Margarita Mazo, professor emerita in the School of Music, has received a highly competitive two-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which will enable the first publication of Igor Stravinsky’s manuscripts, drafts, and sketches for his seminal 1923 ballet Les Noces.  Mazo’s collaborator in this project is Olga Haldey, an associate professor at the University of Maryland and a former PhD student at Ohio State.
 
One of the most powerful and influential compositions of the 20th century, Stravinsky's Les Noces was re-envisioned multiple times in its 11-year history.  Conceived in 1912 as a lavish spectacle for the Ballets Russes, its ethnographic narrative of ancient wedding rituals in Russian villages, its oversized orchestra, and elaborate musical style were gradually stripped down to create the abstract, stark work known today.  Extensive autographs for the piece assembled in the Mazo/Haldey edition shed light on all stages of this transformation and reflect Stravinsky's reinvention of his work and of himself as a leader of modern music.
 
Previous grants from the College of Arts and Sciences and American Musicological Society helped to start the project and support initial research.  The NEH grant makes this publication possible by providing funds to purchase more than 800 high-quality full color images, reproduction and copyright fees, library charges, editing, and research travel.  Receipt of full funding from the NEH is rare, with a national average of only 16 percent of all applications funded.  Mazo's award of $195,000 is one of the top four highest dollar amounts awarded to Ohio State faculty by the NEH in the last ten years.