The History of Music - 6

Hoday and Happy New Year

Last post we discussed music of the 1300s in France. Yes, I know I haven't posted since last Sept so I hope to post more in 2010. Let's get started.

So we were talking about music of France in the 14th century including forms, compositional devices, and composers but France was not the only country creating new and innovative styles of music and composition. Let's talk about music in Italy. The Italians during the 1300s had their own thing going on with composition and notation that allowed them to come up with different rhythmic divisions, fast rhythmic values, and they were less complicated in the way they didn't have 3 or 4 different voices going on at the same time. Most of the time they were focused on just on text and they used imitation - or one voice that follows another. For the Italians, the period is called Trecento meaning 300.

If you look closely at the example written by Gherardello da Firenze (c. 1320-C. 1362) called TOSTO CHE L'ALBA the piece is known as the Caccia - which means to chase. So in one way we have the idea of one voice following another as if it were chasing each other. In addition, the nature of the text has to do with hunting or chasing after animals. During this time hunting in this region was a very popular activity. They imitate the calls of the hunter portraying painting of the words.





Again notice the imitation happening and you also have the same idea at the bottom line structure to the piece. The piece almost functions like the tenor line instead of something based on chant. The Italians were a little light hearted when it came to experimenting with these things. The pieces during this time are more on the secular side and becomes sort of the cutting edge of the up and coming Renaissance.

Let's look at another piece in the style called Madrigal. We'll run into the Madrigal again when we get to the Renaissance but it's nothing like the Madrigal we're looking at now. As the years passed the Madrigal took on its own development. This piece, called FENICE FU' E VISSI, by Jacopo da Bologna (fl. 1340-1360) has two degrees of imitation, two voices interacting with one another but yet the technique I want to point out, and one that is very prominent in the Italian Trecento, ad actually shows up in some of the French Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior is a technique called the hockett, which means hiccup.

Hockett was an effect in the voices where one voice would be singing the melody and stop to let the other voice sing that note. And so you would have the echo effect go back and forth between two voices.

Pretty straight forward...




One last works by the composer Landini was considered by many to be the greatest composer of the Trecento. We know this because of the many books written about him and the sculptures that were made. Landini was a blind organist when organs first began to be used in church. He composed many genres similar to Machaut.

On this particular piece you again have a Madrigal in the conspicuous form. But as the middle ages die out, so does this type of Trecento Madrigal. Usually organized into two or three stanzas this form used a refrain or ritornello, which means to return, and then two lines perhaps in a contrasting meter. So the Trecento Madrigal essentially was set with two voices without a tenor, both parts carried the same text, sometimes in question-answer style called hockett with a bit of imitation.




Ok, that's the middle ages. Thanks for reading, see you soon for the 1st generation Renaissance.

Later

The History of Music - 5

Hoday,

Some of the best Motets were written by Phillip DeVitry while Isorhythm continued as the dominant form in music composition.

Another composer who found notoriety during this time, Guilliame DeMachaut, 1300-1377 found his way through the modern years to become one of NPR Radio's the number one greatest composers of all time. So for those who think Michael Jackson was the greatest composer of all time you may want to wait 633 years to see if his name still 'pops' up.

Let's begin with the piece, Missa de Notre Dame. This piece was a major milestone in history as it was the first polyphonic setting of the mass ordinary. If you need more information of the history of church music please read Ideas and Styles of Western Musical Tradition by Douglas Seaton.

From the early composers Leonin and Perotin the use of polyphony was limited to alleluias and graduals but never on the Kyrie or anything in the mass proper. This was the first attempt, as we know it, to set the mass ordinary to polyphony. There are even motivic connections between the movements perhaps making this one of the first full scale pieces of music.

The piece is Isorhythmic and not only in the tenor but also in the contra tenor, which is a new voice we begin to see more of and what will eventually become known as the bass.

You can also see how DeMachaut has begun 4-part choral harmony. The tenor and contratenor interact and even cross voices. Go ahead and take a look at the piece below.





So we have secular text in the secular form and you can see 1,4,and 7 for the A section and then how the text interrelates. Measure 21 is the B section and so on; in measure 8-9 you'll see musica-ficta with the sharps. But one of the most interesting things about the piece is in the text. The text talks about the forms of the songs, "My end is my beginning." And you will see a retrograde from the beginning.

