K088 Agon

deutsch K088 Agon

K88 ἈΓΏΝ

Ballet for twelve dancers — Agon. Ballett für zwölf Tänzer — Agon. Ballet pour douze danseurs — Агон. Балет для двенадцати исполнителей – Agon. Balletto per dodici danzetori

* Printed in Greek capitals in the neat copy of the manuscript and in the printed version of the piano reduction, but not in the original printed version of the conducting score, rather it appears first in the second edition of the conducting score; in the latter, however, the translations of the subtitles are left out. In the earliest sketch, Strawinsky writes the capital Alpha with a grave accent instead of a Spiritus lenis.

Scored for: a) First edition: 3 Flauti (Fl. III anche Piccolo), 2 Oboi, Corno Inglese, 2 Clarinetti in Si b; Clarinetto basso in Si b, 2 Fagotti, Contrafagotto, 4 Corni in Fa, 4 Trombe in Do, 2 Trombone tenori, Trombone basso, Arpa, Mandolino, Pianoforte, Batteria (Timpani, 3 Tom-toms or high timpani (in Mi b, Sol b, Si b), Silofono, Castagnette, Archi [3 Flutes (Fl. III also Piccolo), 2 Oboes, Englisch horn, 2 Clarinets in B b, Bass Clarinet in B b, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns in F, 4 Trumpets in C, 2 Tenor Trombones, Bass Trombone, Harp, Mandolin, Piano, Percussion (Timpani, 3 Tom-toms or high Timpani in E b, G b, B b), Xylophone, Strings]; b) Performance requirements: 4 male dancers, 8 female dancers; Piccolo Flute (= 3rd Flute), 3 Flutes (3rd Flute = Piccolo Flute), 2 Oboes, Englisch horn, 2 Clarinets in B b, Bass Clarinet in B b, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns in F, 4 Trumpets in C, 2 Tenor Trombones, Bass Trombone, Harp, Mandolin, Piano, Percussion (3 Tom-toms or high Timpani in E b, G b, B b), Xylophone, Castanets, Solo Violin, Solo Viola, 3 Solo Violoncellos, 3 Solo Double Basses, Strings (First Violins, Second Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, Double Basses).

Performance practice: The instrumental legend printed at the front of the score is a complete list of all the instruments required across the separate dance numbers. There is no Tutti, and likewise no instrumental palette in the sense of an aesthetic concept of colour. All the instruments are used structurally and thus their full coloristic qualities are not exploited. For example, in the introductory Pas de Quatre (bars 1 to 56) the piano plays, after the three identical three-note chords which are identical to the harp between bars 10 and 25, a single staccato note, a very low G played seven times as support for the double bass pizzicati, and is then silent until bar 166, when it then plays a small melody several times in the Galliarde (bars 166/167). In the subsequent coda, the piano can be heard from bar 195 in single quaver notes in the style of a mandolin, marcato, quick and short. It is then silent again up to bar 352, where the three-note chords reappear, continuing up to bar 364, and so on. At no point is a piano sound in its traditional sense employed. On the other hand, Strawinsky asks for instrumental effects which are unusual in the traditional orchestral literature. The tomtoms, which are only used a few times, can be replaced by high timpani. Strawinsky employed a different instrumental order from the usual one in this score. There was a separate correspondence about it in which Strawinsky instructed the publishers to conform to his ordering. This ordering for the orchestra, as he writes on24th May 1957 toAdams , is more convincing for the reader and for younger conductors than the traditional ordering in a standardised orchestral legend. Strawinsky’s thesis especially hits its mark for Agon as the juxtaposition of small groups that constantly change again and again from section to section requires reorientation. For instance are the horns written beneath the trumpets. The bar numbering is not shown with figures, but continues through the separate dance numbers with bar numbers, and in a few cases bars are defined as half bars (255, 256, 256-257, 257-258, 258-259, 259-260, 261, 262; between 256 and 256 bis and between 257 and 257 bis a dotted line replaces the bar line, but this does not appear between the other combined half bars, which probably points towards a printing error). The score ends with bar number 620, a number which does not correspond to the actual number of bars, because bars 171-178, 416-428 and 504-509 are repeated. The actual total number of bars is therefore 647, which, in order to anticipate any attempts to impose speculation on this number, is divisible by no number apart from 1 and itself, and is therefore a prime number.

Summary: Agon is timeless and without concrete subject matter, and is an abstract ballet without a proscribed dramatic or literary idea. The Greek title Agon ( ἈΓΏΝ [ἀγών] = contest; the a = alpha is short and the o = omega is long and stressed) proscribes no content, but suggests kaleidoscopic combinations of male and female dance groups. Apart from a few directorial instructions that refer to the starting and finishing position of the ballet as well as to the number of male and female dancers taking part in each of the separate numbers, the choreographical interpretation is entirely in the hands of the choreographer, whose conception of the world of the piece does not have to be the same as that of Strawinsky, but must take into account the gender allocations of the characters, which are reproduced in the instrumentation. The ballet can be understood as a series of film-like scenes of movements that unfold out of the joy of dancing calculus and mathematically defined symmetry inside the generic framework of a power struggle between male and female. For this reason, Agon tolerates only to a limited extent any story motivated by contents bounds to a specific time, place or ideology, and cannot be seen in connection with the other two ballets by Strawinsky based on ancient Greek originals ( Apollon , Orpheus ), despite its Greek title; it is closer to the Danses Concertantes or the Ballet Scenes .

Construction: According to the structural system, Agon is a large suite made up of several small suites put together; at times it invokes traditional but individually handled old dance suites, from which Strawinsky takes rhythmic formulae, metric schemata and the large-scale sequence of movements. The combination of a slow preceding dance followed by a fast one, be it in the old pairing Pavane-Galliarde or Allemande-Courante, be it new in any form of music written slow-fast, is based in its selection not on general, but on specific music from the 17th Century. Strawinsky adopts rhythmic formulae, metric schemes and sequences of movement types, to which he gives a context in their order that would have been unfamiliar in the older period. The ballet is partly modal, partly freely twelve-tone with shortened rows, and partly freely contrapuntal. The orchestration plays several roles. The groups of instruments used signify the dancers’ journeys on the stage, in that they are divided into masculine and feminine families and are assigned to the genders of the performers: the brass instruments to the male dancers, the softer woodwind instruments to the female dancers, while both instrumental groups are only used together at points where performers of both genders are used. In the final scene, the woodwind is silent at exactly the point at which the female dancers leave the stage and only the male dancers remain. This assignation is used without exception in the second and third sections of the ballet, and it is only in the first section of the ballet, which was written earliest, that the system of using orchestration as a choreographic guiding force is interrupted at certain points. Furthermore, the characters of each of the dances correspond to the gender-specific, so that the movements in Agon are portrayed as an active game principally between the male and female powers, which can be developed from the orchestration and the expressive content of the separate pieces. The problem of the orchestration in the end became a problem of choreographic structure for Strawinsky, in that the events on stage are steered, the abstract courses of movement are outlined and the entries of the masculine and feminine elements are regulated all by means of the instrumental colours. But this is only one of three functions of the orchestration. The two others are the description of the character of the music and in the aural illustration of the composed structures being used. – The structure of the ballet consists of four sections, which are not expressly indicated in the score, consisting of three dances (which are not numbered) with a prelude before the second, and an interlude between the second and third sections, or else an extended middle section for soloists which is framed by two ensemble movements in the ratio 1:3:1. The prelude and the two interludes are musically identical; the ballet is cyclic, in that, as in the choreography, the beginning matches the end.

Structure

Pas-de-Quatre M.M. Quaver = 156 (bar 1 up to 60) [Choreographic instruction:] As the curtain rises, four male dancers are aligned across the rear of the stage with their backs to the audience (Wenn sich der Vorhang hebt, stehen vier männliche Tänzer in einer Linie vor der Hinterwand der Bühne mit dem Rücken zum Publikum)

Double Pas-de-Quatre (eight female dancers [acht weibliche Tänzer] ) quaver = 116 (bar 61 up to 95 [without interruption from bar 95 attacca subito forward to bar 96])

Triple Pas-de-Quatre (eight female and four male dancers [acht weibliche und vier männliche Tänzer]

    - Coda-Stesso quaver = 116 (bar 96 [without iInterruption from bar 95 attacca subito ] up to 121)

Prelude (bar 122 up to 145) crotchet = 126 (bar 122 up to 135)

    Meno mosso dotted crotchet = Crotchet = 84 (bar 136 up to 145)

First Pas-de-Trois (bar 146 up to 253)

    Saraband-Step (Male dance solo [männlicher Solo-Tanz] ) crotchet = 50 (bar 146 up to 163)

    Gailliarde (Two female dancers [zwei weibliche Tänzer] ) crotchet = 208 (bar 164 up to 184)

    Coda (One male and two female dancers [ein männlicher und zwei weibliche Tänzer] ) dotted crotchet = 112 (bar 185 up to 253)

Interlude (bar 254 up to 277) crotchet = 126 (bar 254 up to 267)

    Meno mosso dotted crotchet = crotchet = 84 (bar 268 up to 277)

Second Pas-de-Trois (bar 278 up to 386)

    Bransle Simple (Two male dancers [zwei männliche Tänzer] ) Halbe = 84 (bar 278 up to 309)

    Bransle Gay (One female dancer [ein weiblicher Tänzer] ) quaver = 92 (bar 310 up to 335)

    Bransle de Poitou (Two male and one female dancers [zwei männliche und ein weiblicher Tänzer] ) Minim = 112 (bar 336 up to 386)

Interlude (bar 387 up to 409) crotchet = 126 (bar 387 up to 400)

    Meno mosso dotted crotchet = crotchet = 84 (bar 401 up to 409)

Pas-de-Deux (bar 411 up to 519 [without interruption from bar 519 attacca forward to bar 520])

