Igor Stravinsky - Les Noces (1923)

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (sometimes spelled Strawinski, Strawinsky, or Stravinskii; Russian: И́горь Фёдорович Страви́нский, tr. Igorʹ Fëdorovič Stravinskij; 17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian-French-American composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.

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Les Noces III (The Wedding), ballet in 4 tableaux for vocal soloists, chorus, 4 pianos & percussion

Mildred Allen, soprano; Regina Sarfaty, mezzo-soprano' Loren Driscoll, tenor; Robert Oliver, bass;
Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Roger Sessions, pianos
American Concert Choir & Columbia Percussion Ensemble conducted by Igor Stravinsky

Description by Alexander Carpenter [-]
Les noces has an important place in Stravinsky's ballet output: it is a pivotal work, marking the end of his Russian period, and also the beginning of his Neo-Classical period. Les noces comes after the three main Russian-period ballets -- The Firebird, Petroushka, and The Rite of Spring -- and is the obvious result of Stravinsky's years of involvement with Russian folk music idioms. While Les noces has fewer direct borrowings from the folk tradition than its predecessors, it is, as musicologist Richard Taruskin has noted, the work that is perhaps most Russian: Stravinsky, so familiar with Russian folk music by the second decade of the century, was able to create his own generic folk melodies without reference to source materials. The ballet is one of Stravinsky's hybrids, a "dance cantata" that combines dance with instrumental music and solo and choral singing. There is not really a plot to the ballet; instead, it is a series of scenes depicting the ritualized preparations for a Russian peasant wedding. Stravinsky himself wrote the text, drawing on Russian popular texts and songs for his words. The piece is constructed in two parts, with four scenes. Part one consists of scene one, "At the Bride's House," scene two, "At the Bridegroom's House," and scene three, "The Bride's Departure." Part two contains the final and most elaborate scene, "The Wedding Feast." In each scene, simple melodies set texts describing the bride's anxiety, her commiserations with her bridesmaids, the parents' sorrow at the loss of their children, and the groom's anticipation of the wedding night.

Stravinsky began composing Les noces in 1914, and completed the short (piano) score in 1917, but took another four years to decide on the instrumentation. His original plans called for a huge orchestra, but he soon abandoned this impractical idea. He then intended to have a divided orchestra, along with folk instruments, that would perform on stage with the dancers. This plan too was abandoned. Stravinsky then began scoring the work for "mechanical" orchestra, including pianolas and cimbaloms; however, the impracticality of this scoring also became evident as Stravinsky realized the difficulties in coordinating mechanized and non-mechanized instruments, and in finding good cimbalom players. The final instrumentation consists of full percussion and four pianos. The pianos provide the pitched material, but are also blended with the copious amounts of percussion, resulting in Stravinsky's desired percussive, mechanical sound.

The music of Les noces is deceptively simple; Stravinsky often limits melodies to just three or four notes. Les noces also exemplifies Stravinsky's virtuosic manipulation of small melodic fragments or cells. These cells, or "popevki," are fragments of folk tunes -- in many cases folk fragments invented by the composer -- that are repeated, overlapped, juxtaposed, inverted, and reordered throughout the work, resulting in a seamless texture. Rhythms are simple, and the text setting is syllabic, but metric irregularity and shifting barlines create tension and subvert expectation pervasively. In all, Les noces is the apogee of Stravinsky's "Russian" period, representing his sublimation of the folk traditions that had interested him for years. Its austerity and mechanical character are forward looking, pointing towards forthcoming works in Stravinsky's "new," scaled-down Neo-Classical aesthetic.

[fiandrhi]

This was one of many Stravinsky recordings I listened to obsessively as a kid. I had the Columbia "Complete" Stravinsky box of 32 records, and this recording was among them. Many pleasant memories attach to this recording. I particularly valued it because I was also a fan of Barber, Copland, and Foss, though I did not yet know who Sessions was. I remember thinking, why did they get 3 famous people and a nobody? A few years later, I found out what a phenomenal composer Sessions was first through his violin concerto.

[johnphillips]

Les Noces is really unlike any other piece of Western art music. It creates the percussive sound world of folk music more than any other piece

[treesny]

I hope everyone who loves this piece at some point gets to see a performance with Bronislava Nijinska's original (and superb!) choreography.

[Vovanov]

I half expected for Christian Vander to come in on drums :D

[JohnSpawn]

Part 1:
0:05 The Tresses (i.e. braiding of her hair)
5:19 At the Groom's House
11:24 The Bride's Send-Off
Part 2:
14:35 The Wedding Feast

[SinorBlim]

Legit my family gatherings.
Dramatic, everyone's off key, & there's wine.

[simonkawasaki]

Fantastic! Those who cannot appreciate Stravinsky fully will find the use of diverse tonality and constant meter changes intimidating, but it is a rather joyous piece, intended for the setting of the text. It does not depict a wedding, but the almost mechanical preparations for a very tribal and folk ceremony, hence the very percussive, energetic, and constantly flowing feel of the work.

[stasystar]

«Свадебка»
ч. І, картина 1 «Коса» 00:05

ч. І, картина 2 «У жениха» 5:19

ч. І, картина 3 «Проводы невесты» 11:24

ч. ІІ, картина 4 «Красный стол» 14:35

[erickborling]

This must be the first hard metal music ever written. It rocks balls!

[matteogenerani]

Parte1
Tableau 1: 0:05
Tableau 2: 5:19
Tableau 3: 11:24
Parte 2
Tableau 4: 14:35

[erickborling]

This performance is very metric and so especially well suited to this vid, allowing us to read along with the score.

[hughshrapnel]

what a wonderful piece - so life affirming

[fryingwiththeantidote]

I've never studied a piece of music before, but I just purchased this score and I intend to hack at it until I know exactly what makes it tick and why I love it so much! This performance is simply the best out there, so amazing I've been listening to this every day! Thank you for posting this!

[pageturner]

wow talk about a dream team with the recording. didn't even realize it was sung in English.

[adolfoleongomez]

Maravillosa, compleja y todo un reto. Fascinante.

[egapnala]

And the mostfascinating thing about it is that its basically a string of regular quaver notes.

[tedmerr]

reminds me of the music in Fernand Leger's dadist film "Ballet Mechanique"

[ancontre]

This gives me a Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" feeling. The cantata form and the rhythms! Anyway, both are GENIUSES

[NovicebutPassionate]

A decade later Carl Orff's Carmina Burana was influenced by Les Noces. Occasionally, the two works are performed together.

[vitomuzevic]

Rehearsal marks:
II
7:40
9:55
III
12:25
13:20
IV
14:35