K82 Praeludium
for Jazz ensemble – Praeludium für Jazz-Ensemble – Preludium (Prélude) pour ensemble de jazz – Preludio per un ensemble jazz
Title: The title is remarkable stylistically, as it does not necessarily refer to a piece of jazz music but is a composition for instruments normally used to play jazz music, amongst which Strawinsky obviously counted the celesta in later times.
Scored for: a) First edition*: 2 Alto Saxophones in E b, 1 Tenor Saxophone in B b, 1 Baritone Saxophone in E b, 3 Trumpets in B b, 2 Trombones, 3 Solo Violins, 1 Viola, 1 Violoncello, Contrabass, Guitar, Timpani and Snare Drum; b) Performance requirements: = a), Timpani in Eb and Bb.
* In the printed full score the celesta is missing in the orchestral legend.
Score: Solo strings, celesta and guitar are not part of the original instrumentation from 1937; the celesta replaced the expected piano, the guitar the expected banjo in the traditional instrumental schema of the editors.
Performance practice: The parts for celesta, kettle drums and small drum have been thus arranged that only one percussionist may play them all. The small drum is only required for a drum roll during the first five bars of the introduction, the celesta only in the 6 bars 6 - 8 and 27 - 29, the kettle drums only during 17 bars, 9-10, 14 - 19, 24 - 26, 30 - 35. There is sufficient time intervening to change from one instrument to the next.
Construction: The Praeludium is an orchestral piece with solo or leading instruments prevailing and extending over 35 bars with a consistent tempo: Quaver beat = 76. A five bar introduction reminiscent of circus music with a continuous drum roll and a solo of the first trumpet in bars 2 - 4 over a severally transmuted four-tone signal consisting of an augmented sixth, the fifth and a major sixth prepares a three-bar motif which determines the compositional character of the piece and provides the basis for combinations 3 + 2 and 3 + 3 of the solo sections. The melodic line, given to the trumpet during the introduction, is taken over by the celesta (letter A), then by the first alto saxophone (letter B); it returns to the first trumpet (letter C 1-3) to move on to both alto saxophones (letter C 4to end of Letter D). The verbatim reprise by the celesta (letter E 1-3) introduces a kind of coda whose solo from letter E 4is resting with the first trumpet as before to the end of the prelude (letter F 3). The remaining brass and strings, guitar and kettle drums accompany it in changing orchestration with single chords, or remain silent.
The introduction, which sets up the three-bar motif of the Prelude, fades out with a drum roll. The first section, figure A, begins with the motif being taken on by the Celeste, which stands against the 2nd trumpet with a held pedal point in the same way as the drum roll previously stood against the 1st trumpet. As in the introduction, there are three bars that flow into a two-bar rhythmic construction in a ragtime style, in which the wind instruments adopt a percussive character. In the 2nd section, figure B, the construction of 3 solo bars remains, this time played by the 1st alto saxophone, and a further 2 solo bars with a percussive underlay from the trumpets, double bass, guitar and timpani. At the beginning of figure C, the alto-saxophone solo goes underneath the underlay for three bars, reinforced by strings, and then into the 1st trumpet, and then for a further 3 bars without the percussive underlay, accompanied only by cello and double-bass pizzicato, into the two alto saxophones, which also remain determinedly soloistic for the entire five-bar section of figure D. The first 3 bars of figure E are a literal repetition of the first 3 bars of figure A, and introduce a sort of secretive coda. The solo line once again goes back to the 1st trumpet up until the end, accompanied by strings, guitar and timpani with chordal hits. The group of saxophones and the two other trumpets are silent.
Structure
The score contains no marked inner structural divisions.
Style: The Prelude takes on a ragtime rhythmic scheme from the world of jazz, and links it with soloistic melodic writing based on the Blues. The Prelude has a restrained mezza voce feel and, unusually for Strawinsky, gives space for expressive linear writing for the array of solo instruments, accompanied by gentle chordal hits. This linear writing sounds dreamy in Strawinsky’s own interpretation and reproduces something of the melancholy which the Blues represents, even in its name. The five bars of the introduction create a circus atmosphere, as well as a remeniscence of pieces such as Mavra or Renard .
Dedication: A dedication is not known.
Duration: between one and a half and two minutes.
Date of origin: The Praeludium was begun1936 in Paris, composed largely on Strawinsky’s third journey to America and completed on 6th Februar 1937 in New York. In June 1953 Strawinsky completed the instrumentation by adding celesta, guitar and solo strings.
First performance: 18th October 1953 in Los Angeles in the series of the concerts Evenings on the Roof conducted by Robert Craft.
Remarks: The immediate occasion or occasions leading to the composition of the piece are not known. There is, however, a connection traceable to the Jazz musician Leo Reichman. The title Praeludium suggests that Strawinsky had intended to compose a whole suite of similar pieces of which the prelude was to be a kind of ouverture. They were never composed. Judging by the way in which Strawinsky would compose, there must have been an occasion or at least an order for the piece, which was cancelled for some unknown reason. or, as was the case with the film music he had been asked to compose, never materialised.It took until 1968 before publication was realized, but the Jazz Prelude had already been recorded under Stravinsky’s direction in 1965 on phonogram.
Versions: The original version of 1937 >IStrawinsky / New York / 6th of Febr. 37< - the one without celesta, guitar or solo strings - as well as a complete transcription for the piano (partly written on three staves), were not published during Strawinsky’s lifetime. The publishers Boosey & Hawkes, with whom Strawinsky concluded a contract on 2nd May 1968, in the late autumn of 1968 published a full conductor’s score but no piano reduction or pocket score. The London complimentary copy of the orchestral score bears the date 23 Oct. 1968. The individual parts were available on loan. The three solo strings are marked by letters A, B and C.
Historical Recording: New York City 27th April 1965 with the Columbia Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Igor Strawinsky.
CD edition: VII-1/1.
Autograph: Paul Sacher Stiftung Basel.
Copyright: © 1968 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.; the documents of the Strawinsky Estate show that he had taken out or intended to take out a copyright under his name.
Editions
a) Overview
82-1 1968 FuSc; Boosey & Hawkes London; 11 pp.; B. & H. 19718.
b) Characteristic features
82-1 IGOR STRAVINSKY / PRAELUDIUM / for Jazz ensemble / Full Score / BOOSEY & HAWKES // IGOR STRAVINSKY / PRAELUDIUM / for Jazz ensemble / Full Score / BOOSEY & HAWKES / Music Publishers Limited / London · Paris · Bonn · Johannesburg · Sydney · Toronto · New York // (Full score sewn in red 23.4 x 31 (4° [4°]); 11 [9] pages + 4 cover pages tomato red on green grey [front cover title, 2 empty pages, page with publisher’s advertisements >Igor Stravinsky<* production data >No. 40< [#] >7.65<] + 2 pages front matter [title page, legend >Instrumentation< English + duration data >ca. 2 minutes< English] + 1 page back matter [empty page]; title head >PRAELUDIUM / for Jazz Ensemble<; author specified 1st page of the score paginated p. 3 below title head flush right >IGOR STRAVINSKY / 1937*< + asterisk-note below type area flush left >* The string parts were added in June 1953<; legal reservations 1st page of the score below type area below asterisk-note flush left >© 1968 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.< flush right >All rights reserved<; production indication 1st page of the score below type area below legal reservation flush right >Printed in England<; plate number >B. & H. 19718<; without end marks) // (1968)
* Compositions are advertised in two columns without edition numbers, without price information 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 Sacrum [#] 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.
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