Neoclassicism

• Igor Stravinsky wrote the ballet Pulcinella just after the end of the First World War
• Stravinsky's early ballets were The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913)
• The original pieces used for Pulcinella were from the middle of the eighteenth-century by the Italian composer Pergolesi
• The suite of pieces from Pulcinella was completed in 1922 and contains eight of the original twenty movements
• The orchestral suite of Pulcinella was first performed in 1922 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston, USA
• Neo-Classicism was a reaction against the overblown length, exaggerated emotions, and formlessness of late nineteenth-century music
• Neo-Classical pieces were often short and based on eighteenth-century forms like ritornello, sonata form, variation, rondo, and binary and ternary forms
• Harmonies in Neo-Classical music were based on early originals but with added note discords
• Rhythms in Neo-Classical music reflected the influence of jazz, especially its syncopated style
• Pulcinella was based closely on actual eighteenth-century pieces with melodies, structures, and harmonies intact
• Stravinsky wrote the suite for a chamber orchestra of 33 players, equivalent to the late eighteenth-century orchestras
• Stravinsky added features not found in eighteenth-century music, like a solo trombone, five solo string players, and many articulations
• The Sinfonia uses standard double woodwind but no clarinets
• The Gavotta movement uses solo wind instruments and features a virtuoso bassoon part with glissandi
• The 'Vivo' movement uses the full orchestra, including flutes, trumpet, and trombone, with a circus-like atmosphere
• Texture in the Sinfonia and 'Vivo' alternates between loud tutti sections and quieter solo passages
• The Sinfonia has melody-dominated homophony with occasional polyphonic sections
• The Gavotta has moments of homorhythm and broken chord textures in the accompaniment
• The 'Vivo' features heterophony and the use of glissando in the trombone and double bass parts
• Sinfonia movement:

  • In rounded binary form with an imagined double bar at the end of bar 15
  • Second half begins with the same theme as the beginning but now in the dominant
  • Main theme returns in the tonic at the end, making it 'rounded'
  • No repeats
  • Section A (bars 1-15):
  • 6 bar main theme in G major for tutti then strings only
  • 3 bar sequential idea on oboe with bassoon counterpoint modulating to the dominant (D)
  • Repeated note and cadence section in D lasting for 3 bars and a quaver, then repeated in altered form
• • Section B (bars 16-32):
  • Theme 1 in dominant for 5 bars
  • New rising modulating sequence based on music of bar 10
  • New version of Theme 2 played by solo cello
  • 2 bar cadence figure in B minor
  • 2 bar descending sequence, repeated with more instruments
  • Section A1 (bars 33-end):
  • Starts with the main theme in the tonic G with 2 bars of just bassoons and horns
  • 3 bar descending sequence in tonic
  • 4 bars of cadence phrases taken from the end of the A section, not in the tonic
• Gavotta with two variations:

  • 'Gavotta' is the Italian name for the French dance 'Gavotte'
  • Theme and variations structure
  • First variation closer to a gigue style with 6/8 compound time signature
  • Music in straightforward binary form
  • Theme and first variation have the first half repeated, but not the second
  • First half modulates to the dominant, second half modulates through related keys back to the tonic
  • Second variation compresses two bars of the gavotte into a single bar
  • Second variation repeats the second half in an unusual way, starting half-way through bar 80
• 'Vivo' movement:

  • In rounded binary form
  • First half modulates to the dominant (C) just before the double bar
  • Second half begins unexpectedly in the tonic key
  • Modulating sequence takes the music through G major back to the tonic (F)
  • Main theme returns in the tonic key with widely spaced heterophony
  • Mock mournful version of the tune in the tonic minor (Fm)
  • Main tune returns with unaccompanied double bass in the tonic key
  • New comic cadence phrase with an inversion of the original glissando idea completes the movement
• Tonality:

  • Stravinsky spiced up traditional tonality with frequent added note dissonances
  • Sinfonia begins in clear G major and modulates to the dominant early in the first section
  • Other closely related keys follow in the second half before ending in the tonic key
  • Modulating sequence in bars 21-23 goes from G major through A major to B minor
  • Circle of fifths from bar 7 to bar 9
  • Added notes apparent from the start, clouding the simple G major chord in bar 3
  • Retains many original cadences but alters some for different effects
• Harmony:

  • Often simple root and first inversion chords
  • Cadences exist but often with added dissonant notes or changed chords
  • Sometimes harmonies are quite bare
  • 2nd inversion chords occasionally found
  • Suspensions and retardations occur sometimes
  • Stravinsky's use of 7th chords, including dissonant ones
• Melody:

  • Melody lines closely follow eighteenth-century originals
  • Simple balanced phrase structure often apparent
  • Sequences common
  • Ornamentation common, sometimes exaggerated
  • Grace notes, turns, and quintuplet turns present
  • Repeated notes, broken chords, and conjunct style passages in melodies
  • Short motifs repeated more than in the original
• Rhythm and metre:

  • Dotted note rhythms important in the main Sinfonia tune
  • Stravinsky frequently adds rests not present in the original
  • Syncopation important in Stravinsky's style
  • Time signature changes occur occasionally
  • Compound duple 6/8 time signature in Variation 1
  • Rhythmic groupings with quintuplets and rapid scales in groups of 11 or 12
  • Demisemiquavers in the double bass, glissandi in the trombone
  • Emphasis on short note lengths with performance directions like 'staccatiss. e secco'
  • Dramatic pause just before the end of the 'Vivo'