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.
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| 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.
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| Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 28 - b5-10 |
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:
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| 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:
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| Extract from Rite of Spring - Rehearsal 29 |
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:
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| 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:
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| Extract from Mongolian Idyll - b.28-31 |
