MHL 603 – PREPARATION 1

(F-11)

 

Due 6 Sept. via Email

 

Please listen to Petrushka (1st Tableau) and Rite of Spring (Part 1) and/or watch them on the DVD or VHS on reserve in the library.[1]  Also listen to Symphonies of Wind Instruments or watch "The Final Chorale" DVD, which has a performance of Symphonies at the end.2  Now read the following articles:

 

Charles Hamm, “The Genesis of Petrushka,” in Igor Stravinsky, Petrushka, An Authoritative Score . . . (ed. Charles Hamm, 1967), 3-20.

Richard Taruskin, “The Rite of Spring,” in Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 4 (2005), 170-190.

Edward T. Cone, “Stravinsky: The progress of a method,”  in Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky (ed. Boretz and Cone, 1972), 155-194.

 

There are xeroxes of the articles in a binder in the library and PDFs on the website.  Scores to the three works are available in the library and online.[2]

 

Write a paragraph or two on one of the following topics.

 

1.  At the end of his discussion of Rite Taruskin characterizes it as “dehumanizing.”  What does he mean by this?  Do you agree with this characterization?  Is Petrushka similarly "dehumanizing"?

 

2.  Cone discusses “interruption” and “stratification” in Symphonies of Wind Instruments and two other pieces. What does he mean by this? Do hear “interruption” and/or “stratification” in Petrushka?  In Rite of Spring? Give examples by rehearsal number or bar number. How does the technique differ between the three pieces?

 

3. Watch "The Final Chorale" either in the library or on YouTube and compare it to Cone's article. Do the article and the movie say something similar or different about the piece? Discuss 3 or more examples of how the movie's director uses visuals and montage to make points about the music. What are the advantages and drawbacks of presenting musical analysis in a movie as compared to prose?

 

Send your paragraph (or two) to john.spitzer@notes.sfcm.edu by Monday 5 Sept. at 6 PM at the latest. 

 


[1] Petrushka is on VHS, and it’s the first thing on the tape.  Rite is on DVD (2 copies), and it’s preceded by a long discussion of how the Joffrey Ballet recreated the original, 1913 choreography. The ballet itself starts around track 6.

[2] You can also find "The Final Chorale" on YouTube. The score on reserve is the 1947 revision, which is the version Cone uses in his article and also the version played on "The Final Chorale"; however the recording on the course CD is the original 1920 version.