© Dee Conway RB 'Agon' reviews 'Agon' reviews Richard jones on 'Music and the choreographic art' Richard Jones reviews

The Post-War Ballets Russes

With the end of the 1^st World War in November 1918 and the first steps towards an uneasy peace, Diaghilev was able to revive the fortunes of his Ballets Russes with some notable new productions. The Three Cornered Hat, Pulcinella, Les Noces, and Les Biches were only a few of the pieces that were premiered by 1924, and more was to come. However, 1924 can be seen in retrospect as a significant year in dance history for reasons other than Diaghilev premières. That June, four young Russian dancers sailed on a German boat from Leningrad (as St. Petersburg had become), ultimately bound for Berlin. They had managed to gain the consent of the Soviet authorities to tour Western Europe during their summer vacation under the title of the Soviet State Dancers. Having left what they saw as the restrictive conservatism of Leningrad, and excited by their knowledge of what Diaghilev had instigated in Western Europe, the small company performed in further venues in Germany, including Mannheim, before venturing to London where they had been invited to perform at the Empire Theatre, one of the principal homes of London ballet for many years.

From London they went to Paris, scene of many a past triumph for Diaghilev. Like all successful entrepreneurs, Diaghilev was always looking for his next move. Impressed by what he saw when he watched these young dancers, he engaged all four of them for his company. It wasn't long before one of their number, known in his native land as Georgi Balanchivadze, had become ballet master to the Ballets Russes; George Balanchine, as he would be known, was just twenty-one years of age.

Soon Diaghilev was arranging for Balanchine to provide choreography for the company. He planned a new production of Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale, based on a score that harked back to Stravinsky's earlier years. The composition of the opera Le Rossignol, with a libretto based on Hans Christian Anderson, had been started in 1908 when Stravinsky was still working with Rimsky-Korsakov. But, in 1909, work on the opera was interrupted by commissions for the Ballets Russes, including Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring. In the summer of 1913, Stravinsky had received the offer of a commission from the Free Theatre of Moscow to complete the opera, but his musical language had changed so radically since 1909 that he was reluctant to do so. Eventually he agreed, but by early 1914 the Free Theatre of Moscow was out of business. Diaghilev negotiated permission to stage the opera, which received its premiere in Paris in May 1914.

By 1917, Stravinsky had completed a concert version of Le Rossignol, having derived a symphonic poem mainly from the 2^nd and 3^rd acts of the opera; the music received its first performance in this form in Geneva in 1919 under the title Le chant du Rossignol. Using this score, Diaghilev first presented Le chant du rossignol as a ballet in February 1920 at the Paris Opéra, with choreography by Massine. Diaghilev's new production in 1925 was the first choreography to Stravinsky's music by Balanchine, and famously included the young Markova in the title role. Balanchine knew instinctively how he wanted to respond to Stravinsky's music; his thorough musical training, including his years in the Leningrad Conservatoire when Glazunov was Director, enabled him to imagine the sounds of Stravinsky's score as soon as he looked at the printed page.

New work for Diaghilev continued to be created by Balanchine, but it was the seminal Apollo of 1928 that the choreographer asserted was a vital lesson for him. Stravinsky's elegant neo-classical score taught Balanchine 'to eliminate' as the choreographer himself admitted. He 'could clarify....by reducing.... to the one possibility that is inevitable.' In the following year Balanchine completed two more works for Diaghilev: Le Bal (music by Rieti) and The Prodigal Son (Prokofiev). Notwithstanding the development of classical dance Balanchine had demonstrated in Apollo, Balanchine approached Prokofiev's score from a different perspective, adopting a freer style that was very personal and often acrobatic; the composer, whose own idiom had acquired a new lyricism foreshadowing the style of the full length ballet scores he would write upon his return to the Soviet Union, did not entirely approve.

The sudden death of Diaghilev in August 1929 signified the end of two decades of an amazing chapter in the history of theatre art. Diaghilev was the Ballets Russes; his company died with him. Stravinsky recorded later how unhappy he was that he and Diaghilev had not been reconciled before the death of the impressario; they had fallen out when Stravinsky had accepted a commission from Ida Rubinstein, a former Diaghilev dancer, for her own company. Intriguingly, in an era when neo-classicism was the fashion, Stravinsky turned to a revered Russian composer of the romantic period for his inspiration when he based Le Baiser de la Fée on music by Tchaikovsky for the Ballets Ida Rubinstein. Diaghilev had followed a similar path in 1921 when he had premièred Sleeping Beauty (as The Sleeping Princess) in London. That had been regarded as a retrograde move by some critics; Tchaikovsky did not fit with their taste. Stravinsky, who had rescored part of the ballet, staunchly defended Diaghilev's enterprise, though it nearly bankrupted the company, the lavish sets and costumes being used to repay creditors.

