Petrushka chord

Structure

The Petrushka chord is typically defined as the simultaneous sounding of two major triads separated by a tritone. In Petrushka, Stravinsky employs C major over F major. The version as played in the piano during the second tableau is illustrated below:

\new PianoStaff \new Staff = "up" \relative c'' { \time 3/4 s2. } \new Staff = "down" \relative c' { \time 3/4 \voiceOne \repeat tremolo 12 { { \change Staff = "up" \voiceTwo 32 } { \change Staff = "down" \voiceOne 32 } } }

A variation of the chord, played by the clarinets, is also shown below. In this instance, the F major triad appears in first inversion:

\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \new StaffGroup \new Staff { \clef treble \time 5/4 \hide Staff.TimeSignature \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 128 c'!4 e' g' c''!2 } \new Staff { \clef treble \time 5/4 \hide Staff.TimeSignature ais4 cis' fis' ais'2 } }

The device uses tones that, together, make up a synthetic hexatonic scale (0 1 4 6 7 t). When enharmonically spelled C–D–E–G–G()–B, it is called the tritone scale. Alternatively, when spelled C–D–E–F–G–B, it can be read as the auxiliary diminished scale.

The chords may be considered to contradict each other because of the tritone relationship: "Any tendency for a tonality to emerge may be avoided by introducing a note three whole tones distant from the key note of that tonality." | author-link = Reginald Smith Brindle

At the end of the third tableau, the Petrushka chord appears with Petrushka but at A and E, which, with C and F, create a diminished seventh chord (0, 3, 6, 9) and exhaust the octatonic scale (9 1 4, 3 7 t, 0 4 7, and 6 t 1 = 0 1 3 4 6 7 9 t), "and suggests that it did ... possess for Stravinsky an a priori conceptual status".

\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \new PianoStaff \new Staff = "up" \relative c'' { \time 4/4 s1 } \new Staff = "down" \relative c' { \time 4/4 \voiceOne \repeat tremolo 16 { { \change Staff = "up" \voiceTwo 32 } { \change Staff = "down" \voiceOne 32 } } }

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Petrushka and origin

Although attributed to Stravinsky, the chord (or, more precisely, two simultaneous major chords set a tritone apart, specifically F and B major) was present much earlier in Franz Liszt's Malédiction, a work for piano and strings. (Although the exact date of the composition remains unknown, it is estimated by Humphrey Searle to be from about 1840; the composition is believed to have originated from one of Liszt's early works, performed in 1827.)

Maurice Ravel uses this chord in his piano work Jeux d'eau to create flourishing, water-like sounds that characterize the piece. In his article "Ravel's 'Russian' Period: Octatonicism in His Early Works, 1893-1908", Steven Baur notes that Jeux d'eau was composed in 1901, ten years before Stravinsky composed Petrushka (1911), suggesting that Stravinsky may have learned the trick from Ravel. Stravinsky heard Jeux d'eau and several other works by Ravel no later than 1907 at the "Evenings for Contemporary Music" program.

Stravinsky used the chord repeatedly throughout the ballet Petrushka to represent the puppet and devised the chord to represent the puppet's mocking of the crowd at the Shrovetide Fair. Eric Walter White suggests and dismisses the possibility that the Petrushka chord is derived from Messiaen's "second Modes of limited transposition" (the octatonic scale) in favor of a "black key/white key bitonality" which results from, "Stravinsky's well known habit of composing at the piano."

Other uses

The 1979 song "Kogaion" by Romanian progressive rock band Sfinx makes use of the chord.

The Petrushka chord is dominantly used in the track Above the Clouds, from the 2003 simulation game Sim City 4.

References

References

1. Pogue, David (1997). ''Classical Music for Dummies'', p. 80. {{ISBN. 0-7645-5009-8
2. [[Taruskin, Richard]] (Spring, 1987). "Chez Pétrouchka – Harmony and Tonality "chez" Stravinsky", p. 269, ''19th-Century Music'', Vol. 10, No. 3, Special Issue: Resolutions I., pp. 265–286.
3. Busby, Paul. [http://www.scoredchanges.com/how-to/shorties.pdf "Short Scales"], ''[http://www.scoredchanges.com/tutorials.htm Scored Changes: Tutorials]''.
4. Campbell, Gary (2001). ''Triad Pairs for Jazz: Practice and Application for the Jazz Improvisor'', p.126. {{ISBN. 0-7579-0357-6.
5. Taruskin 1987, p.268.
6. [[Robert Walser (musicologist). Walser, Robert]] (1998). ''Keeping Time : Readings in Jazz History'', p.215. {{ISBN. 0-19-509173-6
7. Paul Merrick. (5 February 1987). "Revolution and religion in the music of Liszt". Cambridge University Press.
8. ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'' 52 (1999), 531–592.
9. Libbey, Ted (1999). The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection: The 350 Essential Works, p.185. {{ISBN. 0-7611-0487-9.
10. Eric Walter White (1966). ''Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works'', p. 161. quoted in Taruskin, Richard (Spring, 1985). "Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic Sorcery; Or, Stravinsky's 'Angle'", p.75, ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'', Vol. 38, No. 1., pp. 72–142.