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Igor Stravinsky: An Analytical Study of Programmatic Design of His Symphony in Three Movements

Stravinsky seldom explained the intended theme of his works; however, he chose to do so with his Symphony in Three Movements. Stravinsky describes the first movement as a reflection on war films documenting scorched-earth tactics in China. He also states that the third movement is a reflection on the newsreels of goose-stepping soldiers, depicting the plot of the war in its entirety. In his descriptions, Stravinsky left out the second movement of the work. However, the movement already had a life of its own. The second movement expands a theme Stravinsky originally wrote for the movie The Song of Bernadette. The author, Franz Werfel, asked Stravinsky to compose music for the film when the two discussed the work and its central ideas. Although it did not appear in the film, Stravinsky recycled the music for the Symphony in Three Movements. In my opinion, the ideas of hope depicted in Werfel's novel are used by Stravinsky to evoke ideas of the importance of faith in the fallen world. My analysis aims to show the musical means used by Stravinsky to allow the central ideas from The Song of Bernadette to pervade the entirety of the Symphony in Three Movements.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1538789
Date08 1900
CreatorsAnderson, Rachel (Rachel Anne)
ContributorsJackson, Timothy L., Graf, Benjamin, Lavacek, Justin
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatv, 49 pages : music, Text
RightsPublic, Anderson, Rachel (Rachel Anne), Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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