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Exiles from Revolution Middle period Stravinsky This term we are looking at how Soviet music reacted to Russian composers living abroad. This session looks at two Stravinsky masterpieces: Les Noces, and Symphony of Psalms We will see how they echo in Soviet Music by hearing works by: Prokofiev Shostakovich, and Ustvolskaya When I started planning this session, I called it “Stravinsky and neo-classicism”. But the first Stravinsky piece, Les Noces, is not usually counted as a neo-classical work. Rather than have a distracting discussion on classifying (or neo-classifying) Stravinsky’s works, I’ve opted for a blander title. © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 2 Stravinsky – Les Noces Les Noces is a ballet in an unusual hybrid form; the music is a cantata. A piece which is both profoundly Russian, and profoundly modern. Les Noces is usually translated as The Wedding or The Peasant Wedding. The Russian name Свадебка (Svadebka) is a country-folk diminutive of Свадьба (Svadba) – Wedding. For Stravinsky, there’s an unusually long gestation period for this work. He first conceived it in 1913, and didn’t complete the score until April 1923. This is a period when Stravinsky’s style evolved very significantly, from the primitivism of Rite of Spring to the quirky eighteenth century mannerism of Octet. Stravinsky created his own libretto for the cantata from several collections of folk materials that he brought back from his last visit to Imperial Russia in 1914. It’s a dense, complicated libretto. In terms of word count it’s sixteen times longer than Symphony of Psalms. Decades later Stravinsky compared the work to Joyce’s Ulysses: Les Noces is a suite of typical wedding episodes told through quotations of typical talk. The latter, whether the bride’s, the groom’s the parents’ or the guests’, is always ritualistic. As a collection of clichés … it might be compared to one of those scenes in Ulysses in which the reader seems to be overhearing scraps of conversation without the connecting thread of discourse. Les Noces might be compared to Ulysses in the larger sense that both works are trying to present rather than to describe. [Mazo p 119, originally Craft & Stravinsky Expositions and Developments (1962)] © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 3 Les Noces – stages of development By 1917 there was a completed libretto; parts for soprano, mezzo, tenor and bass and SATB choir; and music accompaniment in short score. The original plan was to orchestrate Les Noces in a style similar to Rite of Spring, but with greater emphasis on wind instruments. Over the coming years, the sung parts stayed the same, but the orchestration evolved radically, moving far from the lush palate of Rimsky Korsakov and Wagner. A 1919 draft exists for: wind ensemble, pianola, 2 cimbaloms (the central European hammered dulcimer), harmonium and percussion. Next, Stravinsky explored a pianola-like mechanisation of the harmonium and cimbaloms. The feasibility of synchronising a group of mechanized instruments sounds daunting… but it was never put to the test because the technology was delivered too late. In 1921 Stravinsky decided the final orchestral line up: four pianos and a battery of percussion (timpani, bass drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals, 2 snare drums, 2 field drums, xylophone, crotales, chimes). © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 4 Les Noces – folk music? While the text is woven from the lyrics of many folk songs, their associated tunes are not here. Stravinsky tells us that “only one of the themes… is folk derived; and it is not really a folk melody but a workers’ melody, a proletarian song… given me by my friend Stepan Mitusov ten years before I made use of it” [Mazo p 106] Boris Asafiev a leading Soviet musicologist, and great admirer of Stravinsky, explained Les Noces in terms of “popevki”: cells or fragments of folk tunes from which Stravinsky builds novel melodic material. The music of Les Noces is a long way from nineteenth century Russian national school use of folk idiom. There is a deliberate distancing in the way the libretto is set; for example: lines which can be attributed to an individual character shift from one singer to another; the bride groom is a tenor in the second tableau, but a bass at the end of the fourth tableau. The Ballets Russes production also introduced alienation: Bronislava Nijinska’s choreography stressed persistent group repetition of monotonous