MHL 603 – PREPARATION
2
(F-08)
Due 22 Sept. via Email
Please listen to Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments. Note that the score on reserve doesn’t correspond exactly to the instrumentation on the recording. The score is the 1947 revision, while the recording is the original 1920 version. Now read the following article:
Edward T. Cone, “Stravinsky: The progress of a method,” in Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky (ed. Boretz and Cone, 1972), 155-194.
(Skim pp. 161-64 which discuss works we don’t cover.) If you have time you might also watch a DVD called Final Chorale, which is also on reserve. It alternates between clips of a rehearsal of the Symphonies of Wind Instruments and analytical discussions of the piece. I think it makes a nice complement to Cone’s article.
In addition please listen to Orpheus and Agon.
Write a paragraph or two in response to one of the following questions:
1. Cone discusses “interruption” and “stratification” in Symphonies of Wind Instruments and two other pieces. Do hear these techniques in Orpheus? In Agon? Find and discuss examples in each piece (identify them by rehearsal number or bar number). Are there important differences between the ways Stavinsky uses stratification in these three pieces?
2. Watch the DVDs of Rite of Spring and Agon as ballets. Are “interruption” and “stratification” in the score reflected in the choreography? Describe how, referring to the score by measure or rehearsal number.
3. Review what Cone says about key areas in SWI. Do you hear these key areas? Listen to the piece again with the score. Give an example where you agree with Cone about the key, and if possible say why that’s what you hear. Give another example where you don’t agree with Cone and say why. Listen to Orpheus and Agon. Do you hear key areas in Orpheus? Give an example. Do you hear key areas in Agon? Give an example. Can you give an example from Orpheus or Agon where you don’t think you’re in a key. Refer to all examples by rehearsal or bar number.
As before, send your paragraph (or two) to jspitzer@sfscm.edu by Monday at