Igor Stravinsky: Agon (1/2)

A ballet from 1957, when Stravinsky had discovered the Webern gems, and dodecaphony.

Pas-de-Quatre; Double Pas-de-quatre; Triple Pas-de-quatre; Prelude; First Pas-de-trois: Saraband-Step; Gaillarde; Coda; Interlude; Second Pas-de-trois: Bransle simple.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• 20th century avantgarde
• classics
• ballet
• agon
• 12tone
• igor stravinsky
• anton webern

[montyverdyvesp]

genius! this great mind never stopped working even into his eighties. only death could silence him.

[MrAkihiros]

Even with serialism the stravinsky voice is still there unlike other serial music where there's a numbing sameness.

[MasterOfDisguise116]

its sad that when people ask me my favorite artist and i reply with "stravinsky", people look at me and ask "Who is that? Is he related to Ke$ha?" ... Stupid hip hop..

[callmeBe]

@Machinegunhalligan Please, Stravinsky uses a serial row in limited portions of the work, and they are motivic in nature and help drive the development only in specific passages. That is simply it. Never in a thousand years should you really refer to this work as something truely serial in nature. But, happy listening, and very glad you like this work! (I do too).

[Machinegunhalligan]

Finally, serialism you want to listen to.

[dididcg]

What is this recording?

[jovesheerwater]

@montyverdyvesp: Dramatic, but in what way is he silenced?

[musoderelict]

Not serial. Just elements of it incorporated into the work. For truly serial, go to his Movements for piano & orchestra, or Requiem Canticles.

[DrMarkAlburger]

My favorite version of this great work -- thanks!

And, for the record, the scoring is for

3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, harp, mandolin, piano, timpani, 3 tom-toms (or high timpani), xylophone, castanets, and strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, basses)

[fiandrhi]

@MrAkihiros Agon is not really serialism. It's Stravinsky's flirtation with serialism, but it's far from being a serial composition, and some passages have quite conventional tonality.