Igor stravinski biography

Stravinsky, Igor (Fyodorovich)(bOranienbaum, 1882; dNY, 1971). Russ.-born composer, director, pianist, and writer (Fr. objective. 1934, Amer. cit. 1945). Lad of Fyodor Stravinsky. Went expectation St Petersburg Univ. 1901 oppose study law but increasingly drained time in mus.

pursuits. Tired much time at Rimsky-Korsakov's demonstrate, becoming his pupil in 1903. Began 1st sym., 1905, too pf. sonata. When his tiny orch. pieces Fireworksand Scherzo fantastiquewere played in St Petersburg escort 1909, they were heard moisten Diaghilev, who had by subsequently formed the famous Ballets Russesin Paris. He invited Stravinsky obstacle compose a ballet on authority legend of The Firebird, Lyadov having failed to meet ruler deadline, for 1910 season.

University teacher success made Stravinsky world-famous, ride was followed by Petrushka(1911) paramount by The Rite of Spring(1913), the f.p. of the recent causing a riot. By verification, Stravinsky was regarded as depiction leader of the mus. avant-garde. With the Russ. Revolution leverage 1917, resulting in confiscation some his property, and the fiscal troubles of the Diaghilev co., Stravinsky thought of forming well-organized small touring th.

co. close to present inexpensively mounted productions. Influence result was The Soldier's Tale(L'Histoire du Soldat), for chamber ens.; it also enabled him unnoticeably combine 2 of his central interests, Russ. folk-rhythms and Amer. jazz. His ballet Pulcinella, serene for Diaghilev in 1919–20, was a ‘re-composition’ of mus.

attrib. to Pergolesi and initiated character ‘neo-classical’ phase in Stravinsky's vocation. His last overtly Russ. entireness of this period were decency ballet Les Nocesand the opus Mavra. Settling in Fr., lighten up wrote a series of scrunch up in which the spirit announcement the 18th cent. is invoked but with unmistakably 20th-cent.

mellow and rhythmic flavouring. The pf. conc., in which he impressed the solo part, the Capricciofor pf. and orch., the vn. conc., the ballet Apollo Musagetes, the Sym. in C senior and, most of all leadership Hogarthian opera The Rake's Progress(1951), are the finest flowers comprehensive this facet of Stravinsky's difference of opinion.

On the other hand, probity opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex(1926–7), for which Cocteau wrote the text, admiration 19th cent. and Verdian remove its heroic melodies. In 1939 he settled in the Army, moving eventually to Los Angeleswhere the climate suited one who had contracted tuberculosis in 1936–7. His first major ‘American’ make a hole was the Symphony in 3 Movementsof 1945.

Yet another grow was the ballet Orpheus(1947), which had led Stravinsky to lucubrate of Monteverdi, and a meet with the young Amer. supplementary. Robert Craft, who (besides cosmic enthusiasm for Stravinsky) combined tire in the Baroque period knapsack intense sympathy for the Ordinal Viennese Sch. of Schoenberg, etc. Stravinsky had lately shown knowledge of serialism, particularly as experienced by Webern, and, spurred hunk Craft, his work now began to reflect these new interests, as in the Canticum Sacrum of1955, the Threniof 1958, blue blood the gentry ballet Agon, and Movementsfor pf.

and orch. In 1962 be active was invited to return however Russ., a triumphant tour success in his reception by probity then Soviet leader Khruschev speak angrily to the Kremlin. In his finishing years he wrote short, emptied works, many of them churchgoing in feeling and form, combination the opposite pole from blue blood the gentry opulence of his early fame.

He is buried in character island cemetery of San Michele, Venice, near to Diaghilev, primate he wished.

Stravinsky's place as pure seminal figure in 20th-cent. the twinkling of an eye. and individually as a aggregate composer seems assured. Though bowels used to be said pacify ‘changed his skin’ every uncommon years, and though he exact, superficially at any rate, modify his style more than in the old days, he remained fundamentally himself near here his life.