DeMachaut was also a trouvere in the northern part of France and wrote secular songs. Because he lived in a later period of time than DiVitry, and even though he was active as a sacred composer, he was one of a whole trend of composers who began to set secular songs polyphonically. He may have also used fixed compositional forms such as the Rondaeu or the Veralay as a base to his secular music. Remember however this was music in France so we should also talk about what was happening in Italy at this time as well. So next time we talk, let's make about the Italian Trecento.

See You.

The History of Music - 4

Hoday,

In our last blog we discussed the invention of Isoryhthm used by composers Phillipe DeVitry and Franco Cologne. It is important to keep in mind that the years surrounding these events were strife with The Black Plague where one-third of the world's population was dead or dying which brought forth a split in the church and led to an increase in secular music outside the church. Also, the school of Notre Dame in Paris had already been in business since 1190, and musical styles like the Motet and other forms of music had already been cataloged and other composers such as Guillaume de Machaut and Francesco Landini were already experimenting with multi-voiced harmony.

Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361) was musical advisor to several kings of France as well as Bishop of Meaulx. He was educated in the liberal arts at the University of Paris and became one of the greatest music theorists of his time. He was also credited with the development of the ideas in the treatise called Ars Nova or new music.

One of the earliest pieces of multi-part harmony, called Garrit Gallus-In Nova - N[euma], Motet, began to stray from the divinity of triple meter and helped introduce the world into other measurments of the time signature also known as mensuration or measurement. de Vitry introduced systems of duple and triple meter together which was referred to as prolation. The combination of the meter fostered a new musical style and technique. These two meters combined perfect - 3/4 and imperfection 2/4 throughout the piece and affected how music would be composed throughout the next 200 years and even has some inspiration today.

Here is an example of how the piece looked, just click on it to enlarge; Keep in mind that this piece was written in modern musical language. To hear the piece you will have to download it from iTunes. Just search for Phillipe de Vitry and look for Garrit Gallus





As previously discussed this piece contains elements of color and talea. The talea, meaning to count, demonstrates mathematical relationships in sound and the color represents repetitions of melodic patterns.

In order to compose a piece that made sense de Vitry came up with mathematical systems of proportion and order. The tenor has seventy-two notes with a talea of twelve durations and a color of thirty-six pitches. The talea is stated six times and the color twice. And the tenor of the second half of the motet is identical to the first half.

We have a three voice isorhythmic motet here and with the typical motet we have three different texts. The Nuema, which was some original chant and then two texts that were written over the top of it. So if we have Isorhythm in the tenor, can you tell where it repeats? If you look at the note values and not the pitch you will find that it is in measure eleven. The piece also gives it away with a ll at the bottom of the measure as well the third repeat at measure 21 and fourth at measure 31, fifth at measure 41 and the remaining at every ten measures.

Let's look at the color or the pitch pattern. There is a repeat at measure 31 and lasts for 3 talea and is also considered a perfect talea. You following? Don't worry it's usually a straight forward thing and is only a way of constructing a piece of music so that you have this structure ahead of time so you know what's going on as a performer.

So essentially what we have is two repeats of the color and six repeats of the talea. You may also notice the sharps above the notes also known as Musica Ficta or false music. Look at measure 25 there is a C in the top part with a sharp above it. This was an improvised musical practice that told the performer to sharp this note. This note was sharp usually at the cadence and was not written because the practice was well known even into the renaissance.

The normal motet was written in 3 and 4 part for voice. But most motets were written in three voices. Remember that the pieces at this time the concept of major and minor does not exist and this still would have been a modal piece. Composing in modes went into the the baroque era and even early J.S. Bach pieces hint that he was thinking in modes. He would use key signatures like two flats that would normally equal G minor or B-flat major but he would use the 2-Flat key signature for C minor as a hold over of a certain type of modal implication.

Let's look at the text of this piece. During the times of the Great Schism and the Babylonian captivity there was a lot of poking fun at the Catholic church or different nationalities or political events going on at that time. You have to realize that we look at these words without provocation but in these times those words may have meant something insulting;

"The cock babbled lamenting sorrowfully for the assembly of cocks..." see the text on page two of the image above.

