Stravinsky and the Russian period
Subtitle: sound and legacy of a musical idiom
By: Pieter C. van den Toorn, John McGinness
Contributors: McGinness, John
Series: Music since 1900
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
ISBN-13: 9781107021006
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation
Description: Van den Toorn and McGinness take a fresh look at the dynamics of Stravinsky's musical style from a variety of analytical, critical and aesthetic angles. Starting with processes of juxtaposition and stratification, the book offers an in-depth analysis of works such as The Rite of Spring, Les Noces and Renard. Characteristic features of style, melody and harmony are traced to rhythmic forces, including those of metrical displacement. Along with Stravinsky's formalist aesthetics, the strict performing style he favoured is also traced to rhythmic factors, thus reversing the direction of the traditional causal relationship. Here, aesthetic belief and performance practice are seen as flowing directly from the musical invention. The book provides a counter-argument to the criticism and aesthetics of T.W. Adorno and Richard Taruskin, and will appeal to composers, critics and performers as well as scholars of Stravinsky's music.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.