After Diaghilev – the 1930's

By 1933, Balanchine had worked temporarily at the Paris Opéra, the Royal Danish Ballet, and with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo (a re-incarnation of Diaghilev's ideals). He had also worked in London, helping to stage musical comedies, and had briefly run his own company, Les Ballets. However, it was the sharp eye of another artistic entrepreneur, Lincoln Kirstein, who brought about Balanchine's move to the USA. Kirstein's vision was to establish classical ballet firmly in America, without constant reliance on European touring companies. Three years younger than Balanchine, Kirstein met the choreographer in London, and managed to convince him that this was a project with a future; Balanchine arrived in the USA in October of the same year.
 

Balanchine insisted that a school was essential to Kirstein's project. Together with support from Edward Warburg, another Harvard man, Kirstein helped bring to fruition the founding of the School of American Ballet, which opened in January 1934. Balanchine soon established evening classes in stage technique to complement the daily work in class. Out of these evening rehearsals grew what was to become a signature piece for American ballet, Serenade. Once again, a Russian artist showed his reverence for the memory of Tchaikovsky in his choice of music. The première of Serenade, to the first three movements of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, was given in June 1934. In his choice of music, Balanchine not only showed his deep attraction to the works of Tchailovsky, but also a connection with his roots in the traditions of Russian ballet; Fokine had used the same score for his ballet Eros in 1915. Balanchine's Serenade continued to evolve. The fourth movement of the score was later included (though it was placed third in order of performance so that the choreography for the ending could be retained). However, the music was still heavily cut; the whole score was not used till c.1970.

During the 1920's, Stravinsky had often been heard as the soloist in his piano concerto. He now planned a new work for piano and orchestra, Capriccio, for which he would once again reserve to himself the right to play the solo part; the première was given in Paris in December 1929. (In 1967, Capriccio became one of the many pieces of Stravinsky's concert music to be choreographed by Balanchine, when it was used for the second part of Jewels).

During the 20's and 30's Stravinsky lived mostly in France. However, despite the fact that his style was in accord with prevailing French neo-classical taste, his commissions came mainly from his compatriots such as Diaghilev and Ida Rubinstein, and then – increasingly – from America. Apollo, for instance, had been commissioned for first performance in the Library of Congress (with choreography by Bolm). In 1930, the 50^th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra was commemorated by the première of the Symphony of Psalms.

In the years after the death of Diaghilev, Stravinsky looked beyond the theatre for new opportunities. A meeting with the violinist Samuel Dushkin was the prelude to a fine artistic partnership and a stimulus for Stravinsky to explore the possibilities of an instrument, which had not particularly been at the centre of his attention during the 1920's (and had even been excluded from the orchestral palette for the Symphony of Psalms). The first performance of the violin concerto was given in Berlin in 1931, the premiere of the Duo Concertant for violin and piano (played by Dushkin and Stravinsky) following a year later in the same city (both works were later choreographed by Balanchine). Stravinsky's own performing career now centred on accompanying and conducting; his son, Soulima, took up the mantle of the solo pianist.

In 1933, Stravinsky was drawn back to composing for dance; Ida Rubinstein, now in her late forties, had commissioned a new score for her company which would give her an opportunity to perform as both dancer and reciter. In the event, the performances of Perséphone (Paris, April 1934), choreographed by Kurt Jooss, were somewhat over-shadowed by a certain coolness between composer and librettist; André Gide did not approve of Stravinsky's treatment of the rhythms of his text. However, Jooss was not entirely unfamiliar with Stravinsky's work, having already produced new versions of Petrushka and Pulcinella. Ida Rubinstein's original training had been as an actress, so the score did suit her particular gifts, even if further performances would be unlikely. (In 1961, Ashton presented his own interpretation of this score, with Beriosova in the leading role). In June 1934, just as Balanchine was establishing himself in America with the first performance of Serenade, Stravinsky became a French citizen. He had a great desire to be accepted in French musical life, and hoped to succeed Dukas (who had recently died) at the Institut de France in 1935. When this initiative failed, the pull of America and the uncertainty of the European political situation (his music was heavily criticised by the ascendant Nazi Party) caused him to look more to opportunities across the Atlantic. With Dushkin, he made a concert tour to the USA in 1935, his first for ten years. An important part of that tour was a meeting with Kirstein and Balanchine; a Stravinsky Festival was being planned for the American Ballet, and it was hoped that a new ballet could be included in the programme. The result, described as a 'ballet in three deals' was Jeu de Cartes, the score being completed in France in 1936. The composer returned enthusiastically to the USA while rehearsals were in progress, a suggestion of the working relationship that was to develop between Stravinsky and Balanchine. The première of this first Stravinsky/Balanchine collaboration in America took place in New York in April 1937. Another American commission soon came Stravinsky's way, this time for an orchestral work (the Concerto in E flat, generally known as the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto after the place of its first performance, the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, D.C.) Stravinsky returned to France, but Europe was now on the brink of war. If he needed an impulse to return to America, it soon arrived when he was offered the Chair of Poetry at Harvard for 1939/40, necessitating residence in Cambridge or Boston. This was a time of great sadness in Stravinsky's private life, with the deaths of his mother, wife, and daughter. Stravinsky settled in Los Angeles, not far from another giant of 20^th century music who had emigrated from Europe – but their worlds were far apart. Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was one of the most influential of all composers, his work having had far-reaching effects on the development of 20^th century musical composition. Observing Stravinsky's career at this point, it was as if Schoenberg did not exist; it had long been so.

