Stravinsky - AGON Part-3, (Form and Structure)

Movement 3 - Triple Pas-de-Quatre for 8 Female and 4 Male Dancers (1:4 Long)

Beginning with the woodwinds in 4/8 the pizzicato string provide tension as the piece continues the fury left by movement 2. As more dancers enter the stage Stravinsky adds additional instrumentation while decreasing note vales to 32nd note chromatic passages adding tone color. This playful ascending and descending chromaticism continues throughout the movement. You can also find a playful harmony of tritones in measures 118-120 in the clarinets in Sib.

There is almost a Mozartian playfulness during the entire piece. In fact, Stravinsky eluded to Mozart in an interview and said that it was ok to steal from composers, referring to Mozart, and that Mozart would have wanted us to use his material.(1) The 17 movements make up the whole ballet and is similar in nature to Webern's Op. 21 with the tonality of Berg's Wozzeck.

Modeled after 17th century mathematician Mersenne, the piece lasts about 30 minutes when all 17 movements are complete. One of the best videos to watch is in a biography of Balanchine ballets titled Balanchine by Kultur DVD D2448.

Movement 4 - Prelude - (52 seconds)

Beginning with the timpani imitating the melodic lines, this movement quickly moves to an ascending hexachord, C,D,F,G,B,C, in cannon. The movement is used as the introduction to the first Pas-de-Trios ending with material taken from the first movement which nicely sets up the next movement.

Stravinsky's choice of orchestration can be compared to that of the 16th century French composer de Lasus' from his Apologie de la danse.(2) Like de Lasus', Stravinsky uses 3 Flaute (Fl. lll anche Piccolo), 2 Oboi, Corno Inglese, 2 Clarinette in Sib, Clarinetto basso in Sib, 2 Fagotti, Contrafagotto, 4 Corni in Fa, 4 Trombe in Do, 2 Tromboni tenori, Trombone basso, Arpa, Mandolino, Pianoforte, Batteria, Timpani, 3 Tom-toms or high timpani in Mib, Sob, and Sib, Silofono, and Castagnette.

The hardship Stravinsky faced between losing his family and leaving his homeland would have possibly affected his composing style. It was not until his later life that he was allowed to return to his Russian homeland still bearing the burden of never becoming recognized as a Russian composer.

More to come...


(1) Kulter. Balanchine. New Jersey: American Masters. Teledec DVD, D2448, 2005.
(2) Stravinsky, Agon.

Stravinsky - AGON Part-2, (Form and Structure)

There are 17 movements, all short pieces named after the various types of ballet. Each movement has a certain amount of dancers that depict mood and give reason to the composition as a whole. The overall form of all the movements can be considered ABA. There is a coda in the 9th movement that contains material from earlier movements all combined into one movement and can be considered the apogee of the arch form. The pace and intensity of meter and registration of instruments increases and decreases with the amount of dancers during the entire piece. The layout below explains the name of each movement and little explanation of form, instrumentation, and dancers.

I would suggest that at this time you download the piece from iTunes or some source and listen as you read along.

Movement 1 - Pas-de-Quatre for all 12 Dancers (1:37 Long)
Introduction starts fast and strong in 4/8 time, the eighth note = 156, using four boy dancers. The theme is both rhythmic and modal, mostly Lydian based off G, and there is a trumpet fanfare similar in nature to French orchestration and that of the Court of Burgundy found at the 17th measure, Bransle Simple. The notes of the G-Lydian scale are G,A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G, and can be found in measures 10-12. The number 17 will play a large part in many of his compositional techniques.

Movement 2 - Double Pas-de-Quarte for 8 Female Dancers (1:33 Long)
This movement begins with a fast and strong introduction in a spicatto bowing style while legato flutes employ a flutter tonguing technique. The use of twelve notes begin in measure one and continue through measure five where a developmental section begins. The twelve notes are: Eb(0),D(1),E-natural(2),F(3),C(4),B(5),Db(6),Bb(7),Ab(8),A-natural(9),G(10),Gb(11) The use of hexagonic passages the first in measure nine, Bb,F,Ab,Db,A,D#, are traded between instruments while the 12-tone row in cannon can be found against a polyphony of strings.

