Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring "d0e6463"

Sketches for the "Augurs of Spring"

Page 3 of the sketchbook of The Rite , reproduced in Figure 3 and transcribed in Example 58, consists of nine entries for the beginning of the "Augurs of Spring." At first glance it would appear that the fifth and sixth lines at the bottom of this page, each with four staves, were composed as a single entry. However, if these lines are read as a continuation of the fourth line directly above (where the "Augurs of Spring" or "motto" chord first appears), then the last three lines constitute, in proper succession, a remarkably accurate account of nos. 13–17 of the score. (Observe that the accentual pattern of the repeated chord, eight measures in length, is fully realized. The score itself extends, at the end of the fourth line, the D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato from two to four measures. The syncopated offbeat figure of the first measure of the last line is eliminated, while the sustained octave C of this line, "2 ob.," becomes a syncopated, upbeat reiteration.) Moreover, inasmuch as pages 4–5 (not shown here) are a further continuation of this sketch extending all the way to the "break" at no. 22, these first three pages of musical notation in turn constitute an accurate account of nos. 13–22. The instrumental cues attached to the last three lines of page 3 are also of considerable interest. The mark "x" at the fifth measure of the last line refers back to the second line's third entry: the latter, inserted sideways and in red ink, was added as an instrumental footnote to the syncopated chord of fifths.

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Figure 3:
Early jottings and sketches for the "Augurs of Spring," page 3 of the sketchbook of The Rite.
The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) Sketches , 1911–1913 ,© copyright 1969
Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.

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Example 58:
Sketchbook, p. 3 ("Augurs of Spring")

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Example 58
(continued)

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Example 58
(continued)

In his commentary to the sketchbook, Robert Craft has remarked that such details were unusual at so early a stage in the conception of a Stravinsky work.^[1]

Pages 5 and 6 are likewise ostensibly devoted to the "Augurs of Spring." They include a sketch for the "break" at no. 22, entries for the new horn melody at no. 25, and a brief jotting at the bottom of page 5 for the transition or "modulation" at no. 30. Most elaborate, however, is a six-stave sketch at the top of page 6 for the beginning of the first climactic block at nos. 28–30. The latter even includes the melody, introduced by the trumpets at no. 28+4 of the score, that would subsequently serve as the principal motive of the "Spring Rounds." Following its appearance at the top of page 6, the succeeding material of pages 7–9 is in fact given almost entirely to the "Spring Rounds." (Recall that this was the original order of the dances: "Spring Rounds" followed the "Augurs of Spring," while the "Ritual of Abduction" came after the "Rival Tribes" and its succeeding "Procession." According to Craft, the "Spring Rounds" melody was one of Stravinsky's earliest ideas.)^[2] The sketches for the "Augurs of Spring" on pages 3–6 underscore the prin-

[1] Robert Craft, "Commentary to the Sketches," Appendix I in the accompanying booklet to Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring: Sketches 1911–1913 (London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1969), p. 4.

[2] Ibid., p. 6.

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cipal divisions of this movement as a whole. At the end of the Introduction there is a brief preparation or transition at no. 12. This is followed at nos. 13–22 by Section I, where the motto chord is first introduced, and then at nos. 22–30 by Section II, where two new melodies appear and the motto chord is dropped. Finally, the transition or "modulation" at no. 30 leads to Section III at nos. 31–37, the final climactic block of the "Augurs of Spring."

Somewhat puzzling in relation to the extended sketch are the initial jottings at the top of page 3. Not that the relationship of these entries to the "Augurs of Spring" at nos. 13–22 is in any way obscured. Except for the second line's second entry, where the chords are part of the Introduction's preparatory block at no. 12, all entries refer unambiguously to the extended sketch on pages 3–5. Puzzling, rather, is the immediacy of some of these jottings compared to the surprising gaps evidenced by others. The third notation of the first line is an accurate spelling of m.3 of the last line. On the other hand, the first entry's syncopated offbeat figure is inaccurate, down a whole step from its pitch at m.5 in the fifth line.^[3] And the (B

G F) melody of the third line, while prefacing (C B

A G) at m.6 in the last line and (B

G F) in the bassoons on page 4 (no. 19 in the score), is, in relation to the latter, two octaves too high and in sixteenth-notes.