If you notice that the two top lines, the duplum and triplunm have text but the tenor does not. Does this suggest that there was an instrument paying this line? Perhaps it was simply a chant, but we do not have evidence what type of instrument this would be. Modern recordings however usually have an instrument accompanying the two voices on top which suggests that de Vitry would have been one of the first composers to pair an instrument with a multi-voice harmonic piece.

As time progressed however you will find more instruments subtly added to music. And at the end of the 1300s the motet would be expanded into new forms both in secular and religious aspects.

Next up we'll look at a composer who would set new standards that even are today are studied and analyzed; Guilliame DeMachaut.

Later,

John

The History of Music - 3

The Middle Ages 1300s

As I said in the last segments there were two defining moments in history during the 1300s and they were The Great Schism and The Black Plague. These vents caused a lot of trouble for the Catholic church prior to the Renaissance as the people began to lose faith in church leadership. And then on top of this the 1300s are defined by the Black Plague. Europe loses some one-third of its population and unbelievable devastation that is difficult to understand.

These defining cultural events had an impact on musical development. You will see the cutting-edge avant-guard music at this time centered around rich cities usually protected by the church. The countryside however was not able to participate in the technologies and musical concepts of the city and most were most likely unaware of Gregorian Chant.

Some of the new musical concepts introduced by Phillipe DeVitry and Franco Cologne were divisions of note and values as well time signatures. In written music the circle and the dot stood for perfection and all the note values would be divided into three.

The higher levels would be divided into three and the lower levels of the music would be divided into twos or sometimes visa-verse. You would see evidence of 9/8, 6/8, or 2/4 divided into triplets. The now common meter 2/4 was also developed.

Another invention was with the use of color. When notation was first developed in chant the first line, or the chant line, or the C-Line, might be the color of red and when they added the F-Line the color might be yellow in place of actually writing the F or C note since actual notes were not invented yet. The color also informed the performer if they were singing perfect or imperfect meter.

Isoryhytmic Motets were developed in the Ars Nova and became the dominant form of composition and eventually influenced the masses of musical composers. You may recall what a Motet is. The origin was mainly a trope that eventually became its own piece and by this time Motets have very little relation left over from the original chant other than using a few belts from some chant and building a new piece on it.

Isorhythm basically refers to a device that you would use in the tenor voice. You may recall the tenor had been the original chant. And basically what you would do is that you would have a repeating rhythmic pattern and a repeating pitch pattern. The rhythm was known as the Talea. If you are familiar with Indian Music, as in North India, they refer to the rhythm as the tal so it's actually a connected word. So the rhythm was the Talea and the pitch was the Colour. Basically you would establish some sort of repeating pattern, which was the Talea, and then you would have a series of pitches you would use that was probably part of the original chant. Now these may or may not coincide as you might have a situation when the rhythm may not change with the colour.

Next up an analysis of Garrit Gallus - In Nova Fert - N[uema], Motet by Phillpe de Vitry (1291-1361)

Later,

John

The History of Music - 2

Hoday,

You may be wondering why I am posting all of these blogs on the same day...well, I've been writing but not posting. There you go so here it is.

The following points are just a summary to lead us up to the 1300s.

Medieval period - 313 A.D. through 1150 A.D.

World Events:
Contstantine 313 A.D. Edict of Milan, Destruction of Rome 455, Code of Justinian 1 529, Rule of St. Benedict 530, Reign of Pope Gregory 1 590-605, Charlemagne becomes Holy Roman Emperor 800, Norman conquest of Britain 1066, First Crusade 1096-1099, First Universities founded in Paris, Bologna, and Oxford 1150

Music and Musicians: 700 Liturgy of Office, 900 First classicifcation of Pslam Tones, 1000 Troping, Sequences, Parallel organum, Notker Balbulus, 1200 Mass liturgy completed, Solmization, Staff Notation, Free organum, Goliard songs, Conductus, Guido of Arezzo, 1098-1179 Hildegard von Bingen, 1100-1200 Troubador Songs, Melismatic organum, 1150-1300 Trouvére songs, Minnelieder

Figures in the Arts and Humanities: 500 St. Ambrose, 354-430 St. Augustine, 600 Martianus Capella, 480-524 Boethius, 480-527 St. Benedict, 540-604 Pope Gregory, 1075-1142 Abelard

Middle Ages 1163-1364

World Events: 1163-1250 Cathedral of Notre Dame built in Paris, 1189-1199 Reign of Richard the Lionhearted, 1215 Magna Carta

Music and Musicians: 1163-1190 Notre Dame School, Leonin, 1200 Perotin, Motet, 1291-1361 Phillipe de Vitry, 1300-1377 Guillaume de Machant

Figures in the Arts and Humanities: 1225-1274 Thomas Aquinas, 1265-1321 Dante Alighiee, 1267-1337 Giotto di Bondone

Let's begin at this point we're going to begin the next series with The Great Schism and The Black Plague.

