Igor Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet: Analysis

Composer Samuel Andreyev analyzes Igor Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914).
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[@EllieMcEla]

Actually, the viola drone is on the G-string, as the pizzicato stave says "sul Ré" (on the D-string). Also, playing left-hand pizzicato D on the G-string is really difficult.

[@samuel_andreyev]

You're absolutely right, thanks for the correction.

[@vincenzoayaan3408]

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[@zyairenixon1498]

@Vincenzo Ayaan Instablaster =)

[@vincenzoayaan3408]

@Zyaire Nixon Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site thru google and im trying it out now. I see it takes a while so I will reply here later with my results.

[@kylesadler2050]

what a fantastic resource for someone like myself who manges only to scratch at the surface of many of the classical works I come across. thank you.

[@Flatscores]

The sort of effect you mention at 22.20 or so is exactly the sort of thing - as a listener - that I enjoy so very, very much. Organizing musical material in that there are coherent and incoherent (from a listeners immediate perception, not an analysts) elements together: a strong sense of hearing coherent material that is self-similar and yet organized in some way that constantly takes the perceptual feet off your ground. I love this in the rhythmic sense - especially well done rhythm music manages this sometimes - and also in terms of harmony, melody, structure, whatever. This dual existence of hearing order and chaos at the same time is amazingly pleasurable for me.

[@Medtnaculuss]

Outstanding video. I can see a big leap forward in terms of production quality, too! I think it would be good to always mention a recommended recording of the piece at the end of each video (much like you did with Boulez's 2nd Sonata).

[@samuel_andreyev]

Medtnaculus Good idea -- I'll do that. Thanks for your kind words.

[@j.e.hernandez9721]

Fantastic channel. Hope you get time to continue this in the future!

[@samuel_andreyev]

J.E. Hernandez Thanks for your kind words. A new video will be going up today or tomorrow.

[@adamtorkelson8272]

I would look at it as the C, Db in the cello with the C#, D#, E, F# in the Violin II are 5 notes in the same octatonic scale starting on C.

[@anthonycook6213]

I believe I hear some of these same layering techniques in the Little Concert and other parts of The Soldier's Tale, and in Symphony of Psalms. Interestingly, one of the themes in the second movement of Three Pieces becomes the fugue subject of the second movement of Symphony of Psalms. Perhaps the techniques you discuss can be compared to recent "phase" and "Minimalist" music, although in the case of Phillip Glass I suspect you might listen for 20 minutes and be able to explain it all in 1 minute. Thanks for the great analysis.

[@samuel_andreyev]

Ha ha, yes, Stravinsky writes one minute of music and you need an hour to analyze it properly. Vice-versa for Philip Glass :)

[@Tylervrooman]

Keeping me company/ educated / and entertained during quarantine! Thanks!! --Tyler Vrooman

[@violinsinthevoid4579]

I have in front of me a copy of "Poetics of Music: In the form of Six lessons" by Stravinsky. I recommend it to anybody who enjoys his work or inventive music in general. What a great mind! this is a new piece for me, so thanks for covering it. To think that Leonard Bernstein conducted the Rite of Spring from memory.... it's quite a thing to watch on youtube. Stravinsky, like Nabokov for writers, sometimes makes a musician wonder why he bothers! Great video.

[@AnaphoraNigh]

I bought and read this book about 30 years ago. It's still on my shelf. You have inspired me to read it again. Thanks!

[@legendoftheblack]

As someone who loves listening to music, but doesn't know much at all about theory, it would really help to hear samples of each part before, during, or after you talking about them. I subscribed and am interested in hearing more.

[@samuel_andreyev]

Ryan Luz Thank you, good suggestion. The ideal would be able to demonstrate short fragments / individual parts on a piano, but unfortunately I don't have one at the moment.

[@legendoftheblack]

Samuel Andreyev Perhaps an inexpensive keyboard could do the trick I'm the interim. Either way, keep up the great work and thank you for responding.

[@zkreso]

Just found out that there is an orchestral adaptation of this. It's interesting to compare the two.