The influence of Schoenberg Dismissed from his teaching post in Berlin by the Nazis in 1933, Schoenberg had reconverted to Judaism in Paris in the same year, and later emigrated to America. He taught at the University of California from 1936 to 1944, becoming an American citizen in 1941. It was during this period that he adopted 'Schoenberg' rather than 'Schönberg' as the spelling of his name. Schoenberg's name will forever be associated with the development of his 'method of composing with twelve-notes', leading to the emergence of serialism as a dominant force in 20^th century composition. Born in Vienna, he grew up in an era when the tendency to add more and more notes foreign to the key (chromaticisms) and to wander through various keys rather freely (inevitably loosening the basic sense of key) was becoming particularly strong. Liszt, for one, had had a hand in this development earlier in the 19^th century, but it was Wagner who had made the biggest impact; the Prelude to his opera Tristan and Isolde (1859) was regarded as being particularly influential, and seemed to many in retrospect to signify the beginnings of 'modern music'. It has to be said that the music of, among others, the Russian composer Scriabin (and even some of the music of Debussy) seemed also to be dabbling with tendencies towards lack of key centre, but it was in Vienna that Germanic romanticism developed a luxuriant intensity of chromaticism that led down the route towards atonality, or lack of key-centre. Starting from a recognisable late 19^th century Germanic romantic idiom, Schoenberg produced music with dense textures, ever more filled with tension and unresolved dissonance. Such a work as Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night, composed in 1899) led to the point where, in 1909, Schoenberg could no longer pretend to be writing in any particular key; his music could now only be described as atonal. (Verklärte Nacht was choreographed by Tudor as Pillar of Fire in 1942). Three years later, he produced one of his best-known works of this period, Pierrot Lunaire (1912), a melodrama for female voice and nine instruments. The solo part for this cycle of 21 songs to poems by Giraud (translated into German) is notated in approximate pitches (known as Sprechgesang or Sprechstimme). The work was inevitably attractive to choreographers; the best-known dance production is that by Glen Tetley (1962). Sometimes the music of this period is associated with expressionism in art, but, as with impressionism, the use of the word in this context can be somewhat vague. It is noteworthy that Schoenberg was dealing with the poignant figure of Pierrot at much the same time as Stravinsky wrote Petrushka. Although Petrushka was the Russian Pulcinella, or Mr. Punch, the costume design by Benois for Stravinsky's ballet gave Petrushka something of the appearance of Pierrot rather than the traditional fairground Petrushka; the puppet with a sensitive heart, famously played with unforgettable poignancy by Nijinsky.

Schoenberg, along with others, searched for a new discipline in composition, now that traditional major and minor keys no longer satisfied their needs. The answer was found in a method of organising all twelve notes of the octave (i.e. all the black and white notes on the keyboard) in such a way that no single pitch acquired importance above any of the others as did the keynote (or tonal centre) in traditional tonal music. The composition would be based on a 'note-row' or 'series' in which each note must appear once, and the whole row completed before being used again. The row might also be used inverted (e.g. if the second note of the original was a semitone higher than the first, it would now be a semitone lower, and so on), or backwards ('retrograde') or a combination of both (retrograde and inverted). The new technique was used for harmony as well as melody, and inevitably resulted in many listeners dismissing new music as incomprehensible, since they no longer had the familiarity and security of a recognisable key centre to latch on to. Schoenberg presented his first works in this vein to the musical world in 1923. Of his two main disciples, Alban Berg (1885-1935), who tended to use Schoenberg's principles with a degree of freedom, wrote in an emotional idiom that was more easily assimilated by the average listener; Anton von Webern (1883-1945), on the other hand, developed a style that was often cerebral and economic in the extreme, sparse textures being a feature of scores that were often very brief. For some decades, Schoenberg's example dominated the minds of composers. Some adopted his ideas spasmodically, while others took the new ways to further extremes, involving the organisation of a series of note-lengths as well as pitch. Whatever the response, serialism was the way of the avant-garde.

