Stravinsky’s Compositional Style: A Comparison

Stravinsky’s ballet ‘Pulcinella’ largely reflects upon a new phase in Stravinsky’s compositional style. Whereas earlier works, such as ‘Petrouchka’, contained large orchestras with intricate rhythms and unusual instrumental instructions, Pulcinella was quite different.

  The Pulcinella Suite was put together by Stravinsky, using the basic ideas of Pergolesi’s compositions and developing them. This was suggested by Diaghilev, who gave some transcripts to Stravinsky and encouraged him to consider them. Although he had given Stravinsky many transcripts, the ones that he decided to work came entirely from published sources of Pergolesi’s music, particularly the Trio Sonatas. When deciding a plan for the ballet, Diaghilev showed an old manuscript contained a number of comic episodes to Stravinsky. The leading part in was payed by Pulcinella, who was traditionally the hero of the Neapolitan ‘commedia del’arte.’

   The final work was described as Neo-Classical;  that is the music sounds like baroque or classical music, and looks like it at first glance, however it has additions.

  Although Stravinsky used mainly diatonic harmony, he added things such as extra 6ths and 7ths to chords where they would not normally have been placed. He took Pergolesi’s melodies and bass lines, and, leaving this virtually unaltered, added his own harmonies and alterations to the accompanying parts. This caused the music to sound almost ‘jazzy’, which was certainly not as it had been intended when the initial melodies were composed by Pergolesi. 

  Although diatonic harmony was used, and the basic ideas were from another composer, it was clear that the work had Stravinsky’s influence, as many of the melodies were above unusual ostinato figures; the type that had been evident in his earlier ballets. Also, many of his melodies became witty or vulgar through the addition of accidentals or widened intervals. Some of the melodies were also fragmented or lengthened, leaving the tune seem strange and unusual.

 Although Stravinsky used many classical features in this piece, for instance ornaments such as mordents and trills, he overused or exaggerated them to the point that they began to sound odd, and almost sounded as though he was making a mockery of the classical period itself. One example of this is in the ‘Vivo’, in which both the trombone and the double bass are instructed to glissando.

  With regards to the orchestra, Stravinsky decided to use a baroque style orchestra. Because of this, he did not use clarinets or percussion, as these would not have been present in the baroque period. He decided to compose his work in concertante style, in which there would be a solo group and a ripiano group. Within these groups, he managed to create a large contrast between instruments using the pitch, volume and timbre of the instruments to enable him to do so. For instance, in the ‘Gavotte’, a bassoon and a flute are playing together, which creates a large contrast.

  In Stravinsky’s earlier ballets, he used many irregular time signatures , and switched between them sometimes as often as every bar. In ‘Pulcinella’, this technique is not used, however Stravinsky often repeats parts of Pergolesi’s melodies so that it would give the piece an odd shape, and make is less symmetrical.  Because of this, his phrase lengths become unbalanced, bringing the piece far away from the Baroque and Classical phrasing that they originally contained.

  In this work, Stravinsky doesn’t use as many intricate cross-rhythms as he used in ‘Petrouchka’. In fact, throughout the work, almost none of these can be seen. He does, however, make use of accents and rests to allow the smooth flow of the piece to be interrupted.

  In conclusion, ‘Puncinella’ differs greatly from Stravinsky’s other works, as, even though his style is still apparent, he is a lot more subtle with the techniques that he uses to add his own personal taste to the music.