    Adagio quaver = 112 (bar 411 up to 450)

    Più lento quaver = 86 (bar 451)

    a tempo quaver = 112 (bar 452 up to 462)

    (Male Dancer [Männlicher Tänzer] ) Più mosso Crotchet = 126 (bar 463 up to 472)

    (Female Dancer [Weiblicher Tänzer] ) L'istesso tempo Crotchet = 126 (bar 473 up to 483)

    (Male Dancer-refrain [Männlicher Tänzer - Refrain] ) L'istesso tempo Crotchet = 126 (bar 484 up to bar 494)

    Coda (both dancers [beide Tänzer] (bar 495 up to 519 [without interruption from bar 519 attacca forward to bar 520])

      Crotchet = 112 (bar 495 up to 503)

      Doppio lento quaver = 112 (crotchet = 56) (bar 504-511)

      Quasi stretto crotchet = 138 (bar 512 up to 519 [without interruption from bar 519 attacca forward to bar 520])

Four Duos (male and female [männlich - weiblich] ) A stesso tempo crotchet = 138 (bar 520 [without interruption from bar 519 attacca] forward up to bar 538 [without interruption from bar 538 attacca forward to bar 539])

Four Trios (male and two females [männlich - zwei weiblich] ) Un poco meno vivo Crotchet = 120 (bar 539 [without Interruption from bar 538 attacca] up to 560

      Quaver = 156 (bar 561 up to 602) [choreographic instruction:] The female dancers leave the stage. The male dancers take their position as the beginning - back to the audience. [Die weiblichen Tänzer verlassen die Bühne. Die männlichen Tänzer nehmen ihre anfängliche Position ein – mit dem Rücken zum Publikum] (bar 603 up to 620)

Rows: Hexachord row Double Pas-de-Quatre:bb1-f1-ab1-db1-a1-d2; Twelve-tone row Double Pas-de-Quatre:eb1-d1-e1-f1-c2-b1-db2-bb1-ab1-a1-g1-gb1; Prelude:c1-d1-f1-g1-b1-c2; Coda First Pas-de-trois:a2-g2-g#2-f#2-f2-eb2-d2-c2-c#2-b1-e2-bb1; Branle simple:d1-e1-f1-g1-f#1-b1; Bransle gay:b1-d2-c2-f2-eb2-bb2; Bransle de Poitou:d1-e1-f1-g1-f#1-b1-a1-bb1-c2-db2-eb2-bb2; Pas de deux Variation male dancer / Refrain:c#1-b-d#1-e#1-f#1-g#1-e1-d1; Pas de deux Variation femal dancer:c#1-b-d#1-e#1-f#1-g#1-e1-d1; Final part Constructions:f1-gb1-a1-ab1-g1-bb1-cb2-d2-db2-e2-eb2-c2

Corrections / Errata

Full score 88-1

1.) title page: >Igor Strawinsky / Agon / Ballet for twelve dancers / Full Score< instead of >Igor Strawinsky / Agon / Ballet for twelve dancers / Ballett für zwölf Tänzer / Ballet pour douze danseurs / Full Score · Partitur / Partition< (red: >Absurd<).+

2.) p. 5, bar 34, 2nd Horn: semiquaver B b-A b-G b-E b-D binstead of semiquaver B b-A b-G-E b-D b.+

3.) p. 32, bar 148, Bass trombone: third from last note should be f# instead of f.+

4.) p. 33, bar 156, Bass trombone: 1st note should be G instead of F.+

5.) p. 39, bar 182, 2nd Flute: the last two notes crotchet e2-f#2 instead of crotchet e2-g#2 (with tenuto stroke).+

6.) p. 47, bar 261, 3rd Trumpet: the last two values semiquaver f1 – dotted quaver e1 instead of semiquaver e2 – dotted quaver rest [a correction 4. Trumpet was withdrawn].*

7.) p. 48, bar 263, Viola: crotchet e b1 – quaver rest - quaver e b1 –instead of crotchet e b1 – quaver rest - quaver g b1 - crotchet rest.*

8.) p. 49, bar 274, 1st Bassoon: semiquaver sextuplet b-a-b-a b-c1 instead of b-a-b-a-b-a.*

9.) p. 50, bar 278, metre: Alla-breve instead of 4/4.*

10.) p. 51, bar 289, Harp: two-note figure d-e b1 instead of two-note figure f#-e b1.*

11.) p. 55, bar 335, rest: 3/8 instead of 5/16.+

12.) p. 56, bar 346, 1st Trumpet: final notes should be dotted minim instead of dotted crotchet rest + quaver a b1.

13.) p. 57, bar 352, Piano: > in 4< has to be removed.*

14.) p. 62, bar 393, 1st Trumpet: 1. note semiquaver c2 instead of semiquaver d2.+

15.) p. 63, bar 394, 3rd Trumpet, the last two values: semiquaver f1 – dotted quaver e1 instead of semiquaver e2 – dotted quaver rest.*

16.) p. 63, bar 396, Violas: crotchet e b1 – quaver rest - quaver e b1 – crotchet rest instead of crotchet e bs1 – quaver rest - quaver g b1 – crotchet rest.*

17.) p. 64, bar 407, = bar 274, p. 49, 1. Bassoon semiquaver sextuplet: b-a-b-a-b-c1 instead of b-a-b-a -b-a.*

18.) p. 65, bar 411, Violas, the first two values: quaver rest - quaver c1 instead of quaver rest – crotchet c1.*

19.) p. 78, bar 565, 2nd Trumpet: semiquaver rest - semiquaver c1 - semiquaver triplet a-c1-d1 - semiquaver b-a instead of semiquaver rest - semiquaver c1 - semiquaver a - semiquaver c1 - semiquaver triplet d1 - b – a.+

20.) p. 82, bar 594, 2nd Horn: 3rd semiquaver (2nd in the ligature) should be ges instead of g.+

+ Corrected.

* Not corrected.

Pocket score 88-2 Edition 8.57

1. title page: >Igor Strawinsky / Agon / Ballet for twelve dancers / Full Score< instead of >Igor

Strawinsky / Agon / Ballet for twelve dancers / Ballett für zwölf Tänzer / Ballet pour douze

danseurs / Full Score · Partitur / Partition< (red: >Absurd<).

2.) p. 5, bar 34, 2. Horn: semiquaver B b-A b-G b-E b-D binstead of semiquaver B b-A b-G-E b-D b.

3.) p. 39, bar 182, 2. Flute: the last two notes crotchet e2-f#2 instead crotchet e2-g#2.u

3.) p. 47, bar 261, 3. Trumpet: the last two values semiquaver f1 – dotted quaver e1 instead of

semiquaver e2 – dotted quaver rest [a correction 4. Trumpet was withdrawn].

4.) p. 48, bar 263, Viola: crotchet e b1 – quaver rest - quaver e b1 –instead of crotchet e b1 – quaver

rest - quaver g b1 - crotchet rest.

5.) p. 49, bar 274, 1. Bassoon: semiquaver sextuplet b-a-b-a b-c1 instead of b-a-b-a-b-a.

6.) p. 50, bar 278, metre: Alla-breve instead of 4/4.

7.) p. 51, bar 289, Harp: two-note figure d-e b1 instead of two-note figure f#-e b1.

8.) p. 55, bar 335, rest: 3/8 instead of 5/16.

p. 57, bar 352, Piano: > in 4< has to be removed.

p. 62, bar 393, 1. Trumpet: 1. note semiquaver c2 instead of semiquaver d2.

p. 63, bar 394, 3. Trumpet, the last two values: semiquaver f1 – dotted quaver e1 instead of

semiquaver e2 – dotted quaver rest.

p. 63, bar 396, Violas: crotchet e b1 - quaver rest - quaver e b1 - crotchet rest instead of crotchet

e b1 - quaver rest - quaver g1 - crotchet rest.

p. 64, bar 407, = bar 274, p. 49, 1. Bassoon semiquaver sextuplet: b-a-b-a-b-c1 instead of b-a-b-

-b-a.

p. 65, bar 411, Violas, the first two values: quaver rest - quaver c1 instead of quaver rest –

crotchet c1.

p. 78, bar 565, 2. Trumpet: semiquaver rest - semiquaver c1 - semiquaver triplet a-c1-d1 -

semiquaver b-a instead of semiquaver rest - semiquaver c1 - semiquaver a - semiquaver c1 -

semiquaver triplet d1 - b – a.

