Nationalism in Stravinsky Case

A break away from Nationalism in Stravinsky work is evident in his pieces after his migration from Switzerland to France in 1920, in which one can observe the distinct changes in musical devices and thematic material used approaching what is considered a neo-classical approach to his works. However there does exist continuity in the development away from nationalism to his later work. Hence in through the observation of Stravinsky's musical development in instrumentation, melodic, rhythmic and structural aspects along with the influences behind the works one can clearly see the developmental shift in Stravinsky's work.

Firstly, it is important to understand the Russian influences that Stravinsky originally worked under and how these may affect his creative musical style in earlier works and the remnants found in later works. For this purpose we will look at The Firebird and the traditional or nationalistic influences that Stravinsky uses in one of his earliest ballets. The entire work, in many ways, can be considered an example of Rimsky-Korsakov, a device which juxtaposed diatonic melodic lines symbolic of the human domain, with highly chromatic passages associated with the spiritual or supernatural domain. This marked a strong influence of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky tutor, as the pieces as a whole was considered to mimic his compositional form which was augmented with the use of a Debussy-ian approach to tone colour, in particular, the colourist orchestral opulence. To illustrate this use of diatonic and chromatic styles a comparison in the Round of the Princess and the Infernal Dance of King Kaschei. In the Round of the Princess