America - the late 30's and early 40's

For the moment, Stravinsky continued to pursue composition in a continuation of the neo-classical style that he had developed during the 1920's and 30's; the culmination of his work in this idiom is represented by his opera The Rake's Progress (1951), inspired by the engravings of Hogarth. Stravinsky's aesthetic ideas were summarised in the six lectures that he gave at Harvard after arriving in the USA in September 1939. The lectures were later published under the title The Poetics of Music, in which he adhered strongly to his concept of 'the Apollonian principle', eschewing romantic expression and favouring a view of art that concentrated on form and structure. However, the reality of life in his newly adopted country was very different to that of France. Needing to earn a living, Stravinsky surveyed the world of commercial music, and explored music for film as well as writing the Ebony Concerto for Woody Herman's jazz band. The latter was premièred in the year following Scènes de Ballet (1944), written for a Billy Rose revue with Markova and Dolin as the star dancers. Stravinsky resisted Billy Rose's offer to arrange for his music to be re-orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett, the leading arranger for Broadway Musicals! One film project that came to nothing was for Werfel's The Song of Bernadette; the music intended for the scene concerning the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes reputedly found its way into the slow movement of Stravinsky's first substantial 'American' work, the Symphony in 3 Movements. Composed between 1942 and 1945 (the year Stravinsky became an American citizen), and first performed in New York in 1946, this dramatic score was another of Stravinsky's concert works to inspire Balanchine in the Stravinsky Festival of 1972. Balanchine took the score as he found it, bristling with bursts of energy, and at times anything but Apollonian (the origins of the outer movements as music for wartime film and newsreel had been played down by the composer).

To complement their School of American Ballet, Balanchine and Kirstein made more than one attempt to set up a professional company. By 1935, their first company, American Ballet, had made its début in New York, and eventually became the resident company at the Metropolitan Opera. This association finished in 1938. The company was revived in 1941 for a tour of South America, together with another Kirstein company, Ballet Caravan. But this brief excursion by American Ballet Caravan was a short interlude for Balanchine, who was otherwise working for Hollywood and Broadway. He also worked for the descendants of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo which had been founded after the death of Diaghilev, but now split into different factions. The group led by Colonel de Basil (which had come to be called the Original Ballet Russe) toured widely in the Americas during the early 1940's, and in January 1941 gave the première in New York of Balanchine's Balustrade, a ballet that Stravinsky later recalled provided “one of the most satisfactory visualisations” of his music.... “a dance dialogue in perfect co-ordination with the dialogues of the music.” The music in this case was the violin concerto of 1931. Just over 30 years after Balustrade, Balanchine would once again be working with this music, but with new choreography for the Stravinsky Festival of 1972. By then, Balanchine had forgotten the earlier work. He said that what he wanted to do for the later ballet reflected the distance in time from his first realisation of the score; he was also working with different dancers.

Another brief collaboration with Stravinsky, providing light relief, occurred in 1942 with a new 'ballet' lasting just over three minutes. This was the Circus Polka for the 50 elephants of Barnum and Bailey's Circus; it had 425 performances, with its première in Madison Square Garden in 1942. For the Festival of 1972, the piece was re-choreographed for the ballet stage by Jerome Robbins.

From 1944 till 1946, Balanchine worked for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, another offshoot of the earlier Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, that toured extensively throughout the USA introducing new ballets to a wide audience. His work for this company, the rival faction to de Basil's group, included another realisation of Stravinsky's music, Danses Concertantes. Despite its title, Stravinsky had intended the music as a concert item of idealised dance movements; it was commissioned as such, and had first been performed in Los Angeles in 1942. However, such was Balanchine's attraction to the dance quality in the music that it received its première as a ballet by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1944 at New York's City Center, a theatre that was later to be Balanchine's home from home for many years. Danses Concertantes was also re-worked by Balanchine for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival, by which time a number of other choreographers had also made their own versions.

