Agon: The First 12-Tone Ballet: Preliminary Analysis

I decided to listen to the piece and write down my thoughts and assumptions before watching the ballet and before reading other analyses…This is what I came up with (a very rough analysis, movement by movement):

1. Pas de quarte

· West Side Story mixed with Asian Essence

· Even the first movement is not completely tonal

· The strings build anticipation; a feeling of urgency also a fanfare like tendency in the brass

2. Double Pas de quarte

· Reminds me of flight of the bumblebee

· I see someone searching for someone—the hunt is on

· Lower instruments such as brass appear to have a fixed function of a pedal or steady/long pattern

3. Triple Pas de quarte

· All three Pas de quarte seem to start out with similar rhythmic patterns/structures—ascending instruments that build tension—all feeling like some sort of hunt or search

4. Prelude

· Conversation between percussion and brass

· Large crescendo leading to a calmer tonal progression

· This is a fairly tonal movement

5. Saraband-Step

· Xylophone—crucial part

· Still pretty tonal towards beginning

· Gradually weaves in and out of tonality

6. Gaillarde

· Very cluttered sound at beginning—doesn’t exactly read as “tonal” to me

· Final falls into a more “traditional; western classical sound”

· Contrast between timbres of instruments is somewhat overwhelming

7. Coda

· The search is back on

· Serial

· Image of a staircase

· Large use of register

· Great sense of conversation between instruments—yet still embodies individuality

· First movement where I was able to hear the crowd—this is a live performance

8. Interlude

· Starts out with percussion similar to previous movements

· Much like the Prelude—revisiting some of those ideas?

9. Bransle Simple

· Sounds like confusion or argument

· Serial?

· Ends with a leading cadence into the next movement

10. Bransle gay

· Ostinato

· Variations on the same rhythmic pattern until the woodwinds enter with their own ideas

· Somewhat tonal but not quite

11. Bransle Double

· Starts very loud and alarming

· “Search” is back on

· Not Tonal

· Old Horror movie feel (brass especially)

· Somewhat Twilight Zone music

12. Interlude

· Begins with booming percussion

· Again, revisits material in first Interlude/Prelude

· Direct quotation from earlier movements

· Peaceful at end

13. Pas de deux

· Eerie

· Longest movement

· Primarily Strings

· Serial

· Definite Motives

· Tension/dissonance

· Sense of Rise and Fall

· 3:45 brass and piano enter—changes feel of motives and of rise and fall

· Pulsing Strings

· Feels unfinished

14. Coda

· Rushing/Confused feeling

· Serial

· Quotations from earlier movements

15. 4 Duos

· Climbing feeling

· Mimicking

16. 4 Trios

· Hunt is on

· Big Crescendo—much like previous movements

17. Coda

· Feels much like an encompassment of Coda and Interludes

· Barely any “new” material

· Search/Hunt is still on

· Conversation still moving throughout instruments

Overall, I feel like there is a large emphasis on spatial relationships, timbre, and register. Conversation and organized chaos are also big factors within this piece. I am interested to see what choreographer George Balanchine did to compliment Stravinsky’s score and tell the story of the “ballet without a story”