Stravinsky Now
NICOLAS NABOKOV
To jacques Maritain
SKY
was perfectly clear when Stravinsky asked his driving
companion to turn on the windshield wiper. The composer's eyes
were fixed on the pendulum of the wiper as they drove through the
blue California hills, and not even on returning home did he explain
his behavior. The story repeated itself the next day and the next.
Stravinsky would telephone his friend, ask to be taken for a drive
and, once in the car, would request that the windshield wiper be
turned on even
if
the day was fair and clear. For a long while he
would tensely watch the motion of the pendulum over the yellowish
surface of the windshield. The time came, however, when he asked
his friend to stop the car so that he might make some notations. After–
wards he explained in his usual ceremonious manner: "Y
au
see, I
was puzzled by the irregularity of the motion of your wiper. It took
me some time to determine the nature. of
this
irregularity, to discover
the pattern of its rhythm, and then to find the precise way of putting
it down on paper. Now I have found it-here it is!"
Of the many true and apocryphal anecdotes told about Stravinsky
this latest one is to me exceptionally revealing. Whether it really hap–
pened or not
i'>
beside the point; of interest is the fact that such an
anecdote is being told and repeated in musical circles. For it points
both to what Stravinsky as a musician and as a person means to his
colleagues and to certain tendencies by which he has been increasingly
swayed in recent years. It may be said, too, that the various reactions
to this little story are a very good measure of the response to Stra–
vinsky's later work.
Probably the most widespread view of Stravinsky's music is ex–
pressed by the skeptical question so frequently heard: "Do you really
think that Stravinsky has fulfilled his promise?"-implying of course
a negative answer. People who hold this view generally contend that
since Stravinsky has ceased to use Russian folk themes his music has
suffered a steady decline. They believe that the presence of national
characteristics is not only an asset but a necessary virtue of musical
