Stravinsky

Stravinsky: A Walk on the Revolutionary Side

Music History, Hilary Term, Oxford University, K.Ho

With the premiere of The Rite of Spring in 1913 Igor Stravinsky shocked the musical world, however, by the time he died that musical world had changed a great deal due to his influence, interestingly enough though, Stravinsky’s music was no longer shocking by the time he died. This fact speaks to Stravinsky’s consistent style of writing. There are several points that can prove Stravinsky’s consistent style, but I will choose to focus on two that were especially consistent throughout his decades of composition. First off, his “Stravinskian sound” that was rooted in his “antitonal” melodies which were based on the manipulation of octatonic material that, later, evolved into an octatonically-based serialism. The other consistent feature that I found was his use of compartmentalized structures of material and phrases that lessened the use of transitional material. Of course a few general characteristics should also be mentioned is his shrill use of the upper woodwinds, his “dry” almost skeletal melodies, obstinant rhythms and penchant for drama.

For Stravinsky the use of dissonance wasn’t an affront to tonality, but rather an allusion to it. In the Poetics he likens the use of dissonance to the eye that completes a line in a painting, he puts forth the idea that listeners of his music would fill in the musical gaps. Eventually, though, this dissonance becomes the sole entity and tonality becomes subordinate to dissonance. However, according to many music critics these “gaps” are huge ones to fill and Stravinsky’s music is loaded with so much “allusion” that it is sometimes—if not all the time—difficult to sort it out. In the Poetics Stravinsky argues that these new musical forms are of no fault of his own, and that a new tonal language, a new “logic,” was the natural evolution of the Classical and Romantic tradition. Stravinsky makes no quips that he was influenced by the likes of Debussy, Ravel, Dukas and Tchaikovsky, among many others, however Stravinsky asserts that he is not trying to reestablish their tradition, but instead forging a new one. (Stravinsky 35 & 58) On this issue of atonality, Stravinsky speaks to these points:

If it were said that my music is atonal, that would be tantamount to saying that I had become deaf to tonality. Now it well may be that I remain for a considerable time within in the bounds of the strict order of tonality, even though I may quite consciously break up this order for the purposes of establishing a new one. In that case I am not atonal, but antitonal. (Stravinsky 38)

Addressing the notion of melody, the composer defines melody in terms of cadence, and not diatonicism. Over the course of his lectures Stravinsky attacks away, much like Dahlhaus, at the value of music, in this case melodies that were dominated by diatonicism. Instead he lays out a case for pitch centers, arguing that the use of pitch and polar centers allowed him to be more creative. (Stravinsky 41) Stravinsky acknowledges that his music is meant to stir up a violent sensation in his audiences, but he tries to argue that his combination of different “colors” is an attempt to drive audiences towards a coherent “unity.” (Stravinsky 69) Stravinsky’s arguments are less than convincing, but they do speak to his philosophy of composition. These principles underpinned Stravinsky’s composition style that he adhered to for years.

With this basic ethos in mind, let’s explore what Stravinsky’s music was. Stravinsky’s use of octatonic-based cadences and melodies can be traced back to the influence of his early teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Rimsky, though, used octatonic modes in more “traditional” ways than Stravinsky did. Octatonic material was as the basis for modes and as part of folk song references in Rimsky’s work. In Stravinsky’s works, however, octatonic material was stacked on top of each other. Eventually, his music became associated with a succession of dissimilar triads and dominant 7^th chords that moved in half step intervals, from The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Symphony of Psalms (1930) and the Symphony in Three Movements (1945) these composing signatures can be heard throughout his career. Even as late as In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954) Stravinsky was still using octatonic material, although with a new twist—serialism. As White points out in the opening phrase of Song Stravinsky derives his material from the basic notes of E, E-flat, C, C#, and D. However, after inversion of retrograding, he has nine notes to work with. It is here that the beginnings of his hybrid serialism can be seen. Instead of using all twelve notes as his contemporaries did, Stravinsky stuck with a 7- or 9-note serialism that is, in many ways, easier to listen to than his 12-note rivals.

His incorporation of serialism, though, remained consistent and logical to his style. Stravinsky’s antitonality was something that was a constant throughout his oeuvre. While German composers of the time were exploring the realms of musical ambiguity through appoggiatura-ladened phrases, leaning towards one key or another, Stravinsky just threw two chords at audiences at the same time by superimposing and sounding two triads, hence implying two tonalities simultaneously. This dissonant tendency to superimpose chords and keys with each other can be traced back to the first works which entered into the repertory. As his career progressed Stravinsky literally turned tonality over on its head. Stravinsky would not only combine disparate chords with each other, he would also combine major and minor triads together. As with our example of the Symphonies of Woodwind Instruments (1920) we saw that he would place the minor triad in the lower registers while placing the major above it in the higher registers. Not only does this shock the listener, in the respects that the minor triad would occur after the major triad in the harmonic series, but that Stravinsky sounded them simultaneously. Edward T. Cone describes it in this fashion:

