Stravinsky and his sketches : the composing of Agon and other serial works of the 1950s

Thesis

This thesis takes as its starting point the unpublished source materials--musical sketches, manuscripts and archival material--that relate to Stravinsky’s stylistic transition in the 1950s, during which serial principles were gradually incorporated into his musical language. Drawn mainly from the Stravinsky Nachlass at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, and available for research there only since 1986, these previously unexplored sources offer an unusual and flexible approach to Stravinsky’s early serial works.

After a brief consideration of the basic aims of musical sketch studies and the relatively recent appearance of this type of inquiry in Stravinsky research, the rich and complex sketches for the ballet Agon (1953-7) are the principle concern of the thesis. Of all the source materials for Stravinsky’s works of the 1950s, these are perhaps the most extensive in their coverage of his working methods, most intricately developed, and most illustrative of wider issues in his compositional technique. Throughout the thesis, analytical observations are prompted almost exclusively by information contained within the sketches. The procedures and preoccupations reflected in these materials are related to those in other 1950s sketch collections, particularly Canticum Sacrum, allowing Stravinsky’s working methods to be assessed not only in evolutionary terms, but also in terms of recurring compositional premises, or procedural constancies.

Evaluated in conjunction with corroborative evidence in the archival material of the Nachlass, these sources offer an unrivalled opportunity for a re-examination of statements made by Stravinsky on his own compositional method, and of certain interpretations of Agon in secondary sources. Systems of classification of source materials are developed in the thesis, and an Appendix gives detailed listings of the contents and physical characteristics of the Agon and Canticum Sacrum sketchleaves in the Stravinsky Nachlass.

Authors: Tucker, SE

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-nbmr8q7x8
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Stravinsky; nineteenth fifties; sketches; nineteenth-fifties; Agon; composing; 1950s
• Subjects: Stravinsky, Igor, 1882-1971. Agon; Stravinsky, Igor, 1882-1971 -- Criticism and interpretation