Source: Robert Craft first gave more detailed information on Agon in 1955, and explained that Strawinsky used as his basis for the work a French dancing treatise from the middle of the 17th Century and wanted to create a sequence of movements as had been customary in the court of the French kings Louis XIII (1610-43) and XIV (1643-1715). All the pieces were taken from this original; in particular, the orchestration of the Bransle simple with two trumpets was based on an engraving appearing in the book, which shows two trumpeters accompanying a Branle. Doubt was cast upon Craft’s insights from Germany, because it would have been completely out of the question, given the military significance of trumpets and trumpeters in the socio-politics of the time, that those strongly guarded and especially privileged trumpeters would have accompanied a folk dance such as the Branle. It was also stated that dance theoreticians are usually retrospective and a treatise from the middle of the 17th Century would contain the practices of the past, rarely that of the present, and never that of the future, implying that it would not include dance forms from up to the start of the 18th Century. It was also argued that the history of dance in the strongly stylized 17th Century is not as well documented in terms of sources than for that of the 16th Century, when serious dance theoreticians such as Arena, Arbeau and Estienne were working, and that Strawinsky’s dances in Agon do not extend into the 17th Century, rather the 16th in the style of their composition. When F. de Lauze: Apologie de la danse from 1623 became known as Strawinsky’s source, this doubt was not only confirmed, but it was further demonstrated that Strawinsky never saw the original stored in the National Library of Paris, which contained neither musical examples nor engravings, but used as his basis the English translation by Joan Wildeblood which was published in 1952 in London. In this translation, there is, to a certain extent, a gentle visual and musical embellishment as well as the aforementioned musical examples such as the much-cited engraving. Neither however have anything to do with de Lauze. The musical examples, originally published later as a dancing method in 1635, stem from Marin Mersenne, and the engraving in fact does not depict trumpets, rather woodwind instruments, namely shawms, that Strawinsky (and/or his adviser) took to be trumpets. In any case, the idea that Strawinsky came to know of the Wildeblood version in 1952 during his stay in England at the time is incorrect. In actual fact, it was Lincoln Kirstein who sent him the book on the date 31st August 1953. Strawinsky made underlinings in it, especially in Mersenne’s musical examples. The dance forms Sarabande, Galliard and the series of Branles, as well as rudimentary sections of melody, were taken from the dance treatise. –

The antique dance forms that Strawinsky used are the Sarabande and the Galliarde (First Pas-de-Trois), and presumably, although they are not acknowledged as such, also the Gigue and especially the Branle (Second Pas-de-Trois). Strawinsky uses the Sarabande step as a slow dance before the fast Galliarde, a process that is unusual in the practice of the 17th Century because the Galliarde is less commonly seen by the middle of the 17th Century; as it did not appear as a single dance, it was used strictly as a dance coming after a Pavane, although it outlasted the Pavane by half a century. Since the original Sarabande rhythm (dotted minim – crotchet – minim/dotted minim – crotchet – minim / crotchet – minim) gradually developed and built up over a discrete period since the early 17th Century in that type of Sarabande, as can be recognised from the works of the leading baroque composers of the 18th Century (crotchet – dotted crotchet – quaver / crotchet – minim), Strawinsky’s Sarabande can be recognised as being based on that of the 18th Century. The historic Galliarde, which stretches back to the end of the 15th Century, the etymological root of which is the Ticino word gay (Oak apple; gaillard = happy, gutsy) still gave the name of a rumbustious Branle as ‘Branle gay’, was homophonic, folk-like, simple, and is made up of the combination of two bars in three-time, and in one of the two bars, two of the units of three are tied over, so that the five notes that appear in these two bars, in three time can be danced in five steps (crotchet – crotchet – crotchet / minim – crotchet). If these steps are danced firmly on the ground and even quicker, then the Galliarde turns into a Tourdion, and if one turns it into a lifting dance, then it becomes a Volta, which is just as beloved as it is bawdy and ill-reputed. Strawinsky’s version of the Galliarde is indebted to the practice of the 16th Century, from which the modification of the dotted rhythms, which are rarely found in Strawinsky’s music, was taken. Especially the middle section of the Galliarde strips down the old model of the Galliarde particularly clearly. The Branle* (Strawinsky writes Bransle) is a French dance, the many forms of which cannot be simplified to a standardised model. The Branle was originally a dance step in the performance of the Basse danse, which established itself as a dance sequence in the first third of the 16th Century, and the feature of which was always dancing several Branles one after the other, thus forming a sort of Branle Suite. So a Branle double is followed by a Branle simple, then a Branle gay (mostly intended for newly-wed married couples) and finally a sort of peasant Branle, which is rejoiced in a richness of ideas and gestures such as melodic and choreographical traditions from the French countryside. There are, among many others, the actual countryside Branles de Bourgogne, de Poitou, de Champagne, and de Picardie. These last Branles with their heated temperament and their many types of grotesque features (Peas-, Washerwomen-, Malta-, Capuchin-, Kiss-, Clog-, Horse- or Torch-Branle) remain generally reserved for younger and more mobile dancers. This broad Branle culture, which defined its time as the Minuet or the Waltz later did, and was accessible to everyone at a party, whether higher - or lower-class, old or young, to take part in a round dance, is totaly ignored by Strawinsky. Strawinsky’s Branles are stylized in the sense of a development beginning at the start of the 15th Century, and abandon the idea of community spirit. The Branle double is missing in its entirety, presumably because Strawinsky’s second Pas de Trois could only be in a three-part structure due to the choreographical model. From the old original accompaniment of the Branles, which was mostly played by a single musician on bagpipes and a drum, Strawinsky achieves an orchestral form with a completely exceptioned character, as shows the trumpet, which is not permissible for a Branle, demonstrates. Only the castanets, which are to be played with a drumstick, remind the listener of the instrumental original. Therefore, contrary to what has been claimed, Strawinsky certainly did not take on the customary dances of the 17th Century, rather those, that predominantly came from the 16th Century and the first decade of the 17th Century, at least with regard to the Galliarde and Branle. The real fashionable dances of the French courts in this aforementioned period, such as the Allemande and Courante, and from later years under the previously named Ludwig XIV the especially dominant Minuet, are missing.

* In accordance with the historical sources, the dance should orthographically be named ‘Branle’, not ‘Bransle’, as Strawinsky also writes in the French postscripts (Bransle de Poitou).

Style: The many interruptions over long periods of time, during which Strawinsky’s compositional style changed, left their traces in the Agon, causing Strawinsky to come into a difficult situation with regard to style. He had originally begun Agon in a free modality, and then turned his attention to the Canticum Sacrum, in which he developed row structures. He then had to either turn back to modality, which would have meant a backwards step, or continue writing in the new style of a free row technique, which could have led to a break in style, or else he could have left the two-fifths completed Agon uncompleted, which would have meant the spoiling of carefully developed ballet plans; it would have also meant that several months of work would have been in vain and would have led to a serious financial penalty, not to mention the loss of trust with Kirstein and Balanchine. Strawinsky decided on the second choice, and so his main problem from the day that he refocussed his attention on Agon, was to merge the modal technique of the already completed sections of the score into the newly completed serial sections in such a way that no breaks could be seen. He continued writing in a combination of modality and serial technique and cemented the union of the two styles inside the score by means of repetitions and different interconnections.

The ballet begins with a Pas de Quatre with four dancers who begin standing with their faces to the wall. The music can be identified as a miniature overture modelled on an intrade from the 17th Century, the function of which the Intrade later took on. In the classic Baroque Suite, the Allemande often replaces it as the conventional first movement. What still remained of the Intrade was its refulgent, solemn and royal character. It adheres to no specific formal scheme as such, rather a particular, specific type of music and expression, which was able not only to open an event, but also end it, thus having the function of a coda. In this way, Strawinsky also composed the beginning of his ballet, in such a way that the opening music could also be the music for the ending at the same time. It has the characteristics of the old type of Intrade both in terms of its instrumentation as well as its character and function, only that previously one did not dance to the Intrade. The literature normally refers to the introductory piece as a fanfare (fanfare for 3 trumpets / fanfare for 3 Bflat trumpets in 5/8 time), and in doing so seeks to do justice to the impression which the massive entry of the two to four fanfare-like trumpets leave behind. The predominant two-part trumpet motif is imitated, after it has faded away, by the harp and mandolin, which here certainly is meant to replace the lute of the 17th Century. True to the Suite character of the work, the instrumental colours at no point flow over into one another, neither in the compositional structure itself nor in the graphically illustrative nature of the instrumental writing. Moreover, Strawinsky assembles a series of blocks of sound that are sharply distinct from one another, over which the one, two, three and later four trumpet parts stand like a flaming torch. These sharply divided blocks of sounds are brought together and are made up of the harp, piano and strings, or the harp, mandolin, piano, lower strings, or the trumpets and horns, or the oboes, clarinets, horns, lower strings, or the flutes, clarinets, trombones, harp, or the trumpets, horns and corresponding solo groupings from the brass. Only one combination does not occur: there is at no point in the score a Tutti, even more, there is also no massing of sound of any sort with a psychological background or a climax of sound. Strawinsky constructed the Pas de Quatre on a modal basis that can itself be seen as a distinct stage of serial composition, and thus did not prevent further serial work. Modality is based on a melodic model of defined expression. Its models are the melodies of church modes, from which one can recognise the Phrygian and Mixolydian in the Intrade. Strawinsky takes as his basis for the Intrade several such models, reinforcing them in different instrumental colours and using the techniques of imitation and Classical counterpoint. In this way, from bar 4, the 2nd trumpet imitates the 1st trumpet in the same mode. A few bars later however, a crossing and interplay of different modes set against one another begins, which is made recognisable through the use of corresponding instrumentation. It is especially difficult at places where the same or similar figurations must be played in different modes and in different instruments. In order to make this work, Strawinsky finds solutions that are constantly surprising, such as from bar 26, where he combines a contrapuntal harp part with a muted trombone in order to balance the demands of instrumental equality with the requirements of melodic models of different types. –

The Intrade of the Pas de Quatre is followed by a Double Pas de Quatre, which forms a stylistic unit with the subsequent Triple Pas de Quatre, and is linked to the formal structures of the earliest Suites, as the sequence of first final and sections of the dance pre-dance and after-dance of this century was formed on the basis of variation and the link to the next dances was made using motivic, thematic and tonal connections. The first section of the Double Pas de Quatre, with its 8 bars of music based on a sharply rhythmic bass ostinato figure with rows sliding chromatically over one another contains 4 bars of woodwind combinations playing fluttertongue and a decaying effect over 8 bars again as an introduction into the second section, which is written over a 6-note row that Strawinsky manipulates in all the basic permutations of serial composition, inversion, retrograde inversion and retrograde. This first section was written considerably later than the second. Its germ cell appears in the trumpet part. In addition to this, Strawinsky shortened the hexachord row to make it into a short chordal interlude. The question of whether this is in fact twelve-tone composition has been answered in different ways. The twelve-tone row, which was identified by Roman Vlad, is used, if it is in fact the basis of this music, so freely and is so easily manipulated as to make the audible result, given the strongly chromatic stylistic writing, achievable without the use of serial technique. –

