Stravinsky's Ballets by Charles M. Joseph. 2011. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 320 pp., 11 b + w figures, 12 musical examples, references, index. $40.00 cloth (original) (raw)

Using a plethora of primary source material drawn from letters, sketches, and score manuscripts, Charles M. Joseph proposes that Stravinsky's ballets offer a "looking glass" (247) through which we can chart his developing compositional vocabulary. Joseph's emphasis on Stravinsky's use of musical movement, via his employment of pace, rhythm, meter, and silence, substantiates this assertion. It is important to note that one-third of Stravinsky's works were composed for ballet, and more than half of his remaining compositions have also been choreographed. Stravinsky's Ballets charts a trajectory from "the artistic mentor Diaghilev originally set out to be" (111) to Balanchine, who