Introduction

I will be comparing the Rite of Spring (1913) by Igor Stravinsky and Central Asian music, specifically, a Mongolian Idyll, arranged for piano, flute and clarinet by M. J. Reagan (2004). 

Word Count: approx. 1650 

Igor Stravinsky & Rite of Spring

Igor Stravinsky was born in 1882, near St. Petersburg, Russia (Feridunoğlu, 2005). The Rite of Spring was first premiered in Paris in 1913 and created riots in the concert hall with its unexpected harmonies, clashing dissonances and rhythmic variety. His use of multiple harmonies at once created a new technique called “poly-harmony” and a year after its premier, Rite of Spring was accepted as the master piece of the trend “primitivism”. (Feridunoğlu, 2005). Stravinsky gave great importance to rhythm and rhythmic motifs in all of his pieces.

Scene from Rite of Spring-Choreographed by Nijinsky  

Rite of Spring is a ballet, composed for the symphonic orchestra, and is about an old ritual performed in Russia for the arrival of spring; it consists of the dance and sacrifice of a young girl by the “ancestors”. 

Mongolian Folk Music

The area now referred to as Mongolia is in Central Asia, around China’s northern border and Russia’s southern border. Mongolians were nomads; so their music was influenced by the tribes they lived together. 

Their music consists of many different forms: there are many types of vocal music for different occasions, some to celebrate certain things and some to describe the cycles of nature (long songs) (Face Music, 2014). 

One technique used in singing Mongolian Folk Music is “overtone singing”, where the singer holds a note and sings another melody above it, simultaneously, creating a drone. 

There are several unique instruments of Mongolian which provide different timbres. Some of these are: “tsuur” and “limbe”, wind instruments made out of wood, the “bishgüür”, a metal trumpet.

A Bishgüür

Man playing Limbe

The piece I will be comparing is a Mongolian Idyll. An idyll is “a musical composition that evokes rural life” (The Free Dictionary, 2014). The piece is based on a pentatonic scale, and makes use of many rhythmic motifs. 

Similarity #1: Pentatonic Scales

Mongolian, and most Central Asian music, is based on pentatonic scales; which are scales based on five notes. Stravinsky has used pentatonic-sounding melodies in the Rite of Spring, to portray the rural and primitive atmosphere of a ritual and a sacrifice.

Extract from Mongolian Idyll-b1-4

This is the main melody of the Mongolian Idyll. The melody is made up of the notes; G, F, D, C, and Bb, forming the pentatonic scale the folk song is based on. The melody has a very specific ring to it, with the use of a pentatonic scale, and this is what makes it similar to certain parts of the Rite of Spring.

For example, in the last few bars of Spring Rounds in the Rite of Spring Part 1, the alto flutes and the clarinet play the theme, which is pentatonic-sounding. 

Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 56, b2-8

Similarity #2: Drones

Drones are a very big part of Mongolian music. Most of the time, there are two parts to Central Asian, and Mongolian, music; one part provides the constant drone while the other plays/sings the main melody. This main melody is a high pitched one with long notes, and may be played by the traditional flutes (similarity #3) or the traditional string instrument, “morin khuur”.

Throughout the Mongolian Idyll, the piano provides the drone, even though it is not as static as it would be when performed traditionally. Especially, starting from bar 23, the left hand part of the piano changes only slightly in 4 four bars, creating a drone in the background while the flute plays the embellished main melody.

Extract from Mongolian Idyll -b.23-26

Stravinsky’s use of drones is more than the use of pedal notes in a symphony. While the reason he uses the drones is similar to Mongolian music, to provide a steady layer under the main melody, how Stravinsky has structured them is quite different.

Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 28 - b5-10

 In this extract from rehearsal 28 of the Augurs of Spring, Stravinsky uses two types of drones: one is provided by the English horns, playing trills, and the other is provided by the trumpets, playing their “cold” motif, which comes up many times throughout the symphony. 

Another type of drone Stravinsky uses is the French horns playing the same few arpeggios or broken down chords (mostly in fifths or fourths) as the “melody” progresses “above” them .For example,  in The Augurs of Spring-Dances of the Young Girls, the horns play the following motif which they carry out all throughout the movement:

Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 13-14

Even though the instruments which play this drone-like motif change throughout the movement, the motif itself remains the same, no matter what else the other instruments may be playing. For example, in rehearsal 28 of the Rite of Spring, when the flutes are playing their theme, this drone can be heard in the trombones, along with the “cold” drone of the trumpets and the trills of the bassoons:

Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 29

Where Stravinsky’s drones part from the drones in Mongolian Idyll is that Stravinsky’s are more dynamic: they move, yet they still maintain the drone quality. 

