Having been playing Stravinsky’s Four Études for Orchestra, my main reaction has been: what?
Here’s some background. Despite the title, these were never orchestral studies. Three are orchestrations of his Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914). The fourth, Madrid, began as an Étude for Pianola (1917), written for a player piano. Its score needs six staves, three pianists’ worth of notes, because no human was supposed to play it. In 1928 Stravinsky gave all four titles and an orchestra; Ansermet premiered them in Berlin in 1930. So we’re playing music written for four soloists and a machine.
- Danse. Short loops of different lengths stacked on top of each other. They never line up the same way twice.
- Excentrique. A portrait of Little Tich, an English music-hall clown famous for dancing in enormous boots. The music walks like him: stiff, jerky, wrong on purpose.
- Cantique. A slow, church-like chant. Finally something to breathe on.
- Madrid. The pianola piece, written after a trip to Spain: street music as heard by a machine. Fast, rattling, and the meter changes every few bars.
It’s very modern in that I don’t really look for the tune, because there just isn’t one to follow. The pianola never complained. Then again, it never had to count.