Structural Coherence in Stravinsky's "Piano-Rag-Music"

Abstract

In examining Stravinsky's compositional productivity, analysts generally seem to have slighted the works for piano in favor of ballet or the more familiar instrumental works . 1 That this literature has been neglected, and thereby maligned, is indeed a curiosity, especially given Stravinsky's acknowledgement of the piano ("my musical fulcrum") as the central vehicle for his compositional experiments and the consequent possibility that the literature written expressly for the instrument might serve as a barometer for his creative development (in much the same way as Schoenberg's piano opera 11, 19, and 23, for example, serve as harbingers for compositional advancements in Schoenberg's The research for this article was completed during the summer of 1980, as part of a seminar on "Theoretical and Analytical Studies of Early Twentieth-Century Non-Tonal Music," directed by Professor Forte. This project was made possible through a post-doctoral grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar Program. 1 A notable exception is William E. Benjamin's "Tonality without 5ths: Remarks on the First Movement of Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments," In Theory Only, 2/11-12 (1977), 53-70, 3/2 (1977) 9-31. Also, see a response in Robert P. Morgan's "Dissonant Prolongations, Perfect 5ths and Major 3rds in Stravinsky's Piano Concerto," In Theory Only, 4/4 (1978) 3-7. own evolution) . Often a Stravinsky keyboard piece finds itself bordered by works of greater portent, and so falls victim to an untimely birth. Written between L'Histoire du Soldat and Pulcinella, the 1919Piano-Rag-Music has suffered just such a fate.Seen in historical perspective, one observes that this particular piano work is the third foray into ragtime, following closely the rag movement of L'Histoire and the Ragtime for Eleven Instruments, both written in 1918. One might assume, therefore, that Stravinsky's occupation with rag during his Swiss exile went beyond mere infatuation. Still, the Piano-Rag-Music is frequently perceived only as a stylistic aberration. Stravinsky's biographer, Eric Walter White, perhaps best articulates this verdict:Here Stravinsky relaxed his discipline and allowed his sense of improvisation to dictate a work that is almost rhapsodic in form-a turbulent spate of music carrying all sorts of flotsam in its stream. The result is rather incoherent .. .. 2 White is quite correct in his assessment of the raucously 2Eric Walter White, Stravinsky, The Composer and His Works (Berkeley and 77 improvisational nature of the work. Clearly, Stravinsky created a strident comedy identifiable with the rag style. However, the rhapsody therein surely is intentful, for one suspects that incoherence never found asylum in Stravinsky's methodology. Moreover, any notion of the work genuinely being improvised is dispelled quickly, since sketch materials seem to have survived. 3 Thus a means must exist by which the "flotsam" is held structurally accountable. But first it is essential that the rather unusual proposition Stravins...