Copyright 2015 by Mark L. Rheaume

Transcription

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2 Coyright 01 by Mark L Rheaume ii

3 iii ABSTRACT Characteristics o a Modern Ballet: The Adotion o Sonic Vocabulary and Textual Treatment in The Earth Without Water (01) Mark Rheaume The modern ballet, as an orchestral genre, owes much o its status and value to comosers o the early 0 th century Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky s groundbreaking works, Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune and Le Sacre du Printems resectively, revolutionized the sonic landscae o ballet and exanded the ideas o interaction with texts and scenarios This aer demonstrates the continued use o these innovations in the author s comosition, The Earth Without Water This analysis identiies three categories harmonic vocabulary, rhythmic/ormal organization, and textual treatment by which The Earth derives content or technique rom Prélude and Le Sacre

4 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to the ollowing eole or their insight and advice during my time as a graduate student: Dr Brad Decker, thesis advisor Dr Stean Eckert, Dr Kathryn Fenton, and Dr Jemmie Robertson, committee members Dr Marilyn Coles, Graduate Coordinator

5 v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Chater1: CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EARTH WITHOUT WATER Chater : HARMONIC VOCABULARY 8 Chater : RHYTHMIC AND FORMAL ORGANIZATION 8 Chater : TEXTUAL TREATMENT: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF POETRY AND SCENARIO DRUING THE PROCESS OF COMPOSITION 0 CONCLUSION APPENDICIES 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1

6 vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES EXAMPLE 11: The Earth, rimary motive EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, secondary theme, m7 6 EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, stratiication in Scene, mm 00 6 EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, stratiication in Scene 6, mm EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, Coda, mm EXAMPLE 1: Arabesques o Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth 9 EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Prélude, m 10 1 EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Prélude, mm EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Prélude, mm EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Le Sacre, mm EXAMPLE 6: Motivic Alteration in The Earth, mm 89 and mm 99 1 EXAMPLE 7: Motivic Alteration in The Earth, mm 1616, 166, and EXAMPLE 8: Bitonality in Le Sacre du Printems, mm EXAMPLE 9: Bitonality in The Earth, m 17 EXAMPLE 10: Bitonality in The Earth, mm 17 EXAMPLE 11: SlitThird chord in Le Sacre, mm 18 EXAMPLE 1: SlitThird chord in The Earth, m 7 18 EXAMPLE 1: WholeTone Usage in Le Sacre, mm 7 0 EXAMPLE 1: WholeTone Usage in The Earth, mm 11 0 EXAMPLE 1: WholeTone Usage in The Earth, mm 9 1 EXAMPLE 16: Possible Octatonic Scales EXAMPLE 17: Allen Forte s analysis o Octatonic Content in Prélude, m 1 EXAMPLE 18: Octatonic Harmony in Le Sacre EXAMPLE 19: Octatonic Usage in The Earth, mm 707 EXAMPLE 0: Octatonic Usage in The Earth, mm 606 EXAMPLE 1: Prélude, mm01, mm 80 and The Earth mm 7 EXAMPLE : Le Sacre mm and The Earth mm 808 EXAMPLE : Le Sacre m 1 vs The Earth m 7 6 EXAMPLE : Le Sacre m 611 vs The Earth mm EXAMPLE : The Earth, intervallic content, m 06 7 EXAMPLE 1: Rhythmic Characteristics o the Arabesque 8 EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in Prélude, Syncoated Motive, m 1, 9 1 EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in Prélude, Flowing Motive, mm 8, 616, 68, 96 1 EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in Le Sacre, mm 66, hrase markings added EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in The Earth, m 1, 961, and 1191 EXAMPLE 6: Rhythmic Alteration in The Earth, m 7, 79 EXAMPLE 7: Rhythmic Stratiication in Prélude, mm 671 EXAMPLE 8: Rhythmic Stratiication in Le Sacre, mm 7 EXAMPLE 9: Rhythmic Stratiication in The Earth, mm 9 EXAMPLE 10: Rhythmic Dissonance in The Earth, mm EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, Intervallic Dimunition, mm 9 9

7 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 11: The Earth, macroharmonic rogression o Scenes 16 FIGURE 1: Shared interval vectors or Arabesques or Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth 10 FIGURE : Intervallic symmetry in Le Sacre, m 611 and The Earth, m 06 7 FIGURE 1: Proortion in Prélude, rom R Howat 7 FIGURE : Proortion in Le Sacre, rom Edward T Cone 8 FIGURE : Proortion in The Earth 9 FIGURE 1: Form o L'arèsmidi, Wenk FIGURE : Form o Prélude, Wenk FIGURE : Cracks, Sentence Structure Form FIGURE : The Earth, Scene orm FIGURE : Cracks, alindrome 8 FIGURE 6: The Earth, intervallic alindrome 8 FIGURE 7: Cracks, dimunition 8 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1: Pitch Content o Arabesques or Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth 10 TABLE : Melodic Intervals in the Arabesques or Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth 11 TABLE 1: Duration o Ostinati in Le Sacre, Augurs o Sring 8