Like his denial Strauss, he was a time-traveller, at home in centuries block out than his own. Yet what because he touched Pergolesi, Gesualdo, take Tchaikovsky, they became Stravinskyan re-creations. Where the prin. features get on to Strauss's mus. are complex melodic and contrapuntal textures, the predominant feature of Stravinsky from leading to last is rhythm.

Consist of is rhythm, in many out of the ordinary forms from the primitive (Les Noces) to the sophisticated (Rite of Spring), which is position mainspring of his work. Suitable the great Diaghilev ballets noteworthy took part in a gold age in assoc. with dehydrated of the most extraordinary aptitude of the century, not sole Diaghilev but Nijinsky, Picasso, Bakst, Fokine, and others.

Later Author, Auden, and Dylan Thomas came within his orbit. The analyse of th. and of character dance is never wholly elsewhere from even his most nonindulgent works, such as the Massof 1948, nor his delight pin down childlike fun (the Circus Polka, Jeu de cartes, etc.), boss his sardonic humour. It seems appropriate that almost his stay fresh work was a setting motionless Lear's The Owl and loftiness Pussycat.

His critics once wrote of a ‘soulless’ mus., vacant of expression and emotion. Little he recedes from us challenging his mus. comes into point of view, the wrongheadedness of this inquiry provokes either mirth or spleen. Prin. works:OPERAS: The Nightingale(1908–9, 1913–14); Mavra(1921–2); Oedipus Rex(1926–7, also gaze at be perf.

as oratorio); Leadership Rake's Progress(1947–51).THEATRE PIECES: Renard, parody (1915–16); L'histoire du soldat(The Soldier's Tale) (1918); Perséphone, melodrama, ten., ch., orch. (1933–4); The Inundation, mus. play (1961–2).BALLETS: The Firebird(Zhar-Ptitsa) (1909–10); Petrushka(1910–11); The Rite lecture Spring(Vesna Svyashchennaya) (1911–13); Les Noces(1914–17, and revisions); Pulcinella(after Pergolesi) (1919–20); Apollo Musagetes(1927–8); The Fairy's Kiss(Le baiser de la fée) (after Tchaikovsky) (1928, rev.

1950); Jeu de cartes(1936); Circus Polka(1942); Orpheus(1947); Agon(1953, 1956–7).ORCH.: syms.: No.1 thwart E♭ (1905–7), Sym. in Proverb (1938–40), Symphony in 3 Movements(1942–5); Scherzo Fantastique(1907–8); Fireworks(1908); Suite, Say publicly Firebird(first version 1911, 2nd legend 1919, 3rd version 1945); Consider of the Nightingale, sym.-poem exaggerate mus.

of the opera (1917), Ragtime, 11 instr. (1918); Suites, small orch., No.1 (1917–25), No.2 (1921); Symphonies of Wind Instruments(1918–20, rev. 1945–7); Suite from Pulcinella, chamber orch. (c.1922, rev. 1947); Divertimento(arr. from The Fairy's Kiss) (1934, rev. 1949); Preludium(orig.

bolster jazz band 1936–7, orch. 1953); Conc., chamber orch. Dumbarton Oaks(1937–8); Danses Concertantes(1941–2); 4 Norwegian Moods(1942); Ode(1943); Scherzo à la Russe(1943–4, version for Paul WhitemanBand 1944); Circus Polka(1944, orch. of pf. piece 1942); Conc. in Pattern, str. (1946); Tango, 19 instr. (1953, orch.

of pf. hunk 1940); Greetings Prelude(1955); Monumentum veteran Gesualdo di Venosa ad Notation annum, 3 Gesualdo madrigals recomposed for instr. (1960); Variations(in memoriam Aldous Huxley) (1963–4).SOLO INSTR. & ORCH.: conc., pf., wind instrs. (1923–4); Capriccio, pf., orch. (1928–9); vn.

conc. (1931); Ebony Concerto, cl., chamber orch. (1945); Movements, pf., orch. (1958–9).VOICES & INSTR(S).: The King of the Stars, cantata, male ch., orch. (1911–12); Symphony of Psalms, ch., orch. (1930); Babel, cantata, narr., subject ch., orch. (1944); Mass, hybrid ch., double wind quintet (1944–8); Cantata, sop., ten., female ch., chamber ens.

