''Fanfare for a New Theatre'' is a 1964 composition for two

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s by Russian composer

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

. It was premiered on April 19, 1964, and published by

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...

Composition and premiere

This composition was written for the opening ceremony of the

New York State Theater The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally ...

, as a part of the

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

. The two trumpets were meant to be placed at either side of the balcony, right at the entrance of the hall. Stravinsky dedicated it "To Lincoln and George", "Lincoln" being the company's administrator,

Lincoln Kirstein Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996) was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet. He developed and sus ...

, and "George" fellow entrepreneur and choreographer

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

Analysis

The

fanfare A fanfare (or fanfarade or flourish) is a short musical flourish which is typically played by trumpets, French horns or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion. It is a "brief improvised introduction to an instrumental perfo ...

takes approximately 40 seconds to perform and is one of Stravinsky's major miniatures. The textures are canonic and recall Stravinsky's late

twelve-tone technique The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...

. It is widely based on rhythmic patterns and the intervals between the two trumpets are brisk, atonal and uneven. The work consists of only one measure bar after the first unison motive. After this bar, the work is measured by systems. The main form of the

row Row or ROW may refer to: Exercise *Rowing, or a form of aquatic movement using oars *Row (weight-lifting), a form of weight-lifting exercise Math *Row vector, a 1 × ''n'' matrix in linear algebra. *Row (database), a single, implicitly structured ...

of the melodic line, according to the twelve-tone technique, is played by both trumpets, but not simultaneously. This row works in a symmetrical way, given that both the four first and the four last intervals are the same, but in reversed order. The work shows a thorough usage of all inverted, retrograde, and retrograde-inverted rows.

References

External links

Work details

{{Authority control Compositions by Igor Stravinsky 1964 compositions Twelve-tone compositions Compositions for trumpet

Composition and premiere

Analysis

References

Further reading

External links