However, not all of Stravinsky’s drones are dynamic: his frequent use of pedal notes using the timpani or the strings also is similar to the technique of overtone singing used in Mongolian music and can also be seen in the Mongolian Idyll. For example, in the beginning of Spring Rounds of Rite of Spring, the strings play minor chords, using down bow, and the cellos play the fifth Eb and Bb on the first beat of each bar and then the note Gb for the next three beats:

Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 48

And in the Mongolian Idyll, the right and left hand of the piano play C and Eb almost insistently, while the melody above and the other notes change, also creating a drone effect:

Extract from Mongolian Idyll - b.28-31

Similarity #3: Instruments

Many cultures around the world have their own musical instruments with their own unique timbres. These range from woodwinds to plucked strings in the Mongolian tradition, and from the gran cassa to the alto flute in the western orchestra. The traditional flute used in Mongolian music, called limbe, has a very specific timbre and the timbre of alto flute is very similar to it. The limbe has a soft, hollow sound with the rustling of the air in the flute clearly audible. The frequent use of the alto flute in Stravinsky's work Rite of Spring and its similarity to the traditional Mongolian flute limbe is another connection between the two types of music. These “breathy” and hollow sounds of both the limbe and the alto flute provide a rustic feeling to the music, evoking the imagery of rural life. 

How a "limbe" sounds.

How an alto flute sounds.

Similarity #4: Rhythm

Another similarity between these two works is a rhythmic motif used in both pieces. Because of the difference in time signature, the values of the notes are not the same, however, the result, the rhythmic motif, sounds the same.
This rhythmic motif is formed by one note and two succeeding notes of half the previous note’s value. For example, this theme first played by the horns in rehearsal 25 of Rite of Spring uses this rhythmic motif:

Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 25

Where this rhythmic motif is used in the Mongolian Idyll is in the first theme:

Extract from Mongolian Idyll - b. 5-8

Another similarity is the use of dotted rhythms, which can be seen in both the extract from Rite of Spring and the Mongolian Idyll.

This rhythmic motif and the dotted notes in the themes are reminiscent of rural folk song melodies, since they reflect dance-like movement and energy.

Difference #1: Instrumentation

Although some of the instruments used in Rite of Spring and Mongolian Idyll are similar in timbre, the number of instruments used and their partitions are quite different. The Rite of Spring is written for a large, Western orchestra, while the Mongolian Idyll is written (arranged) for piano, flute and clarinet.  In a more general sense, while orchestral pieces can be frequently found in the Western classical music culture, Central Asian music, more specifically Mongolian music, focuses on one or two instruments, one of which is usually the voice.

Difference #2: Type of Composition

Rite of Spring is a ballet composed by Stravinsky and has been choreographed by many ballet dancers and choreographers. It is to be performed with a ballet act on the stage, and should serve as the underlying music to the action on the stage, where as a Mongolian Idyll is composed and performed simply for expression and for the music. Even though an Idyll depicts nature and “evokes rural emotions” and Rite of Spring is about nature and a sacrifice, the Idyll is only meant to be performed in a trio by those instruments. On the other hand, the Rite of Spring is a ballet, and even though the music can be performed by an orchestra only in a concert, originally it requires a set up and an act and it has an underlying story. It can be said that while Rite of Spring is program music, the Mongolian Idyll is closer to absolute music, which is defined as music which "draws no inspiration from or makes no reference to a text, program, visual image, or title and that exists solely in terms of its musical form, structure, and elements (Dictionary.com, n.d.)."

Conclusion

Even though Rite of Spring and the Mongolian Idyll come from very different parts of the globe, they have many similarities which I have explained in this investigation. The reason for these similarities lies in the fact that both composers wanted to reflect the same thing: nature and rural life. Thus, the similarity in the timbres of the instruments used, the pentatonic scales used, the rhythmic motifs reminiscent of folk song melodies, and the use of drones all helped the composers achieve their goals of reflecting rural life. The pieces differ in many aspects without doubt, but the main difference is the difference in the type of composition and thus the composition's purpose. All of these similarities investigates go to show that music, no matter which part of the globe it may be taken from or which time period it may be taken out of, always has something in common, and is universal.

Resources

absolute music. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from Dictionary.com website:           http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/absolute music.

Face Music. (2014, January). Traditional instruments - mongolia. Retrieved January, 2014. Retrieved                from http://www.face-music.ch/instrum/mongolia_instrum.html.

Feridunoğlu, Z. L. (2005). İz bırakan besteciler. (pp. 185-190). İstanbul: İnkılap Kitabevi.

Regan, M. J. (Composer). (2004). Mongolian Idyll [Song]. Retrieved from                                                            http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/40131.html

Smithsonian Folkways. (Producer) (2013). Music of central asia [DVD]. Available from                                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FobeBHCa2Q&list=PL8D3BE365955520A4

World Music Network. (2012, October 11). The music of central asia: Bards of the golden road.                    Retrieved January, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.worldmusic.net/guide/music-of-central-asia/