The diverse [tonal and structural] elements are brought together into closer and closer relation with one another, all ideally being accounted for in the final resolution. (Cone 158)

Another example of Stravinsky’s deliberate use of antitonality can be seen in Berger’s analysis of Les Noces (1917). Berger points out that from bars 82-7 of Noces that the soprano and her string accompaniment are alternating between B-flat and A at different times, and this dissonance is enhanced by an octave, only adding to the tonal “crunch” of this half step. (Berger 130-131) Further on in his article Berger demonstrates the difficulty of analyzing Stravinsky’s music and takes painstaking efforts to layout his “analysis” of by using such terms as C priority versus “C major”, or diatonic writing that just happens to be missing a tonic that has a “tone centre” instead. (Berger 124) Berger notes that this complicated phenomena of “C priority” appears in both in Petrushka (1911) and as late as Agon (1954). While I won’t go into great discussing the exact details of C priority, the fact remains that the repeated use of it over the span of 40 years is recognized by a great deal of musical authorities speaks to the longevity of this idea in Stravinsky’s writing.

The other main facet that presented itself throughout this study of Stravinsky’s composition is what Cone calls a pattern of “divergent, interlocking, and stratified” musical material that became a structural formula for such works as the Symphonies of Woodwind Instruments. In additional to the tonal elements discussed earlier, Symphonies provides us with a good example of Stravinsky’s structural style. Through the musical deletion of transitional material, Stravinsky’s “slice and dice” composite writing would oftentimes confuse audiences. Van den Toorn describes Stravinsky’s musical organization as a “block structure” and that “within such a framework, two or more blocks of relatively heterogeneous content are repeatedly and often abruptly juxtaposed.” (Van den Toorn 97) Cone states that this provides “tension” for the audience, the tension of not knowing what to expect next. In my mind though, the difficulty with this tension-building drama is how willing the audience is play along. A more practical explanation of this choppy style of organization, at least in the case of The Rite of Spring, is the fact that the music took into account scene breaks in the ballet. (Cone 155)

These structural elements were helped along with Stravinsky’s use of irregular rhythms. Confusing audiences and conductors alike with bizarre time signatures, Stravinsky forced listeners to find an almost primal and basic beat in his music, a common denominator. Walsh states that as early on as Petrushka Stravinsky established a “fluid pattern” of melodic stress and phrases that would span a series of measures that eventually made harmony almost non-existent was an important innovation that, despite a few superficial changes, served him his entire life. (Walsh 29)

Speaking of The Symphony in Three Movements Eric White points out Stravinsky’s use of “shock tactics” or irregular chord cadences that were “punctuated by occasional explosions of sound,” but White could have been talking about any of the pieces Stravinsky wrote. It is my opinion that this can be accounted for in the respects that remained consistent throughout his career. Early on in his career he choose to, in his own words, bring order and to group musical note together in a meaningful way. Stravinsky drew upon a long tradition of composition and as White says gave the twentieth century its character:

The effect of his style of orchestration has been not only to change the characteristic sound of twentieth century music, but also to help anew the sensitivity and perceptiveness of audiences whose taste had become debased as the result of a surfeit of the sweet clotted mess of sound that was the legacy of the late romantic composers. The adoption of a palette of pure tone colours and a ‘dry’ technique, where by silence was allowed to fill the interslices between the instrumental sounds, thereby emphasising their relief, brought as great of a revolution to twentieth century music as the change to impressionist technique did to nineteenth century painting. (White 562)

White’s neurotic appraisal of Stravinsky is both a reflection of the music and the times that White was writing in. Despite all this intellectualizing and pontification, Stravinsky’s music speaks for itself. It suited the world around him that became jaded, both in terms of music and in an overall sense. Stravinsky’s music, though, remained a constant and retained a character that best reflected its times.

Works Cited:

Berger, Arthur. “Pitch Organization in Stravinsky” in Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Benjamin Boretz & Edward T. Cone, Eds. West Port, Conn.: Greenwood Press (reprint, Norton), 1972.

Cone, Edward T. in Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Benjamin Boretz & Edward T. Cone, Eds. West Port, Conn.: Greenwood Press (reprint, Norton), 1972.

Stravinsky, Igor. The Poetics of Music: In the Form of Six Lessons. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1970.

Van den Toorn, Pieter C. Stravinsky & the Rite of Spring: The Beginnings of a Musical Language. Los Angles: University of California, 1987.

Walsh, Stephen. The Music of Stravinsky. Oxford: OUP 1988.

White, Eric Walter. “Igor Stravinsky,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, volume 18. Stanley Sadie, Ed. London: Macmillan, 1980.