Petrouchka techniques

Hi all. Alright, so in my comp classes at uni, we did a little bit of analysis on rite of spring and petrouchka. I don't have a score to rite of spring yet, but i do have petrouchka. My goal is to figure out some of the techniques that stravinsky uses to morph his melodies/harmonies/explosions/colors. Should be fun, and I was thinking that some of the people on here might want to help out, etc, whatev. Also, I've got the dover version of the original, not the revised score he did in the...1940's i think, i don't remember.

Alright, so starting in the first tableau...from the beginning to box 2, from what i can tell there are three things going on.

a. flute melody

b. screen with clarinets and horns

c. cello counter melody

A few beats before box two, the strings have, as best as I can tell, a Bb lydian run, and then join the screen.

The flute only plays an A, D, E, and G. a little later it adds in a B natural. starting from G, we get G-A-B nat-D-E, which is a G anhematonic pentatonic scale (I'm pretty sure that's the right intervals, but it's been a while since I was in that class, is that right?) At the end of it's melody, it plays a run of D-G-A-C-D-A, and then ends on Bb. This is the first time it plays that note so i'm gonna say that starts a new section.

The horns are doubling the clarinets, playing 5ths and 3rds (D-A to E-G, it collapses inward one step)

The cellos play Bn(shorthand B natural)-C#-D-E. Bn is the lowest note, so if that's the root, then that could be a B dorian.

Anybody else interested in deconstructing this guy? Could be fun, and it could be a good chance to expose some of the younger members here to some of the very cool techniques of almost 100 years ago...Anyway, this might get moved to the educational forum, but I figured it could work as discussion too, so that's why it's here.

tl:dr Petrouchka

The harp line into the first change at m.m. 12 is D-E-G-A-C-D-E-G-A-Bb, it ends with the flute. Also, the bassoon does the same thing as harp, but half as fast. At this point, the melody cuts out, and we just have the screen.

Reordered, that's C-D-E-G-A, which would be the C anhematonic pentatonic scale if i was right about the other one.

So, in first 16 bars of this piece, we have two different pentatonic scales, two different modes, and whatever the screen is. I can't figure out how these elements are related though, it doesn't make much sense to me. The only thing the cello line has in common with the flute line is that they both use triplets.

My guess is that it will make more sense as the piece goes on.

Let's simplify this.

http://wiki.youngcomposers.com/wiki/images/a/a6/Petrushka_opening.png

Now what do we do?

BTW, "Box 2" would be called "Rehearsal 2"

Nice, but that's the revised version, Tokke. Is anhemitonic pentatonic scale a fancy phrase for a five-note whole tone collection?

I have the Dover score as well and I've been meaning to do analysis on it. Maybe I'll chime in again later after checking it out. Petrouchka is one of my favorite Stravinsky pieces!

I guess keep going, there's much else happening in the piece before rehearsal two. Oh! I missed this earlier, 3 bars before rehearsal 2, the second flute plays the same thing as the first flute but a step down. This could be in anticipation of the "petrouchka chord" in the second tableau where the clarinets do a similar thing. So far, the themes are still being introduced so there hasn't been any develpment beyond each melody's completion. In a little bit I'll post about the next rehearsal but i've got to get to work. Rehearsal 2 and 3 are pretty similar to what's happened before so it should go faster

Black Orpheus, the anhematonic pentatonic is when you take degress 1,2,3,5,6 from a major scale, or degress 1,2,4,5,6. So, C-D-E-G-A or C-D-F-G-A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhemitonic

It's what heppens if you play all the black notes on a piano. You can also play amazing grace on all the black notes, apparantly american folk music is also largely pentatonic. try it out, start with Db to Gb, then Bb Gb Bb.

This doesn't seem to be getting any attention, sad day.

At rehearsal two, the first main theme begins to take shape. The low voices of the winds and strings have it (bsn, c. bsn, celli and c.b.). Long story short, the exact same thing repeats itself, but faster. Flute melody, cello counter melody, harp run up, string run down. The theme keeps getting developed by the low voices.

the next event is in the high winds, just flute and oboe. they play in 7/8 while the rest of the orch plays in 3/4. What they have is a variation of the melody in the low voices. The lows play G-G-G-G-G...C-B-A-G-F, etc. The high winds have G-G-G...C-B-A-B-A-G-F-A-G. It makes more sense if you can see it. The trumpet adds in and plays with them an octave below. The same process is applied here, they play essentially the same thing but faster. There's even an accel, so that makes sense. At rehearsal 4, the time keeps changing for the whole orchestra from 2/4 to 3/4 and back. Also, the high winds have faster notes (16th note triplets), so the pace keeps speeding up. The first BIG moment is one beat before rehearsal 5. There's a tutti quarter note, so all the motion suddenly stops and then the full version of the theme the low voices had been developing is now played in the entire orchestra.