Kyrie

From Igor Stravinsky Mass

Unit by Tatyana Gridneva

Teachers Guide

Contents

Objectives,  National Standards.  Composers Biography,  Historical background

Melodic Content,  Rhythmic Content,  Harmonic Content,  Textural and Timbral Content, 
Stylistic and Expressive Content,  References,  Vocabulary

War-up exercises,  Melody exercises, Rhythm exercises, Harmony exercises,
Composition exercises, History Connection

Objectives:

• The students will be understand and be able to identify characteristics of Neoclassicism.
• The students will perform with technical proficiency chromatic scale and sequence of melodic intervals.
• The students will be demonstrating an understanding of chromatic motion and scale degree.
• The students will be identifying cadences in selected key signature.
• The students will be make connections between music and history by learning about affect of several revolutions on the world.
• The students will be compose 12 measure rhythmical pattern displaying knowledge of imitation and polymeter.

National Standards Addressed:

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Igor Stravinsky was born at Oranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland opposite Kronstadt on 5 June 1882 (O.S.) or 17 June (N.S.). The son of a distinguished Russian singer, Stravinsky spent his earlier years in Russia, either in St. Petersburg or, in the summer, at the country estates of his relatives. Stravinsky studied law, but did not care for it.  Once he decided to become a composer, there was no turning back. He studied music briefly with Rimsky-Korsakov but made a name for himself first in Paris with commissions from the impresario Dyagilev, for whom he wrote a series of ballet scores. His first major work was Fireworks. Diaghilev noticed Stravinsky's talent and had him write music for three great ballets--Firebird (1910), Petrouchka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). He spent the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 in Western Europe and in 1939 moved to the United States of America. There in the post- war years he turned from a style of neo-classicism to composing in the twelve-note technique propounded by Schoenberg.

Stravinsky's music contains some of the most original ideas of the last 100 years.  He was always searching for new styles and techniques of musical expression.  His works reflected and influenced important musical trends of the 20th century.  These influences include jazz, neoclassicism, bitonality, atonality, serialism, and Nationalism (Francis Routh).

Composition:

Kyrie movement from Mass for a mixed chorus and a double wind quintet was composed on December 20^th, 1944. The Mass consists of five movements: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei. This setting of the Roman Catholic Mass represents strict Neoclassic, Anti-Romantic characteristics of Stravinsky’s works. The Kyrie contains about then short contrasted sections for full chorus, accompanied by wind quintet. Modulation to several key and instrumentation between brass and woodwind add color to this movement (Michael Steinberg)

The text is Latin which represented three short verses in the piece.

The Kyrie consists of a threefold repetition of "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord, have mercy"), a threefold repetition of "Christe eleison" ("Christ have mercy"), followed by another threefold repetition of "Kyrie eleison.

The work is scored for mixed chorus and double wind quintet (oboe, trumpet, trombone, bassoon). Stravinsky also specifies in the score that “children’s voices should be employed” for the highest choral register.

Historical Perspective:

Stravinsky's religious works differ from the majority of modern or even romantic and classical works of a similar kind. They have particular purpose and the ideal place for their performance. Despite of Stravinsky’s own Orthodox faith, he wrote a Catholic Mass that one actually designed for liturgical use.

In the religion Roman Catholicism, the Catholic Mass is very important. The Mass is the celebration of the Eucharist. Mass can be described as the Eucharist or Holy Communion. According to the Catholic Catechism, the word Eucharist is a Greek term for the Jewish meal blessing of God’s continuous care. The central tradition of Roman Catholic Church is Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant developed mainly in the Frankish land of western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries and characterized with monophonic form, modal scale and unaccompanied sacred song. Gregorian chant played a fundamental role in the development of polyphony.

Stravinsky was strongly influenced by chant but because he valued simplicity and directness his goal was to eliminate that romantic, theatrical and secular sensuality of Russian Church. Moreover, he considers unaccompanied singing as a” harmonically primitive music” (p.272). Because he wanted to include instruments, Stravinsky could not write a Mass for the Russian Orthodox liturgy, where tradition excludes instruments. Nevertheless, in his Roman Catholic Mass Stravinsky follows idea of minimizing the role of the orchestra, which, in his words, serves only to "tune" the chorus (p.272).

