Stravinsky Listening Test Flashcards
Petrushka
1911
Commissioned by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes
Borrows a folk tune that Stravinsky heard in a village
Marks Stravinsky’s departure from Romantic sonorities and aesthetics
Polytonal, including the Petrushka chord: F# maj and C maj, representing the puppet
The firebird
1910
Russian period
Commissioned by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes
Story line is about a magical bird that is captured
Uses harmonic motives to represent certain characters; for example, the Evil spirit Kaschkey is related to alternating major and minor thirds
The Sacre du Printemps
1913
Commission by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes
Stravinsky’s most notorious work, due to the near riot it caused at the premiere as a result of the challenging nature of the music
Extensive use of folk melodies
The subject deals with primitive rituals in Pre-Petrine Russia, girl sacrificed and dances herself to death
Three Japanese lyrics
1912-1913
Work for high voice and ensemble
Stravinsky was inspired after reading an anthology of japanese lyrics
The lyrics deal with the coming of spring
Histoires du Soldat
1918
Theatrical work for a small ensemble, narrator and dancers
Libretto based on a Russian folk tale: a soldier is returning to war and trades his fiddle with the devil for a book that predicts the future of the economy
Composed during WWI –> frugal instrumentation
Ragtime for 11 instruments
1918
Stravinsky took a modernist approach to the ragtime form
He uses a cimbalom to evoke an out of tune piano of Ragtime, Bernstein found this to be out of place in a Ragtime piece
Pulcinella
1920
At the time, it was said to have heavily used music from Pergolesi, an 18th century composer of Opera buffa, but is now considered to contain mere fragments.
Collaboration between Stravinsky and Picasso, who did the sets and costumes, for the Ballets Russes
Uses the character Pulcinella, who is a familiar Commedia dell-rate character
Symphonies of wind instruments
1920
Stravinsky uses the word symphonies to evoke the idea of instruments ‘sounding together’, ie in the way the Greeks used the word
The sounds that he was aiming to achieve were ‘anti-romantic’ wind textures and aspects of the sounds in the Russian Orthodox liturgical services
Les Noces
1923
Ballet cantata
Ballet is about the Russian peasant rituals of Marriage, and e restrictive nature of a woman’s duty to marry
Stravinsky wrote the libretto himself, using traditional Russian wedding songs as a source
Octet for wind instruments
1923
Considered to be Stravinsky’s first work in the true neoclassical style
Uses an unconventional combination of wind and brass instruments
Borrows classical form of Sonata - Variations - Fugue
Emphasis on contrapuntal style
Oedipus Rex
1927
Stravinsky had Cocteau’s libretto translated into Latin to avoid interpretation of the words, and also to give it a ‘monumental’ character. “A language not dead but turned to stone”
Story based on a Greek tragedy by Sophocles
Orchestra, soloists, male chorus, narrator
Symphony of Psalms
1929
Libretto is a setting of Psalms
Stravinsky wanted the Psalms to be the main focus, not the music
The music has a religious basis (reflecting the text): use of octagon in scale and fugal counterpoint
Violin Concerto in D
1931
Each of the four movements opens with the same chord altered slightly
Has been said to be more like a chamber work; Stravinsky was more interested in the combination of violin and orchestra, instead of a soloists. There is no cadenza
Composed for the young violinist Dushkin
Concerto in E flat
“Dumbarton oaks”
1938
Commission for the wedding anniversary of the owners of the estate in Washington D.C
Modelled on the Brandenburg concerti and the contrapuntal style of Bach
A work for chamber orchestra
Symphony in 3 movements
1942-1945
Composed in response to WWII
A commission from the New York Philharmonic society
Music is characterised by rhythmic regularity and references to Beethoven
