Stravinsky and the Russian Period: Sound and Legacy of a Musical Idiom (Music since 1900) - Hardcover

Van Den Toorn, Pieter C.; McGinness, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107021006 ISBN 13: 9781107021006

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2012

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

'There is a wealth of forensic detail about familiar van den Toornian topics like the octatonic scale or referential collection.' Anthony Gritten, Slavonic and East European Review

Book Description:

Van den Toorn and McGinness present a fresh assessment of the dynamics of Stravinsky's music from a variety of analytical and aesthetic angles. Tying analysis of the music to issues of aesthetics and performance, the book contains in-depth discussion of works including The Rite of Spring, Les Noces and Renard.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1107021006
• ISBN 13: 9781107021006
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328