Melodic Content:

This piece is a melodically challenging piece for students. It graded by level 5 and introduces students with Gregorian chant and elements of Stravinsky’s Neoclassicism.Typical melodic features include such characteristic as cadences and focal tones around which the other notes of the melody revolve. All phrases in the piece are ending with cadences which not always count as perfect cadences. This fact reflects on cadences tonal orientations. Most cadences have lack of distinctive ending including many nondiatonic pitches (the flatted third or raised seventh over dominant). However, most cadences arrived at by stepwise motion which can be considered as a resolution of performing difficulties. Example 1represents stepwise motion cadence which leads to a terminal sonority and can be heard as the dominant seventh of G major resolves in four of the voices (p.145).

The focal tone can be refer to repeated pitch in the piece and considered as a sign for the missing sonority, another way for student to be not lost in intervalic and tonal varieties. Pitch E flat is clearly the focal point of the passage supported by the arpeggiated E flat-major chord in the bass of instrumental group (Ex.2 & 3), (pp. 157-158).

Rhythmic content:

Stravinsky filed the piece with various rhythmic patterns. They can be divided into three different sections and exactly outline the form of the piece. The rhythmical chart presented below.

Section Phrase Measure

A 1-2-3 1-15

B 4-9 16-47

A 10 48-52

Two sections A are identical with approximately equal duration to each note, the finale notes as expected in chant are lengthened. The text, Kyrie eleison, determines the accent for aesthetic reason.

The section B is presented with varieties of rhythmic patterns. The majority of these patterns are imitative. Voice imitation can be seen either between woman and men choruses or between each of parts. Most of time each syllable share two or three notes but sometimes represents with long melismas where one syllable share three and more notes. By using imitative technique composer underlines the meaning of the words Lord, have mercy, Christ have mercy (Ex. 4). Stravinsky uses pick-up notes with duration of eight notes in the same time for purpose demonstration of mood of the piece (Ex.5).

In addition, the rhythmic complicity of the piece reflects in constantly shifting meters. The 4/4 meter is the prevalent meter of the piece, others include 2/3 and 3/4 meters. The concept of polymeter will be introduced for future reference of students composition.

Harmonic Content, Form and Structure:

The form of Kyrie movement mirrors the rhythmic sections that are depicted below.

Form Section Measure Key

1 1-5 F

A 2 6-9 B flat

3 10-15 V/G

4 16-21 D

5 22-25 A

6 26-34 B flat

B 7 34-38 F

8 38-42 F

9 43-47 V/A

A 10 48-52 G

Kyrie movement contains homophonic choral statements with instrumental interludes, and shares a tonal vocabulary including diatonic scales. Two sections A have similar rhythmical and melodically activities. The final two choral phrases identical to the initial two. The beginning section A is slightly expanded. Despite of different length and numbers times of changing of keys these two sections share same progress toward a central tonality G major.

The biggest section of the piece is a section B which includes blocks of keys. There are at least seven keys in which section B is circling around, all of them listed above.

Often Stravinsky uses lowering 3d and raising 7th in the chord of particular key which makes difficult to identify modal scales in the piece. Overall, this is a great teaching opportunity for students to show what polytonality is and to understand how this musical style differs from previous Romantic style.

Textural and Timbral Content:

The voicing of the piece are united in terms of registral prominence, repetition or reiteration and goal of melodic phrase. This is means that the factor of register and repetition invoked in support of central tone E flat and served to make certain pitches accessible to the ear.

Stravinsky wished to accompany this piece with wind instruments; its use would be proscribed in the Russian Orthodox Church. Traditionally, the Russian Orthodox Church had forbidden the use of any instruments part of worship, except the sounds of bells and voices. Stravinsky’s wind ensemble includes: two oboes, English horn, two trumpet, three trombone and two bassoons. It serves the chorus with the tune. In one hand switching one instrument to another underlines an absolute simplicity of the piece, in other hand chosen by Stravinsky dancelike accompaniment in oboes and bassoons introduces to slightly polyphonic elaboration of the piece (MS, p273).