Ballet Society and 'Orpheus'

In 1946, Balanchine and Kirstein formed a new company, Ballet Society, organised for a subscription audience. Once again, Balanchine made a fresh start with a ballet that later found its way into the repertoire of many other companies. The Four Temperaments, with music by another European emigré, the German composer Paul Hindemith, received its première in November 1946. Having had his own difficulties with the Third Reich, Hindemith had settled in the USA in 1940, with a professorship at Yale. The score, dating from that year, consisted of a Theme and Variations for strings and piano. Balanchine, who had originally commissioned the score, used the sub-title of the music for the title of his new ballet.
 

The scene was now set for further collaboration between Balanchine and Stravinsky. A new ballet was commissioned for Ballet Society continuing the classical theme that had proved so successful in Apollo. The first performance of Orpheus was given in New York in April 1948. This was the only collaboration between Balanchine, Stravinsky, and the designer Isamu Noguchi. Significantly, the ballet was given at the New York City Center, which already housed the New York City Drama Company and the New York City Opera. The work proved to be influential for the future of American ballet; the chairman of City Center was moved to invite Balanchine and his dancers to join City Center as the resident company. In October 1948, the programme that marked the inauguration of New York City Ballet also included Orpheus, together with Concerto Barocco (using the Concerto in D minor for two violins by Bach), and Symphony in C, which had first been presented the previous year as Le Palais de Cristal by the Paris Opera Ballet when Balanchine had visited that company as guest choreographer. (The music for Symphony in C was, appropriately, by a French composer – a work from 1855 by the 17 year-old Bizet that had been lost and only given its first performance in 1935).

The composition of Orpheus took Stravinsky into the study of early music, especially that of Monteverdi. The opening of the work, portraying the lament of Orpheus for Eurydice, includes a descending scale on the harp in one of the ancient modes, rather than a major or minor scale, immediately establishing an air of antiquity. There is a quiet intensity and restraint in much of this music, which was written as a result of the closest collaboration between choreographer and composer. It is worth noting here that Stravinsky's previous commission for Balanchine, Jeu de Cartes, had been written while he was in living in France and Balanchine in America, and Apollo had not been written in the first instance for Balanchine at all (even if he had been waiting in the wings to choreograph the first European performance of that work). Never before had the two worked so closely together.

It was at this time that Stravinsky met a young American conductor who was to become a close friend and associate - Robert Craft. Besides his admiration for the work of Stravinsky and an interest in the music of the baroque, Craft had a great sympathy for the music of Schoenberg and his followers. Stravinsky was encouraged by Craft in his own awakening interest in serialism, though it was particularly the terse music of Webern that drew Stravinsky rather than the complex scores of Schoenberg.

Agon – the background

Plans for a new ballet score by Stravinsky for New York City Ballet occupied a considerable part of the composer's correspondence in the early 1950's. Kirstein, who had a definite wish for a ballet to complete the classical trilogy begun by Apollo and Orpheus, had suggested a new ballet as far back as 1948. Discussion between Kirstein, Balanchine, and Stravinsky continued for some time. Eventually, it was agreed that the new ballet would be in accord with Stravinsky's suggestion, taking a Greek title (Agon – the Greek for “contest”), but making reference to the old dance forms that Stravinsky had studied in a manual of dance theory from 1623 (the Apologie de la Danse by de Lauze). The composer began work on the new score in 1953.

In 1951, Arnold Schoenberg, the father figure of serial composition, died in Los Angeles. He had bequeathed an enormous legacy, and had cast a great influence over 20^th century music, with many composers having at least experimented with note rows and serialism even if they were not totally immersed in these techniques. It now seemed as if the death of Schoenberg had released Stravinsky from a self-imposed restraint that had prevented him from exploring the use of these techniques for himself. Gradually, he adopted the methods of serialism. For the moment, however, he began the composition of Agon with a definite sense of tonal centre. Serialism would find its way into later parts of the work.

Stravinsky and Balanchine met to plan the scenario in the summer of 1953; as Balanchine later remarked, Stravinsky did not enjoy having all the time in the world for his composition, and felt more comfortable when the length of the ballet and its internal organisation had been planned. Stravinsky, according to Balanchine, lived in a house full of clocks, fascinated by the calculation of time.

Work proceeded on Agon, but towards the end of 1954 Stravinsky put the new ballet score aside in order to work on a tribute to the poet Dylan Thomas who had died in 1953. In Memoriam Dylan Thomas furthered Stravinsky's work in serial technique. Stravinsky then completed the Canticum sacrum (1955) for St Mark's, Venice, another work exhibiting serial procedures in its composition, before returning to Agon.

