Orchestral composition multifigure as a principle of time and space organization of Ihor F. Stravinsky’s orchestral works (from early ballets to Symphony in C and Symphony in three movements)
Authors: Savchenko Ganna 
Published: November 2019

Introduction. The early and the top works of the Russian period showed rapid evolution of Ihor F. Stravinsky’s musical thinking and style: there evolved the original musical language, the technique of composition, with the orchestral composition principles being changed. The ballets demonstrated a new sense of time and space, which is shaped by the complex of expressiveness means, with orchestrating being essential. The composer’s style evolution took place within a complex historical and cultural context, marked by a change in the cultural paradigm in the early twentieth century. The scientific and technological progress resulted into transformation of time and space perception in European cultural consciousness, with the music being not conceived as a form of art beyond their limits. (Herasimova-Persydska, 2012a). The means of space-temporal relations objectification is a system of interrelated parameters of a musical composition, covering form, theme, meter and rhythm, composition, music dramaturgy, orchestration with one of the leading functions. The twentieth century composers, who embodied new ideas about time and space while organizing musical composition, are C. Debussy, the New Vienna School composers and Ihor F. Stravinsky. Theoretical Background. Recent research and publications analysis. The problem of time and space is one of the key problems of Ihor F. Stravinsky’s work. The research of space at the micro level of the composer’s musical language is carried out in B. I. Rysin article. (Rysin, 2012: 164–165). I. Vershynina (1967) does not formulate the problem of time directly, but indirectly considers it, using the concept of “dynamic content”, which is inherent in the intonational structure of the composer’s music language. M. Druskin (1982) devotes separate sections to the problem of time and space: “Movement” (Druskin, 1982: 127–137) and “Space” (Druskin, 1982: 137–154). Summarizing, the researcher (1982) states: “… Stravinsky contrasted throughcomposed processual development to the ratio of planes and volumes, a single convergence place to the variety of relatively independent “horizon levels”, a single-center composition to a multi-center one” (149). Accurate observations of the monograph author lead to the aesthetic, artistic and general stylistic level, emerging, if at all, into music texts composition. Taking these ideas as a basis, we consider it appropriate to transfer them onto orchestral thinking and composer’s orchestral style. Let us add our own considerations about the nature of space. The Objective of the article is to consider the features of space-temporal organization of Ihor F. Stravinsky works at the level of orchestration. The objects of research are Symphony in C (1938–1940) and Symphony in Three Movements (1942–1945). The urgency of the work lies in poor research of the orchestral thinking and the composer’s orchestra style regarding the principles of the music composition space-temporal organization. Methods. To achieve the goal, the following research methods are applied: 1) historical one, which allows to comprehend the selected material in the perspective of the evolution of Ihor F. Stravinsky’s orchestral thinking; 2) theoretical one, which reveals the features of the composer’s ensemble style; 3) cultural one, which allows us to formulate an idea on the connection between culture as a type of thinking and composer’s artistic thinking, which is realized in the peculiarities of the space and temporal organization of the music composition. Results and Discussion. In his early ballets, Ihor F. Stravinsky developed various types of orchestral composition based on a key structural idea – the multifigure, which is realized horizontally and vertically within the orchestral composition, at the micro and macro syntactic levels of the music composition. We shall consider the figure in the orchestral composition as a characteristic, formula, distinguished through sound colour and register, which: 1) is repeated accurately (ostinato) or alternative-variationally, and in this case it may not have intonational characteristic, distinctness, bright expressiveness; 2) sounds unique, and may have an individual intonation and rhythmic pattern. The figures can belong to different layers of the orchestral composition, respectively, to act as carriers of different orchestral functions (melody, melodious figuration, pedal, etc.). Multifigure at the macro-syntactic level of a music composition is realized through frequent change of thematic episodes, accompanied by orchestral composition and sound colour altering. This gives rise to eventfulness, density, contrast of symphonious time. Multifigure at the micro-syntactic level is manifested through horizontal combination of figures, conditioned by intonational structure of the theme. A figure may coincide with the intonation if it represents a melody function. Vertically multifigure is manifested in the combination of figures in different layers of composition. They interact on the principle of rhythmic (and melodic) complementarity. This forms a particularly sophisticated space where all the elements interact, having their own unique sound colour, rhythmic, compositional patterns. The multifigure concept is of a double origin. The first source is culture, as a type of thinking. Ihor F. Stravinsky was one of the first composers who, at the level of artistic thinking, became aware of the complex intricacy of the universe and transformed it into orchestral works sound materials. The second source is the aesthetics of the stage (theatrical) space and the stage movements (gesture). Thus, we believe that in Ihor F. Stravinsky’s ballets scores of Russian period, a special orchestra style was developed, with the technique to be used in the symphonies. Conclusions. The analysis of Ihor F. Stravinsky’s Russian ballets and two symphonies scores showed that the orchestral style, invented by the composer in his early works, was based on the multifigure principle, embodying the idea of time and space in the world building, which was radically changed at the beginning of the century. The author formed an idea that the connection between orchestration, composer’s thinking and culture, as a certain type of thinking, needs further elaboration taking other Ihor F. Stravinsky’s works, as well as of the composers who made a breakthrough in orchestral style in the first half of the twentieth century.