David Ortiz

Stravinsky's work embraced multiple compositional styles, revolutionised orchestration, spanned several genres, practically reinvented ballet form and incorporated multiple cultures, languages and literatures. Indeed, these characteristics are what make Stravinsky's output so unique when compared with the work of contemporaneous serial composers. The ballet is thus a sort of miniature encyclopedia of Stravinsky, containing many of the signatures to be found throughout his compositions, whether primitivist, neo-classic, or serial: rhythmic quirkiness and experimentation, harmonic ingenuity, and a deft ear for masterful orchestration. Some numbers of Agon recollect the "white-note" tonality of the neo-classic period, while others (the Bransle Gay, e.g.) display his unique re-interpretation of serial method.

An important transitional work of this period in Stravinsky's work, was a return to the ballet: Agon, a work for twelve dancers written from 1954 to 1957. He later began expanding his use of the technique in works often based on biblical texts, such as Threni (1958), A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer (1961), and The Flood (1962). Stravinsky first began to dabble in the twelve tone technique in smaller vocal works such as the Cantata (1952), Three Songs from Shakespeare (1953) and In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954), as if he were testing the system. Regardless, the next fifteen years were spent writing the works in this style.

No doubt, Stravinsky was aided in his understanding of, or even conversion to, the twelve tone method by his confidant and helper Robert Craft, who had long been advocating the change. Only after the death of Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of the twelve tone system, in 1951 did Stravinsky begin making use of the technique in his own works. After the opera's completion Stravinsky never wrote another "neo-classic" work and instead began writing the music that came to define his final stylistic change. The music is direct but quirky; it borrows from classic tonal harmony but also interjects surprising dissonances; it features Stravinsky's trademark off-rhythms; and it harkens back to the operas and themes of Monteverdi, Gluck and Mozart.

This opera, written to a libretto by Auden and based on the etchings of Hogarth, encapsulates everything that Stravinsky had perfected in the previous 20 years of his neo-classic period. The pinnacle of this period is the opera The Rake's Progress completed in 1951. Apollon, Persephone (1933) and Orpheus (1947) also mark Stravinsky's concern, during this period, of not only returning to "Classic" music but also returning to "Classic" themes: in these instances, the mythology of the ancient Greeks. Some larger works from this period are the three symphonies: the Symphonie des Psaumes (Symphony of Psalms) (1930), Symphony in C (1940) and Symphony in Three Movements (1945).

Other works such as Oedipus Rex (1927), Apollon Musagete (1928) and the Dumbarton Oaks concerto continue this trend. In these new works, written roughly between 1920 and 1950, Stravinsky turns largely to wind instruments, the piano, and choral and chamber works. This "neo-classical" style involved the abandonment of the large orchestras demanded by the ballets. Both of these works feature what was to become a hallmark of this period; that is, Stravinsky's return, or "looking back", to the classical music of Mozart and Bach and their contemporaries.

The next phase of Stravinsky's compositional style, slightly overlapping the first, is marked by two works: Pulcinella 1920 and the Octet (1923) for wind instruments. Other pieces from this period include: Renard (1916), Histoire du soldat (A Soldier's Tale) (1918), and Les Noces (The Wedding) (1923). There are several famous passages in the work, but two are of particular note: the opening theme played on a bassoon with notes at the very top of its register, almost out of range; and the thumping, off kilter eighth-note motif played by strings and accented by French horns on off-rhythms (See Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) for a more detailed account of this work). Here, the composer draws on the brutalism of pagan Russia, reflecting these sentiments in roughly-drawn, stinging motifs that appear throughout the work.

But it is the third ballet, The Rite of Spring, that is generally considered the apotheosis of Stravinsky's "Russian Period". Petrushka, too, is distinctively scored and the first of Stravinsky's ballets to draw on folk mythology. The first of the ballets, L'oiseau de feu, is notable for its unusual introduction (triplets in the low basses) and sweeping orchestration. The ballets have several shared characteristics: they are scored for extremely large orchestras; they use Russian folk themes and motifs; and they bear the mark of Rimsky-Korsakov's imaginative scoring and instrumentation.

The first of Stravinsky's major stylistic periods (excluding some early minor works) was inaugurated by the three ballets he composed for Diaghilev. Most of his compositions can be placed in one of the three. Stravinsky's career largely falls into three distinct stylistic periods. He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6340 Hollywood Boulevard.

Stravinsky's life had encompassed most of the 20th Century, including many of its modern classical music styles, and he influenced composers both during and after his lifetime. His grave is close to the tomb of his long-time collaborator Diaghilev. He died in New York City on April 6, 1971 at the age of 88 and was buried in Venice on the cemetery island of San Michele. In 1962 he accepted an invitation to return to Russia for a series of concerts, but remained an émigré firmly based in the West.

At the end of his life he was even setting Hebrew scripture in Abraham and Isaac. The texts and literary sources for his work began with a period of interest in Russian folklore, progressed to classical authors and the Latin liturgy, and moved on to contemporary France (André Gide, in Persephone) and eventually English literature: Auden, Eliot, and medieval English verse. Stravinsky's taste in literature was wide and reflected his constant desire for new discoveries. Craft lived with Stravinsky until his death, acting as interpreter, chronicler, assistant conductor and factotum for countless musical and social tasks.

