Serenade (Stravinsky)

Structure#

Serenade in A lasts about twelve minutes and is in four movements: Despite its title, the work is in neither A major nor A minor. According to Eric White, A is not the “key” of the work, but rather the music radiates from and tends towards A as a “tonic pole”. Thus, the first and the last chord of each movement contains the note A, either as the root, third, or fifth of a triad. According to Stravinsky, the piece was conceived “in imitation of the of the eighteenth century, which was usually commissioned by patron princes for various festive occasions, and included, as did the suites, an indeterminate number of pieces”. Therefore, the movement titles are meant to evoke the specific parts of such festive celebration. From the pianist’s perspective, “Hymne” is related to Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade No. 2, while the reflects Stravinsky’s Russian heritage.

Further reading#

• Boettcher, Bonna J. 1991. A Study of Stravinsky’s Sonate pour piano (1924) and Sérénade en la. San Francisco: Mellen Research University. .
• Cone, Edward T. 1962. “Stravinsky: The Progress of a Method”. Perspectives of New Music 1, no. 1 (Fall): 18–26.
• Joseph, Charles M. 1983. Stravinsky and the Piano. Russian Music Studies 8. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
• Martins, José António Oliveira. 2006. “Stravinsky’s Discontinuities, Harmonic Practice, and the Guidonian Space in the ‘Hymne’ from the Serenade in A”. Theory and Practice 31:39–63.
• Straus, Joseph N. 1987. “The Problem of Coherence in Stravinsky’s Sérénade in la”. Theory and Practice 12:3–10.
• White, Eric Walter. 1948. Stravinsky: A Critical Survey, 1882–1946. New York: Philosophical Library. Reprinted, Mineola, New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1997. .