All these jottings were undoubtedly composed in preparation for what follows below. Yet the extended sketch, in its overall comprehension and detail, exhibits such a stunning command of the "Augurs of Spring" at nos. 13–22 that the discrepancies revealed by some of these entries are not easily reconciled. Irrespective of whether pages 3–5 do comprise Stravinsky's first notations for the "Augurs of Spring," it is tempting to suppose that the extended sketch had been with the composer for some time prior to actual notation and that the prefatory jottings on page 3 were entered as "soundings" with a preexistent view toward the more precise plan of action detailed below.

Noteworthy in this respect are the sketchbook's initial entries for the "Glorification of the Chosen One" on pages 52, 59, 61, and 66–67 and those for the "Sacrificial Dance" on pages 84–85. These, as noted in Chapter 2, reveal a similarly developed character. And the role of the piano in Stravinsky's inventive processes, early on as an aid in improvisation and then in a constant "testing" of the ear, cannot sufficiently be stressed. Notice, for example, the easy right-hand-left-hand "lie" of the motto chord itself, which underscores the chord's compound nature, its triadically sealed top and bottom "halves." Here, too, then, the pianistic element is most conspicuous in those entries which are at the outset highly developed, suggesting the early, improvisational origin of this material. In contrast, the sketches for the Introduction to Part II and the "Mystic Circles of the Young Girls," material that lacks such a pianistic orientation, are among the most extensive and seemingly arduous in the sketchbook.

[3] Recall from Chapter 1 that this upbeat figure accompanied one of the composer's earliest ideas for the stage action, namely, that of "the old woman in a squirrel coat."

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Indeed, when Stravinsky first examined the sketchbook after a period of some fifty years, he cited as his first notation on page 3 not the initial jottings but the motto chord at the fourth line (along, presumably, with its rhythmic pattern, eight measures in length).^[4] And the foundational status of this chord has long been taken for granted. Earlier in the century, in his revisionist interview with Comoedia , Stravinsky claimed that the "embryo" of The Rite , "strong and brutal" in character, had been conceived while completing The Firebird in the spring of 1910.^[5] André Schaeffner's biography, where much of the information is known to have come from the composer himself, acknowledged the chord as "the first musical idea," composed, however, during the summer of 1911.^[6] Craft gave a similar account: the composer continued to single out the "focal chord" of The Rite , the E

dominant seventh superimposed over (E G

B), as his initial idea.^[7] (Craft in turn analyzed the top half of the chord, the dominant seventh itself, as "a root idea of the entire piece.") Indeed, in an added reflection that points to both its keyboard, improvisational origin and its apparent isolation from whatever else might at the time have been engaging the composer musically, Stravinsky recalled that he had initially been unable to explain or justify the chord's construction, but that his ear had nonetheless "accepted it with joy."^[8] (The chord's immediate "justification" is readily apparent on page 3, in its relationship to the D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato and the (E G

B) arpeggio of the second line, a relationship which is in turn stressed registrally at the end of the fourth line.) But Craft later reversed himself. Citing his intimate acquaintance with the composer's working habits, he concluded in his commentary to the sketchbook that there was no reason to doubt the left-to-right and top-to-bottom "chronological order" of page 3: the melodic conception of the chord, the D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato and its (E G

B) accompaniment in the initial jottings, had come first, while the chord at the fourth line had come as a subsequent verticalization of this conception. He discussed the matter with the composer, who later agreed that this was "probable."^[9]

At issue, of course, is not the authenticity of a left-to-right and top-to-bottom reading of page 3 (with the jottings preceding the fourth line), but whether this "chronological order" can be taken as representing the very earliest invention.

To recapitulate here for a moment: it is almost universally agreed that, following performances of Petrushka in Paris, Stravinsky began to compose his sketches for the "Augurs of Spring," "Spring Rounds," and possibly even the "Ritual of the Rival Tribes" during the summer of 1911 at Ustilug, Russia. He may have begun

[4] Craft, "Commentary to the Sketches," p. 4.

