Completed and recorded on this day in Vienna in 1925, Igor Stravinsky’s (see previously) Serenade in A, dedicated to his wife Yekaterina, resulted from the composer’s first gramophone contract for the American Brunswick label and written expressly so that each movement would fit on one side of a 78 rpm disc. Neither A major nor A minor is the key, despite the title, but rather the music tends towards A as a tonic pole—inspired by the chord progression and radial structure of eighteenth century Nachtmusik, serenades, usually written for a string ensemble as a piece of occasional music commissioned by an entertaining patron. The concluding movement after the hymne, romanza and rondoletto is a meditation on the composer’s Russian heritage.
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synchronoptica
one year ago: voting from space (with synchronopticรฆ), split-screen campaigning plus British holiday camps
twelve years ago: a misguided delegation to revolutionary Egypt
thirteen years ago: deep bore holes plus aerial antennae and cellular masts
fourteen years ago: separatist movements in Italy
fifteen years ago: predatory student loans
seventeen years ago: an overheated engine
