Metrical Games in Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat

Note: the following essay was written in partial satisfaction of the course requirements for “Post-Tonal Theory”.

Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat is all about metrical and rhythmic games. From the opening bars of the work through the very end, Stravinsky weaves surprises and nuance into the meter, rhythm, and phrasing of L’Histoire. A closer look at the page, however, reveal the tools by which Stravinsky achieves this complex listening experience. Throughout the course of the work, Stravinsky plays continuously with the rhythmic and metrical elements of ostinati, hypermeter, and elision to create music that constantly surprises, even when utilizing simple musical material. In this paper, we will look primarily at the three marches in L’Histoire - “The Soldier’s March”, “The Royal March”, and “The Triumphal March of the Devil” - to see how Stravinsky uses these compositional techniques in this work.

Ostinati

One of the most immediately noticeable compositional techniques throughout the course of L’Histoire is the use of ostinato passages. In nearly every movement in this work, ostinato passages or exactly repeated patterns are used as a kind of foundation to layer rhythmic and metrical details. Sometimes these ostinato passages permeate an entire movement, like the contrabass in “The Soldier’s March” or “Music to Scene I”. Other times, patterns are shorter, more subtle, and less omnipresent, such as the accompanimental material at Rehearsal 1 (henceforth abbreviated ‘Reh.’ 1) in “The Royal March”, or the percussion part throughout much of “The Triumphal March of the Devil”. This consistent utilization of repeating patterns is an important element of how Strainsky builds rhythmic complexity in the work. YouTube essayist and music personality Adam Neely coined the term ‘isochronal entrainment element’ to refer to the use of regular rhythmic patterns that are easy to ‘feel’ in an otherwise complex polyrhythmic or mixed meter setting. In many ways, Stravinsky’s use of ostinati fits this description, giving the listener a rhythmic anchor that is easy to feel and predict (often with a very clear metrical stress of its own) that makes it easier for the listener to hear and fully experience some of the metrical complexities occurring above the ostinato.

Often throughout this work, ostinati passages are used to create a metrical tension between the accompaniment and the melodic material. Frequently, melodic material will move in and out of alignment with the accompaniment, using mixed meter measures that the melody follows and the ostinato ignores. This creates a misalignment between the two parts, or brings the two back into alignment. The most straightforward example of this occurs at the very beginning of the “Royal March”. The melody is carried by the trombone, whereas the rest of the ensemble plays hits on every full beat (a very simple rhythmic ostinato, but for our purposes, an ostinato.) At first, this sounds like the accompanimental hits are articulating the downbeats, but after the first measure in 5/8, their part is recontextualized as ostensible offbeats to the trombone melody. (Ex. 1) 7 measures later, yet another 5/8 bar finally bring the hits and the end of the trombone melody into sync, just as the music moves on to new material. As we see now and will see later, realigning the ostinato with other musical material is often a way Stravinsky demarcates the end of a section of music.

Example 1: “The Royal March”, beginning to 1 after Reh. 1. Notice how mixed meter is used to move the two voices in and out of alignment. (instruments from top to bottom: Trumpet in Bb, Trombone, Percussion (cymbal and bass drum), violin, and contrabass)

Some uses of ostinato throughout L’Histoire are more than simple metrical re-contextualizations. At times, these ostinato passages present contrasting metrical stress to melodic material, where both parts simultaneously assert distinct downbeats. This is particularly evident in the first movement of the work, “The Soldier’s March”. The rhythmic and metrical games of this movement start out comparatively simple, but develop more complexity as the pieces goes on. By Reh. 8, we see a similar approach to mixed meter (in this case, 3/8) as a tool to move two parts in and out of synchronicity. But a key difference make this passage feel quite a bit different than the example from The Royal March. This ostinato asserts its own downbeat, both through repetition and through an implicit tonic to dominant alternation. (Ex. 2) So when this is combined with melodic material with a distinct metrical scheme, the listener experiences the juxtaposition of the two. Instead of a recontextualization of meter, Stravinsky imposes a tangible metrical conflict to these passages.

Example 2: “The Soldier’s March”, Reh. 8 – Reh. 9. Arrows delineate metrical stress, and are intended to indicate the multiple ‘downbeats’ presented in this passage.

This metrical conflict is explored in even greater detail a short while later in the piece at Reh. 10, where a new ostinato passage is introduced in the percussion part, effectively creating 3 lines with their own distinct downbeats and metrical stress. (Ex. 3) While the effect of these passages are chaotic and clashing, they never cross into sounding haphazard or unintentional (especially when the piece inevitably and deliberately finds its way back to synchronicity near Reh. 13). The controlled chaos of these polymetrical passages are a result of careful misalignment of metrical stress.

Example 3: “The Soldier’s March”, Reh. 10 – 13. Notice the now 3 independent meters at play.