movements; Natalia Goncharova’s design was minimalist and monochrome. The result is a monumental primordial ritual. © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 5 Ritual of fertility and procreation In his 1929 A Book About Stravinsky, Asafiev interpreted Les Noces as a ritual of fertility and procreation. Robert Craft tells us that in the margin Stravinsky wrote: “I do not agree” “I meant nothing of the kind!” [Mazo p 101] But Stravinsky didn’t reveal his own perspective of the meaning of Les Noces. Asafiev’s observation seems pretty astute… From their frequent sexual innuendo, the wedding guests are pretty clear about the purpose of marriage. And the word ritual seems very appropriate. © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 6 LISTENING NOTES Stravinsky Les Noces First performance: 13 June 1923 by Ballets Russes, at Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris Conductor Ernest Ansermet, choreography Nijinska, design Gontcharova Voices: solo soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass; plus choir SATB Orchestra: timpani, bass drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals, 2 snare drums, 2 field drums, xylophone, crotales, chimes, 4 pianos Stravinsky described Les Noces as a presentation of typical peasant wedding episodes. In An Autobiography he explained “the sound combination … was the necessary outcome of the music itself” [Stravinsky p 105] Here is an explanation of the four tableaux, picking out some of the text. © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 7 First Tableau – Consecration of the bride Most of the text for this tableau is about braiding the bride’s hair 1. Lament of the Bride The bride remembers how her mother brushed her hair, before the pitiless match-maker came. Еще ох-ти мне! Woe is me! 2. Consoling the Bride Bridesmaids tell the “little swan” not to cry Her father tells her she will be welcomed by her new family, and loved tenderly 3. Invocation of the Holy Virgin Пречистая матерь, Ходи к нам у хать Holy Virgin, come to our house Свахе помогать, косу расплетать Help the matchmaker unwrap the braid. Second Tableau – Consecration of the groom Hairdressing continues; the groom seeks a blessing from his parents; invocation of several saints 1. Invocation of the Holy Virgin Пречистая мать Ходи, ходи к нам у хать Holy Virgin, come to our house Свахе помогать, Кудри расчесать.. Help the matchmaker comb his curls. 2. Lament of the Groom’s Parents Mother anticipates the bride taking over the care of the groom’s hair 3. The Groom addresses his Parents The groom asks for his parents’ blessing as he ‘sets off to break through this stone wall’ 4. Blessing the Groom The chorus comment on the parents’ blessing 5. Invocation of the Saints Invocation of St Cosmos, St Damian, St Michael and St Luke. “Bless this union and the first baby” © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 8 Third Tableau – Departure of the Bride Continuation from first tableau… 1. Blessing the Bride This is told as a fairy story – the princess asking for a blessing before going to a distant land 2. Invocation of the Saints Invocation of the Holy Virgin and the saints, telling them to go to the wedding 3. Lament of both Mothers Groom’s and Bride’s mothers lament together Не покинь меня горемычную Do not leave me in misery Воротись моя дитятка, Воротись моя милая Come back my child, Come back my dear © 2020 Terry Metheringham [email protected] +44 7528 835 422 Soviet Music: Exiles from Revolution Session 3: Middle period Stravinsky 9 Fourth Tableau – The Wedding Feast Much of the text is snippets of conversations from the guests… often sexual innuendo 1. Glorification of the Newly-weds The chorus discuss berries, birds, and a the distress of a young man who lost his jewelled ring 2. Handing-over the Bride to the Groom Вот тебе жана! От бога саждана. Here’s your wife! Given by God. Зятик мой, любезный, My son-in-law, dear, Вручаю тебе дочерю любезную I entrust to you my dear daughter. The chorus add: Love her and shake her like a pear tree! 3. Warming the Nuptial Bed The chorus discuss how the married couple are going to manage in the narrow cold bed. Two people are sent off to warm it up, while a series of toasts is drunk. 4. Glorification of the Nuptial Bed The couple are led to the bedroom. The last words are groom to bride: Данная моя погляденья, This is my prospect, Ночная моя забава. My nightly fun. Поживем мы с тобой харашеничка, You and I will live together in such
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