[5] "Les Deux Sacres du printemps," Comoedia , December 11, 1920. Reprinted in François Lesure, Le Sacre du Printemps: Dossier de presse (Geneva: Editions Minkoff, 1980), p. 53. For an English translation of the interview, see Igor Stravinsky, "Interpretation by Massine," in Minna Lederman, ed., Stravinsky in the Theatre (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1949), p. 24.

[6] Strawinsky (Paris: Rieder, 1931), p. 39.

[7] Robert Craft, "The Rite of Spring: Genesis of a Masterpiece," Perspectives of New Music 5, 1 (1966): 23.

[8] Ibid., p. 24.

[9] Craft, "Commentary to the Sketches," p. 4.

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Example 59

in July, either before or after his visit with Nicolas Roerich, at which time the scenario and the titles of the dances were decided upon. Little could have been accomplished in August. The composer made trips to Karlsbad to settle the commission with Diaghilev, to Warsaw and Lugano to meet with Alexandre Benois, and finally to Berlin to visit his publisher, Russischer Musik Verlag, on matters pertaining to Petrushka . In fact, Craft estimates that the initial notations for the "Augurs of Spring" were entered after the composer's return from Berlin, on or around September 2.^[10]

In a letter to Roerich dated September 26, 1911, Stravinsky informed his collaborator of his new address in Clarens, Switzerland, explaining that he had already begun to compose a dance, his description of which fits the "Augurs" movement.^[11] Yet it is entirely possible—indeed probable, as suggested—that these sketches were preceded not only by considerable improvisation (both at and away from the piano), but by additional sketch material as well. The existence of sketches as much as a year earlier is confirmed by two letters from Stravinsky to Roerich dated July 2, 1910, and August 9, 1910.^[12] And Craft has published what he believes to be the earliest extant sketch for The Rite : pre-dating the sketchbook, and given here as Example 59, it shows an E

dominant seventh superimposed over an A (rather than an E), and with general contours and rhythms that anticipate sections from both the "Ritual of the Rival Tribes" and the "Sacrificial Dance."^[13] In

[10] Vera Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), p. 596.

[11] "Letters to Nicholas Roerich and N. F. Findeizen," Appendix II in the accompanying booklet to Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring: Sketches 1911–1913 .

[12] Ibid., pp. 27–29.

[13] V. Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents , p. 597.

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other words, the order of the entries on page 3, even if authentic, in no way discounts the possibility that the motto chord of the fourth line might indeed have been the composer's first idea.

But how significant is the which-came-first argument? Can it matter all that much whether, as Craft now claims, the motto chord of the fourth line was derived from the D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato and its (E G

B) chordal affiliation in the initial jottings, or whether, as has generally been assumed, the chord came first and spawned its melodic conception? In the extended sketch for nos. 13–22, as in the score itself at no. 13, the chord appears first, while the ostinato and its (E G

B) accompaniment detach themselves from this construction eight measures later. On the other hand, if the preparation at no. 12 is taken into account, then the ostinato is first heard, pizzicato in the second violins, as a melodic component in anticipation of the chord at no. 13. The real miracle, however, is that the impact of the chord, the shock of its hammer-like, percussive action, is so entirely dependent on the "loose," contrapuntal network of the "awakening of nature" in the Introduction and that this latter should not have been composed until after the first three dances, and possibly even after the whole of Part I, as Stravinsky later maintained.^[14]

Clearly the essentials here are: (1) that the notations for the "Augurs of Spring" on pages 3 and 4 of the sketchbook, whether in their most original form or not, probably represent the composer's earliest ideas for The Rite ; and (2) that these ideas, forming the very cornerstone of The Rite , introduce vertical and linear arrangements that are of paramount concern not only to a consideration of the "Augurs of Spring" but of succeeding movements as well. Regardless of which came first, the chord or its melodic conception, these arrangements are central to our analytic-theoretical perspective.

1. The three pitches of the D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato constitute, respectively, the dominant seventh, fifth, and root of the E

dominant-seventh chord, the top half of the motto chord. This relationship is sustained registrally in the concluding two measures of the fourth line.

2. The disengagement from the motto chord of E

, D

, and B

as an ostinato and of (E G

B) as its accompaniment underscores the compound nature of the chord; that is, the superimposition of the E

dominant seventh and of the D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato over (E G

B).

