Tropological Interaction and Expressive Interpretation in Stravinsky’s Neoclassical Works

A striking feature of Stravinsky’s neoclassical works is his simultaneous use of two or more topics. Robert S. Hatten (2014) has defined this process as troping, which involves four axes or “dimensions along which an imported topic and its potential tropological interaction may be marked with respect to its new environment,” defined as degrees of compatibility, dominance, creativity, and productivity. In this article, I use these four axes to demonstrate how combining analytical insights from each axis and adapting them for twentieth-century music can lead to nuanced expressive interpretations of Stravinsky’s neoclassical works.