STRAVINSKY SEMINAR (2003)

ESSAY QUESTIONS
Prof. Anne Boyd {AB} & Dr. Ian Shanahan {IS}

DUE: by the end-of-year deadline in November (exact date to be advised); hand it in at

the Music Department Administrators office.

ESSAY LENGTH: about 3000 words.

1. Taking at least two of Igor Stravinskys works not discussed in class, examine and determine the nature of
Stravinskys organization of musical elements in the construction of his music. Make clear how far you regard
his organization to be a new or highly original synthesis of musical elements. Conclude your essay with a
discussion of the relevance or otherwise of the works you have chosen to his (in)famous dictum: ... music is,
by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all ... {the full quote and some commentary on
it can be found in E. W. White, p.566 [2nd edition] or p.520 [1st edition]}.

2. Show Igor Stravinskys attitude towards extended classical forms by examining one of his concertos and one
of the later symphonies (the Symphony in C or the Symphony in three movements).

3. Explicate the musical structure of one of the following works: Octet; Oedipus Rex; Symphony of Psalms;
Orpheus; A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer. Treat some movements more comprehensively than others.

4. Stravinsky was often criticized for continually changing his style and compositional methods. Now that we can
survey his whole uvre, to what extent (if at all) does such a criticism remain justified? As well as referring to
specific pieces, bring into your discussion some account of his ideas as put forth in The Poetics of Music.

5. Study Agon, Threni, The Flood, or Requiem Canticles (choose one only!), and show how this later music is
consistent with Igor Stravinskys previous music: (a) in its general layout (its constructive values); (b) in its
temporal organization, and (c) in its tonal organization (consider that Stravinsky, when talking about his serial
music, declared: I hear harmonically of course and I compose in the same way I always have ...).

6. Discuss the importance of canonic writing in Igor Stravinskys music from the Cantata (1952) through to the
Variations (1964).

7. A few years ago, the Australian music critic John Carmody wrote that It could be argued that in his early
ballets [i.e. Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring] Stravinsky invented twentieth-century orchestration,
creating in sound what artists like [Jackson] Pollock later [did] with paint. Discuss this viewpoint either in
reference to those ballets or more generally. (Your reference to Pollock need only be minimal.)

8. Devise your own topic, but consult Prof. Boyd or Ian Shanahan first!

NB. The foremost requirement in writing your essay is to demonstrate that you have some understanding of how
Stravinskys music works. Therefore, in discussing one of his pieces, reference to the circumstances of its
composition should be kept relatively brief unless you can maintain that they were especially important to the
manner whereby the music was constructed. Indeed, all of the above essay topics have been couched with
this idea that the construction of the music is the central issue. As always, music examples are essential. It
may sometimes be more apropos (particularly where a long score-extract proves necessary) to refer to a
rehearsal letter, but much more often a short, well-annotated quotation is better, indicating on the extract itself
exactly what the extract is meant to illustrate.