Stylistic and Expressive Content:

The Kyrie movement evenly as whole Mass was composed for use in the church. It is liturgical without any embellishments. Stravinsky describes his work as the work with cold music that will “appeal to the spirit” (MS, p 274). There is not mush of dynamic change and music mainly underlines the importance of the text. The main goal for chorus is to bring this music closer to audience, perhaps the whole universe of our faith also.

References Books:

Francis Routh, Stravinsky, J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, London, 1974, pp. 1-70, 118

Michael Steinberg, Choral Masterworks, A Listener’s Guide, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp.269-273

V. Kofi Agawu, Stravinsky’s Mass and Stravinsky Analysis, Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 11, No2 ( Autumn, 1989), pp 139-163.

4/4 tranquillo (quarter = 66) 3/4 2/4 3/4-2/4 3/4-4/4

Measures

1-5

6-9

10-15

16-21

22-25

26-33

34-38

38-42

43-47

47-52

Sections

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Form

A

B

A

Harmony

F

B flat

V/G

D

A

B flat

F

F

V/A

G

Texture

H

P P

H

Orchestration

Oboe Trp. Trom.

Bassoon (triple rhythm)

Two oboes (staccato)

W.W

Beginning Basson alone, W.W all instr.

Text

Kyrie

Christe eleison

Instr.

Kyrie

Dynamic

mp

x

x

x

x

x

x

p

x

x

x

x

Vocabulary

Neo-classicism: a movement of the 20th century which is essentially a reaction against the subjectivity and unrestrained emotionalism of Romanticism. It is characterized by the adoption of aesthetic ideals and of forms or methods derived from the music of earlier masters, especially those of the eighteenth century.

Chromatic motion is movement of melody with half steps.

Cadence is a particular series of intervals or chords that ends a phrase, section, or piece of music

A perfect authentic cadence uses cord progression V-I.

A half cadence uses chord progression I-V.

A plagal cadence uses chord progression IV-I.

Polytonality - the musical use of more than one key simultaneously.

Polymeter -playing simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature

Imitation is a repetition of phrase or melody with variants in key or rhythm.

Lessons:

Warm-up Exercises:

1. This warm-up a cappella on the chromatic scale is for holding each note for tuning. When this exercise is sung cleanly, try starting Altos and Basses on the ascending line while Sopranos and Tenors sing the descending line, then reverse. Both groups should hit same note on #7, a perfect time to check tuning.

2. This warm-up focuses on ear training through singing a variety if intervals, both above and below a given pitch. Make sure students think the intervals and anticipate their sound before singing them. Challenge students to see how many of these intervals they can sing accurately without a piano. Ask students to identify the beginning intervals of familiar song. Sing this exercise using a variety of vowel sounds.

Note: Recommended review every day.

Melody Exercises:

1. Melodies that progress by half steps move with chromatic motion. When ascending, the scale uses sharps, when descending it uses flats. The chromatic motion follows the general shape of the line: as the line ascends, the chromatic tones resolve up to the next chord tone; as the line descends, the chromatic tones resolve down by half-step. The example below shows the tenors line moving chromatically up and resolving to the next chord tone.

2. Melodies that progress by half steps as resulting of lowering or raising scale degree move with chromatic motion also. Scale degree is the name of a particular notes of a scale in relation to the tonic which are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh degrees of the scale. The example below shows motion of Altos with lower third scale degree in A major.

Now that you know a little bit about chromatic motion, look at your score and see if you can find at least two melodies with chromatic motion. Also practice to write appropriate chromatic signs (flat or sharp) to raised or lowered particular scale degree.

Write C major scale with lower 2d degree and raised 4^th degree

Write A minor scale with lower 3d degree and raised 7^th degree

Rhythmic exercises:

1. These few rhythms incorporated in many places of the piece and called polymeter. The term polymeter means that two or more meters are happening (or layered) at the same time. These rhythms requires that singers accurately shift beats from one meter to another. The activity displayed in the chart below designed to give a feelings for students of polymeter.

Count

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

Clap

X

*

X

*

X

*

X

*

X

*

X

*

X

*

X

*

Snap

X

*

*

X

*

*

X

*

*

X

*

*

X

*

*

X

Lap

X

*

*

*

X

*

*

*

X

*

*

*

X

*

*

*

Step

X

*

*

*

*

X

*

*

*

*

X

*

*

*

*

X

How many beats are in each "cell" [ X + star (s) ] for Part 1 (Clap)?
How many in Parts 2, 3, and 4?

2. Now try to clap the rhythmic pattern displayed below.

Harmonic exercises:

1. The harmony of Kyrie circling around in several different keys. The musical use of more than one key simultaneously is called polytonality. The home key of the piece is G major. Each phrase resolves in the new key. The example below shows resolving cadence V-I in measure 9 to B flat.

A cadence is any place in a piece of music that has the feel of an ending point. This can be either a strong, definite stopping point - the end of the piece, for example, or the end of a movement or a verse - but it also refers to the "temporary-resting-place" pauses that round off the ends of musical ideas within each larger section. Now try to identify phrases and cord progression at the end of theses phrases. There is three types of cadence we going to learn today.

A perfect authentic cadence uses cord progression V-I

A half cadence uses chord progression I-V

A plagal cadence uses chord progression IV-I

In the worksheet below write appropriate chord progression and name of the cadences for each given key.

Worksheet 1

Key: C-major D-minor A-minor B-minor

Chord Pr.____________ ______________ ______________ _______________

Cadence__________ ______________ _______________ ________________

Rubric for Cadence exercises

7 correct answers -10 points

6 correct answers-8 points

4 correct answers-6 points

2 correct answers-4 points

Now you know a little bit about cadences, please identify cadences in the score. How many keys changed did you noticed in the piece? Name them.

Worksheet 2

Cadence Measure Key

________ ________ ___________

________ ________ ___________

Composition exercises:

1. The piece filled with numerous elements of imitation between vocal parts. Imitation is a repetition of phrase or melody with variants in key or rhythm. The example below demonstrates the imitation between SA and BT parts.

2. Can you see how BT part repeat SA part with slightly deferent rhythm. Now you learned enough concepts to complete compositional assignment. This composition will be a spoken composition. The requirements include:

Ø Imitative elements

Ø Elements of polymeter

Ø In 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4 time

Ø In 12 to 14 measures long

Ø In at least two parts

Ø Accurate rhythmical notation

Ø Performance in the front of the class

Note: You don’t have to use words from the piece, make your own words. It can be nonsense words also. Make arrangement with your classmates an advance for performing your composition in the class.

Rhythmical composition Rubric

Total points	1	3	5
Elements of polymeter	The elements of polymeter are not included, composition remains in one time signature.	The elements of polymeter are included with at least of two time signatures.	All three time signatures included in the composition
Elements of imitation	The elements of imitations are included with minimum variety.	The elements of imitations are included with average variety.	The elements of imitations are included with maximum variety.
Notation	The score has a lot of errors.	The score has a few errors.	The score is free from errors.
Length	The composition is less then 5 measures long	The composition is between 5 and 8 measures long.	The composition is 12 measures long
Performance 5 points automatically given for performing composition

Sources:

http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/theory/theory.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytonality

http://www.musictechteacher.com/quiz_intervals_melodic_harmonic001.htm ( music theory work sheet)

http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-mod.htm

http://www.songtrellis.com/concepts

History connection:

Every composer who writes some kind new music is called revolutionary musician by many people. Neo-classicism was born at the same time as the general return to rational models in the arts in response to World War I. Major changes took place before and immediately after the war, which included the weakening of the traditional functional tonality, followed by a similar revolution in rhythm, sound and texture, in order to be "set free" from traditional. Look at images bellow, what can you tell about changes these images represents in human history?