Movement 3 coming soon.

Stravinsky - AGON Part-1

With over 120 works spanning from 1898 through 1966 Igor Stravinsky was one of the most prolific and predominant music composers of the twentieth century. After two periods of Stravinsky's musical styles, Agon helped to solidify his maturity as a serial composer as it was the first atonal ballet ever performed.(1) It reflects a major turning point in the history of the ballet and was the third Balanchine ballets named after Greek mythological figures, Apollo in 1928, Orpheus in 1948, and Agon in 1957. This extraordinary piece of music was not only a unique culmination of ballet with an abstract fusion of music and gesture but it also contains traces of boogie woogie and blues.

The piece includes 17 movements, extraordinary mathematical computations, and precompositional planning unlike many previous works. Stravinsky began his third period, the serial period, around the death of Arnold Schöenberg in 1951. A pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky was 20 years old when his compositions began to be recognized. In 1910 he left Russia, the first time, to attend his premier of the ballet L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird).(2) Stravinsky composed a series of popular works in what has been divided into three periods: The Russian Period, The Neo-Classical Period, and The Serial Period. He is considered by some as one of the three most influential composers of the twentieth century along with Arnold Schöenberg and Claude Debussy.

As the nineteenth century came to a close, so did music's golden age of harmony. Tonality, form, rhythmic structure, instrumentation, and virtuosity would take a new direction. Stravinsky grew into the forefront of what was known as the anti-romantic and post Wagnerian era.

I hope you enjoy this series about the analysis behind the Balanchine ballet, Agon, Ballet for 12 Dancers, composed by Igor Stravinsky, 1957.

(1) Francis Routh. Stravinsky, The Master Musicians. London: J.M. Dent & Sons LTD. 1975.49.
(2) Douglas Seaton. Ideas and Styles of the Western World. London Toronto: Mayfield Publishing. 1991.

Bartók's Fourth String Quartet - 8 (Finale)

Hoday,

As a whole, the themes of the first and fourth movement are of the same material. The expansions and contractions of short cells and irregular rhythmic patterns follow the traditions of his native Bulgarian folk music. Rhythmic elements of both old Hungarian and Romanian hora lunga are present.(17) Bartók solved some of the problems he faced in his previous quartet by using the arch form known as Architect Tonically.(18) And if one desires to attach a key signature to the some of the movements they could call the first movement in C-major, the second movement in E-major, and the fourth movement in A-flat major, taking a major third followed by a minor third approach. The fourth movement used more diatonic idioms while the third movement, the apogee, is most representative of Hungarian Folk Music with a beginning and ending cello playing a tarogato melody. The fifth and final movement is related to the first movement but doesn't reveal itself until measure 15 and then again in full force about half-way into the movement at measure 100. The piece is simple yet composed with thought to current complexity of the time and notes a change to a different and mature style of writing.

Every period of music was rich with exceptional composers who made a difference in its mannerism. And it is only opinion that most musicians of serious study may agree that Bartók could be one of the greatest composers. Serious music today is difficult to celebrate amidst the mainstream of mediocrity, not only in the the realm of symphony music, but also in the fact that pop music has possibly reached its end as new ideas only emulate a shorter and condensed versions of old ideas. But for those who study the true masters of our music history they will encounter Belá Bartók and employ his music unanimously with the great composers of all time.

This report was only a short beginning looking back in history at great composers. I hope you enjoyed this first series.