The Triple Pas de Quatre, which forms the coda of the first section of the ballet and carries on the choreographical accumulation to a tutti for the dancers, in that 4 male dancers are added to the 8 female dancers. It is connected imitatively to and is varied from the Double Pas de Quatre. The rhythmic motif, the chromatic rows and the hexachord rows are stylized and their permutations are varied, in retrograde and in inversion, so that the Double and Triple Pas de Quatre form a Suite in themselves. The first section concludes with the Triple Pas de Quatre, and is assigned, as in the third section, to ensemble dances. The second, very extended section, the middle part of the Ballet, features only the solo dancers. –

A prelude introduces the middle section, and reappears twice in the form of interludes, and with its four-part trumpet section is similar to an Intrade, this time however to the type of Intrade of a march-like dance that generally would precede the dance, as is distinct from the celebratory Intrade, which announces the beginning of a festivity. The prelude was originally conceived for percussion alone. Its first section contains accent dislocation, as is typical for Strawinsky, in simple diatonic, rising tone rows in the woodwinds and strings that clash with one another, with trumpets, timpani and tomtoms creating a rhythmic background. A rhythmic figure in timpani and harp with three Double Basses playing flageolet harmonics leads into the second section, a slower march in a minuet-like 3/4 bar, which according to Craft is formed from two twelve-note rows, although this has remained unproven up to the current day. Strawinsky now goes on to adopt old dance forms in the subsequent two Pas de Trois. The First Pas de Trois begins with a Sarabande Step by the solo male dancer, which structurally forms a short violin concerto accompanied by the xylophone, two trombones and, over 16 pizzicato notes, interjections from divided ‘celli in the Sarabande style. The solo violin clearly corresponds to the solo male dancer. Strawinsky uses his Sarabande as a slow dance to precede the Galliarde that follows, which features two female dancers. Strawinsky’s three-part Galliarde, which is always written ‘Gailliarde’, is the most Classical part of the score, almost strictly homophonic, gentle, soft and not at all boisterous in its atmosphere, and is also very transparent. Historically, the Galliarde was always a dance based on gender and even functioned as a courting dance. With its being assigned to two female dancers, Strawinsky composed the dance strongly in accordance with his own ideas. Strawinsky continued the choreographic summation, which can be seen in the first section of the ballet, in the solo sections. After the entrances of the solo male dancer in the Sarabande and the two solo female dancers in the Galliarde, a third, faster dance unites both groups in a coda that to all appearances is based on the model of a Gigue; in the 17th Century, this dance had the function of a closing or postlude dance and Strawinsky had already used it in his Septet of 1953. As a ballroom dance, it only had a limited significance in France. Its function was more that of an instrumental piece that becomes more and more bravura, for which reason it was also appropriate as an instrumental concert finale in symphonies. In any case, the constant rhythms throughout Strawinsky’s gigue more approach those of the Italian Giga, which, especially in the old Trio Sonatas, contains movement in sixths over movement in thirds, and Strawinsky’s violin part uses this almost without exception. Strawinsky’s Gigue in the Septet is also structurally more like the Giga. The coda is composed over a twelve-tone row, which is introduced in the first six bars in inversion, and it is repeated several times as an accompaniment in different instrumental parts. As in the Sarabande-Step, the solo violin part with its marcato dance movement is the most important line, and the flutes and mandolin accompany it with an unfolding version of the row in its prime form. –

Strawinsky bridges the transition from the first Pas de Trois into the Second Pas de Trois by means of an interlude. The interlude is structurally identical to the prelude and frames the separate dance numbers. It has however gained a more gleaming, richer and also more turbulent character from the addition of the viola, violoncello and double bass with numerous new displacements of points of emphasis, dislocation of accents and colourful instrumental combinations, –

The Second Pas de Trois is based on the series of Branle Suites and varies the choreography of the previous one. Instead of using solo male dancers, two female dancers and then both groups combined, there are now two solo male dancers (Bransle Simple), a solo female dancer (Bransle Gay) and both groups combined (Bransle de Poitou). The Bransle Simple is written over a hexachord row and its usual permutations. The two-part, marcato trumpet canon at the entry instrumentally anticipates the two male dancers. The 3 rdtrumpet, which enters at bar 305 for a single bar, does not expand the texture into three parts, but simply supports the two-part texture. The introductory Branle is fast in Strawinsky’s version, and the subsequent Branle Gay is substantially slower. It is also composed over a hexachord row that is almost used as an ostinato. Strawinsky’s Bransle de Poitou throws up questions about the models upon which it was based. The original melody was written by Arbeau. Strawinsky appears to have not used it at all, or if so, only very freely. Furthermore, the first three corresponding notes are also used for the Branle coupé, which is called ‘Ariana’. Strawinsky keeps the time signature in three, along with the gently melancholic character, which is characteristic of the original Branle de Poitou. Strawinsky uses the same hexachord row of the Bransle Simple for the Bransle de Poitou and combines both to form a twelve-note row for the final section. In fact, Strawinsky was able, inasmuch as he was aware of the connections at all, to base it on the style of the 16th Century. We know from B. H. Estienne, who was writing in 1578, that towards the end of the 16th Century, the Branle de Poitou split into a Branle simple de Poitou and a Branle double de Poitou, and that the structural proportions of the two new dances were not different from the formal features of the general Branles doubles and Branles simples, apart from their relationship to the Poitou model. Since Strawinsky’s Bransle de Poitou uses extended musical material from the Bransle Simple and his Bransle Simple appears reduced in comparison to the Bransle de Poitou, the Poitou dance can be regarded throughout as a simple Branle double, which comes unusually at the end of the miniature suite rather than at the beginning. –

There then comes another repeat of the prelude in form of an interlude, again enriched by the addition of two trumpet parts. –

The second ballet section, which is danced exclusively by solo dancers, closes with a Pas de Deux in five sections. This Pas-de-Deux is structured according to the classical framework of: Duo, Variation I for the man, Variation II for the woman, Coda as Duo again. This Pas-de-Deux, which has a solemn character is also composed using several rows. After an introduction, a violin solo with repeat signs with viola and ‘celli interjections then follows, which lead into an exact reprise. The short variation for male dancers is a canon between horns and piano consisting of a row and its retrograde inversion, while the variation of the female dancer is based on a canon between the horn and piano, thus forming a canon with mirrored sections of the original row from the Pas de Deux. The brass instruments of course are silent here to continue with the correspondence of instrument to gender, forming an instrumental selection of three flutes and strings. The refrain of the variation of the male dancer forms a reprise of the canon between the horns and piano, while the coda brings the original Pas-de-Deux row back in its original and retrograde forms. –

A Quasi Stretta using brass, drums, piano and strings of almost 15 seconds in length forms the transition into the final section of the ballet, which brings the piece to its conclusion in just under three minutes. The ensemble parts of the first and last sections of the ballet in their brevity have the effect in relation to the soloistic middle section as that of a massive frame to a fine and clean picture or as the prelude and postlude to an idiosyncratic and greater work. The temporal proportioning is approximately in the ratio 1:3:1. –

The Stretta leads attacca into a half-minute position made up of four groups of two dancers, one male and one female for each. The music for this is taken from the row for the Pas de Deux. The low strings play the retrograde inversion, and the trombones the inversion of the row. –

This then connects attacca to the last ensemble scene to be danced, a combination of four groups of three, which each consist of one male dancer and two female dancers. The music is written contrapuntally and the characteristic triplet rhythm of the intrade is played after a few bars in order to transition into the intrade. The ballet ends with a note-for-note reprise of the intrade and the positions of the dancers being identical to the opening position, which has the four dancers with their faces to the back wall of the set.

Number symbolism: Music that is strongly condensed and based on complicated forms of rows, like that in Agon, seems as if it almost has to impose numerically symbolic considerations. Whilst one can play with the many factors of the 12-tone rows, 12 dancers, 12 sections and their subdivisions in a cabbalistic manner, it should not be disregarded that it was not the case that the composer delivered completed sections of music to the choreographer which the choreographer then choreographed, but the other way round, that the composer received time specifications from the choreographer (who seems to be moving towards the limit of what was even possible choreographically), on which the composer-based his music.

Dedication: Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine.

Date of origin: December 1953 up to 27th April 1957 interrupted in February and March 1954 and from late spring 1955 up to Spring 1956.