Later,

John

The History of Music - 1

This multi-part series will attempt to generally discuss music history, overall music theory, composers, performers, and instruments reigning from 1012 B.C Through 2009 A.D.

Essentially music history is broken up into categories and subcatagories known as periods.

Antiquity

the 1st period is called Antiquity and generally spans 1012 B.C. through 313 A.D.

World Events: Reign of King David, First Recorded Olympic competitions 776 B.C

Music and Musicians: First notated music 800 B.C., Greater Perfect System 4th Century B.C.

Figures in the Arts and Humanities: Homer 700 B.C., Pythagoras 500 B.C., Aeschylus 456 B.C., Sophocles 400 B.C., Plato 340 B.C., Artistotle 322 B.C., Jesus.

For the most part little is known about the entirety of music prior to the 1300's. Therefore this series will begin around that time period. In the meantime however I will bore you with the information available prior to music's real beginning.

In essence we know about the Doctrine of Ethos and how music can affect human character. Plato thought of music as education and Aristotle thought of music as art. There was some music theory we knew called tetrochords and tonoi. Tetrachords was a span of two octaves with a series of intervals based around the fourth. Tonoi was an order of pitches that eventually led to the greater perfect system which was the development of two octaves of tones - essentially invented by Pythagoras.

Before 313 B.C., music was basically passed down by story telling and education but little written music was around basically because notation wasn't invented yet. The Edict of Milan (313 B.C.) when Constantine and Licinicus granted freedom from Christianity dictated the beginning of cataloging music in written forms however not in the form of the notation we read today.

It was not until 480 B.C. when Boethius wrote a doctrine known as De Institutione Musica that we have written forms of how music was perceived, taught, played, and cataloged.

And it was not until Pope Gregory 590-604 A.D. developed the first school that musicians could read and sing together by using a codified system of notes.

Charlemagne 742-814 A.D. along with Thomas of Celeano cataloged Pope Gregory's Schola Cantorum's writings and established the first body of church music and classified it as the following: (Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Trinity, Advent, Divine Office, Rule of Benedict, Matins, Lauds, Vespers, Compline, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Antiphony, Mass, Eucharist, Ordinary, Proper, Requiem, Dies Irae, Recitation Tones, Psalm Tones, Melismas, Church Modes, Authentic, Plagal, Modes, and Nuemes. Yes, he was a busy fellow.

Guido of Arezzo: 1000 A.D. by means of Guidonian hand standardized the 4 line staff, sight singing, and the additional solfege; ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and the ever popular la.

As music grew through between 1000 and 1300 a plethora of scholars, religious figures, and composers developed more modernized theories but from this point I would like to discuss the two most defining moments in history during the 1300's - The Great Schism and The Black Plague - next time on The History of Music

Later,

John

Stravinsky - AGON Part-4, (A Little History)

Hoday!

Stravinsky's thirst for using colorful orchestration had always been his forte. Since the first of his successes, Le Sacre du printempts (The Rite of Spring 1913) to the more tame, L'oiseau de fue (The firebird, 1910) and Petrushka (1911) his commissions included a wide and non-conforming array of instrumentation not previously used in the late mannerisms of the classical and romantic periods of music.

In fact in all three periods of Stravinsky's musical life, Russian Period (1908-1919), Neo-Classical Period (1920-1954), and his Serial Period (1954-1968) included abstract influence from his first teachings by Rimsky-Korsakov and through his works with ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev as well the famous dancer Nijinski, and up to performances with Balancine. Agon was only an addition of brilliance achieved after successfully composing since age 20.

