Symphony in Three Movements

Igor Stravinsky’s first movement in his Symphony in Three Movements evokes wartime images as well as memories of the ballet.  Written from 1942 to 1945 in the United States, the Symphony in Three Movements was a part of the neoclassical trend in a time when classical music from late 18th and early 19th centuries was being recovered. Even though Stravinsky wrote this symphony in the United States, he lived parts of his life in Russia and France as well. Perhaps as a result of his personal past in nations that fought each other around the time of the symphony’s composition, this first movement was inspired by the scorched earth bombing tactics in Europe and Asia during World War II.  

            The first movement begins with a frenzied string and brass sequence followed by racing woodwinds and tense piano, clearly alluding to conflict. The dynamics rise and fall as a sense of uneasiness continues to progress and begins to subside. The music’s melody, dynamics, and rhythm calm down to a bit of resolution but still advance with some volatility. The wary, apprehensive build up followed by explosive notes is reminiscent of the air of danger and anticipated warfare in a battle zone.

The woodwinds and strings respond to each other, at first grimly and then almost playfully amidst cyclical changes in dynamics and tone, seeming to be story-like and character-driven. This is why I thought the first movement sound like the score for a turbulent ballet, even before I knew that the balletmaster George Balanchine created a ballet titled Symphony in Three Movements using Stravinsky’s work of the same title. I’m a huge fan of ballets, and one thing that makes Stravinsky stand out to me is how he knows how to write music for story that’s meant to be performed through dance, and he did it often, with many of his works being artistically collaborative with Balanchine.

Stravinsky not only brought back history in his revival of classical music, but he assisted in renewing ballet’s relevance when his Symphony in Three Movements became a ballet in the 1970s, and he continues to remind people of the past in his music’s reminiscence of World War II’s brutality.  Perhaps this is why his music is timeless.