INTRO

The first decades of the twentieth century saw a long number of events that

were to have a profound influence on human thoughts.

Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Einstein evolved his

theory of relativity (1905), the Wright brothers invented the aeroplane (1903),

and Kandinsky painted his first non-representational work “Composition VII”

(1911). Changes were so radical that their implications on the society were

not fully recognized at the time and took years to make their effect. In music

too, this decade was perhaps the most revolutionary.

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The Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, is considered by many the most

influential composer of 20th-century music. Born in June 1882, he first

achieved international popularity with three ballets commissioned by Sergei

Diaghilev, the director of the “Ballets Russes” in Paris. Diaghilev was so

impressed by his abilities as composer to commission a number of

orchestrations, and finally, a full-length ballet score: The Firebird, for which

Stravinsky travelled to Paris, in 1910, to attend its premiere. He later moved

to Switzerland, where he remained until 1920. During this time he composed

two further works for the Ballets Russes: Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of

Spring (1913)

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 BALLET SUMMARY

Stravinsky’s Petrouchka opens with a festive crowd of people dancing joyfully

with enthusiasm in the city square. The attention soon moves to the charlatan-

magician attracting the crowd with his flute with the intention of calling his

opening theatre-show. The charlatan magic gives the feeling of human

emotions to the puppets which is expressed in the Russian dance

movements. Petrouchka, the hero of the ballet, feels cruelties from the

charlatan, his state of bondage, his exclusion from a normal life, his ridiculous

appearance, and seeks consolation in the love for the ballerina. In the second

part Petrouchka is alone in his cell showing an uncontrollable anger with

sadness because his love for the puppet ballerina appears to be hopeless.

The third part shows the third member of the puppets trio: The Blackamoor.

He is described as a silly, unintelligent and evil man; his rich appearance

seduces the ballerina who wishes to attract him with all the expedients

possible. She finally succeeds and they dance a waltz while Petrouchka

looks on, consumed with jealousy. In the final part, there is a sequence of

folkloristic dances, which are interrupted by the puppets escape from the

theatre. Here, the rivalry between Petrouchka and the Blackamoor is at its

height; Petrouchka is killed with a single blow of the Blackamoor’s sabre,

and dies lying in the snow surrounded by the crowd. After questioning by the

police officer, the magician shows to the people that Petrouchka is only a

puppet with wooden legs and a body filled with sawdust. The crowd leaves

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the charlatans-magician alone with his dead puppet, but Petrouchka’s ghost

arises from the theatre roof and the magician flees in terror.

THE MUSIC

Petrouchka to some extent shows a development of Stravinsky’s style through

a process of self-discovery. The majority of musical ideas that dominate the

work are based on the use of octatonic scales, polyrhythm, bitonality, and

different expressive ways of how to use various forms and textures. Generally

speaking, Petrouchka is a melting pot of innovative ideas, audacious

orchestration, and borrowed material from Russian folk music. The work is a

juxtaposition of sounds rather than pure counterpuntal technique; there are no

modulations, the music seems to be divided into distinct sections with sudden

changes in key signatures, tonality, and tempo marking. Smooth passages

are very rare, and if they happen, it is for no more then a few bars. The score

opens with a flute solo, which in musical terms wants to establish D minor in

key signature as tonal centre and when at figure 1 the cello plays a rising

melody starting on B natural through D and E, it seems in some way to

weaken the stability of the D minor key: this may be already recognized as an

early indication of juxtaposition. Also in the first part, there is a remarkable

example of how tempo, time and the coordination of texture and form are

interestingly arranged; this happen between figure 13 and 23: all this section

is permeated with time signature changes, repetition of motifs, rhythmic-metric

complexity and the emphasis concentrates on specific pitches rather than on

functions of tonal relationship.

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 The opening bars: an early example of juxtaposition (fig.1)

This first contrast gives a sense of tension that flows through the entire work.

Its structure and textural contrast illustrates how Stravinsky often deals with

discontinuous forms. Those opening moments can be seen technically as

typical examples that take place during the work as a whole, those factors

both separately, and in interactions with each other, describe a reinvention of

historical music material embodying tonal instability, metric complexity and

discontinuity: this defines considerably the identity of this music as modernist.

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 An interesting orchestration between the figures13 and 23, note the continuous time
signature’s change

The second part tends to confirm what has been mentioned previously. This

section show the most discussed feature of the work with the clear examples

of bitonality at figure 95: the clash between the two Bb clarinets playing

simultaneously C major and F sharp major triads indicate a moment of

dramatic tension. This relationship of a tritone between two major triads is the

basis of Stravinsky so-called Petrushka chord, which it is used extensively

throughout the work and can be easily noticeable at figure 100 played by the

piano; it is not an individual chord, but rather a succession of intervals that

could be analyzed as a polychord.

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The well-known example of bitonality; an interesting features of this passage is one may think
that the phrase is highly colored in C by the first clarinet, but the Bb bassoon playing in F
sharp, confirm the clear intention of Stravinsky bitonality. (Fig.95, 96)

The so-called “Petrouchka Chord” the juxtaposition of C and F# major triads. (fig 100)

Also, the notes belonging to the two major triads of C and F sharp are

extrapolations of the octatonic scale. Moreover, the distance of a tritone

produces the greatest harmonic opposition that may give an extra musical

meaning to the ballet, which, when played simultaneously by the Bb clarinets,

provides indications about the two conflicting elements in Petrouchka’s

ambiguous character that lies somewhere between the puppet and the human

being. As in the first part, changes of texture and time signature are

significant, and this part may be subdivided into three sections; the first one

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isin figure 95 with the clarinet themes in C and F sharp, then at figure 102

there is a change in texture and a new key signature of D major, at figure 104

another sudden change of texture with a new key in E minor, mostly indicated

by the bass repeating E.

The figure 102 in the new key of D major

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Another change in the key signature of E minor indicated by the bass playing persistently the
bottom E (fig.104)

Again there is no sense of tonal progression or preparation and even though

this series of movements can be heard as a unique musical flow, the main

aspect is that each movement exists on its own rather than as a consequence

of the previous movement. From this point of view Stravinsky seems to use

techniques such as collage or montage, which were to become important

shortly later in the visual modern arts and cinema.

In the third part there is borrowed material from unidentified Russian folk

songs and a waltz of Joseph Lanner, an associate of Johann Strauss I. Even

in this part, textures and forms are arranged with little relationship to

functional tonality, the most important and noticeable are at figure 135: the Bb

trumpet solo play in F major, then going to Eb major at figure 140 as opening

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theme of the waltz and then followed at figure 143 by a new key signature in B

major with new tempo and the second introduction of the waltz section played

by the flutes.

An extract of the Bb trumpet solo, in this ballet’s part, the Ballerina play the trumpet to seduce
the Blackamoor.

The opening Valse in the new key of Eb major and at fig. 140 and another key changing
in B major at figure 143, which is the introduction of the second part of the waltz

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The fourth and final part offers Stravinsky’s creative invention through

repetitions of motifs and fragmentation of melodies. It is interesting to see at

figure 171 the oboe playing the melody that cease at figure 172, then the

horns enter at figure 173+1 with a shorter fragment of that melody repeated,

then at figure 174, and finally at figure 175 it is expanded in all the texture and

duration; here, the flute is playing the opening intro of the first part. The same

melody is later presented fragmented with a different arrangement now played

by the violin at figure 185+3 then develop in figure 187 in its original form

before breaking drastically off at figure 188 into the dramatic opening section

of Peasant with Bear.

The Oboe introduce the melody through these three bars (fig. 171)

The horns re-introduce a fragmentation of the same melody (fig. 173+1)

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 The fragmented melody finally plays entirely. The flutes playing Petrouchka’s opening
intro (fig. 175) notice the polyrhythm, point of imitation, and instrumental coloration.

Figure 187: repetitions of motifs by the string section which acts both as an ending and
opening passage, note the quick ascending movement to reinforce the change, it goes from
the key of F major directly to C major in the dramatic section of Peasant with Bear.

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This work as a whole shows strong rhythms, sharp transitions from one kind

of music to another, and textures made by repeating motifs. The orchestration

and coloration is rich in new elements such as the ostinati on the strings

section where long passages of vigorous pulsation transmit great tension; the

strings seem to work as the rhythmic section of the orchestra. The now

famous bitonal passages are extended beyond their original forms. These

irregular rhythmic pulsations are a driving force causing Petrouchka’s

polymetric schemes to assume great structural importance. Significant is the

clever use of muted instruments and tremolos for different expressive

colorations. The music has a strong sense of unpredictability: continually

questioning the listener as to “When the music will stop?” and “In what

direction it will develop into?” From a general point of view Petrouchka

became a reference of the beginning of a new era, especially for the

experiments in polytonality and rhythm.

After this first period of his career, Stravinsky turned to what has been called

Neoclassicism. When the Second World War broke out in September 1939,

he moved in New York where he continued to compose in various

compositional styles, including Serialism, until his death in 1971 at the age of

88.

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 CONCLUSION

Stravinsky influence on composers during his lifetime and afterwards remains

remarkable. Excluding his very early works, the first of his major stylistic

period were with the ballets commissioned by Diaghilev: The Firebird,

Petruchka, and The Rite of Spring.

The Firebird is the score in which the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov and the

Russian national style was the dominant, but it is already a genuinely original

work with a stylistic development in his native form. Petrouchka instead shows

Stravinsky with more confidence and mastery with some ideas that were

going to affect the course of European music, especially in polytonality and

combinations of rhythms. With this work, Stravinsky definitely lays the musical

foundations of the modern era, the beginning of a musical establishment

based on reinventions of styles from the past, and a new source of inspiration

before the advent of Neo-classicism.

But it is with The Rite of Spring that Stravinsky seriously created his

reputation as a modern contemporary musician, breaking definitely with the

Russian traditional style as well. This first period of his musical life was only

the tip of an iceberg and cannot be recognized as his definitive style simply

for the variety of the works he composed: opera, ballet, orchestral

symphonies, and chamber music. He re-invented himself through constant

exploration. At the height of fame, he turned away for writing for huge

orchestras and began to innovate his style by introducing unique and

uncommon combinations of instruments, like in A soldier’s Tale (1918 ) where

he uses clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass and

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percussion. This combination of distinct instrumental timbres would later

become very popular. At this point of his career Stravinsky embrace Neo-

classicism combining Baroque and Classical music with new elements. By

the 1950 he started to write Serial music searching for a way to alter or

develop the technique already pioneered many years before by Schoenberg,

Berg and Webern, or for a medium to inspire himself again, and find through it

structural energy, expressive power, and vitality.

Along with Debussy, who weakened the long established harmonic

relationship of major and minor tonality, and Schoenberg, who’s music went

even further from the simple triads succeeding in the begin of atonality;

(Schoenberg himself would have defined this, as the only method for musical

Expressionism)

Stravinsky, made innovations nearly on every front when the First World War

was about to begin. Together, they had a wide influence in the Music of the

Western world and, inevitably, on all the next generation of composers.

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