Stravinsky: Scherzo à la Russe
$349.99
REPRINT SERIES
Scherzo fantastique, op. 3, composed in 1908, is the second purely orchestral work by Igor Stravinsky (preceded by the Symphony in E-flat op.1). Despite the composer's later description of the work as "a piece of 'pure', symphonic music", the work was inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's 1901 essay "La Vie des Abeilles" (The Life of Bees), as is made clear in a letter of 18 June 1907 from the composer to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov.
Like other early works of Stravinsky, the Scherzo fantastique follows the 19th-century Russian taste for exoticism. It uses octatonic and whole-tone scales, augmented triads and diminished seventh chords, and more chromaticism than in the composer's earlier works. The rhythm still uses fixed time signatures, and phrases are predominantly four bars long. It avoids rubato, using perpetuum mobile to maintain forward momentum.
Influences on the work acknowledged by Stravinsky were: Rimsky-Korsakov ("Flight of the Bumblebee"), Mendelssohn (via Tchaikovsky), Dukas (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), Wagner and Debussy.
- Difficulty:
- Intermediate
- Instrumentation:
- Picc, 3Fl 1dPicc&Fl Contrl., 2Ob, CA, 3Cl 1d Picc Cl, BCl, 2Bsn, Cbsn, 4Hn, 2Tpt, Tpt Contr., Cym., Cel, 3Hp, Strings
- Duration:
- ca. 16 minutes
- Set of Parts:
- Includes Strings count 4.4.3.3.2
- Extra Strings:
- Only available with the purchase of the Set of Parts
- Product Type:
- REPRINT SERIES