[@patrickdiederich9331]

Lightly dancing over the Chaos... Very Cool, Thank you.

[@SaintDeus]

It's one of the my favorite pieces :-) thanks for uploading

[@maestrosdreamcafe3022]

You opened a new world for me.

[@nordmende73]

Thank you!

[@johnappleseed8369]

This was also a very great analysis, thank you so much for this channel! I'm looking forward to whatever videos you do next, I'll check out your own compositions now :)

[@stevenledbetter9997]

The story of Stravinsky's musical language lies in the octagonic scale, even in his later row manipulations.

[@blobmusica]

Thank you so much for these videos. Love the content and I wish you would keep it up! If I may, I'd love to see a video about Arvo Part!

[@baloothedrummer]

I’d love to hear your análisis on the other two pieces

[@dudleybrooks515]

Very nice analysis of the music. But, to the best of my knowledge, it is not all three movements which were inspired by Little Tich; it was only the second movement, Excentrique. The pieces were titled when Stravinsky later arranged them -- plus a piece originally for player piano -- for orchestra and called the result Four Etudes. The first piece, the one in this video, got named Danse, and the third, slow piece, got named Cantique (Canticle). The fourth piece was -- already, I think -- named Madrid. I have loved Stravinsky most of my life -- even choreographed some. When I learned that Excentrique was inspired by Little Tich, as a choreographer I thought it would be fun to discover his style and choreograph a variation on it, to this music. All of my many circus friends knew about Little Tich ... but none of them could find any photos or films of him. And then the Internet came along ... and one day, there was the only film ever made of Little Tich -- the one you use. And a couple of years later, there was the only *other* film made of him (not much different from this one.)

[@soterionofficial]

Thank you for this interesting analysis, I admire you so much

[@alexeyaslamas732]

Спасибо! Отличный анализ.

[@lotsofrobots1]

the viola plays on two different strings. The opening double-stop,played on adjacent strings (C, G), makes that clear, so that the D pizz is played on the D...

[@GustavoStrauss]

so glad i found your channel! Great work, Maestro 🙏🏽

[@violetavalery]

Thanks, you've just fulfilled my class assignment :-)

[@rjlchristie]

Thank you. Very clearly put. If I may suggest it, maybe change the video title to ....analyses "the first of" three ...

[@MrAndrewHowes]

High quality channel

[@JawherMatmati]

About the first piece, I remember my analysis professor Jean-Marie Rens, explaining to us that what makes the periodicity very present but at the same time very impalpable (you know it's there but you can't anticipate it when hearing it, you keep searching for the begining of the "loop") is the superposition of different "periodicities" between the instruments where each instrument has in fact a cycle based on prime numbers. E.g. the first violin has a cycle of 23 beats, the cello has a cycle of 7 beats (which stravinsky takes as a reference when he chose the alternating time sig of 3/4 + 2/4 + 2/4)...Etc. This feature links all four parts. One of the key characteristics of prime numbers is of course their unpredictbility. I tend to use this technique in my own music now.

[@timojolivet]

Haha, I had to rewind the video between 5:25 and 6:00 because I was too captivated by Little Tich's performance to listen to what you said.

[@Pabloguzman.compositor]

Thanks!!!

[@luismandacaru4089]

Hello Samuel Andreyev! Thank you for your dedication to KZbin, as a composer myself, I find your channel very curious and interesting. I'd like to hear your thoughts about the way World War I changed the music of Maurice Ravel. I love Ravel, but I don't have a very clear idea about how that change was processed, and if it was, like, a change of paradigm in his music. I've been thinking about this since I heard one teacher of mine raising these questions on La Valse. I think it's a very interesting topic to explore, since Ravel's music is one of great sensibility, charm, color, and had to survive the cruelty of war... Cheers!