As with jazz, or any other idiom, Stravinsky assimilated the language of serialism and made it his own. In Agon, he uses it to shape austere instrumental lines. Unlike his earlier experience with Le Rossignol, where a change of musical language had created a work lacking consistency, Stravinsky managed to combine serial and non-serial elements in Agon without the one being at odds with the other. Indeed, in the first part of the score to use a twelve note series (the Coda at the end of the first pas-de-trois), the violin solo has a distinctly non-serial structure (though it does use short bursts of chromatic movement), but it is combined with descending phrases using all twelve semitones; these are first heard in the flutes, then in the mandolin. This was the last part of Agon to be written before Stravinsky left the work unfinished at the end of 1954. Work on the score re-commenced during the latter part of 1956, the composition being completed by April 1957. The first concert performance of Agon took place in June 1957 in Los Angeles; the first stage performance by New York City Ballet at City Center, New York, on 1st December 1957.

Agon – its structure

The design of Agon has a satisfying mathematical neatness. The ballet calls for twelve dancers: four men and eight women. Dressed in practice clothes, and working on a bare stage, they perform in various combinations, distilling centuries of dance tradition in barely 24 minutes of concentrated virtuosity. The structure of the ballet can readily be seen from the score:

	Pas-de-Quatre	Four men
	Double Pas-de-Quatre	Eight women
	Triple Pas-de-Quatre	Four men and eight women
	Prelude	One man and two women
First Pas-de-Trois:	Saraband-Step	One man
	Gailliarde	Two women
	Coda	One man and two women
	Interlude	Two men and one woman
Second Pas-de-Trois:	Bransle simple	Two men
	Bransle gay	One woman
	Bransle double	Two men and one woman
	Interlude	One man and one woman
	Pas-de-Deux	One man and one woman
	Four duos	Four men and four women
	Four trios	Four men and eight women
	Coda	Four men and eight women

The ballet begins with the four male dancers facing the back of the stage, a position they return to at the end of the work. This immediately evokes memories of Orpheus, where the central character is seen at the opening of the ballet with his back to the audience. But there, Orpheus is in mourning; here the music has a ceremonial quality, with fanfares in the brass. The ritual has begun. The fanfares give way to the contrasting sounds of unusual combinations of instruments, including harp and mandolin, evoking the sense of looking back rather mistily to court ballets of centuries ago. Agon employs a large orchestra, but it is used economically, often relying on only a small number of instruments for a whole dance movement.

Pas-de-Quatre, Double Pas-de-Quatre, Triple Pas-de-Quatre: The opening trumpet fanfares starting on a repeated C help to establish that note as the key centre of the Pas-de-quatre. As with Apollo, Stravinsky begins (and ends) his ballet using the white notes of the key of C. (Even Orpheus uses the same white notes of the keyboard for the opening scale on the harp, though the key centre there is E, giving the score its ancient modal quality). The music for the first three sections is cumulative in its intensity, an effect which is enhanced by shifting the tonal centre for the Double Pas-de-quatre up to D (a note that is now strongly reiterated in the bass). The Pas-de-quatre, with its fanfares and contrasts, changes time signature frequently, but the Double Pas-de-quatre begins with a driving four beats in a bar, later shifting to five; the Triple Pas-de-quatre reverts to four beats in a bar. By contrast, rhythms in three-beat groups dominate the dances in each of the Pas-de-trois, excepting for the Bransle Simple in the second Pas-de-trois which has a straightforward four-beat time signature throughout.

The Prelude that introduces the first Pas-de-trois uses fanfare-like repeated notes in the trumpets as for the opening Pas-de-quatre, but this time anticipated by the timpani. The second Pas-de-trois and the Pas-de-deux are introduced by Interludes that are a variation of the Prelude. The Coda at the end of the ballet provides a recapitulation of the opening Pas-de-quatre.

First Pas-de-trois: The French dance titles that appear at certain points in the ballet were used as a starting point by Stravinsky, but only as a starting point. However, the music for the Saraband-Step that begins the First Pas-de-trois retains the ceremonial quality (and triple time) of that well-known ancient dance style. The orchestration for this male solo dance makes strong use of a solo violin (perhaps a reference to the instrument associated with the dancing masters of times past); the violinist is joined by a xylophone and two trombones (with a few notes from the cellos). This exotic combination is followed by a complete contrast of sound in the succeeding galliard, or Gailliarde as it is spelt in the score. Two flutes, mandolin, harp, and solo lower strings give an airy lightness to the sounds that accompany the two female dancers. The traditional triple time rhythms of the galliard are neatly manipulated, hinting at the stylistic variations of rhythm that were used in galliards of the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries, but here inevitably providing something fresh.