History of origin: The build-up to the composition of Strawinsky’s final ballet is easy to trace thanks to the surviving correspondence between Kirstein and Strawinsky. It was known that Balanchine wanted a piece from Strawinsky that would fill an entire evening and should be a unit work. Presumably, the sheen of the Tchaikovsky ballets such as Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake continued to be very influential, and they fulfilled this ideal of a ballet opera. Strawinsky’s ballets on the other hand were becoming not only shorter and shorter in terms of duration, but also more different stylistically from work to work. Unlike the Russian composers of dance of the 19th Century up to Tchaikovsky, Strawinsky had not produced a single ballet work that would fill an entire evening. A Strawinsky evening would either have to consist of a selection of several smaller original ballets, or it would have to be mixed in with symphonic compositions from Strawinsky’s concert repertoire. When Strawinsky then produced two ballets with Apollon and Orpheus, both from Greek mythology, so from the same area, a plan began to mature in Balanchine’s mind to persuade Strawinsky to write a third Greek ballet, for the subject of which he had in mind the Greek Muse of dance, Terpsichore. Strawinsky could still not be approached due to the stresses of writing his Rake’s Progress, as his letter of 2nd November 1949 to Kirstein shows, but the idea of a third ballet clearly caused him to start considering it. When he responded that he was not against the idea of a new ballet project however, Kirstein immediately wrote a letter dated 28th November 1951 in which he was enthusiastically concrete about the matter, and sent him a scenario, although an incomplete one, of seven numbers containing a large number of question marks, which were to play in the universe, and which it was not possible to know for certain whether Kirstein meant them seriously: 1. A scene with the gods and Zeus under the music of the spheres; 2. Apollo and Terpsichore; 3. Cupid; 4. Pegasus; 5. Prometheus chained; 6. Orpheus and the Bacchants; 7. Venus and Mars, who call up the final dance. Balanchine’s projected ballet title Terpsichore appeared for the first time, and Kirstein had in mind a première a year later, which was naturally completely impossible. At the same time, Kirstein informed Strawinsky of a commissioned new production of the two other Greek ballets. Looking to the future, was in the scenario of Agon only the retrospective on historical dances, on the Pavane, Rigaudon, Minuet, Waltz, Tarantella, Polka. Strawinsky kept quiet about this. On the one hand, he was overloaded with work, on the other the strange scenario could not have attracted him, apart from his oversensitivity when anyone sought to interfere with his craft, in this case with the suggestion of the music of the spheres, which he certainly would have commented on in just as cutting a manner as years before he did with the musical ideas of André Gide during the planning of Perséphone. In this way, two years passed. Kirstein heard rumours of Strawinsky’s new plans for compositions. Since he was able to receive money from the Rockefeller Foundation, he offered Strawinsky ten thousand dollars as a spur to encourage his agreement to compose the work. The piece was not to exceed 45 minutes (it was to become the third act they wanted), but it was allowed to be shorter. Again Kirstein brings up the matter of the triptych. All three ballets were to be performed on a single evening. Kirstein’s letter bears the date 27th August 1953. Only one day later, Strawinsky responded with his agreement, and he suddenly justified himself in great haste. He appears to have been ready for discussions on the material for Apollo . Clearly shocked at his over accommodating and quick agreement, he sent one day later, on 29th August, a letter limiting his previous response, with which he point-blank rejects the Apollo subject and instead moves the focus onto Homer’s Nausikaa episode. Apollo and Orpheus are both ballets with a culture of slowness, argued Strawinsky. A third piece of this type should not be written. The Terpsichore ballet died with this; anyone who had been involved with Strawinsky as long as Balanchine, knew enough that the matter could not be discussed with him any further once he had made up his mind. The people from New York however did not want the Nausikaa Ballet. Nothing was produced because nothing was happening; it could not be staged. They however needed a finale for the three-part Strawinsky ballet suite, and even wanted more. They postulated an idea for a ballet to the end of all ballets. This argument hit home with Strawinsky, and he agreed. In the meanwhile, he had received a reprinting of de Lauze from Kirstein, but evidently had not read it at that point. The idea of ‘A ballet to end all ballets’ fascinated him however, and out of this then developed the thought of a ‘Concerto for the dance’, which he formulated on 9th September. On 25th September 1953, Strawinsky informed David Adams by letter of an offer from Lincoln Kirstein to write a new ballet for a fee of ten thousand dollars. He demanded a pre-payment of five thousand dollars and had conveyed to Kirstein that he would begin work on it after having received the payment. He was intending, as he went on to write to Adams, to compose ‘a kind of symphony to be danced’. Strawinsky seemed to suddenly become very enthused by this commission and wanted in fact to begin without delay, as he announced the completion for November-December 1954, a date which would come to nothing due to other work which was more pressing and of a higher priority. Kirstein was so overjoyed with Strawinsky’s agreement that he did not care what Strawinsky produced for him, providing that he produced it. Strawinsky however contracted the flu and was only able to get back to his writing desk on 27th October, and then only for two weeks, because then his concert tour began, which took place in late December 1953 in New York. – In December 1953, Strawinsky was composing, still without plans for a new ballet, a Fanfare for three trombones, which after several reworkings and considerable extension ended up as the introduction and conclusion to Agon. It was rewritten in the following year in different version for two trumpets with a harp part added. It can probably be ruled out that Strawinsky had read the translation of Wildeblood by this time, because , according to Craft in any case, the trumpet fanfare was certainly the result of the reading of de Lauze. It received its final instrumental form with horns, piano and strings after the completion of the full score. At this end-over-working, Strawinsky replaced the (originally intended) guitar by a mandolin in the second section of the second version, which he had not used since the lyrical narration Rossignol from the time before the First World War. The second section of the Double Pas-de-Quatre, which in the final version follows the Fanfare at bars 81 to 95, was written in December 1953. No more was written in this year, but by February 1954, when he had to interrupt work in order to write In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, which he continued working on until March, a little more than a third had been completed, and up to Summer 1954, approximately two fifths of the ballet was written. Strawinsky himself dated the composition period for Agon as 1954-1957, presumably because he had substantially and drastically rewritten the Fanfare from the previous year, and the fifteen bars from the Double Pas-de-Quatre did not seem to him to be enough for a starting date of 1953, which would extend the compositional period by a year. It was in the height of summer 1954 that the main title and subtitle were decided upon, and it was something that he had clearly been considering for quite a while. The name Agon is first mentioned by Strawinsky in a letter to Kirstein dated 13th August 1954, along with its English translation, ‘contest’. Strawinsky simply wrote ‘I have named it Agon – contest – Ballet for twelve dancers’. An entry in Robert Craft’s diary specifies the exact moment in time as the morning of 12th August. On the afternoon of this day, Strawinsky attended one of Balanchine’s rehearsals of another work, and would certainly have informed Balanchine of the title at this opportunity. But not earlier than a year later he told his wife and Craft about the conception of the ballet. In December 1954, he had completed up to the end of the First Pas-de-Trois, but he had to interrupt his work on the piece once again in late spring 1955 in order to complete Canticum Sacrum, for which had an earlier performance date confirmed. In the first half of 1956, he restarted work on Agon in Hollywood with the two first Branles and also completed the third Branle in August. He composed the final sections between February and April 1957. Work on the composition appears to have been slow-going and effortful. In his letter dated 15th March 1957 from Hollywood, he mentioned to Nabokov that the completion of the ballet was approaching slowly. At that point, there were six weeks before the final completion. The original manuscript was dated 27th April 1957 by Strawinsky. This date IV-27-1957 can also be found under bar 620 of the printed score. Strawinsky had however begun sending off the manuscript pages before the work was entirely completed. It can be seen from a letter dated 15th February 1957 to David Adams that he had already sent off pages 63-72 of the manuscript of the orchestral score, and pages 54 to 60 of the piano reduction to Boosey & Hawkes at this point. He sent the final pages of the score, 73-98, to the publishers, dated 8th May 1957. At the same time, he sent the first 8 pages of the piano reduction in a new version with the request that the old engraving be destroyed. The composition was now complete. –

Duration: [about] 22' 06".

First performance: in concert: On the occasion of Strawinsky’s 75th birthday in 17. June 1957 in Los Angeles in the series of the Waxman Concerts conducted by Robert Craft; in scene: 1st December 1957, New York, City Center for Music and Drama conducted by R. Irving with the soloist dancers Diana Adams, Todd Bolender, Melissa Hayden, Arthur Mitchell and the New York City Ballet, choreography: George Balanchine.

Remarks: Kirstein reported the success of the première to Strawinsky with great happiness on 9th December 1957.

Corrections: There were a few queries here and there. The copyist had produced page 83 twice and omitted page 84. The first four bars were, for whatever reason, incomplete and Strawinsky sent the replacement on 22nd May 1957. After the print run was completed, there were points of criticism for Strawinsky, which were probably important to him but were in reality of little importance. They concerned the title pages and the duration stated in the score. The publishers had printed the duration as being 20 minutes. Strawinsky demanded that it be altered to 23 minutes. In this matter, both the publishers and Strawinsky were right, if one takes Strawinsky’s own recording with its duration of 21’33’’ as an authoritative tempo and tolerates a variation of 5% above or below. Aside from this, he did not like the format that had been chosen. Strawinsky was also annoyed about the inside title page, which translated ‘Ballet for twelve dancers’ into German and French. He called this to Ernst Roth in a letter of 4th July 1958 as ‘useless and funny’ and wanted it to be completely removed in the new edition (which did not happen in his lifetime). The fate of what was being removed should, if Strawinsky had his way, also share the naturalised but less meaningful English label ‘Full score’ for the conducting, or large-printed orchestral score; in the end a smaller version of a conducting score in pocket score is still a full score.

Choreography: Balanchine was pursuing the ambitious goal of creating the ballet of all ballets, effectively the final ballet in the entire history of ballet. Just as Strawinsky reduced the idea of music to the ordering of its content as ordo and numerus in an almost Pythagorean manner, and liberated it from all that is not related to music. Balanchine wanted to bring dance back to the idea of movement within rules and thus reach a limit of mastering the control of the body in dance which could no longer be exceeded. In this way he conceived paths of movement which cannot be pushed any further, positions that had never been seen before, combinations which became possible to explain from themselves. This was not a question of doing anything particularly difficult, but rather exploring the limit to which one can stretch movement before it, obeying the laws of nature, collapses. For this he did not need a ballet plot that would not disturb their demands with its music. As Balanchine traced all movements back to what was basically necessary for them and formed them so as to be unrepeatable, the choreography and music had to be created in a form of feedback system. As a result, Strawinsky took Balanchine’s stipulations for the duration especially seriously and rejected imprecise statements in favour of precise formulations, which then went promptly into the anecdotal history. Both were satisfied by the performance of this ballet of ballets, even intoxicated by it.

Stage direction: While Balanchine was undisputed as to the choice for choreographer, there were difficulties concerning the set design from the point of view of working with Strawinsky. Kirstein suggested Larionov and Gontscharov, but Strawinsky rejected them. Kirstein, who was obviously soft-hearted, sought in vain to win Strawinsky over with the suggestion that both were short of money and urgently needed work.

