Igor Stravinsky | Contemporary manuscript copy of his “Piano-Rag-Music”, 1919

Igor Stravinsky

Contemporary manuscript copy of his Piano-Rag-Music

a fair-copy manuscript, notated by an unidentified scribe in brown ink on up to four two-stave systems per page, headed on the first page “Piano-Rag-music / à / Arthur Rubinstein / Igor Strawinsky / juin 1919.”, and inscribed at the end (“Igor Strawinsky / Morges Juin / 1919”)

8 pages, oblong 4to (263 x 355 mm), 14-stave paper, modern brown cloth folder, bookplate of Stanley J. Seeger to inside of folder, dated at the end Morges, June 1919, browning to outer pages, a few small marks to first page

Exploring a related compositional style as essayed in the Ragtime of L’Histoire du soldat and Rag-Time for eleven players, Stravinsky’s Piano-Rag-Music was written at Morges in June 1919, with, as the composer noted, ‘Arthur Rubinstein and his strong, agile, clever fingers in mind’. According to the composer:

It was inspired by the same ideas, and my aim was the same, as in Rag-Time, but in this case I stressed the percussion possibilities of the piano. What fascinated me most of all in the work was that the different rhythmic episodes were dictated by the fingers themselves..Fingers are not to be despised: they are great inspirers, and, in contact with a musical instrument, often give birth to subconscious ideas which might otherwise never come to life…

But if Stravinsky had hoped to enlist Rubinstein in the cause of contemporary music he failed, since the latter took an aversion to the piece, joking that it was a composition with "no piano, no rag, no music". Rubinstein never played the work in public, the first performance given instead by José Iturbi, at Lausanne, on 8 November 1919. It was published by Chester the following year.

Three autographs of the work (aside from sketch material) have been documented (Paul Sacher Stifting, Basel [R-55]: the first version of the piece; British Library, London [Loan 75-49]; and location unknown: the presentation autograph for Rubinstein), as well as two copies made by Chester. While it has not been possible to clarify the relationship of the present manuscript to some of the other sources, it is possible that it may have originated either in connection with the first performance, or was intended as pre-publication rental material, or may have been made for Chester and released to Rubinstein.

LITERATURE:

Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography, (1962), p.82; Eric Walter White, Stravinsky. The Composer and his Works, pp.280-281; Tom Gordon, ‘Great-Rag-Sketches, Source Study for Stravinsky's Piano-Rag-Music’, Intersections. Canadian Journal of Music. Revue canadienne de musique, vol.26 no.1 (2005), pp.62-85