Both Balanchine and Stravinsky absorbed freely from the world around them, and it is easy to imagine choreographer and composer having a wry smile as they survey centuries of dance in this intensely concentrated work In the Coda that concludes the first Pas-de-trois, for example, Balanchine includes eccentrically jazzy movement in response to the jerky rhythm of the solo violin. This is the very dance section where Stravinsky introduces free use of a 12-note theme (i.e. using all available pitches in the octave), a technique with a reputation for producing somewhat cerebral music, but used here in a very different context. Towards the end of this Coda, a series of isolated movements of the shoulders is followed by a sequence of four supported pirouettes as the orchestra reaches sustained chords played by the unlikely combination of three flutes, trombone, and solo violin; this leads to a unison movement from the dancers as they suddenly reach towards the floor, perfectly matching the predominantly low pitched sounds of the percussive final chord in their semblance of a deep bow (and as you can see in the earlier picture).

Second Pas-de-trois: Inevitably the various possibilities of combining three dancers are exploited to the full. Such devices as unison and canon swiftly follow one another, as in the opening of the Interlude that introduces the second Pas-de-trois; in the same Interlude, there is a brief hint of a courtly bow by the two men towards the female dancer between them as the music moves into the slower tempo of its second section. The two male dancers are then left to perform in canon for the Bransle Simple, exactly matching the canon for two trumpets in the score. (This instrumentation was inspired by an engraving of two trumpeters in de Lauze's book, accompanying a Bransle Simple). The men then mirror each other's movements for the central section of the music before the canon returns.
 

The Bransle Gay that follows features a castanet ostinato in the orchestra. The two men tap out its gentle and unvarying triple-time rhythm during the solo female dance, and then echo her final pose, as she holds one hand high - Spanish style, it would seem - at the end of her dance. The rhythmic structure here uses a device employed previously by Stravinsky, where a melody written in varying time signatures is combined with an ostinato in regular metre (the same effect is achieved in the opening March from The Soldier's Tale of 1918). The dancer gradually introduces her own counterpoint to the intricate rhythm patterns of the flutes. The violins, having hardly been heard so far in this Pas-de-trois, now enter incisively at the beginning of the Bransle Double; the delicate woodwind writing and restrained use of the castanets in the Bransle Gay are replaced by music of much greater intensity. The effect is heightened by the wide leaps in the violin part; starting on a high C, the music leaps down nearly two octaves to a low D, then to an E flat in between, and so on, till all twelve notes of a tone row have been used.

Pas-de-deux: Sometimes Stravinsky bases his music on a series of notes consisting of fewer pitches than the full twelve semitones (e.g. he might choose only six different pitches for his theme, as he does when writing for horns and piano for the male solos in the Pas-de-deux). However, having employed twelve-note themes using all available pitches in an octave for the Coda at the end of the first Pas-de-Trois, and for the Bransle Double in the second Pas-de-trois, he now uses them freely in the Pas-de-deux and the final Duos and Trios. The effects achieved in all of these sections vary considerably. The Pas-de-deux sounds particularly strange and disjointed at first hearing; few instruments are used at once, wide leaps abound in the instrumental lines, and the sparse texture – together with the slow speed – gives a feeling of remoteness. But, despite the strangeness of the music, the classical features of a pas-de-deux, including an adagio, solos for the individual dancers, and a coda are still there. However, the adagio ends with an 11 bar section containing shorter notes (and more of them), which suddenly gives an impression of greater intensity. The coda, on the other hand, having established a vigorous style (such as might be expected from the traditional fast ending of a grand pas-de-deux) moves to a quieter section at half speed, restoring the atmosphere of the adagio. The scoring of Stravinsky's Pas-de-deux also bears reference to 19^th century tradition; a solo violin is prominent in the opening adagio (an intriguing parallel with the pas-de-deux from Act 2 of Swan Lake!), while horns accompany the male solo.

In the adagio of the Pas-de-deux, the female dancer moves from one virtuoso balance to another. There are many famous images from this section, such as an attitude for the female dancer with her leg hooked around her partner's shoulders. The music for the first part of the adagio is repeated; when the same musical phrase (in the solo violin) is reached for a second time, the attitude is more extreme, with the working leg now crushed against the man's chest. Possibly the most famous image of this adagio is that of the male dancer flat on his back as his raised hand provides support for his partner's precarious high arabesque; this occurs just before the predominantly rarefied atmosphere of the adagio is replaced by music of greater intensity, marking the approaching end of a section in the score. The music that follows evokes more vigorous movement, the female dancer, supported by her partner, twisting and turning as she repeatedly falls into splits and rises again before coolly retreating in order to leave the stage free for the first male solo.

