compositions
• Neo-Classical period
– Oedipus Rex
– Symphony of Psalms
Petrouchka--a ballet for Ballets Russe
Pulcinella--another ballet for Ballets Russe
Symphony in 3 Movements--a neoclassical work that includes a
fugue
The Rake’s Progress (Hogarth)--an English-language opera
Canticum sacrum--a 12-tone work for tenor, baritone, chorus,
and orchestra
Song of Bernadette – film score, rejected

• Scenes of Pagan Russia
• Expanded ensemble
• Russian folk songs
• Primitivistic theme and rhythm
• Liberated from metric regularity
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Stravinsky Visits Debussy

The Rite of Spring
First performed in 1913 in Paris at the Theatre of the
Champs-Elysées by prestigious company, Ballet Russes.
Audience was unaccustomed to dissonant sounds,
shocked by Nijinsky’s avant-garde choreography and
pagan rituals.
First laughing, then heckling and protesting, finally
breaking into a riot that spilled out into streets of Paris.

“Mild protests against the music could be heard from the very beginning of
the performance. . . . The uproar continued, however, and a few minutes later I
left the hall in a rage. . . . I have never again been that angry. The music was
so familiar to me; I loved it, and I could not understand why people who had
not yet heard it wanted to protest in advance.”
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Part One
The scenario (story): young girl dances herself to death while sage elders
look on.
Divided into 2 parts:
The Adoration of the Earth
The Sacrifice

Harmony--polytonal--2 tonalities going on at the same time
Difficult to hear either tonal center.
Each harmony sounds good alone, but put them together and they are dissonant.
Melody--many are pentatonic
Captures a folk-like sound
From Russian folk songs
Brief and full of repetitions--small fragments repeated and varied many times

Rhythm--very irregular at times
Frequent meter changes
Offset by frequent ostinato figures--a single rhythmic or rhythmic-melodic figure
is repeated over and over again.
Timbre--the Mega-Orchestra
A huge ensemble with large woodwind, brass, and percussion sections, as well as a
string section

A musical choreographic work
Represents pagan Russia.
Unified by a single idea--the mystery and great surge of creative power of Spring.
Has no real plot.
Form: Through-composed in two parts
The Adoration of the Earth--many dancers represent various spring rites and
rituals.
The Great Sacrifice--a young girl sacrifices herself while the old men watch.
Little repetition between sections of the work

B. The Rite of Spring
1. subtitled “Scenes of Pagan Russia”
2. embodies cult of primitivism
3. composed for Paris-based dance company, Ballets
Russes
a. near riot at Paris premiere
b. received negatively by traditionalists
4. fully integrated multimedia spectacle
a. Serge Diaghilev: Russian impresario
b. innovative choreography: Vaslav Nijinsky

c. experimental stage designs: Nicholas Roerich
d. music: shocking, unsettling quality
5. performed later as independent concert piece
C. Musical innovation
1. percussive use of dissonance
2. polytonality, polyrhythms
3. monumental orchestra
a. harsh, loud, constantly changing colors
b. strings: successive down-bow strokes,
pizzicatos
c. full force of brass and barbaric percussion

4. Russian folk tunes quoted
a. extended repetitions, limited ranges,
fragmented
5. minimized harmonic changes: ostinatos, pedal points,
melodic repetition
6. innovative interaction between rhythm and meter
D. Listening Guide 34: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Le sacre
du printemps), Part I, excerpts (1913)
1. Introduction (closing measures)
a. haunting mood: awakening of the Earth in
spring
b. folk tune, high-range bassoon

c. pizzicato ostinato in violins
d. free, shifting meter
2. Dance of the Youths and Maidens
a. sectional form
b. Russian folk-song melodies alternate with
nonmelodic sound blocks
c. forceful, high energy, huge orchestra
d. opens with polytonal, percussive chords by strings

e. constant eighth-note motion, unpredictable accents
f. expanding texture, loud dynamics build to climax
3. Game of Abduction
a. fast tempo, no established pulse, unpredictable
accents
b. scurrying melodic figures and horn calls, brief folk
tune
c. frenetic and primitive mood
d. harshly dissonant, crashing chords
e. dense texture, constantly changing timbres

Rite of Spring
Rite of Spring

Expressionism
Music, painting, poetry developed in Vienna in early 20th century.
Rejection of “Impressionism” with its focus on the “outer” world;
focus on “inner” world, described by Sigmund Freud; desperate
intensity of feeling.
Three leading composers: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban
Berg
Three leading painters: Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee
Three leading writers-Frederich Nietzsche, Tennessee Williams,
James Joyce

Expressionism

Expressionism: Musical Characteristics
Atonality--careful construction of melodies and
harmonies to avoid a tonal center, “absence of key”
The 12-tone system of composition
Developed by Schoenberg circa 1923
Also called serial or dodecaphonic method
Involves creating a set of pitches in a certain order
(register--which octave pitch is in--doesn’t matter)
No pitch repeats until entire row has been heard

Arnold Schoenberg Pierrot lunaire
a set of 21 songs for soprano and a small ensemble of
instruments
A piece that represents expressionism--an artistic
movement in music, painting, and literature--concerned
with expression of inner moods and thoughts, giving voice
to the unconscious, to humanity’s deepest and darkest
emotions.

A Modern Pierrot
• Note the facial expression
depicting longing and anxiety.
• Pierrot’s character was subject
to many mood changes.

