three puppets — Pétrouchka, the Ballerina, and the Moor — on their stands. With his flute, he seems to bring them to life, to the crowd’s amusement — and then their amazement, as the puppets leap down from the stage and dance among the people to the “Russian Dance,” a combination of original Stravinsky tunes with a folk song from the county of Totemsk. The driving rhythms, repeated phrases, and barbaric energy of this section delighted the 1911 audience — and similar ideas, pushed a few steps further in The Rite of Spring two years later, would cause the most famous protest demonstration in music history. The tattoo of drums from the fair now becomes the way Stravinsky will announce each new scene of the ballet, beginning with Scene 2 in Pétrouchka’s cell, where two clarinets play the phrase, in the clashing keys of C major/F-sharp major, that symbolizes not only Pétrouchka’s clownish character, but his dual nature, half-puppet, half-human. The puppet’s rage at his helplessness and dependence on the Showman is relieved for a time by a visit from the Ballerina, with whom he is in love. His frantic response to her delicate dance frightens her off, and in his frustration he knocks a hole in the cardboard wall separating his box from that of the Moor. Scene 3 takes place in the cell where the richly-dressed Moor lounges, playing with a coconut. (His musical portrait, painted with bass clarinet, english horn, drum, harp, and cymbals, recalls the jangling “Janissary” music with which Mozart and his Viennese contemporaries depicted the menacing Turks.) The Moor’s brutal yet sensual character proves irresistible to the Ballerina, who enters to a march tune for solo trumpet, then dances a delicate puppet-waltz with him (both of whose themes are borrowed from the early Viennese waltz master Joseph Lanner); the stumbling english horn makes it clear that the Moor has two left feet. The jealous Pétrouchka rushes in on this scene, only to be chased off by the Moor. In Scene 4, the frame pulls back to take in the entire fair again, and we hear shimmering string chords that suggest a wheezy accordion. The merry scene includes groups of wetnurses and coachmen dancing separately and together, a peasant with a performing bear, a drunken merchant scattering bank notes among the crowd, and masqueraders representing the Devil and his companions Greed (a pig) and Lust (a goat). Actual Russian folk tunes abound, including two in the wetnurses’ dance (one lively and one lyrical), and, following the Severance Hall 2012-13
About the Music
Composer Igor Stravinsky with Vaslav Nijinsky in his costume as Pétrouchka.
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