‘Composing with Intervals’: Intervallic Syntax and Serial Technique in Late Stravinsky

In Stravinsky's final serial works, the intervallic component assumed a more decisive role than in his in earlier compositions, becoming the foundational aspect of a ‘motivic’ technique, the specific aspects of which are illustrated here through several sketch-based analyses. In Stravinsky's case, motivic-intervallic syntax and serial procedures operate according to slightly but significantly different criteria: the first on the level of single intervals, the second on the level of pitch-class sets. Using several specific examples drawn from compositions ranging from Agon to the Requiem Canticles, this article demonstrates that the discrepancy provided Stravinsky with a stimulus, rather than an obstacle, to composition, and provides a guide to the interpretation of certain well-known characteristics both of his creative process and of his serial technique. The music-theoretical aspects of Stravinsky's intervallic syntax are illustrated, and its interaction with serial technique is observed from two conceptually different directions: from intervallic motives to rows (the initial definition of a row of pitches), and from the row to intervallic motives (the transformation of the ‘abstract’ row into concrete musical contexts).