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Igor Stravinsky Two Prolific Serial Compositions: Agon & In Memoriam Dylan Thomas Elizabeth DeRoulet Kansas State University Fall Semester 2015 1 Biographical Information on Igor Stravinsky Igor Stravinsky(17 June 1882­6 April 1971) was the third son of Anna Kholodovsky and Fyodor Stravinsky. Stravinsky’s mother was the daughter of a high ranking official in the Ministry of Estates in Kiev. She grew up with four sisters whom she would visited from time to time for summer vacation with her husband and family. Anna was a good domestic singer and fluent pianist. She was a prude wife and strick mother with her three children. In 1874 Anna and Fyodor were married in Kiev when they were 19 and 30 years old, respectively. In the 1790s, the Stravinsky family migrated southwards from Poland to what is now South­Eastern Belarus. In Poland, the Stravinsky’s held an extensive lineage as senators and landowners, but the partition of Poland stripped them of their lands and former wealth. Fyodor Stravinsky’s career in music was quite unexpected. He was not raised in a particularly musical household; his mother being an amature vocalist and his father a drunk womanizer who eventually walked out on his family. Thus, there was little hope and ambition invested in the success of the young Fyodor. In the mid­1860s, Fyodor was studying law in Odessa, Kiev when money started running out. It was during this time that Fyodor discovered his musical talent for singing and was awarded a scholarship to the Conservatory in St Petersburg. Fyodor soon captivated the Russian operatic world as the greatest bass­baritone of his generation. Fyodor’s success in the musical world made significant contributions to the environment of the large second­floor flat on the Kryukov Canal, where Igor Stravinsky grew up. 2 Igor lived a comfortable life in his family home near Mariinsky and was often graced with the company of composers like Rimsky­Korsakov, Borodin, and Mussorgsky as well as other prominent conductors and music journalists. He, like his mother, was a skilled pianist and began taking lessons from her at the age of nine. Igor had a wealth of musical knowledge available in his home; from his mother’s piano skills, to his father’s acquaintances and music library, which included an extensive Russian repertoire as well as works by Bizet, Boito, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Mozart, Rossini, and Wagner. Influenced by these works and composers, Stravinsky began to form his own opinions on music composition. In a 1957 interview for NBC, Stravinsky tells American conductor, Robert Craft about his earliest dabblings in composition: “The man who makes, sings. I invented­ I remember, C­D­E­G and the F came after the second beat. An uncle who was sitting beside me at the piano asked me, ‘What are you playing, you start so decently, but when you jump up...’ I said, My dear uncle, that is my invention, Let me alone." 1 Events such as this would become a reoccurring theme in response to Stravinsky’s music throughout his lifetime. Early in his studies, Stravinsky was especially enamoured by the works of Richard Wagner, particularly, Rienzi, Lohengrin, and Parsifal. Although ​ ​ Stravinsky may or may not have seen Wagner performed during his youth, the teen spent many of his father’s performances at a variety of operas in the family box at the opera house. As the son of Russia’s premier operatic bass­baritone vocalist, Igor surely witnessed many monumental performances that undoubtedly shaped his early compositional style, however, none of his work from before 1898 survives. 1 Robert Craft A Conversation with Igor Stravinsky.New York, NY: NBC Wisdom Series. ​ ​ ​ Cambridge Educational. Meridian Education. 8 minutes, 30 seconds. 3 In december of 1899, Stravinsky, who wanted a career in music, began taking piano lessons from Leokadiya Kashpervoa, a powerful and highly skilled student of Anton Rubinstein. One year later, in November of 1901, Stravinsky began harmony and ​ ​ counterpoint lessons, first with Fedir Akimenko and three months later with Vasily Kalafaty, both former pupils of Rimsky­Korsakov. It is speculated that Igor’s music lessons with Kashpervoa, Akimenko, and Kalafaty were given with the understanding that he would study law so that he would have a secure, foolproof, and financially stable career to fall back on.2 In the autumn of 1902, following the death of his eldest brother in 1897 and his father’s battle with cancer, Stravinsky began his studies as a law student at St Petersburg University despite his desire to pursue music. Through a friendship developed while at university, Stravinsky came to present Rimsky­Korsakov with a portfolio of miniatures and sketches. Rimsky was so intrigued with Igor’s work that he advised Stravinsky to continue music lessons, but wait to enrol as a music student to avoid being discouraged from his lack of formal training. Rimsky­Korsakov also offered to take Stravinsky on as his student to which Stravinsky followed up on and began lessons