Serenade in A is a work for solo piano 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 ...

. Completed on September 9, 1925, in ViennaAlexander Carpenter,
Igor Stravinsky: Serenade for Piano in A major
(n.p.: Rovi Corp, n.d.) (Accessed July 27, 2012). 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 ...

, it resulted from his signing his first gramophone recording contract, for Brunswick, and was written so that each movement could fit on one side of a 78 rpm record. The dedicatee was Stravinsky's wife Katya.

Structure

Serenade in A lasts about twelve minutes and is in four movements: Despite its title, the work is in neither

A major A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...

nor

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

. According to Eric White, A is not the "key" of the work, but rather the music radiates from and tends towards A as a "tonic pole". Thus, the first and the last chord of each movement contains the note A, either as the root, third, or fifth of a

triad Triad or triade may refer to: * a group of three Businesses and organisations * Triad (American fraternities), certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America * Triad (organized crime), a Chinese transnational orga ...

. According to Stravinsky, the piece was conceived "in imitation of the ' of the eighteenth century, which was usually commissioned by patron princes for various festive occasions, and included, as did the suites, an indeterminate number of pieces". Therefore, the movement titles are meant to evoke the specific parts of such festive celebration. From the pianist's perspective "Hymne" is related to

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

's Ballade No. 2, while the "" reflects Stravinsky's Russian heritage.John Ogdon, "Stravinsky and the Piano", ''

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

'', new series, no. 81, Stravinsky's 85th Birthday (Summer 1967): 36–41. Citation on 40; Alfredo Casella, "Stravinsky" (Brescia: Editrice La Scuola, 1947): 129.

References

'' 1, no. 1 (Fall): 18–26. * Joseph, Charles M. 1983. ''Stravinsky and the Piano''. Russian Music Studies 8. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press. * Martins, José António Oliveira. 2006. "Stravinsky's Discontinuities, Harmonic Practice, and the Guidonian Space in the 'Hymne' from the Serenade in A". ''Theory and Practice'' 31:39–63. * Straus, Joseph N. 1987. "The Problem of Coherence in Stravinsky's Sérénade in la". ''Theory and Practice'' 12:3–10. * White, Eric Walter. 1948. ''Stravinsky: A Critical Survey, 1882–1946''. New York: Philosophical Library. Reprinted, Mineola, NY: Courier Dover Publications, 1997. . {{Authority control 1925 compositions Compositions for solo piano Compositions by Igor Stravinsky

Structure

References

Further reading