8 1 INTRODUCTION Be inluenced by as many great artists as you can, but have the decency either to acknowledge the debt outright, or to try to conceal it 1 Ezra Pound s advice to emerging Imagist oets rovides amle wisdom to any artist Naturally, the ideas and works studied by a uil have the otential o inluencing his or her roduct or rocess These ositive and negative reactions to the ideas o our redecessors drive much o art s rogress This aer attemts to acknowledge my debt and to clariy my reaction with regards to the comosition o my ballet, The Earth Without Water (01) The Earth owes much o its style and aesthetic to the study o two other ballets, Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune (189) by Claude Debussy and Le Sacre du Printems (191) by Igor Stravinsky On their own, these two works share an intricate relationshi Although Debussy comleted Prélude nineteen years rior to Le Sacre, both works received theatrical remieres with Sergei Diaghliev s Ballets Russes Vaslav Nijinsky choreograhed Prélude or the 191 season and Le Sacre or the 191 season Diaghilev 1 Ezra Pound, A Few Don t by an Imagiste, Poetry Magazine (March 191), accessed December, 01 htt://wwwoetryoundationorg/learning/essay/7886 For an overview o academic literature on Debussy and Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune, see Simon Trezise, The Cambridge Comanion to Debussy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 00); Elizabeth McCombie, Mallarmé and Debussy (Oxord: Clarendon Press, 00); Robert Orledge, Debussy and the Theatre (New York: Cambridge University Press,198) For an overview o academic literature on Stravinsky and Le Sacre du Printems, see Peter Hill, Stravinsky, the Rite o Sring (New York: Cambridge University Press, 000); Andre Boucourechliev, Stravinsky (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1987); John McGuiness and Pieter C van den Toorn, Stravinsky and the Russian Period: Sound and Legacy o a Musical Idiom (New York: Cambridge University Press, 01) Nijinsky s choreograhy received dramatic resonses rom each comoser, resectively Debussy reortedly walked out o the dress rehearsal o Prélude s remiere with only the

9 introduced Stravinsky to Debussy ollowing the remiere o Stravinsky s L'oiseau de eu (1910) and their relationshi grew during the next three years Stravinsky oered orchestration advice or the latter s Jeux (191), while Debussy volunteered his ianist skills to lay Stravinsky s ourhand reduction o Le Sacre with the comoser just rior to the irst orchestral rehearsals The study o either ballet beneits rom the study o its contemorary; the study o both ieces oers insight into the techniques and aesthetics emloyed at the height o ballet s oularity and restige This aer intends to examine seciic techniques and vocabulary that might indicate The Earth s lineage rom Prélude and Le Sacre Here it seems best to settle uon a use o certain terms Truly, the word lineage ails to describe the relationshi between my comosition and Debussy and Stravinsky s resective works Further, to say that The Earth imitates Prélude and Le Sacre imlies an artiicial likeness, or else a blatant coy Imitation also suggests a nonrogressive emulation o an object, a articularly ironic notion when emloyed towards works whose innovations arguably revolutionized comment, Disgusting See Melvin Maddocks, Liner Notes, Great Men o Music: Claude Debussy, New York: Time Lie Records, 1976, vinyl Stravinsky, on the other hand, held various views on Nijinsky s contribution He wrote that, [Nijinsky s] ignorance o the most elementary notions o music was lagrant The oor boy knew nothing o music: he could neither read it nor lay an instrument, and his reactions to music were exressed in banal hrases or the reetition o what he had heard others say Yet Stravinsky also aroved Nijinsky s choreograhy on the sot and declared, Nijinsky is an admirable artist caable o revolutionizing ballet His contribution to Le Sacre du Printems was very imortant See Andre Boucourechliev, Stravinsky (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1987), 6667 Jeremy Noble, Portrait o Debussy I: Debussy and Stravinsky, The Musical Times 108 no 187 (January 1967), O this collaboration, Stravinsky writes, What imressed me at the time and what is still most memorable rom the occasion o sight reading o Le Sacre was Debussy s brilliant iano laying See Mark Devoto, The Debussy Sound: Colour, Texture, Gesture, in The Cambridge Comanion to Debussy, ed Simon Trezise (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 00), 19

10 much o modern art Here too, emulation oers an alltooositive emulation o a work, and I hoe that The Earth is not only a simle discile o Debussy and Stravinsky Adotion, as used in the title o this thesis, seems to oer the most neutral connotation It comes rom the Latin adotare, meaning, "to take by choice, choose or onesel, select" 6 The word demonstrates a selection rocess that requires study, reason, and analysis Thus, I roose that the comosition o The Earth Without Water involved the adotion o vocabulary and techniques revealed during study o Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune and Le Sacre du Printems This aer organizes these techniques into three sections: (1) the adotion o harmonic vocabulary, () the adotion o rhythmic vocabulary, and () the imlementation o text during the rocess o comosition In addition, a brie chronological overview o The Earth Without Water recedes these chaters The oint is in act argued against by Stravinsky himsel, who, in resonse to those claiming Le Sacre as revolutionary, writes, Revolution imlies a disrution o equilibrium To seak o revolution is to seak o a temorary chaos Now art is the contrast o chaos [ ] So I coness that I am comletely insensitive to the restige o revolution [ ] For revolution is one thing, innovation another See Igor Stravinsky, Poetics o Music in the Form o Six Lessons, trans Arthur Knodel and Ingol Dahl (New York: Vintage Books, 199), The Barnhart Dictionary o Etymology, ed Robert K Barnhart (The HW Wilson Comany, 1988), 1

11 CHAPTER 1: CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EARTH WITHOUT WATER The Earth Without Water is a 0minute ballet or small orchestra written during the summer o 01 A short oem that I wrote in the sring o 01 rovides the only exlicit rogram or the The Earth 7 The iece is slit into multile sections: an introduction, six numbered scenes, and a brie coda The six scenes are divided into two grous, with a ause between Scene and Scene True to its genre, this ballet osters signiicant thematic relationshis, reetition, and eisodic gestures The comosition o The Earth began with one rimary motive, seen in Examle 11 First introduced in the oboe, this motive rovides much o the thematic content throughout the ballet It consists o two leas: G to B and then G to B This oscillation rom B to B not only oers an emhasis on the major third and erect ourth intervals, but also suggests a duality between the two wholetone scales that include either itch This duality ermeates throughout much o the work EXAMPLE 11: The Earth, rimary motive In addition, the major third and erect ourth intervals aear in the macroharmonic structure o The Earth The irst itch o the introduction and each scene thereater ollow a rogression o erect ourths, namely A D F#BEAD Figure 1 1 demonstrates this cycle The Coda, eectively a rerise o the Introduction s end, returns to A, highlighting the tritone relationshi between the Introduction and Scene 6 7 This oem, originally titled Cracks, is laced at the beginning o the score and was included in the remiere s rogram I designed the score and oem to exlore the idea o multilicity and the oddity o our existence as a collection o smaller things, yet both documents do so in dierent ways The oem can be ound in Aendix A

12 (A to D) To san a tritone through the rogression o scenes seemed to make sense with regards to the rimary motive, since the interval o a tritone dominates much o the sound o a wholetone scale mentioned above D A A D E G B FIGURE 11: The Earth, macroharmonic rogression o Scenes 16 As stated, the Introduction begins with a lengthy oboe solo This arabesque suggests some intervallic and rhythmic content that more ully matures in Scene 1 During this solo, the three remaining woodwinds enter, ollowed by coloristic interjections o the brass and string choirs Following the irst climax o the iece at m, only the oboe remains or the inal statement o the main theme (mm 79) Part One is slit into three scenes, each deined by a unique temo, motivic treatment, and harmonic alette Scene 1 (q=100) contains the rimary motive in the izzicato strings and solo horn The eisode at m 7 announces a new secondary theme, seen in Examle 1 Scene (q=7) inverts this theme as a recurring bass line, while its melodic line relies uon ortions o the chromatic scale A /8 eisode embedded in Scene oers a new ostinato constructed entirely o erect ourths The climax o Scene, reduced in Examle 1, eatures three searate ideas suerimosed on each other Scene (q=10) rovides contrast with a aster temo, greater rhythmic dissonance, and more coloration rom the ercussion section, which consists o bass drum, tamtam, and

13 6 two sets o tomtoms Part One ends with a series o wholetone clusters, a haldiminished ri in the trombone and horn, and a inal strike o the bass drum EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, secondary theme, m7 EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, stratiication in Scene, mm 00 Part Two consists o three scenes In Scene (q=80), the solo bass drum and low strings drive a hynotic ostinato At aster seeds, this rhythmic attern would create some kind o waltz or even a scherzolike texture Instead, the slow and constant ulse drives throughout several eisodes and a canon consisting o yet another inversion o Scene 1 s secondary theme Scene (q=) ocuses uon the oscillation o two chords, Dm and Cm, the harmonies when they are stacked, and the ossible melodies derived rom their combined scales This rimarily results in a bitonal texture Scene 6 (q=16) attemts a dramatic climax or the entire iece though the combination o revious themes and extreme stratiication o both rhythmic and harmonic ideas Examle 1 illustrates some o this stratiication, in which six searate layers stack on to o each other

14 7 EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, stratiication in Scene 6, mm 9601 A brie coda consists o only a quote rom the Introduction s oboe solo, selling the rimary motive one inal time The descrition rom the scenario reads, Only the woman remains, barely mobile She returns to the oening osition A single light overhead, and then darkness 8 EXAMPLE 1: The Earth, Coda, mm See Aendix D

15 8 CHAPTER : HARMONIC VOCABULARY The harmonic choices made in The Earth rely heavily uon the language develoed at the beginning o the 0 th century Prélude and Le Sacre, among other works, did much to advance the techniques o vertical and linear sonorities This is no secret to theoreticians, as both ieces are aradigms or early 0 th century harmony This chater will examine our harmonic categories exemliied in either Prélude or Le Sacre and included in The Earth: (1) the sonority o the arabesque, () the intervallic alteration o motives, () tonal ambiguity, and () harmonic quotation While an exhaustive list o harmonic examles extends beyond the scoe o this aer, each category means to imly a trend o harmonic technique The term arabesque describes an ornamented melodic line, without the dimension o chord rogression to distract rom [its] curve and contour 9 Arabesques occur more oten in Debussy s orchestral works than those o Stravinsky, and are tyically constructed o a mix o chromatic, entatonic, and wholetone scales 10 The oenings o Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth resent rominent arabesques that share similar harmonic content In addition, each arabesque emloys a similar instrumentation: a solo woodwind, eventually harmonized by other winds Prélude eatures a lute, Le Sacre a bassoon, and The Earth, an oboe 9 Boyd Pomeroy, Debussy s Tonality: A Formal Persective, in The Cambridge Comanion to Debussy, ed Simon Trezise (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 00), Ibid, 19

16 9 a Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune: b Le Sacre du Printems: c The Earth Without Water: EXAMPLE 1: Arabesques o Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth

17 10 Evaluation o the itch content o these arabesques reveals remarkable similarities Table 1 illustrates the itch content o these arabesques As indicated, Le Sacre and The Earth share the same rime orm or their arabesque, (0168T), resulting in shared interval vectors Further, the three arabesques also have same otential or major second and erect ourth intervals, seen in Figure 1 Title Pitch Content Prime Form Interval Vector Prélude (01689) <76776 Le Sacre (0168T) <66 The Earth (0168T) <66 TABLE 1: Pitch Content o Arabesques or Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth Prélude: < Le Sacre: < 6 6 The Earth: < 6 6 FIGURE 1: Shared interval vectors or Arabesques or Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth In terms o melodic intervals, the three arabesques exhibit signiicant stewise motion, o both whole and hal stes The arabesques also oer roortionally low amounts o unison, tritone, a erect ith motion The consistency o stewise motion seaks to the increased likelihood o ragmented octatonic, diatonic, and/or chromatic construction in the arabesques mentioned (See Table )

18 Prélude Le Sacre The Earth 0 Unison m M m M P TT P TABLE : Melodic Intervals in the Arabesques or Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth Further, each arabesque suggests a certain center o tonality Prélude exhibits E major, which is airmed by the irst inversion E major triad in m Desite the tritone at the end o Le Sacre s excert, the bassoon s arabesque heavily imlies A minor Finally, The Earth s arabesque suggests A minor a conscious decision to humbly comose a doublereed arabesque that rests one minorsecond below that o Stravinsky Although reetition o these arabesques and their motives rovide consistency throughout their resective ballets, harmonic variations also occur These alterations reserve the melodic contour, but comress or extend some o the intervallic relationshis within the motive Prélude, which relies heavily uon the recurring lute theme irst stated in the arabesque, also adjusts this motive, articularly towards the end o the iece Examle contains the motive rom Examle 1a, but this time the tritone relationshi between the outer voices is reduced to a erect ourth Without the melodic tritone, this last section exhibits a clearer terminal trajectory, unlike the receding content

19 1 EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Prélude, m 10 Directly ater this, the motive continues in the oboe Harmonic dierences include a new rogression (illustrated in Examle ) and an extension o the motive via sequencing to include the edal B beore the E major resolution One may still recognize the melodic anchoring around E in m10, as well as the tritone relationshi between the C 6/ and F#m sonorities EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Prélude, mm Lastly, Debussy oers a new harmony to the arabesque igure in the horns and second violins, seen in Examle This triadic treatment consists o chromatic assing tones, as oosed to outright unctional harmony The hrase begins on an E major 11 In avor o clarity and size considerations, many o the ollowing examles will be taken rom Debussy s reduction o Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune or iano ourhands

20 1 chord, rests uon a C major chord on beats 7 through 10, and returns to an E major variant at the beginning o m 108 Whereas the original melody o the arabesque sanned a tritone, this last version has comressed the melody in hal, to a major third EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Prélude, mm Le Sacre, on the other hand, does not rely as heavily uon a single motive Its thematic content is more diverse, due in art to the increased length o the work and the several indeendent scenes involved In addition, most o the scenes ossess some kind o static harmony due to the emloyment o ostinato igures and reetition Still, the oening arabesque endures a harmonic modulation beginning at m 66, at the very end o the Introduction One can comare this modulation with Examle 1b EXAMPLE : Motivic Alteration in Le Sacre, mm 6668 In The Earth Without Water, several motives bridge the various scenes together In Scene 1, the izzicato violins iterate the main motive over an ostinato string section This motive is then altered a ew sections later in the horn, viola, and cello In Examle 6, the oscillation rom B to B in the rimary motive has been extended to a C, thereby altering the revious Ab minor harmony to a wholetone sonority

21 1 EXAMPLE 6: Motivic Alteration in The Earth, mm 89 and mm 99 The secondary theme in Scene 1 (see Examle 1) also receives new treatment in its later iterations First, its inversion rovides an ostinato or Scene, seen in Examle 7a Several bars later, this inversion s retrograde aears in the bassoon solo in Examle 7b Finally, in Examle 7c, the canon beginning in m 00 rom Scene derives rom the inversion (and enharmonic selling) o 7b, as well as an extension o the outer uer voice a b c EXAMPLE 7: Motivic Alteration in The Earth, mm 1616, 166, and 0001 The revious section demonstrates how the arabesque and other motives rovide content throughout the ballet orm via reetition and alteration o harmonic content Further analysis reveals that much o the harmonic language o Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth derives rom bitonal, wholetone, or octatonic construction These techniques

22 1 oten diuse a tonic s dominance over its surrounding sonorities, or else act without a seciic tonic relationshi, resulting in tonally ambiguous harmonies Bitonality rovides a striking sound indicative o 0 th century harmony The Groves entry or bitonality describes the technique as the simultaneous, suerimosed resence o two distinct tonalities 1 Le Sacre and The Earth dislay signiicant evidence o bitonality; yet, neither ballet dictates a strict hierarchal aroach to a certain tonality In this sense, bitonality is not used to imly simultaneous tonalities, but rather as the most eicient means to describe certain sonorities that can be stacked into several thirds This seems to be a better method than Allan Forte s aroach, which catalogues the harmonic inormation o Le Sacre into itch class sets 1 I would argue that a bichord rojects its distinctive sound due in art to the dissonance between registers o its searate triads or seventh chords a henomenon removed when exclusively relating to items as itch classes The bitonality discussed here is atly deined as [the] assing eect within a harmonic language that is subtly balanced between traditional hierarchies and new symmetries 1 Le Sacre s most amous occurrence o bitonality aears in many musictheory textbooks introductions to bitonal techniques The sonority itsel bears many labels in academic literature: the Augurs chord, the talchok chord, and the doublechord 1 It irst aears in measure 76, voiced as interlocked doublestos in the string section Examle 1 Arnold Whittall, "Bitonality," Grove Music Online, Oxord Music Online, Oxord University Press, accessed December, 01, htt://wwwoxordmusiconlinecom/subscriber/article/grove/music/ See Allan Forte, The Harmonic Organization o the Rite o Sring (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978) 1 Whittall, "Bitonality" 1 Andre Boucourechliev, Stravinsky (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1987), 818

23 16 8a shows the string section as it aears in the orchestral score, while Examle 8b shows Stravinsky s own iano reduction The olychord consists o two harmonies searated into the lower and middle choirs o strings The contrabass and violoncello sell out an F Major triad, while the viola and second violins strike an E dominant sonority This dominantseventh chord never resolves to its exected harmony (A ), thus dissolving the illusion o either tonality The dissonance results artially rom the tessitura o low strings as well as intervallic seconds and sevenths a b EXAMPLE 8: Bitonality in Le Sacre du Printems, mm 7677 This sonority remains the signature sound o Stravinsky s ballet due in art to its exosed orchestration and reetition 16 Thus, the inclusion o similar sonorities in The Earth serves as both a mechanical rocess to devise interesting harmonies and as a way o acknowledging the lasting imression o Le Sacre Examle 9 shows one o the irst examles o bitonality in The Earth In this section, the woodwind and high strings voice out a rogression o E major, G major, and A major (irst inversion) Meanwhile, the 16 The sonority occurs [ ] some two hundred and eighty times in dierent orms, disositions, instrumentations, and massing See Boucourechliev, Stravinsky, 818

24 17 high brass shit between wholetone clusters The section is the irst ortissimo o an otherwise luid and quiet introduction As with Le Sacre s talchok chords, the resence o the bichord sonority marks a section o increased intensity EXAMPLE 9: Bitonality in The Earth, m Additionally, bitonality deines much o the content in Scene o The Earth The scene contains little melodic content aart rom the oscillation o C minor and D minor chords over a edal A Uon the reetition o the ourbar hrase, the strings then oset the rogression by an eighth note, resulting in brie bichordal harmonies during the syncoation The bitonal color is maintained through the use o orchestration, with the rhythmic and harmonic dissonance aearing between the string and woodwind choirs The remaining art o the scene extraolates melodies rom this harmonic alette In this instance, bitonality oers the use o triads while thickening the texture and attemting a moderate level o dissonance EXAMPLE 10: Bitonality in The Earth, mm

25 18 As an extension o this toic, Le Sacre and The Earth also utilize slitthird chords, a subset o bichords This articular tetrachord suggests both major and minor qualities by sounding the corresonding thirds along with the tyical erect ith over the root An examle occurs at the outset o Cercles Mysterieux Des Adolescentes In Examle 11, a sixart viola section begins the section with simultaneous B major and B minor sonorities Both the register o the viola and the harmony contribute to the exotic and somewhat unsettling mood o this scene EXAMPLE 11: Slitthird chord in Le Sacre, mm In an entirely dierent style, The Earth uses a slitthird chord to achieve a dramatic climax in Part 1 In Examle 1, the conlict o the C and C in the extreme ranges o the orchestra heightens the dissonance between the two choirs The slitthird chord o the irst hal o m 7 iners a bitonal sonority In the latter hal the bass notes suggest a C minor harmony underneath the static A major triad, thus reinorcing the bitonality EXAMPLE 1: Slitthird chord in The Earth, m 7

26 19 The wholetone scale is another examle o harmonic vocabulary shared among the three ballets It oers tonal instability while retaining some degree o consonance due to the intervallic regularity o major seconds The scale [ ] divides the octave into six equaltemered whole tones: C D E F G B C or its sole transosition, D E F G A B D 17 In a 1910 article titled, The WholeTone Scale and Its Practical Use, the wholetone s unction is described as being, [ ] conined to creating an artiicial and exotic atmoshere, but also that its otential or, [ ] modulatory and colour uroses are very considerable 18 Thus, we ind the wholetone scale used as a vehicle o ambiguity and motion in the three ballets In Prélude, the wholetone sonority aears in the oening statement o the arabesque The outerreaches o the lute s theme, discussed at the beginning o this chater, extend to the interval o a tritone (C G) The tritone oten suggests a wholetone harmony, since the tritone results rom the combination o three consecutive majorsecond intervals A similar juxtaosition occurs in mm, in which the lute sells an E major triad, which is answered in m with a B dominantseventh chord in the har and horn HK Andrews, "Wholetone scale," Grove Music Online, Oxord Music Online, Oxord University Press, accessed December, 01, htt://wwwoxordmusiconlinecom/subscriber/article/grove/music/0 18 G H Clutsam, The WholeTone Scale and Its Practical Use, The Musical Times 1, no 81 (November 1910), Arthur Wenk details even more examles o wholetone usage in Prélude: A tetrachord o the wholetone scalea, B, C, D aears divided u among several instruments in measures 810 Both wholetone scales aear in the A section: one in measures, the other in measures 6 A wholetone melodic segment aears in measures 79, accomanied in measure 8 by a wholetone chord See Arthur Wenk, Claude Debussy and the Poets (Los Angeles: University o Caliornia Press, 1976), 166

27 0 In Le Sacre, the wholetone scale oten lends its instability to sections o increased activity In the examle below, the wholetone vam in the lower voices sell a tritone in the beginning o each bar (F to C) Meanwhile, its melody roels the section orward, desite the reetition o the uer voices This transitional material embraces the wholetone scale as a vehicle o instability EXAMPLE 1: WholeTone Usage in Le Sacre, mm 7 Likewise, some transitions in The Earth utilize the wholetone scale Examle 1 highlights the material that bridges two contrasting ostinato sections Here the wholetone scale serves to shit the harmonic center by a tritone without the use o tyical chordal rogression The trumet begins with an F, yet by the end o the excert the trombones have secured a B center EXAMPLE 1: WholeTone Usage in The Earth, mm 11

28 1 The wholetone scale can also suly vertical and melodic content simultaneously In Scene o The Earth, a recurring melody rom the revious scenes required a new coloration or contrast The brass lay the melody in a literal succession o wholetone clusters, while the melody itsel moves in major seconds exclusively In this language and style, the triad oers too great a consonance In addition, urther extensions o a given triad insert an undesired unction to the static and reetitive assage Thus, the wholetone scale rovides sohistication and lends instability to an ostinato igure EXAMPLE 1: WholeTone Usage in The Earth, mm 9 In addition to the wholetone scale, the octatonic scale also inds its roots in early 0 th century harmony The octatonic scale is [ ] a succession o eight notes within the octave in which tones and semitones, or semitones and tones, alternate 0 As Messiaen oints out in Technique de mon language musical, the octatonic scale is a mode o limited transosition, used transiently by comosers in the early 0 th century 1 The octatonic scale has three ossible versions, labeled in Examle 16 as Octatonic (01), 0 Arnold Whittall, "Octatonic Scale," The Oxord Comanion to Music, Oxord Music Online, Oxord University Press, accessed December, 01, htt://wwwoxordmusiconlinecom/subscriber/article/or/t11/e806 1 See Olivier Messiaen, The Technique o My Musical Language, trans John Satterield (Paris: Alhonse Leduc, 196), 9

29 (1), and () The scale itsel resembles the grouing o two minor tetrachords (DoRe MeFa, then the same DoReMeFa transosed u a tritone) or an octatonic collection can be seen as the combination o two unique diminished seventh chords It is thereore a attern that lends to assages o ambiguity or dissonance, occasionally imlying either or both minor scale atterns EXAMPLE 16: Possible Octatonic Scales Allen Forte describes the oening o Prélude as deriving rom octatonic origins He writes, Reducing out the direct chromatic unaccented assing notes, which are almost invariably oreground decoration in Debussy s music [ ] reveals the melodic rogression that underlies the oening lute solo: octatonic entad 10 Examle 17 recreates Forte s examle, which emloys a ragment o Octatonic (1) EXAMPLE 17: Allen Forte s analysis o Octatonic Content in Prélude, m 1 Allen Forte, Debussy and the Octatonic Music Analysis 10, no 1/ (MarchJuly 1991), 10 Ibid, 11

30 By 191 and the writing o Le Sacre, awareness o octatonic techniques had grown, resulting in more intricate imlementation o the scale and its harmonies As Matthew McDonald oints out, Stravinsky s Augurs o Sring includes a rominent octatonic eisode very early on Beginning in m 8, this variant o the talchok chords combines an E dominant sonority with C major, resulting in an octatonic harmony based on Octatonic (01) EXAMPLE 18: Octatonic Harmony in Le Sacre 6 In The Earth, octatonic harmonies aear most oten in transitional or climactic segments In Examle 19, the three octatonic scales are sequenced together The rimary motive o the ballet aears ragmented in the bass voices, while the treble voices ollow down the three octatonic scales in this order: (1), (01), () 7 Since the attern o the octatonic sequence disruts our exectations o major and minor scales, the sonority is an ideal candidate or transitional sequences such as Examle 19 Matthew McDonald, Jeux de Nombres: Automated Rhythm in The Rite o Sring, Journal o American Musicological Society 6, no (Fall 010), 0001 For urther inormation on octatonicism in Le Sacre, see John McGuiness and Pieter C van den Toorn, The Octatonic Scale, in Stravinsky and the Russian Period: Sound and Legacy o a Musical Idiom (New York: Cambridge University Press, 01) 6 In Examle 18, the two arentheses mark the notes that are missing rom the itch set that would normally be in the Octatonic (01) scale 7 It should be noted that a single alteration to the last octatonic scale admits a G in the bass voice o m 7

31 EXAMPLE 19: Octatonic Usage in The Earth, mm 707 Several triads and seventh chords can also be derived rom a single octatonic scale In Examle 0, measures 60 and 66 derive their harmonies solely rom Octatonic (): Fm7, Bm7, F7, A 7, and D7 8 EXAMPLE 0: Octatonic Usage in The Earth, mm 606 As a inal oint on harmony, I would like to address some o the quotations that occur in The Earth In addition to an analysis such as this one, I elt it necessary and ruitul to include aural cues that hel to illustrate the debt o my ballet to the study o Prélude and Le Sacre These quotations unction as homage to these masterieces, as well as a commentary on how relevant Debussy and Stravinsky continue to be or modern comosition One o the more evident quotes borrowed rom Prélude occurs in mm 7 in The Earth This segment artially quotes two sections rom Debussy: mm 01, and mm 80 All three examles have reetitions o scalar ragments that lead u to a restatement o the arabesque theme o their resective ballet All three excerts ollow similar contour, and (a) and (c) end on the same itch, C# (enharmonically selled in The Earth) 8 Here, two wholetone clusters in m 61 interrut the octatonic content o the assage

32 a mm 01 b mm 80 c mm 7 EXAMPLE 1: Prélude, mm01, mm 80 and The Earth mm 7 The Earth has several harmonic quotations taken rom Le Sacre Examle illustrates the similarities between two trombone excerts Both use the same itch material However, slight variations in rhythm and rotation between the tenor and bass trombone in The Earth ensure that the assage is not directly coied By using the same instrumentation, the quote hoes to aeal to trombonists who have studied Stravinsky s orchestral excerts a mm b mm 808 EXAMPLE : Le Sacre mm and The Earth mm 808 Examle comares an ostinato rhythm rom Rondes Printaniers with the climax o The Earth s irst hal The bass line, juxtaosed with the reeated chords on to, occurs just once in The Earth It uses the momentum o the C minor scale to lead into

33 6 the main motive one last time, whereas the igure in Le Sacre reeats as an ostinato igure a b EXAMPLE : Le Sacre m 1 vs The Earth m 7 A inal examle contrasts two climactic and vital arts o each ballet In Nijinsky s choreograhy, measure 611 marks the moment when the tribe has chosen the young woman to be sacriiced to the earth The long and unaccented meter emhasizes the reetition, articulation, and harmony The Earth recirocates this idea, limiting the elevenart reetition to ive and detailing no seciic choreograhy a b EXAMPLE : Le Sacre m 611 vs The Earth mm 0607 Further, the harmonic structure in The Earth s examle is constructed in a more arallel manner The intervallic structure among the lower voices and uer voices remain the same: a tritone with a erect ourth, and then a erect ourth with a tritone The two sonorities mainly dierentiate by the interval between the two voicings Whereas Stravinsky interlocked the two choirs at an interval o a major second, m 06 o The Earth searates them by a major seventh Consequently, the intervals between all voices in this sonority consist o tritones, erect ourths, major sevenths, and octaves

34 7 exclusively (Figure ) In addition, this sacing allows or an abnormally high number o major seventh intervals in The Earth s harmony (Examle ) a tritone P ====== M P tritone b tritone P =====M7 P tritone FIGURE : Intervallic symmetry in Le Sacre, m 611 and The Earth, m 06 EXAMPLE : The Earth, intervallic content, m 06 To conclude, The Earth Without Water adots several harmonic techniques that ound success in Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune and Le Sacre du Printems These include the interval and itch set o the arabesque, harmonic augmentation and diminution o motives, bitonal, wholetonal, and octatonic construction o melodies and harmonies, and lastly harmonic quotation o Debussy and Stravinsky