3. Vertical or linear in conception, the superimposed quality of the configuration points in turn to the essential triadic makeup of the harmony in these initial pages.

4. Apart from arpeggios, melody is represented most prominently by the (B

G F) tetrachord of the third line and by (C B

A G) at m. 5 in the last line. Encountered in Chapter 5, this is the minor or Dorian tetrachord with in-

[14] Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Expositions and Developments (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), p. 141.

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terval order 2-1-2 (whole step-half step-whole step) and with a pitch numbering of (0 2 3 5). The D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato may in this connection be regarded as an incomplete (E

) tetrachord.

5. The (C E G) triad, substituting occasionally for (E G

B) in the accompaniment, forms, in combination with the E

dominant seventh or the D

—B

—E

—B

ostinato above, another prominent configuration in The Rite , especially in the "Ritual of Abduction" and later in the Introduction to Part II at nos. 86–89.

6. The outer pitches of the motto chord, E

and E reading down (the roots of the two triadic subcomplexes), define a 0–11 or major-seventh vertical span that is sustained statically and very nearly continuously throughout The Rite .

And so pages 3 and 4 of the sketchbook introduce groupings or arrangements central to the "Augurs" movement and to the work as a whole: the vocabulary of The Rite consists in large part of 0–2 whole-step reiterations, (0 2 3 5) tetrachords, major and minor triads, dominant-seventh chords, and 0–11 or major-seventh vertical interval spans. (Again, as in earlier chapters, conventional terminology is employed for purposes of identification, with no intention of invoking tonally functional relations.) And although, given the reputation of this piece as one of considerable complexity, this reduction might seem a bit fanciful, we can narrow the scheme somewhat. The (0 2 3 5) tetrachord, as the principal melodic fragment not only of The Rite but of Stravinsky's "Russian" period generally, surfaces by way of all manner of reiterating, folkish tunes. As such, it is invariably articulated in the tightest or closest arrangement, confined to the interval of 5, the fourth (without interval complementation, in other words). It may nonetheless be either (0 2 5) or (0 3 5), incomplete, as noted already, with the D

-B

-E

-B

ostinato or (E

) unit, which lacks the C, pitch number 3 reading down.

The triads and dominant sevenths also assume a characteristic disposition: as with the (0 2 3 5) tetrachord, the tight or close arrangement. This is not always the case but is customary, especially in the treble registers. The typical dominant-seventh placement is exemplified by the top half of the motto chord: closed position, "first inversion." Starting with the chord's E

dominant seventh at no. 13, Example 60 traces continued reference to this disposition throughout The Rite . All these fixed arrangements are bound to be of consequence to a local or global reading of The Rite , a matter to which we shall therefore be returning for further comment. But note, for the moment, how closely this tight articulation is linked to the melodic repetition and then to the rhythmic-metric implications of this repetition. In other words, given the superimposed, layered structure of The Rite , a construction in which fragments, fixed registrally and instrumentally, repeat according to the two rhythmic types outlined in preceding chapters, the tight or limited fragmental compass becomes inevitable.

By contrast, the 0–11 vertical span is rarely melodic in character (fragmental or

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linear), but defines, harmonically or vertically, the span between pitches of unmistakable priority among superimposed, reiterating fragments or chords. Thus, as noted above, the E

-E span of the motto chord and its subsequent melodic formulation; or, in Example 60, the subsequent pitch realizations of this span further along in Parts I and II. In Example 61 from the "Ritual Action of the Ancestors" in Part II, the (0 2 3 5) tetrachord, (C

B A

) here in the trumpets, is superimposed over a D-B

ostinato in the bassoon. Reading down, the 0–11 span is therefore C

—D as defined between the C

of the upper (C

B A

) tetrachord and the low D of the D-B

unit. Similarly, in Example 54 in Chapter 5, from the "Ritual of the Rival Tribes," a reiterating (G F E D) tetrachordal fragment is superimposed over a lower G

; the 0–11 span is G-G

, reading down again. And starting with the

Example 60

Example 61:
"Ritual Action of the Ancestors"

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motto chord at no. 13, note the metric accentuation of the 0–11 span in these illustrations, an accentuation that typifies its articulation throughout The Rite , rendering it highly conspicuous from one block or movement to the next.