Stravinsky’s synthesis: exploring cohesion behind serial and non-serial movement in Agon

Yi, Nan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/123041 Copy

Description

Title

Stravinsky’s synthesis: exploring cohesion behind serial and non-serial movement in Agon

Author(s)

Yi, Nan

Issue Date

2024

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Taylor, Stephen

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Taylor, Stephen

Committee Member(s)

• Tharp, Reynold
• Fieldsteel, Eli
• Eagen-Jones, Megan

Department of Study

School of Music

Discipline

Music

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

A.Mus.D. (doctoral)

Keyword(s)

• Stravinsky
• Agon
• Serialism
• Music Analysis
• Twentieth-Century Music

Language

eng

Abstract

This thesis delves into Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Agon (composed 1954–1957), a transitional work from his mid-period neoclassicism to his late serialism. Throughout the varied movements of Agon, Stravinsky juxtaposes and integrates tonal-centric and serialized techniques, displaying both conventional tonic-dominant relationships and the use of 12-tone rows and matrices. This thesis aims to unravel how Stravinsky, despite the differences in musical language, maintains cohesion throughout the work. To examine cohesion within Agon, this study inspects five aspects: motive, tonality, pitch, rhythm, and form, across different levels. It also investigates Stravinsky’s application of three main unique organizational principles: symmetry, partition, and rotation. Furthermore, I discuss Stravinsky’s integration of serialized tonal writing and tonalized serial writing, which contributes to the overall cohesion of the work. A gap in previous studies is the lack of detailed analysis of Agon’s non-serial movements. Therefore, I begin with four of these: Pas-de-Quatre, Double and Triple Pas-de-Quatre, as well as the Prelude and Interlude. Following an in-depth analysis of these movements, I move to the serial movements, identifying cohesive elements across these different musical languages. The analysis will predominantly focus on pitch-related and form-related cohesion, with some discussion on rhythmic patterns. The thesis is composed of following sections: an Introduction includes the background of Agon, a review of past relevant studies, and terminology used in this study. The next chapters include analyses of the four representative non-serial movements: Pas-de-Quatre, Double and Triple Pas-de-Quatre, as well as the Prelude and Interlude. A chapter on cohesion summarizes elements found in Agon present at different levels through the lenses of motive, tonality, pitch, rhythm, and form. The conclusion articulates the cross-stylistic writing techniques Stravinsky adopts, and attempts to interpret the cohesion that permeates the work from both unity and diversity perspectives. Additionally, in an appendix I explore the use of music21, a Python library for music analysis. This tool is applied to specific sections of Agon for particular tasks, aiming to assess the feasibility and current challenges of computer-aided methods as a potential approach for music analysis.

Type of Resource

text

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2024 Nan Yi

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