Rights: Kirstein was the commissioner of the ballet, but, according to Strawinsky, only obtained for his institute the rights for the première and not the exclusive performance rights for a certain amount of time, which would otherwise have been usual. Strawinsky stated in a letter to Ernst Roth dated 28th December 1957 that there would be no contractual agreement apart from the allocation of the rights to the première, not even a verbal promise regarding the eventual exclusive rights, and also the rights to the première were also restricted due to the two concert performances in Los Angeles and Paris. The cause for this letter was the efforts of La Scala, Milan to bring Agon to performance. Strawinsky certainly did not agree to this at all. It would be impossible, according to him, to demand a large sum of money from Kirstein for a commissioned ballet, and then to completely deny him the exclusive rights in order to enable the première to be in Milan where they basically would not understand anything of his ideas and his music. Strawinsky emphasized this when he sided with Kirstein, demanding that the exclusive rights be left for at least a year without contractual ruling, especially as Kirstein and Balanchine had been so enthusiastic as to have allowed the concert pre-première of the ballet for his birthday. Perhaps, he supposed, Balanchine might want to present the piece himself in Europe, although such plans were not known to him and could not have been realized at this time anyway due to the healthy condition of Balanchine’s wife, Mrs. Tanaquill LeClerc’s (she suffered from Polio). Balanchine did in fact not come to Europe, although Agon was performed with other choreographies in 1958 in Hannover, Düsseldorf, Berlin and London. Balanchine’s ingeniously devised choreography, in which Strawinsky was interested above all others, first came to Europe in 1970, to Geneva, Hamburg and Stuttgart.

Significance: Agon is Strawinsky’s third abstract dance work after the Danses Concertantes and the Scènes de Ballet, and these two preceding works cannot be compared with it in terms of its artistic construction or plurality of styles. In the history of Strawinsky’s ballets, there is no other case of such a concordance of ideas between composer and choreographer, which were practically identical in terms of the conception of ballet in general and the concept of Agon specifically. No other contemporary choreographer would have been able at the time to invent movements for the Agon-idea, which rejects on itself and thus became a symbol and no other contemporary musician would have been able to create music with its absolute character and its inherent symbols for devine creation. Strawinsky did not compose any more ballets after Agon. It appears as if for him, the way from the realistic ballets of the early Russian period led through the Classical white Ballets to their logical end in the abstract ballet Agon. In terms of choreographic theory, ballet without music would have been the next logical step after this work. This was in fact considered.

Versions: The orchestral and pocket scores as well as the piano reduction arranged by Ingolf Dahl were published in 1957 by the London publishers, Boosey & Hawkes. The conductor’s score was completed in August, the pocket score in September, and the piano reduction in November 1957. The orchestral parts were available to hire. The second edition of the conductor’s score printed in July 1958 print the main title according to the manuscript in Greek capital letters. A subsequent Russian printing was made in 1972 after Strawinskys death together with an edition of Orpheus. The British Library received its contributory copy on 23rd August (Conducting score), 17th September (pocket score), and 29th November (piano reduction) 1957. The publishing contract with Boosey & Hawkes was signed on 20th June 1957. – The catalogue of errata from 1958 suggests the existence of a second conducting score >7.58<, which cannot be found. The conducting score ordered according to year, was referred to by Strawinsky as the 2nd edition, and gives as its edidit >8·58 L & B<, and the pocket score >5 · 58 L & B<. There is probably an error in the dating here. There have been up to now no library copies of the parts mentioned here that could be located.

Historical Recording: Hollywood 18. 6. 1957 with the Los Angeles Festival Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Igor Strawinsky.

Film: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Montreal 1960.

CD edition: II-1/11-26.

Autographs: Sketches and Particell are in the Paul Sacher Stiftung Basel, the autograph of the version for two pianos is in the Library of Congress in Washington.

Copyright: 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.

Errors, legends, colportages, curiosities, stories

According to Anatole Chujoy (The New York City Ballet, 1953), Strawinsky asked Balanchine how long the Pas de deux of Orpheus and Eurydice should last. When he received from Balanchine the answer “approximately 2 ½ minutes”, the composer rebuked the choreographer that he should not say “approximately”. There is no approximately. He should say whether it should be 2 minutes and 15 seconds, 2 minutes and 30 seconds or something in between. Balanchine should tell him the exact time, and he would attempt to get it as close as possible.

Editions

a) Overview

88-1 1957 FuSc; Boosey & Hawkes London; 85 pp.; B. & H. 18336.

    88-1Straw1 ibd. [with corrections].

    88-1Straw2 ibd. [signed, without corrections].

88-2 1957 PoSc; Boosey & Hawkes London; 85 pp.; 18336; 701.

    88-2Straw ibd. [without corrections].

88-258 1958 ibd.

88-260 1960 ibd.

88-264 1964 ibd.

88-3 1957 VoSc 2 Pianos; Boosey & Hawkes London; 54 pp.; B. & H. 18337.

88-4 1958 FuSc 2nd Edition; Boosey & Hawkes London; 85 pp.; B. & H. 18336.

    88-4Straw ibd. [no annotations].

88-5Err [1958] [Errata table]; 1 p., – .

b) Characteristic features

88-1 IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON / FULL SCORE / BOOSEY & HAWKES // Igor Strawinsky / AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers/ Ballett für zwölf Tänzer/ Ballet pour douze danseurs/ Full Score · Partitur / Partition / Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd. / London · Paris · Bonn · Capetown · Sydney · Toronto · Buenos Aires · New York// [without text on spine:] // (Full score sewn 0.7 x 25.5 x 35.5 (2°[4°]); 85 [85] pages + 4 cover pages thicker paper black on white [front cover title page with a large volume of letters, 2 empty pages, page with publisher’s advertisements > Igor Strawinsky<* production date >No. 692< [#] >12.53<] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< Italian + duration data [20’] English] + 1 page back matter [page with publisher’s advertisements > Igor Strawinsky<** production date >No. 693< [#] >12.53<]; title head >AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers<: dedication above title head centre centred italic > Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine<; author specified 1st page of the score paginated p. 1 below movement title >Pas-de-Quatre< next to and below choreographic instruction flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1954 - 1957<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area flush left >Copyright © 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.< flush right >All rights reserved<; plate number >B. & H. 18336<; end of score dated p. 85 >IV - 27 - 1957<; end number p. 85 below type area flush left >8·57 L & B<; production indications 1st page of the score below type area centre inside right >Printed in England< p. 85 as end mark >Lowe and Brydone (Printers) Limited, London<) // (1957)

* Compositions are advertised in two columns without edition numbers and without price information; they are in part multi-lingual and (randomly) assigned to genres >Stage Works° / Oeuvres Théatrales · Bühnenwerke° / The Rake’s Progress [#] Le Rossignol / Le Libertin Der Wüstling [#] The Nightingale Die Nachtigall / Opera in three acts Opéra en trois actes [#] Musical tale in three acts after Anderson°° / Oper in drei Akten [#] Conte lyrique en trois actes d’apres Anderson°° / [#] Lyrisches Märchen in drei Akten nach Anderson°° / Mavra [#] Oedipus Rex / Opera buffa in one act after Pushkin [#] Opera - Oratorio in two acts after Sophocles / Opéra Buffe en un acte d’apres°° Pushkin [#] Opéra – Oratorio en deux actes d’apres°° Sophocle / Oper°° Buffa°° in einem Akt nach Puschkin [#] Opern - Oratorium in zwei Akten nach Sophokles / Persephone [#] Pétrouchka / Melodrama in three parts by André Gide [#] Burlesque in four scenes / Melodramé°° en trois parties d’Andre°° Gide [#] Burlesque en quatre tableaux / Melodrama in drei Teilen von André Gide [#] Burleska°° in vier Bildern / Le Sacre du Printemps [#] Le Chant du Rossignol / The Rite of Spring [#] The Song of the Nightingale / Pictures from pagan Russia in two parts [#] Symphonic poem in three acts / Tableaux de la Russie paienne en deux parties [#] Poème symphonique en trois parties / Bilder aus dem heidnischen Russland in zwei Teilen [#] Symphonische Dichtung in drei Teilen / Pulcinella [#] Apollon Musagète / Ballet with chorus in one act after Pergolesi [#] Ballet in two scenes / Ballet avec chant en un acte d’apres Pergolesi [#] Ballet en deux tableaux / Ballett mit Chor in einem Akt nach Pergolesi [#] Ballett in zwei Bildern / Le Baiser de la Fée [#] Orpheus / Ballet - Allegory in two scenes [#] Ballet in thre scenes / Ballet - Allégorie en deux tableaux [#] Ballet en trois tableaux / Ballet°° - Allegorie in zwei Bildern [#] Ballett in drei Bildern / Symphonic Works° / Oeuvres Symphoniques · Symphonische Werke° / Pétrouchka Suite [#] Apollon Musagète / Pulcinella Suite[#] Symphonies pour°° instruments a°° vents°° / Le Sacre du Printemps [#] Symphonies of Wind Instruments / The Rite of Spring [#] Symphonien für Bläsinsrumente°° / Le Chant du Rossignol [#] Piano Concerto / The Song of the Nightingale [#] Capriccio / Divertimento [#] Quatre Etudes°° pour Orchestra°°/ Orpheus [#] Four Studies for Orchestra/ Symphonie de Psaumes [#] Vier Etüden für Orchester/ Symphony of Psalms [#] Concerto in D ( Basle Concerto) / Psalmensymphonie [#] Messe°° / Voice and Orchestra° / Chant et Orchestre · Gesang und Orchester° / Trois poésies de la Lyrique japonaise [#] Chant du Rossignol (tiré du “Rossignol”) / Three japanese Poems [#] The Nightingale’s Song (from “The Nightingale”) / Trois petites chansons [#] Mephistopheles Lied vom Floh / Three little Songs [#] The Song of the Flea / Two Songs (Paul Verlaine)° / Sagesse · Sleep · Ein dusterer°° Schlummer° / La bonne Chanson · A Moonlight Pallid · Glimmernder mondschein°°+°< [° centre; °° original spelling; in the opposite column slightly displaced between >Mavra< and the >Burlesque in four scenes<, likewise there is a dislocated line spacing after >Apollon Musagète< in the section for Symphonic Works]. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

