Grib-borovik or Charka-gorelka? Stravinsky's Treatment of Russian Folk Trochaic Tetrameter

The influence of Russian folklore on Igor Stravinsky has been studied in the West mainly from the perspectives of the composer's reliance on folk melodies and the lack of correspondence between textual and musical accents in his settings. This paper focuses on the second, linguistic aspect of the problem, concentrating in particular on the metric organization of Stravinsky's folk text sources and its influence on his Russian vocal music of the Swiss period (1913-1919). The division of Russian folk verse into regular and irregular verse forms the methodological basis for the study. Adapted from the source document