Review of Maureen Carr,After the Rite: Stravinsky’s Path to Neoclassicism (1914–25)(Oxford, 2014)

Abstract

[1] After the Rite: Stravinsky's Path to Neoclassicism (1914-25) is Maureen Carr's second book tracing the evolution of Stravinsky's compositional process through lengthy and extensive study and analysis of his musical sketches.(1) Moving chronologically from "Jeu du rossignol mecanique" (1913) in Le Rossignol to Serenade in A (1925), this volume investigates the development of Neoclassicism in works immediately following The Rite of Spring (1913).(2) Many of these pieces, including Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920), Pulcinella (1919-20) and Octet (1919-23), are frequently discussed in the literature;(3) others, such as Renard (1915-16) and Etude pour Pianola (1917), are less well known. Carr's study shows the importance of analyzing the sketches of these lesser-known pieces, arguing that they foreshadow later pieces in significant ways.[2] In the introductory chapter, Carr explores influential movements in various art forms prominent in 1914 St. Petersburg. These movements aimed to reject the past, with a shared focus on the aesthetics of futurism and formalism. Carr's argument clarifies how those artistic manifestos relate to each other and to the development of Neoclassicism. Several concepts presented here are valuable to investigate because they are directly connected to Stravinsky's Neoclassicism.(4) In literature, Viktor Shklovsky promoted futurism in poetry through his essay on "The Resurrection of the Word" (1914) (8), which led to the idea of "defamiliarization" appearing in "Art as Technique" (1917) (23). The notion of "defamiliarization" plays a crucial role in Stravinsky's departure from his "Russian" pieces.(5) For example, the abrupt fragments and multiple ostinati seen in earlier works from the Russian period become more prominent, evolving into discrete strata and blocks. Aspects of Stravinsky's formal design provide another example of "defamiliarization." Although the composer models the sonata form of eighteenth-century music, Carr reveals that, in works such as the Piano Sonata, he gives new meaning to the form through defamiliarizing the archetype of the formal structure (271).[3] The effort to change the perspective from subject to object is essential to understanding Neoclassicism. Composer Arthur Lourie contributed to a futurist manifesto promoting Eastern art, entitled "We and the West," which states "the art of the West is the embodiment of a geometric world view proceeding from object to subject; the art of the East is the embodiment of an algebraic world view proceeding from subject to object" (quoted in Carr, 8). Carr's critique of this manifesto, describing it as a false dichotomy and being too divisive of the East and West, is reasonable (11). However, it is true that Russia is in a unique position between Europe and Asia, making it a likely location for artistic movements that spring forth from cultural ideologies of both the East and West.[4] Stravinsky's objective approach to his compositions relates to Lourie's manifesto as well as to Michael Fokine's new principle of the ballet. Fokine, the groundbreaking choreographer and dancer, outlined his "Five Principles" for the "New Ballet" to the editor of the Times (London). The fourth principle in his article concerns objectivity in dance. Fokine asserts that the new ballet should advance from subjectivity, with "the expressiveness of the individual body," to objectivity, with "the expressiveness of a group of bodies" and "the combined dancing of a crowd" (21). Like these artists, Stravinsky tried to compose from an "objective stance."(6) Throughout Carr's analysis, the reader can witness how the composer establishes and maintains objectivity in his compositions.[5] There are basically three stages in the development of Stravinsky's Neoclassicism, as Carr explains: (1) Stravinsky begins to use "blocks" more apparently than he did in the pieces of his Russian period; (2) he appropriates different musical idioms such as ragtime for his compositions; and (3) he abstracts musical models from the past and assimilates them into his compositions. …