The solos that follow the adagio introduce a suitable burst of energy, the jagged outlines of the horn part being matched by movement that ends in a jump for the male dancer with flexed feet. The female solo, at the same speed, is marked by the gentler sound of flutes in short phrases accompanied by the chug of repeated string chords in an asymmetrical pattern; such small melodic fragments, twisting around a few notes, had always been part of Stravinsky's idiom, and the mind is taken back to certain moments in The Rite of Spring. After a reprise of the music for horns and piano for another short male solo, the Coda begins in vigorous style. It is not long, however, before Stravinsky re-introduces the mood of the opening adagio, with its slow fragmented idiom. The strong image of the high supported arabesque with the male dancer lying on the floor reappears, though this time the girl is not on pointe, and her partner is now on his side, facing the audience. Again, the effect marks the imminent end of a musical section; the male dancer soon rises, and within a few bars the Pas-de-deux is complete.

Four Duos, Four Trios, Coda: The music for the Four Duos begins with lower strings only, soon joined by the trombones. At the opening of the Four Trios, all the strings are involved (as are, inevitably, all the dancers). Trombones and trumpets enter with a reminder of short phrases first heard near the beginning of the opening Pas-de-quatre, then the horns gradually begin to hint at the fanfares that opened the ballet. Stravinsky now moves effortlessly into a recapitulation of the Pas-de-quatre (the Coda); this time, all twelve dancers are involved. However, as the music nears its end, the female dancers leave the stage, allowing the male dancers to resume the position they had at the beginning of the ballet.

Postlude

Agon was the last of the three ballets commissioned specifically for Balanchine and Stravinsky, and stands as a celebration of their unique collaboration. The remaining musical commission for them was the musical play The Flood, first performed on television in 1962. Balanchine however created many other ballets to Stravinsky's music, especially (but not only) for the Stravinsky Festivals in 1937, in 1972 (Stravinsky died in 1971) and in 1982 (for the centenary of Stravinsky's birth). Three short works produced in the 1960's were Monumentum and Movements (the two normally linked in performance), and Variations. These were all choreographed within a relatively short time of their composition, Monumentum being an arrangement for instruments of vocal music by the Renaissance composer Gesualdo, Movements a work for piano and orchestra, and Variations a very short piece in memory of Aldous Huxley, which (for the purposes of the ballet) is played three times. A major new ballet involving the music of Stravinsky was Jewels (1967), already referred to as it uses Stravinsky's Capriccio (1929).

Balanchine said that when making choreography to Stravinsky's music he was careful not to hide the music. “When too much goes on on stage, you don't hear the music.” He also considered that “music like Stravinsky's cannot be illustrated; one must try to find a visual equivalent that is a complement rather than an illustration. ..As an organizer of rhythms, Stravinsky, I have always thought, has been more subtle and various than any single creator in history.” Stravinsky, for his part, had commented: “choreography, as I conceive it, must realise its own form, one independent of the musical form though measured to the musical unit. Its construction will be based on whatever correspondences the choreographer may invent, but it must not seek merely to duplicate the line and beat of the music”. (This had been said in the context of a discussion in Memories and Commentaries by Stravinsky and Craft concerning Nijinsky's choreography and the problems associated with it; problems that had arisen in Stravinsky's view because of Nijinsky's lack of musical technique). Stravinsky had recognised Balanchine's musical ability at the première of Apollo in 1928.

Balanchine, as is well known, worked with a wide variety of music as well as that of Stravinsky; popular, exotic, and esoteric. However, he was particularly drawn to the composer both he and Stravinsky revered: Tchaikovsky. One of his last ballets was a re-working of Mozartiana, the title of the 4^th orchestral suite of Tchaikovsky, which is itself a tribute to a composer of another era, consisting of Tchaikovsky's own arrangements of music by Mozart. Balanchine had first used this music in 1933 for his own short-lived company, Les Ballets; the new ballet was for the New York City Ballet Tchaikovsky Festival of 1981.

Balanchine's musical insight was legendary, but it was the creative partnership of composer and choreographer that was unique in the collaborative work of Balanchine and Stravinsky, each fully aware of the depth of the other's art. The final word is with Balanchine, who found every bar of Stravinsky's music filled with vitality: 'Each measure has its complete, almost personal life, it is a living unit. There are no blind spots anywhere.'.

Quotes from Balanchine are from his “Festival of Ballet”. Stravinsky's comments are from “Memories and Commentaries”, his autobiographical work written with Robert Craft.