mikrokosmos:

mikrokosmos:

Stravinsky – Septet

There’s a horror type channel on YouTube called “Petscop”, about a guy who finds the demo for some old video game, but it’s full of secrets and is slowly unraveling some kind of mystery. It’s interesting in that it’s like one of those old creepypastas only in video format. Anyway the mystery is kind of vague, I’m struggling to put together exactly what the story behind the game is, and all the theories I can think of are very dark and horrible. To my shock, in the most recent episode, a dialogue box came up referencing the second movement of this chamber work in reference to another character. The clue is cryptic, but even so I’m glad to see more “obscure” classical music show up in pop culture. The work is set for clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano, violin, viola, and cello. And though it is inspired by Schoenberg’s 12 tone system, it doesn’t follow those rules strictly. This was the shift away from Stravinsky’s “neo-classical” period into the “serialist” period of the end of his life. The shift was unexpected, and people were shocked at the premiere at how different this was. Contrapuntally dense, lacking the clarity and simplicity of the neo-classical works, and in these dense textures we are exploring every key possible. The opening movement is more reminiscent of the Dumbarton Oaks concerto [this work was also premiered at the same estate], however the second movement, the passacaglia, is where we shift into the unexpected and shadowed atmosphere. This makes sense, considering it is the same kind of atmosphere the Petscop videos create. The tone row is used as the bass line and canonic variations are played overhead, and are also put in retrograde, following Schoenberg’s example. The concluding gigue is actually a double fugue, and it’s rhythmically upbeat and fun, but each instrument sounds as if they are playing the right patterns in the wrong keys, and the work is brought to a dizzy and abrupt end on an ambiguous chord.

Movements:

1. [Quarter Note = 88]

2. Passacaglia

3. Gigue

Funny that I was introduced to this piece by a role-playing horror youtube channel. Growing up, I’d always hear Beethoven, Mozart, or Tchaikovsky referenced in pop culture. More and more I’ve noticed that 20th century music is getting attention. I think there needs to be a full century gap before the “weird” “new” music can touch the mainstream.