The dramatic finale of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite is a good example of the basic ideas of musical theory. In particular, the multiresolution principle and hierarchichal structure of time-frequency elements are prominent in the passage. We also find the characteristic Stravinskian organization of the sound into pulsation strata.
Our discussion of the finale of the Firebird Suite is based on a case study in the article, ``Music: a time-frequency approach.'' It would be a good idea at this point to listen to the passage that we will analyze.
Click here: Play clip from Firebird Suite
We now analyze the musical structure of this passage using the spectrogram shown below.
Moving from left to right, slide your mouse cursor over the structures marked by the arrows, to read our commentary on the roles played by these structures in the passage (you can also click on the structure to pull up a new webpage with further discussion). You might also wish to read the commentary in the following extract from the book, A Primer on Wavelets and their Scientific Applications (pp. 195-201) which describes these same structures: [book extract (PDF file)].
Let us now listen to the passage again, but also watch the spectrogram being traced out as the music plays. See if our analysis of the passage is confirmed. Note especially how the repetition of the glissandos marks off successive strata of sonorities, these sonoroties consisting of repetition of the main theme at higher and higher pitches (first horns, then strings, then flute) underlayed by varying backgrounds (first constant tonal, then more complex arcs of slowing rising pitch that are composed of combinations of previous arcs). It is also interesting that these strata are more clearly heard, if one pays attention to the arc of repetition of the main theme at increasing pitches, this very long arc is a repetition over a longer time-scale of the smaller arcs that form the string background between the glissandos. Please play the following video, by choosing one of these options:
AVI (best quality, but large size) RAR archive (decompress to view the AVI) MPEG (most compatible, lower quality)
Following the passage we have just analyzed (the introduction to the finale), there is the concluding portion of the finale. The figure below shows a spectrogram of this concluding passage:
"FB"
We leave it to the reader to use the techniques we have described to analyze this passage in detail. Notice, however, that (1) Stravinsky repeats the main theme many times over multiple time scales, that (2) instead of glissandos being used to separate strata, Stravinsky introduces powerful drum strikings, and (3) there are metaphors to flying birds (the section lying above "FB" in the image above). To confirm the points we made, play the video: (note: the video is saved in only compressed RAR format, since standard video formats like AVI and MPEG have mammoth file lengths, over 100 MB in size):
RAR compressed video (one program that will decompress the file is WinRAR).
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