This episode, introducing a new podcast by Joe Straus, is a deep dive into the opening measures of Stravinsky's ballet, Petrushka: a close analysis to hear what makes this music tick. 

Listen to the rest of Joe Straus's podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kLhnp4GA2qJ5YX9lgMYcL

This episode was produced by Katrina Roush along with Team Lead Lydia Bangura.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

Welcome to SMT-Pod, the premiere audio publication of the Society for Music Theory. This episode, introducing a new podcast by Joe Straus, is a deep dive into the opening measures of Stravinsky's ballet, Petrushka: a close analysis to hear what makes this music tick.

[Musi playing]

[Spoken over music] Hello, my name is Joseph Straus, and I've been studying, teaching, and writing about Stravinsky's music for more than 40 years. Welcome to my podcast, Analyzing Stravinsky. In each of the 20 episodes, we will listen closely to a passage of music by Stravinsky from Petrushka composed in 1911 to the Requiem Canticles from 1966. We will burrow deep inside the music to figure out what makes it tick and what makes it so wonderful.

Coming a year after the Firebird, the ballet, Petrushka was Stravinsky's second big hit for Diaghilev's Ballet Russe. But while Petrushka is, like the Firebird in its immersed in Russian folklore and traditions, the Parisian audience loved that sort of exotic Eastern stuff, Petrushka also marks a significant stylistic evolution for Stravinsky. Indeed, it's really Stravinsky’s first, modernist work. And the first work, where we can fully hear the distinctive, individual voice of the composer. We'll listen to the first minute or so of Petrushka and I will call out the blocks as they go by. Just to set the scene, the opening music of Petrushka depicts a swirling, colorful crowd at a country fair. The crowd is celebrating Shrovetide, which is the Russian carnival before Lent.

[Music playing]

[Spoken over musical example] Swirling, oscillating harmony with a flute melody on top. The harmony continues with a new melody, high in the cellos. Flute melody continues. Melody in the bass later associated with drunken revelers. Flute melody returns. Cello melody returns. Drunken revelers' melody. A new melody on top. Drunken revelers' melody drops out. Building to a climax. Drunken revelers' melody takes over. And the curtain goes up.

Block one has a rapidly oscillating harmony played by clarinets and French horns with a melody high above in the flute.

[Music playing]

The harmony consists of four notes: a perfect fifth [interval plays, filled in with major seconds [intervals play], and the harmony oscillates [harmony plays]. The melody consists of the same four notes [melody plays]. But now, the notes are played one at a time and separated by leaps [melody plays]. The rhythm is hard to grasp in any simple, straightforward way. That's because these recurring figures happen at irregular, unpredictable times [melody plays]. This sort of rhythmic irregularity and ambiguity, it's hard to predict where the next downbeat will fall, is typical of Stravinsky.

In block two, the same harmony and melody continue only, now, they are joined by a new melody.

[Music playing]

[Spoken over musical example] Here's the first block with the flute melody on top. Second block with a new melody in the cellos. Cellos drop out and the flute continues. Third block begins.

The new melody consists of just four notes played repetitively mostly stepwise descending [melody plays]. The four melody notes have a particular arrangement: tone, semitone, tone. We'll call this a Dorian tetrachord, and it is the basis for an astonishing number of Stravinsky's melodies both in Petrushka and other works. The melody clashes with the harmony. In older music, including Stravinsky's own older music, the melody and the harmony are mostly consonant with each other; they mutually support each other. But here, the melody and the harmony don't quite belong together. Here are the harmony notes [notes play]. And here's how it would sound if it fits directly with the harmony [notes play].

But Stravinsky shifts the melody one step too high and here's how it sounds [notes play]. That divergence of melody and harmony is typical of Stravinsky. And it's what gives this music its distinctive sound. Like the first melody, this new melody is hard to pin down rhythmically. Take the triplet figure for example [figure plays]. It punctuates the melody in irregular, unpredictable ways. It's hard to tell which beats are upbeats and which are downbeats [melody plays]. Stravinsky never lets you get comfortable rhythmically; your rhythmic expectations are constantly being subverted.

In block three, the oscillating harmony continues now, slightly thickened and we get another new melody. This melody turns out to be associated with a group of drunken revelers. We hear their drunken melody in the bass.

