Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex: The Handelian Ring

by Barry Drogin

"The disparate elements of the score give it a parti-coloured appearance. Much of the choral music has a Russian-flavoured severity, but Creon’s diatonic aria has a Handelian ring to it, while in Jocasta’s chromatic da capo aria one hears refulgent echoes of Italian opera."

- Neil Tierney

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: What is Neoclassicism?
CHAPTER I: ENCOUNTERS WITH OEDIPUS
CHAPTER II: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER III: A BRIEF HISTORY
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS OF THE SCORE
-ACT ONE
-ACT TWO
-FORM AND CONTENT
-A SHORT ANALYSIS
CHAPTER V: NOTES AND QUOTES
-FOOTNOTE: "Gloria"
BIBLIOGRAPHY

This paper was originally written in fulfillment of H205: Contemporary Music, The Cooper Union, May 1980.

NOTE: Robert Craft, the author of many books with and about Igor Stravinsky, has adopted the convention of referring to Mr. Stravinsky as IS. I have decided to also use this abbreviation.

(Note to the 2004 Internet edition: Nearly 25 years after it was written, "Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex: The Handelian Ring" has finally been realized on the Internet using GIF and MIDI files (in Chapter IV) to visually and aurally illustrate the examples. I first perceived such a project in 1999, five years prior, as discussed in my Introduction to "A Musical Contrarian". I am thrilled to finally bring this project to fruition. - BD)

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First Posted: October 4, 2004/Last Updated: August 4, 2007