Running in Place: Sketches and Superimposition in Stravinsky's Music
Gretchen G. Horlacher · Music Theory Spectrum · 2001
This article considers Stravinsky's use of superimposed, repeating motivic fragments from the perspective of his sketches and drafts. It describes a common procedure where sketches with single statements of fragments are expanded by the insertion of repetitions from within. Thus, the repetitions originate as interpolations rather than additions, becoming members of a larger formal framework. The paper describes how the fragments may interact contrapuntally to create a series of ordered episodes that counteract their reiterative origins. It considers sketches from Symphony of Psalms and Symphony in Three Movements.