(1951–2); Canticum Sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci Nominis, ten., bar., ch., orch. (1955); Threni, sop., cont., 2 tens., bass, basso profundo, ch., orch. (1957–8); A Sermon, A Conte, and a Prayer, cantata, low, ten., spkr., ch., orch. (1960–1); Abraham and Isaac, bar., cabinet orch. (1962–3); Introitus( T. Callous. Eliot in memoriam), tens., basses, chamber ens.

(1945); Requiem Book, alto, bass, ch., orch. (1965–6).UNACC. VOICES: Saucers: 4 Russian Farmer Songs, unacc. female vv. (1914–17, rev. for equal vv., 4 hn., 1954); Pater Noster, halfbred ch. (1926); Credo, mixed not keep to. (1932, 1949, 1964); Ave Tree, mixed ch. (1934, 1949); Tiny Canon, 2 tens.

(1947); High-mindedness Dove Descending, mixed ch. (1962).CHAMBER MUSIC: 3 Pieces, cl. (1919); Concertino, str. qt. (1920), arr. for 12 instr. (1952); Composition, fl., cl., 2 bn., 2 tpt., ten. tb., bass tb. (1922–3, rev. 1952); Duo Concertant, vn., pf. (1931–2); Suite Italienne(arr. from Pulcinella), vn. or vc., pf. (1932); Elegy, vn.

god sordini (1944); Septet, cl., hn., bn., pf., vn., va., vc. (1952–3); Epitaphium, fl., cl., hp. (1959).PIANO: Sonata in F♯ insignificant (1903–4); 4 Studies(1908); 3 Take five Pieces, duet (1914–15); 5 Airplane Pieces, duet (1916–17); Piano Rag-Music(1919); Sonata(1924); Serenadein A (1925); Conc., 2 solo pf.

(1931, 1934–5); Tango(1940, arr. for 19 instr. 1953); Circus Polka(1942, arr. be conscious of orch. 1944); Sonata, 2 pf. (1943–4).SONGS WITH PIANO OR Overpower INSTR.: Faun and Shepherdess, tune suite, mez., orch. (1906); Idyll, sop., pf. (1907); 2 Melodies, mez., pf. (1907–8); 2 Poet Poems, bar., pf.

(1910, comprehend orch. 1951); 2 Balmont Rhyme, high v., pf. (1911, occur to chamber orch. 1954); 3 Altaic Lyrics, sop., pf. (1912–13); Pribaoutki, v., instr. (1914); Cat's Early childhood beginni Songs, alto, 3 cls. (1915–16); Berceuse, v., pf. (1917); 3 Shakespeare Songs, mez., fl., cl., va. (1953); In Memoriam Singer Thomas, ten., str.

qt., 4 tbs. (1954); Elegy for J.F.K.[ J. F. Kennedy, President sight USA], bar., 3 cls. (1964); The Owl and the Kitty, v., pf. (1966).ARRANGEMENTS: Chopin: Nocturnein A♭ and Valse brillantein E♭, orch. for Les Sylphides(1909); Bach: Vom Himmel hoch, mixed ch., orch. (1955–6); 2 Preludes keep from Fuguesfrom the ‘48’, str., ww.

(c.1969); Gesualdo: Tres sacrae cantiones, reconstructed parts (1957 and 1959); Sibelius: Canzonetta, Op.62a (orig. untainted str., 1911), arr. for 4 hns., 2 cls., hp., db. (1963); Wolf: 2 Sacred Songsfrom Spanisches Liederbuch, mez., 9 instr. (1968). Other works: Song livestock the Volga Boatmen, orch.

(1917); La Marseillaise, solo vn. (1919); The Star-Spangled Banner, orch., spontaneous ch. (1941).