"Like the poet, he followed his own road and held his head high If art has lost in Him a master, and science luminary, this world of ethical conjecture in which we live has lost a man, in the fullest sense of the term: honest, without reproach, and - in a word - right."(19) Constantine Brailoiu - philosopher


Footnotes:
(1) Halsey Stevens, The Life and Music of Belá Bartók (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002),Introduction.
(2) ibid.,Cover.
(3) Belá Bartók, The Bartók String Quartets, (Julliard String Quartet),RCA CRL2-5801.
(4) Robert H. Amend, A Survey of Media Production (Denver: Metropolitan State College of Denver, 2004),Chapter One.
(5) Erno Lendvai, Belá Bartók (Khan and Averill, 1971),51.
(6) Halsey Stevens, The Life and Music of Belá Bartók (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002),Introduction.
(7) Elliot Antokoletz, The Music of Belá Bartók (Berkley Los Angeles: UNiversity of California Press, 2000),94.
(8) Erno Lendvai, Belá Bartók (Khan and Averill, 1971),51.
(9) ibid,.51.
(10) Halsey Stevens, The Life and Music of Belá Bartók (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002),306.
(11) Erno Lendvai, Belá Bartók (Khan and Averill, 1971),115.
(12) Fred Lerdahl, Spacial and Psychoacoustic Factors in Antonal Prolongation (Current Musicology 63, 1996),Article No.1.
(13) Erno Lendvai, Belá Bartók (Khan and Averill, 1971),117.
(14) Fred Lerdahl, Spacial and Psychoacoustic Factors in Antonal Prolongation (Current Musicology 63, no.1, 1996):9.
(15) ibid.,14.
(16) Quoted by Harry Cassin Becker, in Musical America, 17 December 1927.
(18) Bartók, The Six String Quartets, The Julliard String Qaurtet, Columbia Records D3L317/R64-1671.
(19) Brailoiu, C., Belá Bartók folkloriste (Address at the third plenary session of the commission Internationale des Arts et Traditions Populaires, Paris, October 1947).

Bartók's Fourth String Quartet - 7 (Compositional Formulas)

Hoday,

As one listens to the piece it seems as though there are two major compositional formulas that begin to take shape. Each formula contains several components of theory and the use of compositional tools. The first, as the the pitch material descends, the note values increase allowing the effect of the music to slow down. The second, as the pitch material ascends, the note values decrease allowing the effect of the music to speed up. The climax on the first effect becomes distant, the dynamics decrease along with the canons, the strettos, the inversions, and the retrogrades become stretched which allows the transition of new themes. The climax on the second effect becomes closer, the dynamics increase bringing along a more intense use of the canon, the stretto, inversions, retrogrades, and intervals - a simply marvelous concept.

Measure 14 marks the beginning of the second theme including a third group of four notes. Using hemeolas, ametric time, and circular rhythm, Bartók brings in the new notes, G#, C#, D, G, while combining additional dynamics of pianissimo. Antokoletz identified 3 groups of four notes and put them into a formula of group, X, Y, and Z. Group X, represents the first group of four notes at the introduction of the piece, C, C#, D, D#. Group Y represents the second group at the exposition, Bb, C, D, E. And Group Z represents the last group, G#, C#, D, G. Antokoletz also refers to the notes as pitches in a twelve tone row between 0 and 11.

In an article written in The Journal of Musicology "The overall theory of utilizing three groups of four notes is a staple theory of Bartók and has become labeled Spacial and Psychoacoustic Factors in Atonal Prolongation."(11) Lendvai discovered, "No elements can be properly joined without the aid of a third one, for the two can only be united by the mediation of a link; but of all the links that one is the most beautiful which makes a complete whole of itself and of the elements united by it."(12)

When one analyzes Bartók they will find elements of the number three in many if not all of his later compositions. There is the arch form which is made up of three sections, there are numerous examples of hemeolas using three-over-four, the golden section featuring the .618 and its difference of .382 and even Bartók's axis theories shows three uses of tonic, dominant, and subdominant theories in the circle of fifths. On a side note, Lendvai points out Bartók's use of the circle of fifths using four note groups in opposite poles in example 4.


Lendvai explains, "chords based on the fundamental C, Eb, F#, A have a tonic function. Chords based on the fundamental F, B, D, Ab, have a subdominant function. Chords based on Db, G, E, Bb have a dominant function."(13)

Not everyone, including Bartók, however agrees with Erno Lendvai. Fred Lerdahl writes from his 1996 lecture regarding Spatial and Psychoacoustic Factors in Atonal Prolongation, " I see little interest in making a theory of atonal music that cannot find its place in a general theory of music."(14) Perhaps Bartók knew this idiom to be true because his pitch material and use of traditional forms reflect the stability of tonal musical theories, or perhaps Bartók just uses traditional compositional tools to bring familiarity to the piece so that there can be a common frame of reference. Halsey Stevens quotes Bartók from his book, The Life and Music of Belá Bartók, "I do not care to subscribe to any of the accepted contemporary musical tendencies...my ideal is a measures balance of these elements."(16)

Still More to Come...