35 8 CHAPTER : RHYTHMIC AND FORMAL ORGANIZATION This chater aims to examine the temoral roortions used in Prélude à l'arèsmidi d'un aune, Le Sacre du Printems, and The Earth Without Water In ballets, rhythm ulills a more imortant unction than it might in other genres due to its involvement with satial art there are oortunities or luid sections o exressive dance, and, in the most exaggerated o cases, oortunities or sections o rhythmic dissonance This chater identiies several rhythmic qualities shared among Prélude, Le Sacre, and The Earth: (1) the rhythm o the arabesque, () rhythmic alteration o motives, () rhythmic stratiication, and () roortion o orm From a rhythmic ersective, the arabesque oers the greatest contrast to the metric regularity that is tyically asked or in a ballet This is one reason that the arabesque tyically occurs in the beginning it either highlights a solo dancer, or occurs during the introduction with no dancing or choreograhy Debussy and Stravinsky both utilize the arabesque to create a luid and rimal atmoshere at the beginning o their ballets Examle 1 shows the arabesques in their rhythmic orm only: a Prélude b Le Sacre c The Earth EXAMPLE 1: Rhythmic Characteristics o the Arabesque

36 9 The arabesque encourages rhythmic ambiguity in the ollowing ways: 1 The ermata creates irregularity in temo When used in melodic situations (as oosed to cadential), the ermata encourages a reer interretation o duration and thus, hrasing The arabesques in Le Sacre and The Earth both contain several ermati Interjections o grace notes into solo melodies also contribute to metric irregularity Notably, the grace notes in Le Sacre and The Earth occur beore the same itches (CB and A, resectively) The arabesque rhythm relies heavily uon tied notes, articularly at the beginning o hrases This delays the introduction o subdivisions, wars the roortion o notes within the measure, and dissolves the emhasis o strong and weak beats The arabesques contain a mixture o metric subdivisions, including dule, trile, and quintal subdivisions This lends to the illusion o imrovisatory Here it seems best to mention that the source material or Le Sacre s bassoon solo stirs considerable debate The itch material, discussed in Chater, is widely acceted as deriving rom Anton Juszkiewicz See Peter Hill, Stravinsky, The Rite o Sring (New York: Cambridge University Press, 000), 6 The rhythm o the arabesque, however, inds at least two dierent otential sources James A Grymes, or one, suggests that Stravinsky may have imitated Mussorgsky s The Fair at Soróchintsï, Dumka Parobka, see James A Grymes, Diselling the Myths: The Oening Bassoon Solo to The Rite o Sring The Journal o the International Double Reed Society 6 (1998), accessed February, 01, htt://wwwidrsorg/ublications/coantrolled/dr/jnl6/mythsd However, Matthew McDonald has more recently roosed a ascinating mathematical comlex that ties the intervallic content with rhythmic hrasing grous in Le Sacre, articularly in reerence to Le Sacre s bassoon solo and Augurs o Sring See Matthew McDonald, Jeux de Nombres: Automated Rhythm in The Rite o Sring, Journal o the American Musicological Society 6, no (Fall 010): 991, htt://wwwjstororg/stable/101/jams010699

37 0 or Dionysian inluence in the arabesque 9 Last, the arabesques rominently eature metrically dislaced hrase reetitions By noting these rhythmic similarities, we see that all three arabesques suggest metric ambiguity In Prélude, the arabesque recurs throughout the iece and also oers its rhythmic qualities to develomental and secondary themes In Le Sacre, the bassoon solo acts as a lyrical contrast to the metrically comlex content to ollow Similarly, The Earth s arabesque serves as the most metrically ree o the ballet s hrases, while also suggesting rhythmic motives uon which the remaining ballet is based Chater examined the alteration o motivic harmonies in the ballets These motives also exerience rhythmic exansions and comressions Truly, this searation o harmony and rhythm is an artiicial one; in order to note harmonic alterations o a articular motive, the rhythm involved must remain intact to a certain degree Similarly, the reservation o melody/harmony in the motives examined here remains an imortant art o determining their rhythmic variations Thus, the ollowing examles o rhythmic alteration include some itch inormation as well Rhythmic alterations o motives in Prélude can be traced to two main ideas First, we can trace how the main motive, introduced in the lute arabesque shown in Examle 1a (age 9), endures several rhythmic alterations One examle occurs in m 10, reviously discussed in Examle (age 11) The second motive has two main variants, united by a clear derivation rom the lute arabesque Examle a shows the beginning o Prélude, the irst microhrase o the arabesque This irst measure ends 9 This Dionysian inluence is discussed briely on ages 78 and at greater length on ages 90

38 1 with ascending stewise motion, and this scalar motion and its dule rhythm are embedded in the same metric location in its rhythmic variants Matthew Brown labels the irst o these variants as the syncoated motive 0 It is reeated and/or altered in mm 91, 1, 67, 69, 7, 88, and 9 This examle shows the syncoated motive in its most common orm (a), and also in one o its augmented orms (b) a b EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in Prélude, Syncoated Motive, m 1, 9 The second motive, which Brown labels as a lowing motive, is marked with a trile subdivision ollowed by the same scalar idea rom the arabesque 1 Examle dislays our rhythmic variations o this lowing motive We can see that Debussy exlores a air amount o rhythmic extension and comression with his main motives He also highlights the duality o these two rhythmic motives by oscillating between them at one o the climaxes o Prélude, mm 677 a b c 0 Matthew Brown, Tonality and Form in Debussy's Prélude à 'L'Arèsmidi d'un aune Music Theory Sectrum 1, no (Autumn, 199): 18 1 Ibid, 18

