Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky (June 17, 1882 - April 6, 1971) was a composer of modern classical music, best known for his works The Rite of Spring and The Firebird. Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), near St. Petersburg, Russia. He died in New York City on April 6, 1971 and was buried in Venice on the cemetery island of San Michele. Stravinsky is regarded as one of the towering figures in 20th century art music. He was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of that century.

Biography

Brought up in an apartment 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. His father was a bass singer at the Marinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, but Stravinsky came late to composition, originally studying to be a lawyer. In 1902, at the age of 20, Stravinsky became the pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, probably the leading Russian composer of the time.

Stravinsky left Russia for the first time in 1910 for Paris to attend the première of his ballet The Firebird. Stravinsky's time in Paris and his stylistic development there can be traced through the three major ballets he composed during that period for the Ballets Russes: The Firebird, Petroushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). Here we see a composer moving from a style, in the Firebird, that draws largely on Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov, to Petroushka's emphasis on bitonality, and finally to the savage polyphonic dissonance of The Rite. As he himself said, with these premières his intention was '[to send] them all to hell.'

Stravinsky displayed an inexhaustible desire to learn and explore art, literature, and life. This desire manifested itself in several of his Paris collaborations. 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).

Pablo Picasso's 1920 portrait of Stravinsky

Relatively short of stature and not conventionally handsome, Stravinsky was nevertheless remarkably photogenic, as many pictures show. Although a notorious philanderer (even rumoured to have affairs with high-class partners such as Coco Chanel) Stravinsky was also a family man and a considerable amount of his time and expenditure was occupied by his concern for his sons and daughters and their lives. He was still young when he married his cousin Katerina Nossenko, who he had known since early childhood, on 23 January 1906. 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.

When Stravinsky met her she was married to the painter and stage designer Serge Sudeikin, but they soon began an affair which led to her leaving her husband. 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. Katerina soon learned of the relationship and accepted it as inevitable and permanent. After her death Stravinsky and Vera were married in New York where they had gone from France to escape the war in 1940.

Patronage too was never far away. In the early 1920s Leopold Stokowski was able to give him regular support through a pseudonymous 'benefactor'. Another remarkable aspect of his life was his ability to attract commissions: most of his work from the The Firebird onwards was written for specific occasions and paid for generously.

Stravinsky proved remarkably 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. Paris, Venice, Berlin, London and New York all hosted successful appearances as pianist and conductor. Most people who knew him through dealings connected with performances spoke of him as polite, courteous and helpful. For example, Otto Klemperer, who knew Schoenberg well, said that he always found Stravinsky much more co-operative and easy to deal with. 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.

Having left Russia in 1920 and spent most of his time until World War II in Paris (except for the World War I years which he spent in Switzerland), Stravinsky spent most of his life from the 1950s until his death in 1971 in the United States. Stravinsky had adapted to life in France, but moving to America at 58 was a very different prospect. 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. When he planned to write an opera with W. H. Auden, the need to acquire more familiarity with the English-speaking world coincided with the arrival in his life of the conductor and musicologist Robert Craft. Craft lived with Stravinsky until his death, acting as interpreter, chronicler, assistant conductor and factotum for countless musical and social tasks.

Stravinsky's taste in literature was wide and reflected his constant desire for new discoveries. 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 mediaeval English verse. At the end of his life he was even setting Hebrew scripture in 'Abraham and Isaac'.

Igor Stravinsky died in 1971 at the age of 89. His 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. He died in the United States, an emigre, never having returned to live in his native Russia. He is buried in Venice: the grave is close to the tomb of his early collaborator Diaghilev. He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6340 Hollywood Boulevard.

Stylistic periods

Stravinsky's career largely falls into three distinct stylistic periods. Most of his compositions can be placed in one of the three.

