Stravinsky
Stravinsky is considered to be one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. He introduced two of the first major suggestions of contemporary music. He is thought of as somewhat revolutionary because of the clamorous reception of his new style.
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882. His birthplace is Oranienbaum, Russia, which is now Lomonosov. His father was the leading bass singer at the Imperial Opera House in Saint Petersburg. Although he came from a very music-oriented family, Stravinsky was not encouraged to pursue a musical career. Instead he was pushed to study law. He attended the University of Saint Petersburg. During his studies at the university, he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Encarta).
Korsakov was a famous Russian composer and a theoretician known for his book on orchestration, Principles of Orchestration (classical).
Korsakov pointed the way to Stravinsky’s early works, and his influence can be deciphered in early pieces such as Symphony No. 1 in E Flat. Soon afterwards the contribution of two French impressionists, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, affected his work. This French influence produced pieces such as Fireworks and The Faun and the Shepherdess. Impressed by his orchestral talent, Sergey Diaghilev, a Russian impresario, commissioned Stravinsky to compose pieces for the Ballets Russes. In 1910, he produced The Firebird, his first ballet for Diaghilev and Petrushka in 1911. Both were very well received and acquired great success from the audience. The pieces were appreciated for their sensational force, their lavish orchestration, and their suggestion of Russian folk songs. (Encarta)
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In 1913, Paris audiences experienced Stravinsky’s revolutionary Rite of Spring. The unorthodox choreography coupled with the irregular, drastic rhythms was not only unbearable for the dancers, but also displeased the audience. The Rite of Spring was performed again in the later years and was very well received. It is the piece he is most known for today.
The year after The Rite of Spring was composed, World War I began its destructive course. Stravinsky left Russia and took refuge in Switzerland. At this time, Stravinsky became interested with the production of classical pieces. He updated the pieces for an augmented harmonious language. Some of these are Pulcinella, a ballet, and Oedipus Rex, which were inspired by the Handelian oratorio. (Classical)
During and after the war, Switzerland underwent troublesome social economic times. This made it nearly impossible for large-scale works to be produced and performed. Subsequently, in 1918, Stravinsky composed The Soldier’s Tale. It used very few resources: six instruments and percussion, three actors and a dancer. The six instruments and percussion depicted the four sections of the orchestra. The Soldier’s Tale clearly illustrates the frustration and dashing of people’s hopes during the years of war. This attitude can also be seen in other pieces such as Ragtime, written in 1918, and Piano Rag-Music from 1919. (Encarta)
In 1920, Stravinsky moved to Paris. In the years that followed his settling in France, he wrote Symphonies of Wind Instruments, in 1920, and the comic opera Mavra, in 1922. He also wrote the ballet cantata Les Noces, which means “the wedding”, in French. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes first performed Les Noces in 1923. During his stay in Paris, Stravinsky also started performing as a pianist and conductor to financially help his family. Consequently, he began to write pieces that were adapted to his own piano capabilities.
When 1923 came around, Stravinsky’s neoclassical style became more apparent. It was characterized by renewed interest in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His works from this period also deviate from the late romantic period and its sentimentality and its excessive emotions. Stravinsky was striving for an ideal of objectivity. This can be seen in his Autobiography, written in 1935, where he states, “Music is by its very best nature … powerless to express anything at all.” (Encarta) He also said that performers should avoid adding their own self-expression and follow only the composer’s intentions. One of the works of this period is Apollo Musagète written in 1928. This piece is now titled Apollo. It is one of the earliest pieces Stravinsky composed for Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine. (Encarta)
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In the early 1920’s, Stravinsky fell in love with an actress. Vera de Bosset Soudeikine became his second wife in 1940, after his first wife passed away. In the middle of the 1920’s, Stravinsky experienced a spiritual crisis. He returned to the church that he had left when he was eighteen: the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1930, he composed his Symphony O Psalms, written to a Latin biblical text. This work seemed to discontinue his ideal of objectivity which he marked his neoclassical style.
In 1939, Stravinsky moved once again. He left Europe and settle in the United States, finding residence in Hollywood, California. At this point, commissions were his main source of financial support. Some of the works he was assigned to produce were Circus Polka and Danses Concertantes in 1942, the latter which was written for orchestra; and in 1944, he wrote Scènes de Ballet for a Broadway revue. In 1951, he wrote an extremely successful opera called The Rake’s Progress. This opera was the ultimate peak of his works as a neoclassical composer. (Encarta)
In 1948, Robert Craft came into Stravinky’s life both as a friend and a musical subordinate. The young American conductor encouraged Stravinsky to listen to the music of surrealists. Previously, Stravinsky had cast aside the theories of surrealism, introduced by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. He now became interested in the music of one of Schoenberg’s followers, Anton Webern. As he learned more about surrealism, Stravinsky blend those techniques into his own work. Serial influences can be distinguished in his 1958 cantata Threni, and his last major work, Requiem Canticles, written in 1966.
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During his mid-80’s, Stravinsky’s health was starting to fail. In 1967, he recorded his last piece of music. Stravinsky died on April 6, 1971 in New York City. He was buried near Diaghilev’s grave in Venice. (Encarta) Stravinsky did not only change nationalities several times, but he also had many different styles of music. His compositions underwent exceptional transformations.
His early works, such as Symphony in E flat, show the influence of his Russian models. His ballets show persuasions from a wide range of composers like Claude Debussy. Stravinsky broke new ground with the complexity and entanglement of The Rite of Spring. When he returned to Paris, he had a new interest in older methods. This was the beginning of his renowned neoclassical period. The culmination of this period was the production of the opera The Rake’s Progress. This work was an acclimatization of one of Mozart’s comedies. Stravinsky once again styles late in his life and was influenced by the methods of twelve tone and serial composition. He also created various religious pieces.
Throughout all his styles, a few peculiarities and singularities remain uninterrupted. One of these characteristics is his clarity of sound because of his dynamic use of orchestration. Another idiosyncrasy is his dryness, which adds to his clarity of sound. Lastly, Stravinsky’s works were always concise and precise, which was the style during the 1920’s, but he kept that form throughout his career. (Essential) He believed that continuing in the same path was “to go backward.” His works not only reflected, but also influenced the most notable musical trends of the twentieth century. The persisting significance came from the technicalities, originality, strength, and rationality that Stravinsky included in his pieces. (Encarta)
Stravinsky’s works were influenced by the composers of the past and affected the musicians of the present. He was a revolutionary who helped bring evolution to the world of composition and orchestration. He is considered to be one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. No other composers of this century, and perhaps any century, wrote in such a variety of styles, as did Stravinsky.
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“Stravinsky’s unpredictable individualism and originality precluded the formation of a school of composition, but the influence of his music has been widespread, ranging from Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich to Darius Milhaud, Aaron Copland, and many others”. (Island)
Works Cited
“Classical net: Igor Stravinsky”. Classical net, 2000. http://www.classical.net/music/comp.1st/stravnsk.html
“Essentials of music – Composers”. Sony Music Entertainment, 2000. http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/composer/stravinsky.html
“Igor Stravinsky”, 1996. http://www.island-of-freedom.com/STRAV.HTM
Zinar, Ruth. “Stravinsky, Igor Fyodorovich” Microsoft Encarta, 2000. http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?z=1&pg=2&ti=0312C000
