Petrushka was Stravinsky’s first major work to follow in the brazen path of Schoenberg’s avant-garde. But Stravinsky; unlike Schoenberg, did not undermine tonality by erasing it. He worried that atonality was too stifling, and that Schoenberg, with all his “rationalism and rules” might end up becoming “a dolled-up Brahms.” Instead, Stravinsky decided to torment his audience by making it overdose on tonality; In Petrushka, a Diaghilev ballet about a puppet who comes to life, Stravinsky took two old folk melodies and set them against each other, like wind-up dolls. As a result, the music is bitonal, unfolding in two keys (F-sharp major, which is almost all black keys, and C major, which is all white keys) simultaneously. The result is unresolved ambiguity, the ironic dissonance of too much consonance. The ear must choose what to hear.
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