[@mrnnhnz]

Very interesting analysis, thanks. Can I ask, don't you feel that the two diatonic scales the violins are working with, feel a bit more like C# minor, and C major? (Rather than C# minor and G major?) I understand how it could be interpreted either way, but I thought I'd mention it. With my interpretation, the two scales, one ascending and one descending, are both heading towards the tonic of their respective scales. One other thing that tends to make me view it my way, is that I've noticed that Stravinsky seems to have a fascination with the major 7th of scales in a lot of his works, emphasizing this note. And this violin fragment, if it were to be understood as a fragment of a C major scale, does indeed linger on the leading note.

[@millecello7598]

Thank you very much, very interesting ! Perhaps somebody already asked : would it be possible to have your analysis of the two other pieces ?

[@scottlucas9551]

As "far out" and serial as IS could sometimes be, it still sounds like IS, which is significant.

[@rolandschlegel84]

Hi Samuel, thank you very much for this and all your other videos! At the moment I very much delve into the piece in question and so your statement that it was inspired by a performance by Little Tich cought my attention. I see you uploaded this video some years ago but can you recall the source of this information?

[@samuel_andreyev]

The anectode about Little Tich is well-documented by Steven Walsh and also in the Vera Stravinsky/Robert Craft book 'Stravinsky'

[@rubenmolino1480]

excelent !!

[@brugelxencerf]

the second and third pieces are even more involved.

[@johnnyreinhard7937]

May I suggest that C# is not the same pitch as Db for the string quartet, as his intentions are tonal and not equal temperament.

[@meruscales]

The violin part seems to have some metrical similarity; 35 eighth notes to 14 in the cello share a common multiple of 7

[@paxwallacejazz]

I am avidly watching your channel

[@trakeotos]

Dear Samuel, in the minute 2'14 you can listen where the second violin motif is coming from. Thank you for the analysis! kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXvTomN6bd-mndE

[@artemism418]

Hello Samuel, thank you for this helpful video! Isn't the second violin's pitch group octatonic?

[@the_most_ever_company]

This piece & its techniques remind me strongly of the work of Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, for instance "Hair Pie." I wonder to what degree Stravinsky was an influence on Beefheart's style.

[@briansmith9455]

wow, that is a very interesting comment.

[@ornleifs]

Well Beefheart was a friend of Zappa and Zappa loved Stravinsky so it's certain that Beefheart must have heard Stravinsky.

[@yoba6037]

No way

[@desoliver9712]

@Samuel Andreyev This is more of a technical question: you use the term superposition rather than superimposition, is there a difference?

[@samuel_andreyev]

Hm, no, it may be a frenchism. In French the word is superposition so it's easy for me to get my languages mixed up :)

[@desoliver9712]

I don't think it's you actually... I had the same confusion when looking through the English translation of Messiaen's "Technique". I spoke with Alphonse Leduc (as Messiaen uses this term a lot) and they said that it should be "superimposition". But, I think both are used interchangeably in music, but I believe superposition is really a physics term? I just wanted to check that it wasn't simply an Americianism (divided by a common language and all!) Love your work, great stuff, keep it up! :)

[@arsenedubois4408]

Hi Samuel! Nice video, but I think you're mistaken about Stravinsky hiding from world war, it was Russian Revolution that made him escape his home and mov to Switzerland

[@samuel_andreyev]

I could have explained this better, Stravinsky was indeed already based in Switzerland well before the war broke out. Thanks for your clarification.

[@tamaradovgan5318]

Sorry, but Russian revolution didn't start in 1914...... and it has nothing to do with this wonderful lecture.thanks from Sankt Petersbourg

[@JU-mf3dg]

For another take on this work you should check out this guys video kzbin.info/www/bejne/o56beYqrpciBrtk

[@川口健太郎-l1b]

時系列の繋がりで和声と変奏と各声部を説明することは、かなり難しい さらに大形式の視点からも細部を説明しなければならない

[@to6260]

C sharp minor???? Really?!

[@dudleybrooks515]

It's a pattern that Stravinsky loved and used a lot: whole step, half step, whole step. There are not enough notes to establish a definitive scale ... and quite often when he used it, the notes surrounding it in other parts made it be from the octatonic scale -- always another of Stravinsky's favorites.