Bartók's Fourth String Quartet - 6 (Theories of the Fourth String Quartet)

Hoday,

(You can click on the images to enlarge)

From Arab scales, arch forms, canonic techniques, and external sensations, Belá Bartók's Fourth String Quartet was an architectural masterpiece that demonstrated a mature and relaxed style of composition and was a pivot point to the future of his writings. Unlike the previous three quartets, the fourth exhibited new pitch material, shape, form, and set new trends for string composition. As discussed in the past blogs, Quartet No. 4 contains five movements of which the first and fifth are related by the allegro and allegro molto. The second prestissimo con sordino and the fourth movement, allegro pizzicato are also related, and the third non troppo lento stands alone in the middle and serves as the apogee of the arch.

The entire piece is 999 measures in length so if one multiplies the Golden Section (GS) ratio by .618 the Golden Mean occurs at measure 617 located in the tenth measure of the fifth movement according to Erno Lendvai.(8) Lendavai goes on to say, "the influence of folk music is inspired by the 1:5 ratio, and the perfect examples of 1:2 and 1:3 models also found in the compositions of Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov."(9)

Another element of the fourth quartet is the four note symmetries used in conjunction with pitch cells. Bartók does not adhere by the rules of serialism in this piece however he does use pitch cells as motivic content to solidify musical continuity. Antokoletz summarizes a four-note symmetrical cell in the following example:






The first two cells in (a & b) are found in measure five and six and the third cell is found in measure 22. Bartók also uses the cells in various linear strettos and cannons throughout the piece. Both Antokoletz and Lendvai agree on the mathematical permutations used in these cells in relation to linear melody and vertical harmony. Their research is at best difficult to understand on the first reading and may be the reason Halsey Stevens elects not to address the technicalities in his book. Stevens writes, "From the Fourth String Quartet Bartók's tonalities are more sharply defined, his harmonies tending toward greater lucidity or even toward extreme simplicity, his rhythms vital and varied."(10)

Stevens is on track with his analysis as the piece begins with a strong statement of the first theme but then drifts to a calming controlled second theme in measure 14. Bartók is a master of theme development and quickly finds new life through the use of compositional tools and pre-compositional planning. Example 3 demonstrates a completely different structure using the same four notes from measure 1 to 13, never giving up on a simple idea but expanding them until they're ready for new development. In the exposition, measure 10 & 11, the four notes used are C, C#, D, D#. He uses non-linear ametric note values within the four string instruments to develop the four-note theme. In measures 1 and 3, the rotation of a major third interval exists between the violin-cello and violin two with a minor second in violin one then moves to a major second and holds while violin two closes the gap to another minor second between the two - and so on. Bartók continues to raise the pitch chromatically while the rotation takes place until the development reaches a climax. One may also notice that as the pitch ascends, the note values decrease creating a faster rhythmic pace to achieve the aural climactic effect.

Bartók had a keen sense to know what the listener needed to complete the thought of a phrase. By the tenth measure, the four-note scheme includes the notes Bb, C, D, and E. The ascended pitch material is now involved in a furious and playful fortissimo that slightly descends to a vertical ending with a compound tri-tone between a Bb violin in the violin-cello and an E-Natural in violin one with a cluster of notes in between at the exposition nicely setting up the second theme at measure 14. The entire introduction establishes how Bartók will be manipulating his four-note theory in terms of articulation, dynamics, cannons, strettos, note values, and eventually inversions, retrogrades, and interval vectoring - in other words he pretty much uses the entire theory book in this piece.


More theory to come...

