''Three Easy Pieces'', also referred to by its original French title ''Trois pièces faciles'', is a collection of

pieces Piece or Pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Piece (chess), pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing the game of chess * ''Pieces'' (video game), a 1994 puzzle game for the Super NES * P ...

for

four hands 'Four Hands' is a Taiwanese drama directed by You-Ning Lee, starring Wu Hsing-kuo. The movie premiered on 12 October 2014 in Taiwan. The story depicts a veteran of the Republic of China Army from Shantung who settled in Taiwan, separated from his ...

by Russian composer

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

. It was finished in 1915 and was published as a set in the winter of 1917.

Composition

Stravinsky's ''Three Easy Pieces'' can be understood as an example of

Gebrauchsmusik () is a German term, meaning "utility music", for music that exists not only for its own sake, but which was composed for some specific, identifiable purpose. This purpose can be a particular historical event, like a political rally or a militar ...

, that is, music that was conceived and composed specifically for some purpose, and not for its own sake. In this case, Stravinsky wrote this set and 1917 '' Five Easy Pieces'' especially for educational purposes. After completing his Valse des fleurs, which is similar to them in the sense that they were composed for his little children to play with him, Stravinsky decided to write pieces for four hands to teach them how to play the piano. The set was composed in Clarens, in 1914 and 1915 and was presented and first performed by José Iturbi, on April 22, 1918. It was eventually published in 1917.

Analysis

The ''Three Easy Pieces'' take approximately three minutes to perform. The pieces are: Even though they are titled as "easy", only the left part is easy, the right hand sustaining the whole burden of the composition. In this case, the '' secondo'' has only one staff and uses both hands to play ostinato parts. The set features an overtly satirical character, in contrast to its twin set, which is much more serious and displays much more insight into Stravinsky's compositional method. Stravinsky once referred to them as "popcorn".

Arrangements

Stravinsky himself made a number of arrangements of these three pieces. Upon completing the set in 1915, Stravinsky made a first transcription of the ''Polka'' for cimbalom and for cimbalom and a small ensemble. Later that year, he also arranged the ''March'' for twelve instruments and the ''Waltz'' for seven instruments. However, only the solo cimbalom version of the Polka was selected for publication. In 1921, Stravinsky reworked the three movements and arranged them for small orchestra, and published them as the first three movements in Suite No. 2.

Polka and Valse

Igor's son, Soulima Stravinsky, also wrote two small arrangements for solo piano, which were published in 1977. ''Polka'' was dedicated to Sergei Diaghilev, and retains most of the composer's original material, with three additional bars at the beginning, making it a total of 43 bars long. Marked "Moderato" at the beginning, the piece is in a constant . ''Valse'', on the other hand, an arrangement of "Waltz", was dedicated to

Eric Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

. Marked "Tempo giusto" in the score, it is 99 bars long and has a ABACA structure (the C part being the Trio). It is in

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

and . Both arrangements require grace notes to be played before the beat. They were published by

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...

References

External links