Movement 5 - First Pas-de-Trios Saraband Step for one male dancer - (1:11 seconds) and Movement 6 - Gailliarde for two female dancers (1:12 seconds)
The triple meter of the Saraband dance offered Stravinsky an opportunity to express his ability to mix in a gallant yet playful texture of instrumentation. For example a violin solo plays against a xylophone while the brass playfully wanders around an F major chord that meanders into the sixth movement whereby the Mandolin, Harp, and a Piano makes an appearance.

Interesting enough is the use of medieval technique as the music and dancing tells an almost chanson style without text. Most of the 6th movement seems to have a clear and accurate declamation of poetry as well the clarity of some Ars Nova and Ars Subtilor from the late 1400's.

Movement 7 - Coda - (1:20 seconds)

Like most music of the past and the present composers would play the beginning of the piece a second time. Stravinsky however at this stage of his life would throw in a previously played section of the piece backwards and inverted while using a popular technique commonly known by serial composers as Klangfarbenmelodie, or tone color melody.

Stravinsky used serial technique in many of his compositions but none were more popular that in his pieces written for the ballet. The abstract aspects of dance in combination with the contrapuntal technique of serial music theory seemed aurally acceptable during the early and mid 1900s. One can find other works by composers Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern for examples of serial composition of the early and mid 1900's.

Movement 8 - Interlude - (44 seconds)

Using a tonal center around the key of C major Stravinsky uses hexagonic material from the Prelude. You will find the notes, C,D,F,G,B throughout the piece as they work through variated note values, and doubling emphasis while the movement ebbs and flows with high Timpanis or Tom-toms in Mi(b), Sol(b), and Si(b). There is a brief moment of tionality with an E-minor over D chord in measure 263 followed by, of course, a tri-tone Bb - typical Stravinsky - you gotta love it!

The remaining movements 9-17

At this point the piece works its way through many of the previous mentioned theoretical abstract practices of serial composition using simple instrumentation in complex harmony. Movement 9, Second Pas-de-Trios, Bransle Simple for two male dancers begins with an interesting trumpet duet in a fugue-like manner while the ensemble plays the same note structure in half-note value.

Movement 10, Bransle Gay for one female dancer is a slower paced 3/8 meter using a castagnette to set the poly-rhythmic structure against irregular subdivisions 7/16 & 5/16. The harmonic structure is again atonal using a hexagonic note cell and diminished harmonies in jazz-like improvisations.

Movement 11, Bransle Double for two male dancers, one female dancer makes use of larger intervals of the minor 9th in combination with minor 3rds and tri-tone. It is very dynamic while Stravinsky only called for a piano and a forte dynamic marking. Rhythmic manipulation accentuates various instrumentation exemplified in the trumpet/trombone in jux with the rhythm as the flutes enter with clarinet. The juxtoposition characterizes two opposing sides in the music.

Movement 12, Interlude uses no dancers and is a short repeat of the earlier interlude.

Movement 13, Pas-de-Duex for one boy and one girl begins with a subtle string and is almost Bartokian in nature as the intervals range from major seven, minor nine, minor second, and minor third. It may also be considered Jancekian in nature between high and low ranges - if only!

Movement 14, Coda for both dancers see a return of the mandolin against furious string intervals. It uses a twelve-tone structure while the quick 3/4 and 4/4 signature heads into the multi-metered 15th Movement, Four Duos for male and female dancer. The marcato and pizzicato of the strings over a trombone solo leads up to the repeat of the opening theme of the 16th Movement, Four Trios for male and female dancers and quickly climaxes to all dancers in the final 17th Movement, Coda for all dancers as the piece ends like it begins.

In my opinion Agon reflects Stravinsky's entire life's study of music composition. Although it can be argued, this piece reflects every aspect of music dating from the medieval troubadour songs, to the multiple generations of renaissance theory, some classical, some romantic, and definitely post Webern attributes - in my opinion of course.

For additional references and resources please see, read, listen and watch:
Burkhart, Charles. "Anthology for Musical Analysis." New York: Thompson Schirmer, Sixth Edition, 2004.
Routh, Francis. "Stravinsky, The American Master Musician Series." London: J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1975.
The London Symphony Orchestra, Agon Audio CD. BMG Entertainment 1997.
Balancine, DVD. Kutler for the American Masters Video Series - ISBN: 7697-2448-5.

Thanks for reading!!! Next up, a short synopsis of music history from antiquity to Michael Jackson - that ought to wake em up!

Later,
John

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.