Pulcinella

Abstract

Before World War I, Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes had enjoyed a tremendously rewarding relationship with Igor Stravinsky, both financially and artistically. In the aftermath of World War I, however, Stravinsky was struggling to adjust to his exile in Switzerland, and could think of nothing he wanted to compose or adapt for Diaghilev's use. Enterprisingly, Diaghilev presented Stravinsky with the work of the Baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, with the idea that the composer could adapt the tunes into a ballet. When Stravinsky proved amenable to the idea, Diaghilev presented him with an old manuscript of Italian commedia dell'arte episodes featuring a heroine named Pulcinella, and suggested Stravinsky base the action on one of these stories. To sweeten the deal, Diaghilev assured Stravinsky that no less an artist than Pablo Picasso would design the sets, and that Léonide Massine, whom Stravinsky respected greatly, would choreograph. These inducements proved overwhelming, and Stravinsky completed Pulcinella in 1920; its premiere was given that May by the Ballets Russes in Paris, conducted by Ernest Ansermet.

The actual plot Stravinsky chose, involving jealous lovers, mistaken identities, and resuscitating magicians, is complicated and busy enough that Stravinsky himself admitted that the resulting work as more of an action dansante than a ballet, although it is subtitled "ballet avec chante" ("ballet with singing"). Stravinsky chose movements from numerous Pergolesi works (and works perhaps mistakenly ascribed to Pergolesi) to illustrate the action, and scored them for a small eighteenth century orchestra: no clarinets or percussion, and concerto and ripenio groups in the strings. Three vocal soloists form part of the orchestra, without portraying individual characters.

Although he distorted phrases and chord patterns in adapting Pergolesi's music, Stravinsky left much of the basic melodic and rhythmic content unaltered; Pergolesi, and his stock of bright, engaging melodies, therefore deserve much of the credit for the success of Pulcinella. But Stravinsky's contribution is equally engaging: Pulcinella is brilliantly scored, using modern string textures that would not sound out of place in Bartók, and engaging combinations like flute, oboe and pizzicato strings or (in an especially witty moment) trombone and double bass. A sense of carefree play never lets up through the score's bustlings and scurryings, and Stravinsky takes care to make sure that the instrumentation remains varied, and that the movements cohere to form a larger formal design. The result sounds characteristic of both Stravinsky and Pergolesi: eighteenth century music living in a twentieth century world.

While Pulcinella was a success for Diaghilev, it proved even more fruitful for Stravinsky: it eventually paved the way for his Neo-Classical style. As he was to write later, "Pulcinella was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a backward look, of course, but it was a look in the mirror, too."

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