The Primitive, or Russian, Period

The first of Stravinsky's major stylistic periods (excluding some early minor works) was inaugurated by the three ballets he composed for Diaghilev. 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 the ballets, The Firebird, is notable for its unusual introduction (triplets in the low basses) and sweeping orchestration. Petroushka, too, is distinctively scored and the first of Stravinsky's ballets to draw on folk mythology. But it is the third ballet, The Rite of Spring, that is generally considered the apotheosis of Stravinsky's 'Russian Period'. Here, the composer draws on the brutalism of pagan Russia, reflecting these sentiments in roughly-drawn, stinging motifs that appear throughout the work. 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 The Rite of Spring for a more detailed account of this work).

Other pieces from this period include: Renard (1916), L'Histoire du Soldat (A Soldier's Tale) (1918), and Les Noces (The Wedding) (1923).

The Neo-Classical Period

The next phase of Stravinsky's compositional style, though not clearly delineated from the first, is marked by two works: Pulcinella 1920 and the Octet (1923) for wind instruments. 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. This 'neo-classical' style involved the abandonment of the large orchestras demanded by the ballets. In these new works, written roughly between 1920 and 1950, Stravinsky turns largely to wind instruments, the piano, and choral and chamber works.

Pulcinella, a work for string ensemble, takes Stravinsky's new concern with the 'classical style' to a literal level: it is a re-working of the music of Pergolesi, an 18th century composer. Stravinsky borrows specific themes and music from the earlier composer and rewrites them, interjecting modern rhythms, cadences and harmonies, but all the while retaining the lilt and feel of the original. Other works such as Oedipus Rex (1927) and Apollon Musagete (1928) continue this trend.

Some larger works from this period are the three symphonies: the Symphony of Psalms (1930), Symphony in C (1940) and Symphony in Three Movements (1945). 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.

The pinnacle of this period is the opera The Rake's Progress completed in 1951. 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 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.

After the opera's completion Stravinsky never wrote another 'neo-classic' work and would instead begin writing the music that would come to define his final stylistic change.

The Serialist, or 12-Tone, Period

Only after the death of rival Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of the 12 tone system, in 1951 did Stravinsky begin making use of the technique in his own works. No doubt, Stravinsky was aided in his understanding, or even conversion, to the 12 tone method by his confidant and helper Robert Craft, who had long been advocating the change. Regardless, the next twenty years were spent writing the works comprising Stravinsky's final stylistic period.

Stravinsky first began to dabble in the 12 tone technique (or serialism) in smaller vocal works such as Three Songs from Shakespeare (1953) and In Memeoriam Dylan Thomas (1954), as if he were testing the system. He later began expanding his adaptation 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) (these works coincided with his rediscovering of his Orthodox faith in the 1960s).

For the culminating work of this period Stravinsky again returned to the ballet: Agon, a work for 12 dancers written in 1957. In it, Stravinsky enforced his unique re-interpretation of the 12 tone method, retaining all the Stravinskian signatures that are laced throughout his compositions whether they be 'primitive', 'neo-classic', or 'serial': rythmic quirkiness and experimentation, harmonic ingenuity, and a deft ear for masterful orchestration. Indeed, these characteristics are what make Stravinsky's serial works unique, differentiating them so severely from other contempouraneous serial composers. It is also, perhaps, why Stravinsky never fully adopted the 12 tone method wholeheartedly and often deviated from its more strict tenets.

Influence and innovation

Because of his embrace of multiple compositional styles, his revolutionary approach to orchestration, his working in several genres and practical reinvention of the ballet form, and his incorporation of multiple cultures, languages and literatures in his works, Stravinsky' influence on composers both during his lifetime and after his death cannot be underestimated.

Compostional innovations

Stravinsky began re-thinking his use of the motive and ostinato as early as The Firebird ballet, but the use of these elements only became truly revolutionary in the The Rite of Spring.

Motivic development, that is using a distinct musical phrase that is subsequently altered and developed throughout a piece of music, has its roots in the sonata form of Mozart's age. The first great innovator in this method was Beethoven, a good example of which is the famous 'fate motif' from the Fifth Symphony that reappears throught the work in surprising and refreshing permutations. However, Stravinsky's use of motivic development was unique in the way he permutated his motifs. In the 'Rite of Spring' he introduces additive permutations, that is, subtracting or adding a note to a motif without regard to changes in meter.