** Compositions are advertised in two columns without edition numbers und without price information, in part multi-lingual >Pocket Scores° / Partitions de Poche · Taschenpartituren° / Apollon Musagète / Le Baiser de la Fée ( The Fairy’s Kiss) / Cantata / Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra/ Le Chant du Rossignol ( The Song of the / Nightingale) / Concerto in D for String Orchestra/ Divertimento / Messe°° / Octet for Wind Instruments / Oedipus Rex / Orpheus / Perséphone / Pétrouchka / Pulcinella Suite/ Four Studies for Orchestra / Quatre Etudes pour Orchestre / Vier Etüden für Orchester / Le Sacre du Primtemps°° ( The Rite of Spring) / Septet 1953 / Symphonie de Psaumes / Symphony of Psalms / Psalmensymphonie / Symphonies pour°° instruments à vents°°° / Symphonies of Wind Instruments / Symphonien für Blasinstrumente / Piano Solo° / Piano Seul · Klavier zweihändig° / Apollon Musagète / Le Baiser de la Fée ( The Fairy’s Kiss) / Le Chant du Rossignol ( The Song of the Nightingale) / Marche Chinoise de ”°° Chant du Rossignol ” / Mavra Overture°° / Octet for Wind Instruments ( arr. A. Lourié) / Orpheus ( arr. L. Spinner) / Serenade en la / Sonate / Symphonies pour instruments à vents<°° / Trois Mouvements de “ Pétrouchka ” / Piano Duets° / Piano à Quatre Mains · Klavier vierhändig° / Pétrouchka / Le Sacre du Printemps ( The Rite of Spring) / Two Pianos° / Deux Pianos · Zwei Klaviere° / Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra/ Concerto / Madrid / Septet 1953 / Trois Mouvements de “ Pétrouchka ” ( Babin) // Violin and Piano° / Violon et Piano · Violine und Klavier° / Airs du Rossignol and Marche Chinoise ( Le/ Chant du Rossignol) / Ballad ( Le Baiser de la Fée) / Divertimento ( Le Baiser de la Fée) / Duo Concertant / Danse Russe ( Pétrouchka) / Russian Maiden’s Song / Suite after Pergolesi / Violoncello and Piano° / Violoncelle et Piano · Violoncello und Klavier° / Suite italienne ( Piatigorsky) / Russian Maiden’s Song ( Markevitch) / Chamber Music° / Musique de Chambre · Kammermusik° / Octet for Wind Instruments / Septet 1953 / Three pieces for String Quartet/ Vocal Scores° / Partitions Chant et Piano · Klavierauszüge° / Cantata / Le Rossignol / Mavra / Messe°° / Oedipus Rex / Perséphone / Symphonie de Psaumes / The Rake’s Progress / Voice and Piano° / Chant et Piano · Gesang und Klavier° / The Mother’s Song ( Mavra) / Le Rossignol / Introduction . Chant du Pedieur° . Air du Rossignol / Paracha’s Song ( Mavra) / Russian Maiden’s Song / Two Poems of Balmont / Blue Forget-me-not . The Dove / Trois Poésies de la lyrique japonaise / Akahito . Mazatzuum°° . Tsarajuki°° / Trois petites chansons / La petite . Le Corbeau . Tchitcher-tatcher / Choral Music° / Musique Chorale · Chormusik° / Ave Maria ( Latin) S.A.T.B. a cappella/ Pater noster ( Latin) S.A.T.B. a cappella/ Credo ( Latin) S.A.T.B. a cappella< [° centre; °° original spelling]. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

88-1Straw1

The copy in Strawinsky’s estate is not signed or dated and does contain corrections to the musical text. Amongst other things, he did make changes to the titles in that he, presumably somewhat angry, crossed out the German and French versions of the title and next to this wrote >Absurd<.

88-1Straw2

The copy contains no corrections to the musical text, but is signed >IStr< on the outer page of the cover on the right under the name.

88-2 HAWKES POCKET SCORES / ^IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON^ / BOOSEY & HAWKES / No. 701 // HAWKES POCKET SCORES / IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers / Ballett für zwölf Tänzer/ Ballet pour douze danseurs / BOOSEY & HAWKES / LTD. / LONDON · PARIS · BONN · CAPETOWN · SYDNEY · TORONTO · BUENOS AIRES · NEW YORK / NET PRICE [#] MADE IN ENGLAND // [without text on spine] // (Pocket score sewn 0.7 x 13.6 x 18.6 (8° [8°]); 85 [85] pages + 4 cover pages olive-green on grey beige [front cover title with frame 9.5 x 3.8 grey beige on olive-green, 2 empty pages, page with publisher’s advertisements > Hawkes Pocket Scores / A further selection of outstanding modern works / from this famous library of classical and contemporary Pocket Scores<* production date >No. 787< # >1.56<] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< Italian + duration data [20'] English] + 1 page back matter, page with publisher’s advertisements > HAWKES POCKET SCORES/ A selection of outstanding modern works / from this famous library of classical and contemporary Pocket Scores<** production date >NO, 782< [#] >1.56<]; title head >AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers<; dedication above title head centre italic > Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine<; author specified 1st page of the score paginated p. 1 below title head next to and below choreographic instruction below movement title >Pas-de-Quatre< flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1954-1957<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area flush right >All rights reserved< flush left >Copyright © 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.<; plate number >B. & H. 18336<; end of score dated p. 85 >IV – 27 - 1957<; end number p. 85 flush left >9·57 L & B<; production indications 1st page of the score below type area centre inside right >Printed in England< p. 85 flush right as end mark >Lowe and Brydone (Printers) Limited, London<) // (1957)

^ ^ = Text in frame.

* Compositions are advertised in two columns from >Béla Bartók< to >Jaromir Weinberger<, amongst these >Igor Strawinsky / 626 Concerto in D for String Orchestra(1946) / 631 Four Studies for Orchestra/ 633 Le Chant du Rossignol Symphonic Poem/ 634 Three Pieces for String Quartet/ 665 Divertimento<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

** Compositions are advertised in two columns from >Béla Bartók< to >Ralph Vaughn Williams<, amongst these >Igor Strawinsky / 610 Capriccio ( Revised 1949 Edition) / 611 Apollon Musagète ( Revised1947 Edition) / 630 Octet for Wind Instruments/ ( Revised 1952 Edition) / 632 Pulcinella Suite ( Revised1949 Edition) / 637 Symphony of Psalms / 638 The Rite of Spring ( Revised1947 Edition) / 639 Pétrouchka ( Revised1947 Edition) / 640 Orpheus / 651 Œdipus Rex ( Revised1948 Edition) / 652 Perséphone / 655 Mass / 666 Cantata / 672 Symphonies of Wind Instruments / [#] ( Revised1947 Edition) / 679 The Fairy’s Kiss / 682 Septet (1953) / 688 In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954)<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

88-2Straw

Strawinsky’s copy from his estate is on the front cover title between name and title of the work right signed with initials and dated >IStr 1957<.

88-258 HAWKES POCKET SCORES / ^IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON^ / BOOSEY & HAWKES / No. 701 // HAWKES POCKET SCORES / IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers / Ballett für zwölf Tänzer/ Ballet pour douze danseurs / BOOSEY & HAWKES / LTD. / LONDON · PARIS · BONN · CAPETOWN · SYDNEY · TORONTO · BUENOS AIRES · NEW YORK / NET PRICE [#] MADE IN ENGLAND // [no text on spine] // (Pocket score sewn 0.6 x 13.8 x 18.7 (8° [8°]); 85 [85] pages + 4 cover pages olive-green on grey beige [front cover title with frame 9.5 x 3.8 grey beige on olive-green, 2 empty pages*, page with publisher’s advertisements > Hawkes Pocket Scores / A further selection of outstanding modern works / from this famous library of classical and contemporary Pocket Scores<** production date >No. 787< [#] >1.56<] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< Italian + duration data [20'] English] + 1 page back matter [page with publisher’s advertisements > HAWKES POCKET SCORES/ A selection of outstanding modern works / from this famous library of classical and contemporary Pocket Scores<*** production date >NO, 782< # >1.56<]; title head >AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers<; dedication 1st page of the score paginated p. 1 above title head centre italic > Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine<; author specified 1st page of the score below title head next to and below choreographic instruction flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1954-1957<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area flush right >All rights reserved< flush left >Copyright © 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.<; plate number >B. & H. 18336<; end of score dated p. 85 >IV – 27 - 1957<; end number p. 85 flush left >5 · 58 L & B<; production indications 1st page of the score below type area centre inside right >Printed in England< p. 85 flush right as end mark >Lowe and Brydone (Printers) Limited, London<) // (1958)

^ ^ = text in frame.

* The Darmstadt copy >F / 14050 / 60< contains a pasted-in errata list for the full score on the first empty page (the back side of the title page).