Auden, the need to acquire more familiarity with the English-speaking world coincided with his meeting the conductor and musicologist Robert Craft. H. When he planned to write an opera with W. For a time he preserved a ring of emigré Russian friends and contacts, but eventually realised that this would not sustain his intellectual and professional life in the USA.

Stravinsky had adapted to life in France, but moving to America aged 58 was a very different prospect. He continued to live in the United States until his death in 1971, unsuccessfully writing music for films. He moved to the United States in 1939 and became a naturalized citizen in 1945. He returned to Paris in 1920 to write more ballets as well as many other works.

However, because of World War I and the October Revolution in Russia he moved to Switzerland in 1914. That ballet ended up being the famous L'Oiseau de Feu. He commissioned Stravinsky to write a ballet for his theater; so in 1911, Stravinsky traveled to Paris. Eventually Stravinsky's music was noticed by Serge Diaghilev, the director of the Ballets Russes in Paris.

At the same time he had a disregard of his social inferiors: Robert Craft was embarrassed by his habit of tapping a glass with a fork and loudly demanding attention in restaurants. For example, Otto Klemperer, who knew Schoenberg well, said that he always found Stravinsky much more co-operative and easy to deal with. Most people who knew him through dealings connected with performances spoke of him as polite, courteous and helpful. Paris, Venice, Berlin, London and New York all hosted successful appearances as pianist and conductor.

Stravinsky proved adept at playing the part of "man of the world", acquiring a keen instinct for business matters and appearing relaxed and comfortable in many of the world's major cities. The composer was also able to attract commissions: most of his work from The Firebird onwards was written for specific occasions and paid for generously. In the early 1920s Leopold Stokowski was able to give Stravinsky regular support through a pseudonymous "benefactor". Patronage too was never far away.

After her death Stravinsky and Vera were married in New York where they had gone from France to escape the war in 1940. Katerina soon learned of the relationship and accepted it as inevitable and permanent. From then until the death of Katerina in 1939 Stravinsky led a deft double-life, spending some of his time with his first family and the rest with Vera. When Stravinsky met Vera in the early 1920s she was married to the painter and stage designer Serge Sudeikin, but they soon began an affair which led to her leaving her husband.

Their marriage endured for 33 years, but the true love of his life, and partner until his death, was his second wife Vera de Bosset (1888-1982). He was still young when he married his cousin Katerina Nossenko, who he had known since early childhood, on 23 January 1906. Although a notorious philanderer (even rumoured to have affairs with high-class partners such as Coco Chanel) Stravinsky was also a family man who devoted considerable amounts of his time and expenditure to his sons and daughters. Relatively short of stature and not conventionally handsome, Stravinsky was nevertheless photogenic, as many pictures show.

Not only was he the principal composer for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, but Stravinsky also collaborated with Pablo Picasso (Pulcinella, 1920), Jean Cocteau (Oedipus Rex, 1927) and George Balanchine (Apollon Musagete, 1928). This desire manifested itself in several of his Paris collaborations. Stravinsky displayed an inexhaustible desire to learn and explore art, literature, and life. (He succeeded: the 1913 première of Le sacre du printemps turned into a riot.).

As he himself said, with these premieres his intention was "[to send] them all to hell". The ballets trace his stylistic development: from the L'oiseau de feu, whose style draws largely on Rimsky-Korsakov, to Petrushka's emphasis on bitonality, and finally to the savage polyphonic dissonance of Le sacre du printemps. During his stay in the city, he composed three major works for the Ballets Russes—L'oiseau de feu, Petrushka (1911), and Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1913). Stravinsky left Russia for the first time in 1910, going to Paris to attend the premiere of his ballet L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird).

In 1902, at the age of 20, Stravinsky became the pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, probably the leading Russian composer of the time. Composition came later. Petersburg, Stravinsky originally studied to be a lawyer. Though his father was a bass singer at the Mariinsky Theater in St.

Petersburg and dominated by his father and elder brother, Stravinsky's early childhood was a mix of experience that hinted little at the cosmopolitan artist he was to become. Brought up in an apartment in St. Petersburg, Russia. Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), near St.

. He was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the century. A quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian, Stravinsky was one of the most authoritative composers in 20th century music, both in the West and in his native land. Robert Craft transcribed several interviews with the composer, which were published as Conversations with Stravinsky.

In it, he famously claimed that music was incapable of "expressing anything but itself". With the help of Alexis Roland-Manuel, Stravinsky composed a theoretical work entitled Poetics of Music. He was also a writer. Stravinsky also achieved fame as a pianist and conductor, often at the premieres of his own works.

His oeuvre included everything from symphonies to piano miniatures. Stravinsky also wrote in a broad spectrum of ensemble combinations and classical forms. For some, these ballets practically reinvented the genre. He composed in the neo-classical and serialist styles, but he is best known for two works from his earlier, Russian period: Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) and L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird).

Igor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky (Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian-American composer of modern classical music. Milan Kundera, Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts, ISBN 0060927518. The composer and his works, ISBN 0571049230. Eric Walter White, Stravinsky.

Pribaoutki for voice, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, vln, vla, vc, double bass (1914). Trois petites chansons voice and piano (or small orchestra) (1913/1930). Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise for voice and piano or chamber orchestra (1913). Balmont for voice and piano or small orchestra (1911/1954).

Two Poems of K. Deux poèmes de Paul Verlaine for bariton and piano or orchestra Op.9 (1910/1951). Two Melodies for mezzo-soprano and piano Op.6 (1908). Pastorale wordless soprano and piano (1907).