K102 Fanfare

for a new theatre – Fanfare für ein neues Theater – Fanfare pour un nouveau théâtre – Fanfara per un teatro nuove. Per due trombe in do

Scored for: 2 trumpets in Do.

Performance practice: The Fanfare is exactly 30 seconds long if taken at the correct metronome marking. In order to realize this, the final breve may not be held on in a virtuosic manner beyond its actual worth of 16 quavers, i.e. it should not be played as if there was a fermata over it.

Structure: The Fanfare is a work for two trumpets, not for first and second trumpet. The tessitura of the two instruments reaches from c1 to b2 for the first instrument and c1 to a#2 in the second instrument.

Construction: The work consists of a semiquaver-bar marked as the introduction, followed by a barline-less and practically instruction-less instrumental piece of a length of 78 quavers at M.M.=144.

Structure: Bar 1 consists of 6 forte quavers, the penultimate quaver written as a marcato sforzato semiquaver preceded by a semiquaver rest and followed by a quaver rest; bar 2 has no bar line and is made up of 56 subdivided crotchet beats to be played forte with a final breve without fermata (16 quaver beats).

Bar 1 consists of 6 forte quavers, the penultimate quaver written as a marcato sforzatosemiquaver preceded by a semiquaver rest and followed by a quaver rest; bar 2 has no bar line and is made up of 56 subdivided crotchet beats to be played fortewith a final breve without fermata (16 quaver beats).

Style: Musically, both parts are based on each of the four twelve-tone rows in their prime repetitions. The melodies of both parts are set against each other in ever new rhythmic patterns. Apart from in the introductory bar, the first quaver beats and the final breve, the two parts never play the same note at the same time. The work can be analysed as small blocks of quavers, in which each block contains a different rhythmic pattern which is not repeated in any of the other blocks. The twelve-tone rows certainly act in this process as two strips, between which the patterns, which they bring to an halt, are inserted. Through metrical displacements of the rows in separate and different permutations between the two trumpet parts, the rows do not cut themselves at the same point, so that the strips hold each other up like scaffolding. The micro-rhythmic conflict between the parts inside the blocks is heard in a linear fashion, as if it were being played by only one trumpet. This is realized by patterns such as quintuplet to triplet, quintuplet to quaver, septuplet to demi-semiquaver + triplet, semiquaver to sextuplet and the like. Both C trumpets are used interchangeably with regard to register. Insofar as one presumes that this is a piece for 2 trumpets and not for 1st and 2nd trumpet, the range of the 1st trumpet is from c1 to b2, and the range of the 2nd trumpet is from c1 to a#2.

Dedication: >to LINCOLN and GEORGE<*.

* Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine.

Duration: 0' 30".

Date of origin: Hollywood 23rd March 1964.

First performance: 23rd April 1964 in New York State Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York.

Remarks: On 23rd April 1964, Lincoln Kirstein opened the New York State Theatre in the Lincoln Center with, among other works, Stravinsky's Movements and Agon, with which begun a new chapter in the history of American Ballet. From this starting point, Kirstein wanted a fanfare for trumpets, which, almost certainly after the example of Bayreuth (he also used the German expression 'Festspielhaus'), was to be played from the uppermost balcony in the foyer of the Opera House and was to alert the public that the event was shortly to begin; it is therefore practically a musical pause-sign of half a minute. He would, it continues, hardly expect that Strawinsky would write for him a 30- or even only 15-second long fanfare. He however meant it quite seriously and offered from his own resources $1000 for the piece which he had intended on this day as a present for George Balanchine, and there ‘may be silver trumpets’. He obviously wasn’t so convinced of its success (‘I don’t suppose’). In fact, Strawinsky at first declined. In a letter to Kirstein dated21st March 1964 , which served as an answer, Strawinsky wrote to him very regretfully that he had got there too late. If he had asked earlier, he would gladly have done it, and naturally free of charge. However, he was soon going to be going on tour and needed every minute for the composition of Wystan’s beautiful poem – meaning the text original of the Kennedy Elegy. 2 days later however, on23rd March 1964 , he wrote the Fanfare for 2 C trumpets.Whether he got enjoyment out of the unusual commission, whether he felt obliged to Kirstein or whether he hesitated by letter in order to make the surprise even bigger, remains speculation. The Fanfare for a New Theater can in any case be played on an opening day and it lasts, if played at the correct metronome marking, as long as Kirstein had wanted it to - and the length-conscious Stravinsky would probably not have seen that as a laughing matter - half a minute exactly. This is why Stravinsky chose a breve instead of a fermata for the final note.

Significance: The Fanfare is functional music and at the same time it is an attempt to replace stylistically traditional musical symbols with a small piece of art music. In previous times, theatre performances were announced by flourishes. Out of these, the Overture developed, which by and by lost its function as an announcement of the event which was shortly to begin and became art music itself, and this role is now given to another form of ‘Overture’, namely the musical symbol.*

* Karlheinz Stockhausen also composed an interval signal which he called "Lichtruf" for the Robert Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf 1992.

Versions: It can be seen from a letter from Strawinsky to Robert Holton dated 6th June 1964 that he had not yet sent the music for the Fanfare to the publishers in London, but intended to bring it to England himself on his next tour, planned for 9 days later. The short piece for trumpets was however first published in a performing edition as a duet with a second copy included, each copy being one page long.The 'Fanfare' was published as score for two trumpets, the legal deposit was stamped by the British Library on 27th February. The publishing contract with Boosey & Hawkes was signed on 4th August 1968.

Historical recording: New York City Columbia 30th Studio, 11. December 1964 with the two trumpeter Robert Heinrich and Robert Nagel.

CD edition: not included.

Autograph: According to Christian Gobaults the autograph was owned by John Cage.

Copyright: 1968 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.

Editions

a) Overview

102-1 (1968) Sc; Boosey & Hawkes London; 1 p. 4°; B. & H. 19650.

b) Characteristic features

102-1 IGOR STRAVINSKY / FANFARE / FOR A NEW THEATRE / Two Trumpets/ BOOSEY & HAWKES // IGOR STRAVINSKY / FANFARE / FOR A NEW THEATRE / Two Trumpets/ Boosey & Hawkes / Music Publishers Limited / London · Paris · Bonn · Johannesburg · Sydney · Toronto · New York// (Score stepled 23,5 x 31,2 (4°) included 2. exemplar 23,3 x 31,1; 1 [1] page + 4 cover pages light tomato-red on green beige [front cover, 2 empty pages, page with publisher’s advertisements >Igor Stravinsky<* production date >No. 40< [#] >7.65<] + 2 pages front matter [title page, empty page] + 1 page back matter [empty page] + included 2. exemplar [title page, empty page, page of the score without pagination, empty page]; head title >FANFARE FOR A NEW THEATRE<; dedication page of the score below head title centre >to LINCOLN and GEORGE<; author specified page of the score without pagination below head title flush right centred >IGOR STRAVINSKY / 1964<; legal reservation page of the score below type area flush left >© 1968 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.< flush right >All rights reserved<; plate number >B. & H. 19650<; production indication page of the score below type area below legal reservation flush right as end mark >Printed in England<) // (1968).

* Compositions are advertised in two columns without edition numbers, without price informations and without specification of places of printing >Operas and Ballets° / Agon [#] Apollon musagète / Le baiser de la fée [#] Le rossignol / Mavra [#] Oedipus rex / Orpheus [#] Perséphone / Pétrouchka [#] Pulcinella / The flood [#] The rake’s progress / The rite of spring° / Symphonic Works° / Abraham and Isaac [#] Capriccio pour piano et orchestre / Concerto en ré (Bâle) [#] Concerto pour piano et orchestre / [#] d’harmonie / Divertimento [#] Greetings°° prelude / Le chant du rossignol [#] Monumentum / Movements for piano and orchestra [#] Quatre études pour orchestre / Suite from Pulcinella [#] Symphonies of wind instruments / Trois petites chansons [#] Two poems and three Japanese lyrics / Two poems of Verlaine [#] Variations in memoriam Aldous Huxley / Instrumental Music° / Double canon [#] Duo concertant / string quartet [#] violin and piano / Epitaphium [#] In memoriam Dylan Thomas / flute, clarinet and harp [#] tenor, string quartet and 4 trombones / Elegy for J.F.K. [#] Octet for wind instruments / mezzo-soprano or baritone [#] flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets and / and 3 clarinets [#] 2 trombones / Septet [#] Sérénade en la / clarinet, horn, bassoon, piano, violin, viola [#] piano / and violoncello [#] / Sonate pour piano [#] Three pieces for string quartet / piano [#] string quartet / Three songs from William Shakespeare° / mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet and viola° / Songs and Song Cycles° / Trois petites chansons [#] Two poems and three Japanese lyrics / Two poems of Verlaine° / Choral Works° / Anthem [#] A sermon, a narrative, and a prayer / Ave Maria [#] Cantata / Canticum sSacrum [#] Credo / J. S. Bach: Choral-Variationen [#] Introitus in memoriam T. S. Eliot / Mass [#] Pater noster / Symphony of psalms [#] Threni / Tres sacrae cantiones°< [° centre centred; °° original mistake in the title].

K Catalog: Annotated Catalog of Works and Work Editions of Igor Strawinsky till 1971, revised version 2014 and ongoing, by Helmut Kirchmeyer.
© Helmut Kirchmeyer. All rights reserved.
http://www.kcatalog.org and http://www.kcatalog.net