39 d EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in Prélude, Flowing Motive, mm 8, 616, 68, 96 Since Le Sacre relies less heavily uon a single motive, as Prélude does, we can instead locate isolated motives that endure several alterations within one scene For examle, mm 66 act as a climax or Rondes Printaniers, and a art o this unction is aided by constant alteration to the main melody In Examle shows seven ossible hrase structures The motivic idea consists o two arts: the irst is a series o reeated quarter notes, while the second can be described as ascending scalar eighth notes For the ormer art o the motive, we see dierent combinations o reeated quarters:,,, 6,,, and The combination o three quarters (as seen in hrase 1) is the rime orm o the motive it reeats some thirteen times rior to the climax at R For the latter art, the descending quarters in m 7 never recur in this section as i the ollowing hrases are continually interruted beore inishing the motive The rhythmic alterations, then, act as a oint o contrast or the scene: a contrast that does not rely uon a new motive or a truly new rhythmic idea EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in Le Sacre, mm 66, hrase markings added

40 Some o The Earth utilizes rhythmic alterations in similar ways to Prélude, in order to revent the weariness o a reeated motive, but also to encourage an economical quantity o motives The irst measure, seen in Examle a, or instance, contains a small motivic cell It unolds in b and reaears as an even larger augmentation in c A similar technique adats a motive rom Scene 1 or a develomental section in Scene (Examle 6) a b c EXAMPLE : Rhythmic Alteration in The Earth, m 1, 961, and 1191 a b EXAMPLE 6: Rhythmic Alteration in The Earth, m 7, 79 On the other hand, arts o The Earth more closely resemble the rhythmic alteration in Le Sacre Some rhythmic alterations occur within a single section, with the alterations directly ollowing each other The simle motive rom Scene 6 in measure 6 starts as ive grous o two sixteenth notes, unctuated by a measure o eight However,

41 as the scene rogresses, this idea exands and contracts, leading to an unredictable hrase structure vacant o normal melodic connection Due to the length o this examle, lease see the attached score (mm 68) The three ballets each emloy rhythmic dissonance via stratiication During the most dramatic sections, Debussy and Stravinsky make extensive use o olyrhythms some layers are reetitive, some melodic, and some use dissonant subdivisions In Prélude, we see the greatest degree o stratiication at the golden section o the work During this roortional and dynamic climax, several layers o dule and trile rhythms exist simultaneously The main theme, discussed earlier in this chater and seen in the th line o Examle 7, cycles between trile and dule meter The eect is a disillusionment o ulse and orward roulsion EXAMPLE 7: Rhythmic Stratiication in Prélude, mm 671 See Aendix F This golden section is discussed urther on ages 89

42 Next, in Le Sacre, Stravinsky increases the level o dissonance with direct conlicts o grace notes, syncoations, constant sixteenth notes sread among voices, bowed tremelo, quintulets, sextulets, and setulets This assage occurs at the very end o Augurs and is thereore the irst real climax o Le Sacre EXAMPLE 8: Rhythmic Stratiication in Le Sacre, mm 7 The Earth uses stratiication in a similar way In this examle, trilet eighth notes and trilet quarter notes occur alongside a rising scale ragment in dule meter Notably, the rhythms line u with unison sixteenth notes in beat o m 6 and beat o m 8 This rhythmic consonance oers a oint o release ater the building o rhythmic layers rior to it EXAMPLE 9: Rhythmic Stratiication in The Earth, mm 9

43 6 Another examle occurs at the beginning o Scene, in which searate choirs layer rather disjunct lines over an ostinato bass These interolations might surrise an audience due to their volume, extreme range, and rhythmic dissonance (Examle 10) EXAMPLE 10: Rhythmic Dissonance in The Earth, mm 886 In addition to rhythmic variation, the ballets also reveal a conscious construction o orm that adheres to certain roortional or balanced ideas Debussy s use o roortion and the golden section are well documented in many analyses Roy Howat writes that, O all Debussy s works u to 189 [ ] L'arèsmidi evidently contains the most sohisticated roortional organization Formal sections, dynamic accumulation, and aroriations o metric units indicate ormal balance as well as the golden section at the climax o the work Howat describes the analytical method o deriving metric units Roy Howat s Debussy in Proortion not only rovides background inormation on roortional structure and the Golden Section, but also examines Debussy s early works, L isle joyeuse, and has a very large section dedicated to La Mer See Roy Howat, Debussy in Proortion (New York: Cambridge University Press, 198) Howat, Debussy in Proortion, 1

44 7 in his second chater (ages 11) His technique uses the greatest common denominator o any metric modulations in order to ind a metric unit In Prélude, the metric unit is rimarily the eighth note, excet during certain metric modulations 6 Howat describes Prélude as an arch orm: A A I B A II A R The italicized A sections enjoy a relatively ree relationshi with A, whereas A R states a irmer recaitulation o the oening subject The B section indicates the central climax o the work He writes, The main climax is reared by an earlier undulating dynamic sequence, shown in Figure 1 as a crescendo towards bar 70, ollowed by a decrescendo Figure 1 also reveals several roortional eatures First, note the balance among the many sections that last or 7 metric units The entirety o the work lasts 817 metric units The golden section o 817 is 0 units, meaning the climax is extremely close to this roortional ideal Further, in the iano version, Debussy indicates two orte eaks in lace o the ortissimo In this variation, the irst eak occurs in m 68, the golden section o Prélude s 110 measures (1) Dynamics: [cresc] [m 70] [decresc] 90 Metric Units: 7:7:18:7:0 11: Arch Form: A A B A A R FIGURE 1: Proortion in Prélude, rom R Howat 7 While Prélude s shorter duration and arch orm are quite conducive to rocuring golden sections, Le Sacre still emits ormal balance without such ideals Rhythmic roortion leads to a greater understanding o the mathematical asects o Le Sacre, 6 This is discussed at length at the beginning o Howat s analysis o Prélude See Ibid, Ibid, 11