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Igor Stravinsky, one
of the greatest
masters of modern
music, was born in
Oranienbaum, near St.
Petersburg, on June
17, 1882. The son of
a famous bass singer
at the Imperial
Opera, Feodor
Stravinsky, he was
raised in an artistic
atmosphere. He
studied law until age
nineteen, when
Rimsky-Korsakov in
Heidelberg encouraged
him to study
composition seriously
and he studied theory
with Kalafati. In 1907,
Stravinsky studied with
Rimsky Korsakov in St.
Petersburg and on
January 22, 1908, his
first symphony, which
showed a mastery of
technique, was
performed in St.
Petersburg. This was
followed on February
29, by his critically
successful set of songs
for mezzo-soprano and
orchestra, Le Faune
et la
Bergere.
In celebration of
Maxmillian Steinberg's
marriage to
Rimsky-Korsakov's
daughter (June 17,
1908), Stravinsky wrote
an orchestral fantasy,
Feu d'artifice,
and when Rimsky
Korsakov died a few
days later, he wrote a
threnody as a tribute.
Stravinsky's next
orchestral work,
Scherzo
Fantastique, was
performed in St.
Petersburg (February 6,
1909) and the famous
impresario, Diaghilev,
heard it and
commissioned Stravinsky
to write a work on a
Russian subject. The
result was the
production of the first
of Stravinsky's ballet
masterpieces,
L'Oiseau de feu
(Paris, June 15, 1910)
and the beginning of
the successful
collaboration between
the composer and
producer.
Stravinsky's
association with
Diaghilev concentrated
his activities in Paris
and he moved there in
1911. His second ballet
for the impresario,
Petrouchka,
(Paris, June 13, 1911),
was a great success and
was so new and original
that it marked a
turning point in 20th
century modernism. The
spasmodically explosive
rhythms, the novel
instrumental
sonorities, with the
use of the piano as an
integral part of the
orchestra, and the
innovation of two
different keys sounded
simultaneously, greatly
influenced contemporary
composers.
Two years later,
Stravinsky created a
work that was even more
revolutionary -- The
Rite of Spring,
which was produced by
Diaghilev and his
Ballets Russes in Paris
on May 29, 1913. Its
impact was so great that
there were
demonstrations at the
premiere by some members
of the audience who
thought a trick was
being played on them;
but progressive
musicians viewed the
work as the beginning of
a new era in composition.
In this score, Stravinsky
severed all ties with
traditional harmony and
employed dissonant
combinations without
precedent in modern
music.
Before the outbreak of
World War I, Diaghilev
produced Stravinsky's
La Rossignol, a
lyric fairy tale after
Hans Christian Anderson
(Paris, May 26, 1914).
During the war years,
Stravinsky worked mostly
in Switzerland with
Russian subjects still
dominating. He wrote
Les Noces for an
unusual ensemble of
chorus, soloists, four
pianos and seventeen
percussion instruments.
It was during the last
months of the war, that
Stravinsky developed his
theory that the
impoverished world
necessitated an economy
in musical settings. This
was demonstrated by
Histoire du
Soldat, the stage
play for seven players,
which includes several
stylized modern dances.
During the same period he
wrote Ragtime, a
work for eleven
instruments, which was
rhythmically derived from
early American jazz
music.
Continuing his
association with
Diaghilev, Stravinsky
wrote the ballet
Pulcinella, two
one-act operas, Marya
after Pushkin, and
Renard to stories
from Russian folk
literature. The operas,
produced by Diaghilev in
Paris on June 3, 1922,
were the last works in
which Stravinsky used
Russian
subjects.
His next significant
composition, a piano
concerto, commissioned by
Koussevitzky, began his
neoclassicist trend. This
was followed by
Aoollon Musagete,
a pantomime for string
orchestra evocative of
the court ballets of
Lully; Capriccio
for piano and orchestra;
his opera-oratorio,
Oedipus Rex to a
Latin text; and Symphony
of Psalms, written for
the 50th anniversary of the
Boston Symphony.
Commissioned by Ida
Rubenstein, Stravinsky
composed a ballet,
Persephone, to text
by Andre Gide, which he
conducted at the Paris
Opera on April 30, 1934. In
1937, Stravinsky conducted
Jeux des Cartes (a
ballet in three deals),
written to his own scenario
derived from an imaginary
poker game, and in his work
Dumbarton Oaks
(Concerto) he continued his
practice of neo-Baroque
composition.
Stravinsky became a French
citizen in 1934, but left
France in 1938 to settle in
Hollywood, and became an
American citizen in 1945.
Named a Charles Eliot
lecturer at Harvard
University from 1939-1940,
Stravinsky continued to
conduct his works in
America and Europe. He
wrote music in many styles
and for many purposes. He
composed Circus Polka
(for a young elephant)
in 1942 for the Ringling
Brothers Circus; Ebony
Concerto for clarinet
and swing band, performed
by Woody Herman; and, in
1951, he completed his
opera, The Rake's
Progress, after
Hogarth's famous serious of
engravings, to a libretto
by W. H. Auden and C.
Kallman. And, in 1957, he
wrote a ballet for twelve
dancers, Agon, based
on serial techniques, which
was performed for his 75th
birthday in Los
Angeles.
Source:
Researched and compiled by Fran Michelman |
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