Igor Stravinsky - Apollon Musagète (1928) [with score]
Apollon Musagète - ballet in two tableaux for string orchestra
Written by Igor Stravinsky
Thanks to Thomas Van Dun for the preparation of this score video. / thomasvandun
Performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Boosey and Hawkes ©
00:00 - I. Prologue: The Birth of Apollo
04:37 - II. Apollo's Variation
07:44 - III. Pas d'action: Apollo and the Muses
12:47 - IV. Variation of Calliope
14:20 - V. Variation of Polymnia
15:38 - VI. Variation of Terpsichore
17:53 - VII. Variation of Apollo
20:24 - VIII. Pas de deux: Apollo and Terpischore
24:47 - IX. Coda: Apollo and the Muses
28:23 - X. Apotheosis: Apollo and the Muses
The story centres on Apollo, the Greek god of music, who is visited by three Muses: Terpsichore, muse of dance and song; Polyhymnia, muse of mime; and Calliope, muse of poetry. The ballet takes Classical antiquity as its subject, though its plot suggests a contemporary situation. It is concerned with the reinvention of tradition, since its inspiration is Baroque, Classical, or even post-baroque/rococo/galant.
It is scored for chamber orchestra of 34 string instruments (8.8.6.8.4).
Stravinsky began composing Apollo on 16 July 1927 and completed the score on 9 January 1928. He composed for a refined instrumental force, a string orchestra of 34 instrumentalists: 8 first violins, 8 second violins, 6 violas, 4 first cellos, 4 second cellos and 4 double basses.
The commission from the Library of Congress and underwritten by Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge paid him $1,000 for the piece, which was required to use only six dancers, require a small orchestra, and last no more than half an hour, but allowed him free choice of subject. Stravinsky had been thinking of writing a ballet on an episode in Greek mythology for some time and decided to make Apollo, leader of the muses, its central figure while reducing the number of muses from nine to three. They were Terpsichore, personifying the rhythm of poetry and the eloquence of gesture as embodied in the dance; Calliope, combining poetry and rhythm; and Polyhymnia, representing mime. Stravinsky explained the original title Apollon Musagète to mean "Apollo, Leader of the Muses".
Stravinsky wrote for a homogeneous ensemble of bowed string instruments, substituting contrasts in dynamics for the contrasts in timbre he employed in Pulcinella. The ballet takes its inspiration from the grand tradition of French 17th- and 18th-century music, in particular that of Lully, a source Stravinsky returned to when composing Agon in 1957. The prologue begins with dotted rhythms in the style of a French overture. The work relies on a basic rhythmic cell, presented at the beginning of the work, which Stravinsky transforms by subdivisions of successive values that become increasingly complex. Stravinsky revised the score slightly in 1947. In 1963, he indicated he intended to make further changes, particularly with respect to double-dotting many of the dotted-rhythm passages in Baroque style.