235267096 L Histoire Du Soldat Igor Stravinsky Music Analysis

L’histoire du Soldat – Igor Stravinsky Stravinsky Music Analysis Stravinsky’s piece L’histoire du Soldat (The Soldiers Tale) has a melody which moves rom the mid to high ranges throughout its entirety! Short notes are dispersed in "urries and repeated creating a ragmented eel! The phrases remain general short #ut there are some long phrases that also appear! The entire piece has a descending shape adding to a eel o evil!  The $armony $armony has a march march like eel presenting presenting the story o the the soldier and his %ddle! The #ass line& which creates the march& march& uses ostinato to create constant momentum! momentum! The piece is #uilt on a dissonant harmony with comple' chord progression! It has a non diatonic tonality and is not centered on a scalic movement adding a sense o suspense to the piece!  The te'ture te'ture o the piece ranges rom rom sparse to dense! It #egins almost empty #ut #uilds to create a thicker sound! The percussion moves along the #ottom& the other instruments all play separately moving together to play a large section #eore moving #ack to their separate sections! The instruments or the most part don’t overlap #ut rather overtake each other playing similar melodic parts! These varying te'tures add to the eerie mood placed throughout the piece!  There is a strong strong steady pulse in the rhythm rhythm played #y the the percussion! The rhythmic patterns patterns echo each other within a *+ time signature! The tempo is moderate and some o the notes are strongly accented again adding to the creepy eel o the piece! Some o the rhythms are are shiting and irregular at some point!  The piece contains strings – ,iolin& -ercussion -ercussion Timpani& Timpani& Tam#ourine& Tam#ourine& and drums! As well as Trumpet& Trom#one .assoon /larinet and the 0ou#le .ass! The tone colour o the piece is #rittle with and intense punchy eel! It changes rom sot empty noises to an intense loud calamity! There is a shrill sounding clarinet with sustaining drums!  The opening phrase sounds sounds like a anare anare almost militaristic! 0uring the piece the phrases develop over time! There is lots o repetition with solo sections constantly repeated #y various instruments! There are are #oth large la rge and small sections echoed or ornamented #y di1erent instruments! instruments! The piece #egins and ends 2uite similarly the midsection has a high clarinet and there are times when many sections play together creating an intense sound!  The dynamics o the piece range range rom loud to sot& it #egins moderate& #uilds and then drops #ack #eore #uilding again! In the sections where several instruments are playing the dynamics are signi%cantly louder than the sections where there are less instruments! 3ading 3ading sometimes occurs during the piece and there is

also thunderous percussion throughout! All these aspects add to the constant eerie e1ects in the piece!