The misalignment and resynchronization of metrical stress turns out to be an important structural tool for Stravinsky throughout much of this work. Often, bringing the rhythmic material back into tandem brings a section of music to a close. The aforementioned material from Reh. 10-13 in “The Soldier’s March” ends with the 3 voices finally lining up together before it moves on to closing material for the movement, and a similar pattern of synchronicity to misalignment back to synchronicity takes place in Reh. 8-9. Another telling example of this can be found near the beginning of the “Royal March”, at Reh. 1. In this instance, the ostinato pattern (in clarinet, bassoon, violin, and contrabass) outline an ostinato pattern 7 eighth notes in length. (Ex. 4) The melody, however, basically follows a simple 2/4 meter. The two figures dance out of step with each other until, after five measures, they finally meet on the downbeat of Reh. 2, where a new phrase picks up. The 6 measures immediately following implement a very similar kind of technique, with a four eighth-note ostinato and a melody that steps in an out of sync with it through bars of 5/8 and 3/4. Clearly, Stravinsky is very aware of how and when his melodic figures and accompanimental figures line up, and he uses them to help articulate structural points and phrases.

Example 4: “Royal March”, Reh. 1 – 1 before Reh. 3. Misalignment and synchronicity with ostinati parts.

A final detail of Stravinsky’s ostinato usage deserves mention, and helps articulate how the composer was approaching these repeated patterns as rhythmic units. In many places in L’Histoire, Stravinsky changes a repeated pattern or a small musical figure in very minute ways. These instances create a change in the passage’s rhythmic or metrical feel. To return to the passage in “The Soldier’s March” from Reh. 10-13, the percussion part fluctuates in the length of its pattern. Sometimes, the pattern is 7 eighth notes in length, and other times it is 8 eighth notes in length. (Ex. 3) This rhythmic part has little impact on the melodic or harmonic material in this section, but these minute changes impact how the part lines up (or doesn’t) with the rest of the music. This also mirrors the pattern breaks occurring in the melodic material. The melodic material of Reh. 10 (originally hinted at earlier in the movement, 4 after Reh. 3) essentially repeats in Reh. 11 and Reh. 12, following the general shape and sequence very closely. While a homorhythmic trombone harmony is added to the mix in Reh. 11 and 12, the key difference to the repeats have to do with their length and rhythm. Reh. 11 is a slight augmentation of the original, and Reh. 12 a diminution. The pattern and shape of the phrase remains basically the same, but its length, and thus, how it lines up with the other two ostinati, have changed.  These kinds of small changes that chiefly affect meter and synchronicity are also a key aspect of how Stravinsky approaches the continually developing violin part in the last movement.

Hypermeter and Phrasing

Stravinsky also exploits hypermeter and phrasing for rhythmic and metrical interest throughout L’Histoire. A look at the way the work opens is illustrative of the ways in which Stravinsky uses hypermeter. The metric games begin at the very beginning of the piece, when a 3 bar phrase sets the stage for the first movement. The following phrase is 8 bars but uses offbeat entrances and a melodic line that is two eighth notes too long to fit squarely into the expected phrasing. And in the following music, Stravinsky uses yet another 8 bar phrase of sorts, depending on how you count it. The melody moves through some mixed meter, and technically moves through 9 measures. But beneath it, the relentless ostinato asserts 8 repetitions of its 2/4 pattern. (Ex. 5) This moment is important, and moments like it happen elsewhere in L’Histoire. In these moments, Stravinsky preserves a regular hypermeter or large-scale phrase while imposing a smaller scale irregularity of meter. When this happens, it feels as if the phrase ends at the right time, even though the path to that end went in unexpected directions. (Another example of this approach can be found at the previously cited Reh. 2 in “The Royal March”.) This gradual development of metrical and rhythmic complexity is also a key part of the “The Soldier’s March”, and eventually culminates in the controlled chaos we discussed in Reh. 10-12. (Ex. 3)

Ex. 5: “The Soldier’s March”, 1 after Reh. 2 to 3 after Reh. 3. First system is trumpet, trombone, contrabass.

Stravinsky also exploits some of the ambiguity of his musical material from a phrasing perspective, especially at the beginnings and endings of phrases. “The Royal March” spends a lot of time recasting the 3-note pick-up figure first presented in the trumpet at Reh. 1, and dwells on whether it and other figures like it are an anacrusis or not. In its original form, it suggests a pick-up bar, with the real stress of the phrase beginning a moment later on the quintuplet. But this sense is obfuscated slightly by the 5/8, which gives the figure enough space to feel ambiguous, like it could be its own downbeat of sorts. And other 3-note figures, like at Reh. 2 or 11, come off more as isolated bars of 3/8, which helps to contribute to the ambiguous metrical stress of this trumpet figure. (Ex. 6) However, later on in the piece in Reh. 4 we see this figure in the expected 2/4 setting, and in spite of the ensemble’s sforzando on the trumpet’s entrance, the pick-up quality of these three notes is more apparent on this restatement. Similarly, the material from Reh. 9 is unequivocal about the metrical stress of the phrase, and even Reh. 10’s offbeat hits don’t subvert our sense of downbeat enough for us to lose the written downbeat. And near the end of this movement, shortly after Reh. 16, we finally hear this figure unequivocally, contextualized by its surroundings as an unmistakable anacrusis into the following musical material.

