Les noces

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Les noces
Choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska
Composed by Igor Stravinsky
Date of premiere 13 June 1923
Original ballet company Ballets Russes
Genre Neoclassical ballet
Type classical ballet
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For Jerome Robbins' ballet, see Les Noces (Robbins).

Les noces (English: The Wedding; Russian: Свадебка (Svadebka)) by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with vocalists.

Contents

[edit] History

The ballet was premiered on June 13, 1923, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. The orchestra was conducted by Ernest Ansermet.

[edit] Orchestration

Stravinsky first conceived of writing the ballet in 1913. During its long gestation its orchestration changed dramatically. At first conceived for an expanded symphony orchestra similar to that of The Rite of Spring, it went through numerous variations, including at one point the use of synchronised roll-operated instruments, including the Pianola, but he abandoned that version when it was only partially completed, owing to the tardiness of the Parisian piano firm of Pleyel in constructing the two keyboard cimbaloms, known subsequently as luthéals.

Stravinsky finally settled on the following scoring: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass soloists, mixed chorus, and two groups of percussion instruments – pitched percussion, including four pianos, and unpitched percussion. This orchestration exemplifies Stravinsky's increasing proclivity towards stripped down, clear and mechanistic sound groups in the decade after The Rite, although he would never again produce such an extreme sonic effect solely with percussion.

The première of the 1919 version of Les Noces, with cimbaloms, harmonium and pianola, took place in 1981 in Paris, conducted by Pierre Boulez[1].

An arrangement for symphony orchestra by Steven Stucky was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and premiered under the baton of Esa Pekka Salonen on May 29, 2008 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The arrangement retains Stravinsky's percussion parts while replacing the four pianos with a large orchestra.

[edit] Libretto

Stravinsky wrote the libretto himself using Russian wedding lyrics taken primarily from Songs Collected by P.V Kireevsky (1911).

[edit] Analysis

Les noces combines Russian folk-song, irregular rhythms, a modernist or Cubist sensibility, and instrumentation that Bowdoin Chorus Director Anthony Antolini has likened unto a black-and-white film.[2] Its influence may be heard in the works of Phillip Glass, John Adams (Short Ride in a Fast Machine), George Antheil (Ballet mecanique), Carl Orff (Carmina Burana), and Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story.)[citation needed] Yet it is rarely recorded or staged, partly because the spare and stark production is somewhat challenging to a typical audience's ear and eye, but probably more because it calls for four pianos, six percussionists with instruments, a chorus and four vocal soloists, plus a dance ensemble, on a single stage.[3] Also, it is not particularly easy piece; soloists sometimes have to speak/sing dozens of syllables in rapid succession, and at one point the chorus is called upon to shout, "Shch!"

The work is usually performed in Russian or French; English translations are sometimes used.

[edit] Trivia

  • Robert Craft recorded the early versions of Les noces in the early 1970s on a Columbia LP.
  • The Pokrovsky Ensemble issued a recording with much of the piano writing sequenced via MIDI through Macintosh computers.
  • However, the idea that it is impossible or difficult to synchronise a Pianola with other instruments is quite erroneous.[4] There have been many hundreds of concerts in which the pianola has accompanied chamber music, or been used as the solo instrument in concertos, beginning in 1900, when Luigi Kunits, concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony, was accompanied by the early pianolist, Charles Parkyn, and most recently including the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto with the Flemish Radio Orchestra in Brussels, with newly arranged rolls perforated in March 2007.[5]
  • BBC recommended recording (Building a Library, May 6 2000: Voronezh Chamber Choir, New London Chamber Choir, Ensemble, James Wood (director) HYPERION CDA 66410(recorded 1990)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Craft, 1981. Robert Craft in Perspectives of New Music
  2. ^ Bowdoin, 2007
  3. ^[citation needed]Stravinsky's Score.
  4. ^ Stravinsky and the Pianola, under External Links
  5. ^ History of Pianolists, under External Links

[edit] References

  • Stravinsky, Igor. Les Noces in Full Score. Dover Publications (June 25, 1998)ISBN-10: 0486404137.
  • Craft, Robert. "Stravinsky Pre-Centenary." Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 19, No. 1/2 (Autumn, 1980 - Summer, 1981), pp. 464-477 doi:10.2307/832606
  • Antolini Electrifies Stravinsky's Multimedia Masterpiece. Bowdoin College. Retrieved July 13, 2007.

[edit] External links

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