Igor Stravinsky - Symphony in Three Movements

Igor Stravinsky

 Symphony in Three Movements

00:00 - I. [♩=160]
09:54 - II. Andante [♪=76]
16:30 - III. Con moto [♩=108]

Igor Stravinsky completed his Symphony in Three Movements in 1945. The first movement was begun in April 1942, and the final work was completed a few months after the end of World War II. During this time the composer was engaged in contract negotiations to write film scores. Among the film moguls interested in commissioning Stravinsky was Louis B. Mayer, then president of MGM. Stravinsky had already written music before the projects were scrapped, and much of it found its way into Symphony in Three Movements. The outer movements involved wartime news footage, and the central movement was written for the appearance of the Virgin Mary in the film The Song of Bernadette, based on the Franz Werfel novel.
To integrate the different groups of material, Stravinsky chose to feature the piano and harp in separate, concertante roles in the first two movements, and then combined them in the third movement in an extended fugal arrangement. The symphony is a great balancing act, weaving together disparate musical ideas. The outer movements are explosive, indicative of the film score style common to American war footage. Ironic artifice, a signature sound in his music, is particularly understated in this symphony. Likewise, the middle movement, originally intended for the Virgin apparition, is suitably wrought with veneration, though perhaps not to the extent that would have please the film's producers. Stravinsky was not the sort of composer who gushed excessively, if at all. His Symphonies of Wind Instruments was an elegy of Debussy's passing, a composer and friend of enormous importance to Stravinsky, but any lamentations in the work are under total control. It was not in his character to express his feelings musically, and in fact, felt that musical was incapable of "expressing" anything. That being the case, for him to depict Bernadette's shock and amazement at encountering the Mother of Christ would have sounded unnatural. The central movement is not rhapsodic or indicative of a human soul overwhelmed in the presence of a divine being. It is contemplative music, subtle and understated, and free of amazement. The outer movements are somewhat more successful in capturing the intended spirit of war footage. They feature tumultuous blasts of brass and driving rhythms but again the composer seems removed from the excitement and concern the music is supposed to convey, instead sounding rather bizarre and exotic. The focused intensity of a believer in either war or religion was too singular a nuance for Stravinsky to sustain for an entire film score. Ultimately, the result of this forgivable failing was an excellent and memorable symphony.
[allmusic.com]

The Symphony in Three Movements is a work by Russian expatriate composer Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky wrote the symphony from 1942–45 on commission by the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was premièred by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Stravinsky on January 24, 1946.

The Symphony in Three Movements is considered as Stravinsky's first major composition after emigrating to the United States.^[1] It uses material written by Stravinsky for aborted film projects.^[2]

In 1943, Stravinsky had begun work on rescoring his ballet The Rite of Spring. Although the project was left incomplete, his revisit to this earlier composition appears to have influenced the symphony. The ostinatos and shock tactics of the last movement, for example, recalls the "Glorification of the Chosen one" and "Sacrificial Dance" from The Rite, and some woodwind passages are reminiscent of the ballet's introduction. on the other hand, there are passages forecasting the opera The Rake's Progress, notably the openings of the slow movement and the finale.^[3]

A typical performance of the symphony lasts 20–25 minutes:

1. Overture; Allegro (about 10 minutes)
2. Andante; Interlude: L'istesso tempo (about 6 minutes)
3. Con moto (about 6 minutes)

The symphony is scored for an orchestra of piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets in B♭ and A (3rd doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets in C, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, piano, harp, violins I & II, violas, cellos, and double basses.

Stravinsky, who rarely acknowledged outside inspirations for his music, referred to the composition as his 'war symphony'.^[4] He claimed the symphony as a direct response to events of the Second World War in both Europe and Asia. The first movement was inspired by a documentary on Japanese scorched earth

tactics in China. The third movement deals with footage of German soldiers goosestepping and the allied forces' mounting success.^[5]

Material is drawn from projects that Stravinsky had abandoned or reorganized. The piano's presence in the first movement stems from a piano concerto that was left incomplete. Music for harp is prominent in the second movement, using themes he had written for the film adaptation of Franz Werfel's novel The Song of Bernadette. Stravinsky was initially informally approached for the writing of the film score. on 15 February 1943 he started writing music for the "Apparition of the Virgin" scene. In the event, no contract was ever signed with him, and the project went to Alfred Newman, who won an Oscar.^[6] The third movement unites the first two movements by giving equal emphasis to piano and harp.^[7]

In contrast to Stravinsky's earlier Symphony in C, the Symphony in Three Movements is much more turbulent and chromatic. While the Symphony in C is based on abstract ideas, his later symphony makes use of pressing social concerns. From a purely musical standpoint, the Symphony hearkens back to Stravinsky's earlier styles of composition while remaining an outstanding achievement of neoclassicism.^[8]

From 1979 to 1980, the American intermedia artist, Jack Ox, produced three visual mappings from Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements which can be seen at http://intermediaprojects.org/pages/Stravinsky.html