CCLXXIX. STRAVINSKY, Igor (1882-1971)
Ragtime for 11 Instruments (1918)
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
(4:37)
In my Non-Classical Post clxvii on Sidney Bechet, it was observed that the famed Swiss conductor Ernst Ansermet was very much interested in jazz.
In 1918 -- on his way back from America, where he'd been conducting the second American tour by the Ballet Russes, Ansermet gave Igor some parts and piano reductions of ragtime music (very hot at the time) ...
After writing a ragtime movement for L'Histoire du Soldat (earlier in 1918), he set out to create a unique composition using what he felt were the basic components of the form (mainly a sophisticated kind of syncopation; to be frank, Stravinsky was no Joplin!)
The ensemble consists of:
- Flute
- Clarinet
- French Horn
- Cornet
- Trombone
- Percussion
- Cimbalom
- Violin I
- Violin II
- Viola
- Contrabass
The cimbalom would have been an instrument very familiar to Stravinsky from his Russian childhood:
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