Related to this anacrusis dilemma is the way Stravinsky sets up phrases with certain expectations that are later subverted. As we saw, in the “Royal March” an ambiguous phrase becomes more unequivocal throughout the piece, but in some movements we see the opposite process. For example, the last movement (“The Triumphal March of The Devil”) continuously expands upon a violin melody, first presented in Reh. 2 in a fairly straightforward manner. The figure contains mixed meter but the phrase and stress is clear. But when we return to this material, now expanded in Reh. 3, those expectations are juxtaposed against an ostinato percussion part, 6 eighth notes in length. While this ostinato doesn’t assert its own strong sense of downbeat, it certainly obfuscates the violin’s meter by ignoring it. Even here though, the ending of the phrase is obvious, and its procession to the next phrase seems logical - the 2 strong sforzandos outline a quarter note pulse that reasserts the meter before the following material reinforces it. (That following material, a restatement of the opening music, is a diminution and serves as its own play on expectations established at the beginning of the movement.) But that expectation is also subverted in the next violin episode, when the end of the phrase overlaps with a trumpet entrance that strongly asserts a contradictory metrical stress. (Ex. 7) In this movement and in other places, Stravinsky is aware of the natural expectations of his phrases, of his musical material, and he exploits those expectations frequently.

Elision and Compression

Among the other significant compositional tools used in L’Histoire is the technique of eliding phrases together. When used, this give the piece a kind of succinct quality to it, as one phrase overlaps with the next without pause. When Stravinsky uses this simply, as he does in the trumpet line in “The Royal March” in Reh. 1-2, it gives the piece a sense of momentum that carries the piece forward. Other times, he exploits elision for as a source of musical development, as he does in the violin part of “The Triumphal March of the Devil”. The aforementioned 2 sforzandi become important guideposts in this phrase, but the 2nd sforzando is frequently used to immediately begin the next phrase. These phrases are often irregular in length, and they overlap rather than finish in the expected way. (One could also interpret the aforementioned metric obfuscation at Reh. 6 as its own kind of elision.)

At times these elisions serve as their own way to subvert expectations. If the expectations of a musical figure have been well defined, shortening its end or overlapping that end with other material can catch the listener by surprise. A particularly effective example of this can be found in “The Royal March” at Reh. 18. In the measures prior, the trombone plays a figure strongly reminiscent of the opening material, complete with an accompanimental texture nearly identical to the intro. At this point in the music, we’ve already heard the opening figure twice, and we expected a 5/8 to bring the two voices back into alignment. But in this instance, that 5/8  never quite happens, and instead the line peters out in a 3/8 bar that is dominated by the trumpet entrance above it. It’s a particularly disorienting moment where Stravinsky has built an expectation of a certain kind of metrical resolve where we anticipate a mixed meter bar to bring the parts back into tandem. By overlapping it with a new phrase, Stravinsky instead gives this passage an unexpected polymetrical feel. (Ex. 8)

Example 8: “Royal March”, 4 before Reh. 18

Sometimes, the tool at play is not, strictly speaking, elision, but achieves the same end by shortening the expected ‘dead time’ at the end of a phrase. These passages have an almost athletic quality to them as the rhythmic impetus of the work overrides the implied breathing room at the end of the phrase. At Reh. 6 in the “Royal March”, a 3/8 bar at the end of the phrase keeps the music moving, but one can see the immense difference this makes if they consider the part rewritten with a 2/4 of 3/4 in that moment. The passage would lose much of its forward momentum and vitality, instead languishing in the end of the phrase. (Ex. 9) Similarly, the character of “Triumphal March of the Devil” at Reh. 1 would be completely changed without the mixed meter to shorten space between it and the following phrase. 

Conclusion

The scope of this paper prevents us from pointing out all of the nuanced metrical games at play in L’Histoire, but it does begin to point out some of Stravinsky’s approaches in this work, and how he creates dynamic metrical interest with simplistic musical materials. While this essay did little to discuss harmony or pitch content, it has focused on what I believe to be L’Histoire’s most important elements. The use of ostinati and repeated patterns bind this work together and sets a foundation for rhythmic and metrical subversion. In larger scale phrases and hypermeter, Stravinsky plays off of expectations and exploits ambiguity of the implied metrical stress of his musical figures. And through elision and compression, the piece plants ever more surprises, and infuses the piece with a restless vitality throughout. In all of these ways, Stravinsky has created music of the unexpected, music that revels in its ability to manipulate the ‘feel’ of a passage, and its boundless capacity to fool the listener.