''Scherzo à la russe'' is a composition by Russian

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composer

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

. It was initially published by Chappell & Co. in 1945 and premiered in March 1946 by the

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, conducted by the composer himself. It was later published by

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Composition

Stravinsky had been going through economical problems since he moved to America, partially because he lost the royalties from his works in Europe and had to compose more works to exploit them in America. The ''Scherzo à la russe'' was first conceived as a work for film use, as it was intended to be featured in '' The North Star''. When the film project was aborted, Stravinsky decided to re-orchestrate it for Paul Whiteman Band. The only two conditions were: the piece had to be

easy-listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit ...

and it had to fit on a

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disc. This version for

jazz orchestra A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

was premiered in 1944 by

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but, according to Stravinsky scholar Eric Walter White, it didn't seem to be a success. Stravinsky decided to arrange it again in 1945 for

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for it to be published and premiered in 1946 at

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Analysis

The work takes approximately 4 minutes to perform. It is commonly analysed as follows: * Main theme: Presented in

G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...

in . The tune groups itself into four-bar phrases. One of the most remarkable aspects is the use of accents all along this first section: notes go in couples with no accent on the first note and an accent on the second, which is tied to the first. This effect recalls the wheezing sound patterns of

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

s. ** Trio I: Presented in

B major B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its enharmonic equi ...

. Features a canon between the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and the

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

, while three muted violins play rapid semiquavers. The melodic material, both here and in Trio II, derive from Russian themes extracted from Stravinsky's Sonata for Two Pianos. * Main theme: First section repeated. ** Trio II: This section is in

ternary form Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples inclu ...

. It can be divided as: *** (A): Presented in

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

Saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

s become more relevant in this section, while the

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and a solo

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

play rapid ascending scales. *** (B): Presented in

E major E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat maj ...

. Fortissimo drum beats accompany the previous tune, which is now transposed and modified. *** (A′): Same structure as (A) * Main theme: First section repeated, which concludes the piece.

Instrumentation

Original jazz version

The symphony jazz orchestra proposed by Paul Whiteman was very atypical for jazz music: 6

saxophones The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

winds Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Symphony orchestra version

Other arrangements

Apart from the symphony version completed in 1945, Stravinsky also wrote a third version for two pianos in 1944; however, it is not so commonly performed.

Notable recordings

Notable recordings of this composition include:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scherzo a la russe Compositions by Igor Stravinsky 1944 compositions

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

Jazz compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra