Igor Stravinsky – Agon

Stravinsky began composing Agon in 1953 for the New York City Ballet. A significant aspect of this work is that much of the writing was interrupted by Stravinsky’s other compositional commitments. Therefore, each time he returned to work on the ballet, Stravinsky found himself rewriting certain sections due to the ongoing development of his compositional style, in particular his increasing interest in serialism (a method in which various musical elements are put in order according to a fixed series).

Agon is a ballet without a plot, instead featuring just eight female and four male dancers. It contains 12 moments, which are divided into four groups of three each. The first section contains the following movements: Pas de quatre, Double pas de quatre, and Triple Pas de quatre (Pas de quatre is a French term referring to ballet dance between four people).

The first movement, Pas de quatre with four male dancers, begins with an exuberant fanfare-like opening with staccato trumpets playing a rapid, one-note semiquaver motif. There is no immediate, discernible pulse to the music, and the time signature constantly changes from 4/8 to 3/8 and back again throughout this introductory movement. This made me wonder how difficult it might have been to choreograph the ballet dancers, what with the large amount of syncopation involved and random time changes. However, there is a definitive energy and rhythmic drive to the music, emphasised by crunchy triplet motifs in the cello and contrabass.

A significant aspect of this movement is the sparseness of the music; rarely do all the orchestral instruments combine to form a deep, wholesome timbre, and at times the music sounds quite hollow. Instead, smaller groups of instruments take turns to play particular themes, which often last only a few bars before another group of instruments plays a new theme or a recurring motif reappears, such as the triplets in the cello and contrabass. Stravinsky makes full use of contrasting dynamics and a range of articulations to develop all the emotional nuances which are used to accompany the ballet dancers.

After a rather triumphant ending to the first movement, Double pas de quatre, with eight female dancers, begins with a sudden leap in intensity and drama. The violins and cello play an extremely quick demisemiquaver ostinato pattern, played so fast that they sound like bees buzzing angrily. The oboe and bassoon then enter with an upper melody which makes use of chromaticism to further enhance the drastic change in mood. The middle section returns to the sparseness of the first, with each instrument seemingly doing its own melodic thing. This in turn creates a fantastic array of dissonant, syncopated harmonies, one after the other.

The third movement, probably intended to be the climactic ending to this first section, contains very similar elements to the first two movements. Stravinsky employs a huge amount of chromatic motifs, especially in the melody, and the driving energy portrayed through semiquavers in the strings is again evident.

An incredible amount of moods are portrayed through this music, and words such as triumph, resilience, determination, eeriness, reflection and contentment sprung to mind as I was listening. Although no plot was devised for this ballet, I don’t think it would be too difficult to develop some sort of story if you put your mind to it.

– Tully