** Compositions are advertised in two columns from >Béla Bartók< to >Jaromir Weinberger<, amongst these >Igor Strawinsky / 626 Concerto in D for String Orchestra(1946) / 631 Four Studies for Orchestra/ 633 Le Chant du Rossignol Symphonic Poem/ 634 Three Pieces for String Quartet/ 665 Divertimento<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

*** Compositions are advertised in two columns from >Béla Bartók< to >Ralph Vaughn Williams<, amongst these >Igor Strawinsky / 610 Capriccio ( Revised 1949 Edition) / 611 Apollon Musagète ( Revised1947 Edition) / 630 Octet for Wind Instruments/ ( Revised 1952 Edition) / 632 Pulcinella Suite ( Revised1949 Edition) / 637 Symphony of Psalms / 638 The Rite of Spring ( Revised1947 Edition) / 639 Pétrouchka ( Revised1947 Edition) / 640 Orpheus / 651 Œdipus Rex ( Revised1948 Edition) / 652 Perséphone / 655 Mass / 666 Cantata / 672 Symphonies of Wind Instruments / [#] ( Revised1947 Edition) / 679 The Fairy’s Kiss / 682 Septet (1953) / 688 In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954)<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

88-260 HAWKES POCKET SCORES / ^IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON^ / BOOSEY & HAWKES / No. 701 // HAWKES POCKET SCORES / IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers / Ballett für zwölf Tänzer/ Ballet pour douze danseurs / BOOSEY & HAWKES / LTD. / LONDON · PARIS · BONN · CAPETOWN · SYDNEY · TORONTO · BUENOS AIRES · NEW YORK / NET PRICE [#] MADE IN ENGLAND // [no text on spine] // (Pocket score sewn 0,7 x 13,6 x 18,6 (8° [8°]); 85 [85] pages + 4 cover pages olive-green on grey beige [front cover title with frame 9,5 x 3,8 grey beige on olive-green, 2 empty pages, page with publisher’s advertisements > Hawkes Pocket Scores / A further selection of outstanding modern works / from this famous library of classical and contemporary Pocket Scores<* production date >No. 787< # >1.56<] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< Italian + duration data [20'] English] + 1 page back matter, page with publisher’s advertisements > HAWKES POCKET SCORES/ A selection of outstanding modern works / from this famous library of classical and contemporary Pocket Scores<** production date >NO, 782< [#] >1.56<]; title head >AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers<; dedication above title head centre italic > Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine<; author specified 1st page of the score paginated p. 1 below title head next to and below Choreographieanweisung below movement title >Pas-de-Quatre< flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1954-1957<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area flush right >All rights reserved< flush left >Copyright © 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.<; plate number >B. & H. 18336<; end of score dated p. 85 >IV – 27 - 1957<; end number p. 85 flush left >3·60 L & B<; production indications 1st page of the score below type area centre inside right >Printed in England< p. 85 flush right as end mark >Lowe and Brydone (Printers) Limited, London<) // (1960)

^ ^ = text in frame.

* Compositions are advertised in two columns from >Béla Bartók< to >Jaromir Weinberger<, amongst these >Igor Strawinsky / 626 Concerto in D for String Orchestra(1946) / 631 Four Studies for Orchestra/ 633 Le Chant du Rossignol Symphonic Poem/ 634 Three Pieces for String Quartet/ 665 Divertimento<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

** Compositions are advertised in two columns from >Béla Bartók< to >Ralph Vaughn Williams<, amongst these >Igor Strawinsky / 610 Capriccio ( Revised 1949 Edition) / 611 Apollon Musagète ( Revised1947 Edition) / 630 Octet for Wind Instruments/ ( Revised 1952 Edition) / 632 Pulcinella Suite ( Revised1949 Edition) / 637 Symphony of Psalms / 638 The Rite of Spring ( Revised1947 Edition) / 639 Pétrouchka ( Revised1947 Edition) / 640 Orpheus / 651 Œdipus Rex ( Revised1948 Edition) / 652 Perséphone / 655 Mass / 666 Cantata / 672 Symphonies of Wind Instruments / [#] ( Revised1947 Edition) / 679 The Fairy’s Kiss / 682 Septet (1953) / 688 In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954)<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Capetown-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

88-264 HAWKES POCKET SCORES / ^IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON^ / BOOSEY & HAWKES / No. 701 // HAWKES POCKET SCORES / IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers / Ballett für zwölf Tänzer/ Ballet pour douze danseurs / BOOSEY & HAWKES / MUSIC PUBLISHERS LIMITED / LONDON · PARIS · BONN · JOHANNESBURG · SYDNEY · TORONTO · NEW YORK / NET PRICE [#] MADE IN ENGLAND // (Pocket score sewn 13.6 x 18.6 (8° [8°]); 85 [85] pages + 4 cover pages olive-green on beige [front cover title with frame 9.5 x 3.8 beige on olive-green, 2 empty pages, page with publisher’s advertisements > HAWKES POCKET SCORES / An extensive library of miniature scores containig both classical works/ and a representative collection of outstanding modern compositions<* production date >Nr. I6<° [#] >I/6I<] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< Italian + duration data [20'] English] + 1 page back matter [page with publisher’s advertisements > Hawkes Pocket Scores / A further selection of outstanding modern works / from this famous library of classical and contemporary Pocket Scores<** production date >No. 787< [#] >1.56<]; title head >AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers<; dedication above title head centre italic > Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine<; author specified 1st page of the score paginated p. 1 below title head next to and below choreographic instruction flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1954-1957<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area flush left >Copyright © 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.< flush right >All rights reserved<; plate number >B. & H. 18336<; end of score dated p. 85 >IV - 27 - 1957<; end number p. 85 flush left >9 · 64 L & B<; production indications 1st page of the score below type area centre inside right >Printed in England< p. 85 flush right as end mark >Lowe and Brydone (Printers) Limited, London<) // (1964)

^ ^ = text in frame.

* Compositions are advertised in three columns without edition numbers from >Bach, Johann Sebastian< to >Wagner, Richard<, amongst these >Stravinsky, Igor / Agon / Canticum Sacrum / Le Sacre du Printemps / Monumentum / Movements / Oedipus Rex / Pétrouchka / Symphonie de Psaumes / Threni<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Johannesburg-Sydney-Toronto-New York.

** Compositions are advertised in two columns from >Béla Bartók< to >Jaromir Weinberger<, amongst these >Igor Strawinsky / 626 Concerto in D for String Orchestra(1946) / 631 Four Studies for Orchestra/ 633 Le Chant du Rossignol Symphonic Poem/ 634 Three Pieces for String Quartet/ 665 Divertimento<. After London the following places of printing are listed: Paris-Bonn-Johannesburg-Sydney-Toronto-Buenos Aires-New York.

88-3 Igor Strawinsky* / ἈΓΏΝ ** / piano score/ BOOSEY & HAWKES // Igor Strawinsky / AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers/ Reduction for two Pianos / by the Composer / Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd. / London · Paris · Bonn · Capetown · Sydney · Toronto · Buenos Aires · New York// (Reduction for 2 pianos sewn 23.4 x 30.9 (4° [4°]); 54 [54] pages + 4 cover pages thicker paper black on white [front cover title, 3 empty pages] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< Italian + duration data [20’] English] without back matter; title head >Agon / Ballet for twelve dancers<; dedication above title head centre italic > Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine<; author specified 1st page of the score paginated p. 1 next to and below centre choreographic instruction below movement title flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1954-1957<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area flush left >© 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.< flush right >All rights reserved<; production indication 1st page of the score below type area centre inside right >Printed in England<; plate number >B. & H. 18337<; end of score dated p. 54 >IV-27-1957<; end number p. 54 flush right as end mark >11. 57. E<) // (1957)

* Handwritten printed in line etching; width 10 cm, letter height 0.5cm, from >w< to >y< 2.5 cm; the tail of the y reaches up to underneath the >w< is 2cm long.

** Greek ornamental letters.

88-4 Igor Strawinsky* / ἈΓΏΝ / full score* / BOOSEY & HAWKES // Igor Strawinsky / AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers/ Full Score / Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd. / London · Paris · Bonn · Capetown · Sydney · Toronto · Buenos Aires · New York// (Full score sewn [without spine] 0.8 x 26.6 x 34.7 (2° [4°]); 85 [85] pages + 4 cover pages paper black on cream white [front cover title in ornamental letters, 3 empty pages] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< Italian + duration data [23’] English] + 1 page back matter [empty page]; title head >AGON / Ballet for twelve dancers<; dedication above title head centre italic > Dedicated to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine<; author specified 1st page of the score paginated p. 1 below movement title >Pas-de-Quatre< next to and below choreographic instruction flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1954-1957<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area flush right >All rights reserved< flush left >Copyright © 1957 by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.<; plate number >B. & H. 18336<; end of score dated p. 85 >IV-27-1957<; end number p. 85 flush left >7·58 L & B<; production indications 1st page of the score below type area centre inside right >Printed in England< p. 85 flush right as end mark >Lowe and Brydone (Printers) Limited, London<) // (1958)

* Quasi-handwritten printed.

88-4Straw

The copy from Strawinsky’s estate (Paul Sacher Archiv Basel >IS / PM / 2237<) contains between name and Greek title in red flush right centred the annotation >Recent° 2nd edition / IStr 1958<. The copy is without corrections.

° Possibly ‚decent’.

88-5Err IGOR STRAWINSKY / AGON / ERRATA / to Full score (7.58) and Parts // (1 page without pagination with empty back page (8° [8°]); 12 corrections with 1 note example

PAGE BAR

29 129 Trpt III, IV – 3rd beat should read*

47 261 do. „ „ „ „ *

63 394 do. „ „ „ „ *

48 263 Viole – 2nd note Eb, not Gb

63 396 do. „ „ „ „ „

49 274 Fagotto I – Last semiquaver of 2nd beat C, not A

64 407 do. „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „

51 289 Harp – Lower “note of 1 chord D[natural sign], not C#

57 352 Delete in “ in 4

65 411 Viole – 1st note should be a quaver, not cotchet

66 435 Violoncelli – add [bass clef sign] before beginning of bar 435

72 497 Add [fermata sign] over barline at end of the bar

* Right curley bracket spanned three lines with note example without key signature, 1st stave III [trumpet] ligature semiquaver [should this be a treble clef:] f1-dotted quaver e1, both notes with staccato dot and tenuto sign; 2nd stave IV [trumpet] crotchet rest.


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