Pierrot--a clown in an improvisational type of theater that
originated in the Renaissance in Italy but spread
throughout Europe--commedia dell’arte
Other characters--Harlequin, Punch, and Judy
Pierrot is the lovesick character who is always pining away.
Based on Albert Giraud’s Pierrot lunaire--a cycle of poems.

Timbre--soprano sings throughout in a manner that is between speech and song-
-called Sprechstimme (“Speech-voice”).
Singer hits precise pitches but doesn’t hold them.
Creates an eerie, disassociated sort of sound that fits with the text of Pierrot lunaire.
Different from earlier recitative--notes are delivered slowly so sound of voice trails
off at end of each word--sounds like slow, exaggerated talking.
Mondestrunken

Grew up in Vienna; learned violin.
Worked in a bank to support family after father
passed away.
Mostly self-taught as composer, started as Neo-
Romantic, moved toward Expressionism.
Became music director at Berlin cabaret.
Returned to Vienna, but served in Austrian army
in WWI.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Formulated 12-tone method between 1918 and 1923, used exclusively for all
works.
Appointed professor of composition at Berlin Academy of Arts.
Fled to U.S. from Germany when Hitler seized power because he was Jewish.
Lived in Southern California and became a U.S. citizen.
Taught at Univ. of Southern CA and UCLA.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
A tortured soul who never felt he fit anywhere
He believed he was extending the work of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, but he was not
accepted.
Born Jewish, converted to Christianity, and then went back to Judaism.
Searched for a new system of organizing music--founded the twelve tone system.
All 12 notes in octave played before any is repeated.
All notes equally important.

Cantata for narrator, male chorus,
orchestra
Deals with single episode in murder
of 6 Jews by Nazis
Schoenberg wrote text, based on
direct report by one survivor
Uses sprechstimme, twelve-tone, 6
minutes
Survivor From Warsaw
A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 (1947)

12-Tone Composition
The most widely used and systematic means for avoiding repetition to
avoid tonality; also called serial composition.
The melody is called a tone row.
Rows could be manipulated:
Forward
Backward (retrograde)
Inverted (inversion)
Backward and inverted (retrograde inversion)

Matrix for Serial Composition

Serial Music
Serial Music is composed systematically--somewhat like following a mathematical
formula.
Once the tone-row is established, the composer decides how to transform it.
Pieces tend to be short and concise.
For example, Webern’s Symphony only lasts 10 minutes (compare to Mahler’s Third
(1 hr. 20 min.).
Sounds fragmented and dissonant; difficult for audience to follow.
Klangfarbenmelodie-”Tone Color Melody”
Instruments maintaining constant pitches drop in and out of an orchestral texture, creating a
melody of different tone colors
Five Pieces for Orchestra Op. 10 – Anton Webern

Born in Vienna; worked as a government
accountant.
Studied composition with Schoenberg at 19.
Chronically ill, did not perform or conduct
Served in Austrian army during WWI.
Composed opera, Wozzeck, to capture turmoil
of common people during wartime.
Alban Berg (1885-1935)

Opera, libretto adapted
from Georg Buchner play
Three parts
I. Exposition
II. Development
III. Recapitulation
Different from Sonata
Form
Wozzeck

Wozzeck
Each act contains five scenes organized around specific
musical form or compositional technique(Ex. Act III-Theme
& Variations)
Scene 1-on theme
Scene 2-on single tone
Scene 3-on rhythm pattern
Scene 4-on chord
Scene 5-continuous running note
Did not intend for audience to be aware of forms

Plot
Franz Wozzeck, incompetent soldier,
persecuted by captain, guinea pig for
demented doctor; Mistress Marie cheats
on him, he stabs her then drowns trying
to wash away blood
Wozzeck

Wozzeck
Act IV Scene 2
Final Scenes

Charles Ives (1874 - 1954)
Grew up in Danbury, Connecticut; father was a bandmaster.
Exposed to many types of music.
Had a “day job” as an insurance salesman, where he contributed to
development of actuarial tables.
Composed in his spare time; gave it up in 1918 when his health declined.
By time of his death, recognized as a pioneer in music.

A Photo of Charles Ives

Charles Ives The Unanswered Question
Timbre--performed by 3 contrasting groups of instruments.
Strings--small string orchestra of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses
plays throughout the piece.
Solo trumpet--plays “The Unanswered Question.”
Wind quartet--(two flutes and two clarinets) responds to question with a
different answer each time.
Texture--layered using contrasting instruments
Groups of instruments in dialogue with one another (trumpet vs. winds)
while strings play on obliviously.
Three blocks of sound result; each moves independently of the others.

Charles Ives The Unanswered Question
Harmony--conflict between 2 different harmonic languages--tonal and atonal
Tonal = having a tonal center
Atonal = having no tonal center
• Notes sound “wrong”
• Sound is called dissonance, as opposed to notes that sound “right” which are
consonance.
Strings play tonal music--like a very slow hymn.
Solo trumpet plays 5-note figure that has no harmonic center.
Wind quartet plays atonally and is rhythmically independent of the other
sections.
The Unanswered Question

Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for “The Enjoyment of Music, 4th Edition, Chapter 45: Calculated Shock:
Stravinsky and Modernist Multimedia”
For more resources, please visit https://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic4ess

Chapter 45 Stravinsky

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