Bartók's Fourth String Quartet - 5 (The Musical Language)

Hoday,

To understand the language of Belá Bartók, one must understand the heritage and the culture from where he came. In the first decade of the twentieth century, Bartók was actively pursuing the collection of national folk music of Hungary. By using the recording devices invented by film and recording experts Edison, Dickson, and Eastman, Bartók collected hundreds of musical samples of his Hungarian heritage before the destruction caused by war.(4) By 1928, at the age of 47, Bartók had composed 13 complete genres of music with 28 total pieces ranging from orchestra, piano, violin, to opera, ballet, a pantomime, a symphonic poem, and four string quartets most containing information taken from his Hungarian folk song research.

The evolution of Bartók's musical language is perhaps best represented in the compositions of his string quartets. They contain a natural understanding of the string instruments possibly with influence by his training under János Koessler, Hans von Koessler composer, who was acquainted with Istvan Thoman, a student of Franz Liszt, as well as the music of Wagner and Strauss, both of whom Bartók knew personally.

According to Elliott Antokoletz, the quartets themselves were composed over a period of thirty-one years. The first three were written in 1908, 1917, and 1927. The lyrical and romantic styles link directly to many composers of the early twentieth century but by the third and fourth quartets abstract and expressionistic styles began to develop.
The last three quartets , written between 1928, 1934, and 1939 move in opposite direction devoid of tonality. It is especially the fourth string quartet that specifically contain the correct amount of motivic structures that become more familiar as the piece develops and follows a form that uniquely blends the nineteenth and twentieth century together along with the modality and history of Hungarian Folk Music.

Antokoletz writes about Bartók's analytical and theoretical studies as distinct and diverse, and says that Bartók was influenced by the geographic separation from his homeland. He claims that this separation perhaps accounted for influences in nurturing theories more relevant to traditional modality in Hungarian Folk Music. The separation, however, between Bartók and his homeland may or may not have existed but it may have contributed to the fourth string quartet by the influences from the second Viennese school, Arab modality, the atrocities inflicted to his homeland after World War 1, world tensions between the wars mixed with his interests of traditional sonata form, fugue, and his natural abilities to compose complicated asymmetries of music. All which are integral to the fourth string quartet as Bartók used compositional tools with conventional arch forms and motives that were altered in the simplicities of resultant patterns, retrogrades, and inversions.

Halsey Stevens writes that, "Hungarian peasant music has a number of different categories that include pentatonic scales, nonarchitectural parlando rubato and tempo giusto styles surrounded by architecturally rounded forms and heptatonic scales such as Dorian, Aeolian, modern major, Mixolydian, Phrygian and sometimes modern minor."(6) The fourth quartet contains many of these modes with mixed characters of dynamic expression and other blends of pitch construction. It also demonstrates pure natural ability combined with educated experience, not to leave out the simple love for music.

Antokoletz also writes, "In traditional tonal music, composers worked according to a system in which the octave was divided into unequal parts."(7) It seems odd that most of tonal music is based off of an unequal fifth interval of the octave, and not the equal sixth division of twelve notes. Serving as the harmonic root function of tonal music and its major and minor triadic systems the aural perception of unequal divisions of the octave creates pleasing sound when in fact the sixth interval of twelve notes, or the equal division of twelve notes is one of atonal or unusual sound. In fact of all of the harmonic theories in position for tonal music, Bartók has figured the opposite theory in his equal subdivisions of the octave. In addition, he places them into complex interval cycles, Antokoletz calls Interval Class, that is a system of complementary interval cycles and is key to Bartók's thematic schemes.It entails the opposite theory to tonality and provides more than enough material for composition. (See Previous Blogs for Interval Cycles).

It is not impossible to understand how any other form other than post war integral serialism could influence Belá Bartók. His management of row fragments and other uses of dodecaphonics, combined with theories of late nineteenth century romanticism along with his middle-eastern roots and those of ancient times has proliferated a kind of fortspinnung effect influencing today's twenty-first century composers. And it's entirely possible that the theories of the string quartets challenged new music on a global level in a time when Bel Canto still remained in Italy, the Wagnerian and Mahler influence was still popular in Germany, and the new Russian Schools looked toward methods to top what Bartók had already done back in the United States.

Later, still more to come...