Stravinsky igor biography

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian composer who revolutionised 20th-century music, and provoked riots with The Rite of Spring.

Life and Music

Stravinsky composed masterpieces in almost every genre, most notably an incomparable series of ballet scores.

He discovered a way of rethinking the creative ideals of the 17th and 18th centuries in a thoroughly contemporary idiom and, in doing so, hit upon one of the most vital and far-reaching movements of the last 100 years: Neo-Classicism.

Without Stravinsky the history of 20th-century music would have turned out quite differently.

Although his father was a distinguished bass singer and the young Stravinsky was given every opportunity as a child, Stravinsky hardly showed the kind of unblinkered passion for music which one normally associates with a great composer. Indeed, he looked set for a career in jurisprudence until he met Rimsky-Korsakov, who immediately recognised he had a talent for composition and offered to teach him.

Stravinsky’s big break, the ballet The Firebird, came out of the blue. He was commissioned to compose the music only because Anatoly Lyadov let down the impresario Serge Diaghilev at the last minute.

The premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, in Paris in June 1913, caused a sensation, and Stravinsky was catapulted from obscurity to stardom literally overnight. The notorious performance, interrupted throughout by a hail of farmyard noises from the gallery, ended in chaos with rival factions shouting abuse at each other, and the conductor and musicians fleeing in disarray.

It is one of the miracles of Stravinsky’s output that while each and every piece could be by no one else, no two works sound remotely the same.

Did you know?

In 1942, the great ballet dancer-choreographer George Ballanchine commissioned Stravinsky to write a short piece of music for a ballet with elephants, during which one would lift Ballanchine’s then wife, Vera Zorina, up on to its back.

Russian composer (1882–1971)

"Stravinsky" redirects here. For other uses, see Stravinsky (disambiguation).

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music.

Born to a musical family in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Stravinsky grew up taking piano and music theory lessons. While studying law at the University of Saint Petersburg, he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and studied music under him until the latter's death in 1908. Stravinsky met the impresarioSergei Diaghilev soon after, who commissioned the composer to write three ballets for the Ballets Russes's Paris seasons: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913), the last of which caused a near-riot at the premiere due to its avant-garde nature and later changed the way composers understood rhythmic structure.

Stravinsky's compositional career is often divided into three main periods: his Russian period (1913–1920), his neoclassical period (1920–1951), and his serial period (1954–1968). During his Russian period, Stravinsky was heavily influenced by Russian styles and folklore. Works such as Renard (1916) and Les noces (1923) drew upon Russian folk poetry, while compositions like L'Histoire du soldat (1918) integrated these folk elements with popular musical forms, including the tango, waltz, ragtime, and chorale. His neoclassical period exhibited themes and techniques from the classical period, like the use of the sonata form in his Octet (1923) and use of Greek mythological themes in works including Apollon musagète (1927), Oedipus rex (1927), and Persephone (1935). In his serial period, Stravinsky turned towards compositional techniques f

(1882-1971)

Synopsis

Igor Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, Russia. He rose to fame in the early 1900s for his compositions for the Ballets Russes, including the controversial The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky brought his family to Switzerland and then France, continuing his output with such works as Renard and Persephone. After moving to the United States in 1939, he completed his famed Symphony in C and became an American citizen. Stravinsky died in New York City on April 6, 1971, with more than 100 works to his name.

Early Life

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was born in the resort town of Oranienbaum, Russia, on June 17, 1882. He was raised in St. Petersburg by his father, a bass singer named Fyodor, and his mother, Anna, a talented pianist.

Not wanting Stravinsky to follow in their footsteps, his parents persuaded him to study law after he graduated from secondary school. However, after enrolling at the University of Saint Petersburg, Stravinsky became friendly with a classmate named Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, whose father, Nikolai, was a celebrated composer. Stravinsky soon became Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's pupil, as he was granted the freedom to pursue his artistic career upon the death of his father in 1902.

Early Work

In 1906, Stravinsky married Catherine Nossenko, with whom he would have four children. In 1909, the founder of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, invited Stravinsky to orchestrate a couple of Chopin works for his ballet Les Sylphides. That, in turn, led to the commission of The Firebird; a collaboration with choreographer Michel Fokine, the ballet turned Stravinsky into a household name upon its premiere in Paris in June 1910. The composer's fame was reinforced with the production of Petrouchka in 1911 and especially with The Rite of Spring, which incited a riot upon its 1913 premiere but was soon hailed for its revolutionary score.

Departure to Switzerland

The outbre

Igor Stravinsky was born in Lomonosov (then Oranienbaum), 17 June 1882 and died in New York, 6 April 1971. He was one of the most important composers of the 20th century, and a leader in modernism in music. He was brought up in Russia. When the Russian Revolution started he moved to Switzerland and then to Paris, and finally, when World War II started in 1939, he moved to the United States.

Stravinsky wrote music in different styles. At first he wrote music similar to his teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He loved his native Russian music. He wrote music which had very complicated chords and rhythms. It is lively music, and some of his best known works of this kind were written for the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev: The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, Les noces, Pulcinella and Apollo musagète. They were written from 1910 to 1928.

Then he changed his style and wrote in what is called a “neo-classical” way. He based it on music from the Classical music period but changed it. His only full-length operaThe Rake's Progress was written in this way. In his later years he wrote serial music.

Le modernisme du Sacre du Printemps dépasse de tres loin la musique du XXeme siecle.

Stéphane Schmutz

Early years

Igor was the third of four children, all boys. As a child he spent the winter months in St Petersburg and the summers in the country where several of his relatives on his mother’s side had large estates.

Igor was not particularly good at school, but he often went to see the operas in which his father Fyodor was performing. Fyodor was an operasinger with a fine bass voice. He sang at the opera house in Kiev and later at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. Igor also went to ballets and even heard Tchaikovskyconduct in 1893, at the end of his life.

For a time Stravinsky studied law at the university of St Petersburg, but gave up in 1906. Then he married one of his c