[Music playing]

Like the melody of block two, the drunken revelers' melody lies within a Dorian tetrachord but at a different pitch level. Here's the cello melody from block two, and the tetrachord that lies within [melody plays]. And here's the drunken revelers' melody and the tetrachord it lies within [melody plays]. One additional thing that the cello melody and the drunken revelers' melody have in common, they both diverge from the prevailing harmony. Here, again, is the melody from block two, heard against the prevailing harmony. The harmony is on D [spoken over melody]. The melody moves between E and B [melody plays]. Here's the harmony again [harmony plays], and here's the drunken revelers' melody [melody plays]. Now, the melody is a step too low compared to the harmony.

Blocks four and five basically repeat the music from blocks one and two. The repetition enhances our sense of the separability and individuality of these blocks. They can be spliced in and the splicing will be audible.

[Music playing]

[Spoken over musical example] End of block two. The drunken revelers' melody in block three. The flute melody returns as in the opening. The cello melody returns while the flute and swirling accompaniment continues.

That brings us to blocks six and seven where three things are going on. The expanded, oscillating harmony, the drunken revelers' melody extended in the bass, and a new melody on top.

[Music playing]

[Spoken over music] Drunken revelers' melody in the bass. A new melody joins high above in flutes and oboes. Drunken revelers' melody drops out. The new melody continues, with flutes and oboes and trumpet.

The Drunken revelers' melody is in the lower strings, basses and cellos, and it is extended [melody plays]. As we noted previously, this melody uses four notes that arrange the Dorian tetrachord [melody plays]. Here's the tetrachord [tetrachord plays]. When the melody is extended, sometimes when an additional note is added as a lower neighbor [melody plays], so there's a lower neighbor to the tetrachord.

The melody is thickened, weighted down with parallel motion in thirds and octaves [melody plays]. This sort of parallelism is called planing, and because the smaller interval is down in the bass, the planing produces a sort of lumbering, elephantine effect. These drunks are stumbling around. High above in flutes and oboes, there is a new melody that seems at first to contrast maximally with the drunken revelers' melody in the bass. Instead of low and plotting, it is high and rapid, light and fleeting.

Like the bass melody, it moves within a very small range [melody plays]. It turns out that these two contrasting melodies have something very much in common. In fact, they are basically the same melody within the same pitch space. The lumbering bass melody moves between G and C [melody plays], and so does the light, fleeting melody [melody plays]. I take them as two different aspects of these drunken characters; their bodies are stumbling around but their minds and their attention are wandering rapidly all over the place.

Here are blocks six and seven again. Listen for the contrast and similarity between the low melody and the high melody. In block 7, the low melody drops out while the high melody continues.

[Music playing]

In block eight, the drunken revelers' tune takes over entirely. In the original choreography for the ballet by Michel Fokine, this is the moment when the curtain goes up. Everything we have heard so far was just an instrumental prelude to set the scene. Although we have already gotten hints of their music, this is the moment when, according to the instructions of the score, a group of drunken revelers passes, dancing.

[Music playing]

Stravinsky also weights the melody down with planing. Previously, the melody was accompanied in parallel thirds. Now it is accompanied by complete major and minor triads melody plays]. And there is more. In addition to this main melody with its planing accompaniment, Stravinsky adds a different melody with its own planing accompaniment. Here is that other melody. It moves repetitively within a narrow span just like the drunken revelers' melody [melody plays]. And here it is with its own parallel, planing triads [melody plays]. When you put together the two melodies each with its own suite of following triads, you get a marvelous cacophony. Here's the whole passage ending with this celebratory outburst.

[Music playing]

My warm gratitude to my peer reviewer, Lynne Rogers, my old friend and comrade-in-arms, for her Incisive comments. Also to Matt Sandow who engineered and produced this podcast. And also to the wonderful folks at SMT-Pod, especially Jenny Beavers, Megan Lyons, and Katrina Roush.

This episode was the first of Joe's new podcast, Analyzing Stravinsky. You can find more episodes by searching for "Analyzing Stravinsky" on Spotify podcasts or find a link to them in the show notes. Visit our website smt-pod.org for supplemental materials related to this episode and to learn how to submit an episode proposal. Join in on the conversation by tweeting your questions and comments @SMT_Pod. SMT Pod's theme music was written by Zhangcheng Lu with closing music by David Voss. Thanks for listening!