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Give a description of Stravinsky’s very personal use of Schoenberg’s 12-note method, examining what the continuities are (if any) between his 12-note works and his earlier works. (Part 1)
After the collapse of tonality all the chromatic scale notes started to be treated equally. There was a need of a new arrangement of the atonal musical material. The idea was initiated by Arnold Schoenberg and continued by his students and other composers. It is worth mentioning that dodecaphony is only a compositional technique, not a style. Moreover the series is not a melody or the theme of the song. It is only the way of organising musical material and the basis of all melodic structures. The basis of dodecaphony is series – fixed sequence of twelve sounds from which none can repeat before the other eleven have been used. It follows that each sound from the 12-note scale is equally privileged. Schoenberg and his students combine dodecaphony with expressionism. However, there are also dodecaphonic compositions in the neo-classical style e.g. written by Igor Stravinsky. In my essay I would like to discuss Stravinsky’s very personal use of Schoenberg’s 12-note method and exam what the continuities are (if any) between his 12-note works and his earlier works.
To begin with I would like to mention that we can divide Stravinsky’s works into three periods: Russian (also called vital or folk, up to 1920), neoclassical (up to 1952) and dodecaphonic (after 1952). His works composed in these periods are extremely different in terms of style and sound.
In the ‘Russian period’ Stravinsky’s compositions are characterised by the clarity and logicality of melody, the sharpness of rhythm, unusual tonal colours, bi- or polytonal concords and folk motifs. The composer emphasises roughness, hardness of sound, accents and dissonances. The music is aggressive, energetic and firm. Neoclassicism combines the modern musical language of the old forms. Main features of neo-classical music are objectivity, cooling, distance, subdued expression with elements of irony. Neoclassical works are characterised by clear forms, simple and communicative style and technical precision. Common features of vitalism and neoclassicism in Stravinsky’s music is the objectification of the world, relevance to classicism and departure from programme music and poetry.
Around 1952, Stravinsky suddenly turned to dodecaphony, which he used to criticize. He said:
Serialism? Personally I find quite enough to do with seven notes of the scale. Nevertheless, the serial composers are the only ones with a discipline I respect. Whatever else serial music may be, it is certainly pure music. Only, the serialists are prisoners of the figure twelve, while I feel greater freedom with the figure seven[1]
[1] Stravinsky’s interview In Paris, May 1952
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