Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1991
Abstract
The progress of this passage from sketch to final version follows what for Stravinsky is a reasonably common pattern in the composition of The Rake's Progress. The initial sketches tend to be rhythmically square and harmonically rudimentary. They often have the appearance of a simple, classical prototype. As musical ideas are brought to a more final state, the sketches often become increasingly free rhythmically and increasingly remote from classical tonal norms harmonically. A significant aspect of Stravinsky's compositional process in The Rake's Progress, as documented by the sketches, involves the explicit transformation of relatively traditional tonal prototypes. In this most neo-classical of works, the "classical" often comes first chronologically, and the "neo" emerges as the compositional process unfolds.