a year later. Much to his mother’s protest, he quickly grew from his studies with Rimsky­Korsakov through experiences like attending rehearsals and performances of the Philharmonic orchestra, Russian Symphony Concerts, and concerts by the Russian Music Society. This exposure accompanied by evening meetings with composition intellectuals was a stimulating time for Stravinsky that helped 2Stephen Walsh, Igor Stravinsky, Grove Music Online. Oxford Online. University Press. ​ ​ 4 to define his modern sound and unique orchestration. Following the death of his beloved teacher, Rimsky­Korsakov, Stravinsky’s work began to gain more recognition via a string of public premiers and a petition for publication by the house of Jürgenson. Because of this recognition and previous success with commissioned works, Stravinsky received a telegram from Diaghilev commissioning a piece to compliment a ballet that was met with negative criticism. Firebird was the work that Diaghilev ​ ​ commissioned and it was an exotic tale that both enamoured and enraged audiences. Firebird changed Stravinsky’s life and altered the course of 20th century music by the ​ very sounding of its premier. Audiences were put on edge by the complexity of this production in part because of its deliberate and constant dissonance,“If an interesting ​ construction exists in The Firebird it will be found in the treatment of intervals, for ​ ​ example in the major and minor thirds in the Berceuse,in the Introduction, and in the ​ ​ Kastchei music.”3 3 David Smyth, Stravinsky’s Second Crisis: Reading the Early Serial Sketches, ​ ​ Perspectives of New Music, 2nd edition, vol. 32, peer reviewed (1 July 1999). p.119 5 Figure 1­­Berceuse from “Firebird Suite”, measures 9­164 Stravinsky went on to complete more Diaghilev ballet commissions and through ​ studying these scores it became apparent that music he was releasing was composed with a specific formula in mind. The piano score of Firebird was completed ​ ​ ​ ​ between March 21st and April 3rd, the orchestral score on May 18th and the first performance of the 45 minute ballet took place on June 25th at the Opéra in Paris. The orchestration rhythmic texture that emerged from Firebird would be later noted as ​ ​ iconically Stravinskian: “It was true that, at orchestral rehearsals, Stravinsky had to explain the music to the bewildered players, and that, at the first rehearsal, the sonorities were so unexpected that dancers missed their entrances. As for the music, Stravinsky had borrowed the old Rimsky­Korsakov idea of depicting evil or magic in structured chromatics, good or human in diatonics or folksong. ”5 4 Igor Stravinsky, In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, p.3. 5 Walsh, Stephen. “Stravinsky, Igor.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Online. University ​ Press. 6 Stravinsky’s influence from and on other composers who worked for Diaghilev stretched the bounds of 20th century music. The work that Diaghilev commissioned evolved into a ​ genre that is know as Ballet Russes(Russian Ballet) and featured commissions from progressive contemporary composers such as Ravel(Daphinis Et Chloe), ​ ​ Stravinsky(Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, Strauss(Josephslegende), and ​ ​ ​ ​ Debussy(Jeux).6 Stravinsky’s sudden fame after Firebird acted as a campaign for ​ ​ recognition from Ravel, Debussy, and Saite and helped to solidify him as a prolific 20th century composer. In 1914 Stravinsky felt that he had expended the artistic potential of Russia and was also disheartened by harsh reviews of another work of his, The Rite of Spring. So ​ ​ after he had fallen ill with typhoid fever, his wife first wife,Katya with tuberculosis, and the newly opened Free Theatre was a flop, the Stravinsky’s moved to Leysin in the high east Alps of Lake Geneva. Igor would return once more to his home in Ustilug to collect a few belongings as well as material for a new ballet in the works. During his exile in Switzerland, Stravinsky began to expand of his style of thickly layered counterpoint, shifting the natural accents of speech, rhythmic tiers, and mixed instrumentation. 6 Michael Kennedy. “Ballet” The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press. 7 Figure 2­­ The Rite of Spring, measures 81­887 ​ ​ His compositional output during this time was performed with the atmosphere of a traveling theatre troupe and reflected the quest for modern and contemporary art amidst the war that was ongoing. The war was not kind to the Stravinsky family. Igor continued to compose, but was not paid for any of his work with the exception of the Polignac commission which was dedicated to Eugenia Errazuriz, a former Chilean Patroness of Picasso. His works continued to go unnoticed by the public, but the were essential to his personal development. The pieces composed during this time allowed Stravinsky to merge artful Russian dances with modern parodies and was a distraction from his 7 Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring, p.12.

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