The same ballet is also notable for its relentless use of ostinato. The most famous passage, as noted above, is the eighth note ostinato of the strings accented by eight french horns that occurs in the section 'Auguries of Spring (Dances of the Young Girls)'. This is perhaps a first instance in music of extended ostinato without variation or being used to accompany melody. At various other times in the work Stravinsky also pits several ostinati against one another without regard to harmony or tempo, creating a pastiche, a sort of musical equivalent of a Cubist painting. These passages are notable not only for this pastiche-quality but also for their length: Stravinsky treats them as whole and complete musical sections.

Such techniques forshadowed by several decades the minimalist works of composers such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich.

Neoclassicism

It can be said that Stravinsky was the inventor of the 'neoclassic' style, a style that would be later adopted by composers from around the globe as diverse as Sergei Prokofiev and Aaron Copland.

Stravinsky announced his new style in 1923 with the stripped-down and delicately scored 'Octet' for winds. The clear harmonies, the looking back to the Classical era music of Mozart and Bach, the simpler combinations of rhythm and melody, was a direct response to the complexities of the Second Viennese School. Stravinsky may have been preceded in these devices by earlier composers such as Erik Satie, but no doubt when Copland was composing his Appalachian Spring ballet he was taking Stravinsky as his model.

Certainly, by the late 1920's and 1930's Neoclassicism as an accepted modern genre was prevalent throughout art music circles around the world. Ironically, it was Stravinsky himself who accounced the death of Neoclassicm, at least in his own work if not for the world, with the completion of his opera The Rake's Progress in 1951. A sort of final statement for the style, the opera was largely panned and ridiculed as too 'backward looking' even by those who lauded the new style only three decades earlier.

Quotation and pastiche

Stravinsky used the, now very postmodern, technique of direct musical quotation and pastiche as early as 1920 in his work Pulcinella. Here he uses the music of Pergolesi as source material, sometimes directly quoting it and other times simply reinventing it, to create a new and refreshing work. He used the same technique in the ballet The Fairy's Kiss of 1928. Here it is the music of Tchaikovsky, specifically Swan Lake , that Stravinsky uses as his source of inspiration. Such compositional 'borrowing' would come into vogue in the 1960s, as in the work Sinfonia by Luciano Berio.

Use of folk material

There were other composers in the early 20th century who collected and augmented their native folk music and used these themes in their work. Two notable examples are Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. Yet in The Rite we see Stravinsky again innovating the use of folk themes. He strips these themes to their most basic outline, melody alone, and often contorts them beyond recognition with additive notes, inversions, dimunitions, and other techniques. He did this so well, in fact, that only in recent scholarship, such as in Richard Taruskin's Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works Through Mavra [1] (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520070992/qid=1088714967/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/102-2385533-5218561?v=glance&s=books), have analysts uncovered the original source material for some of the music in The Rite.

Orchestral innovations

The late 19th century and early 20th century was a time ripe with orchestral innovation. Composers such as Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler were well regarded for their adept skill at writing for the medium. They, in turn, were influenced by the expansion of the traditional classical orchestra by Richard Wagner and his use of large forces and unusual instruments.

Stravinsky continued this Romantic trend of writing for huge orchestral forces, especially in the early ballets. But it is at the point of his turning away from this tendency that he began to innovate by introducing unique combinations of instruments: for example, in A Soldier's Tale the forces used are clarinet, bassoon, tenor and bass trombone, double bass, cornet, violin and snare drum, a very striking combination for its time (1918). This combining of distinct timbres would become almost cliche in post-World War II classical music.

Another notable innovation of orchestral technique that can be partially attributed to Stravinsky is the exploitation of the extreme ranges of instruments. The most famous passage is the opening of the Rite of Spring where Stravsinky uses the extreme reaches of the bassoon to simulate the symbolic 'awakening' of a spring morning.

It must also be noted that composers such as Anton Webern, Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg were also exploring some of these mentioned orchestral and instrumental techniques in the early 20th century. Yet, Stravinsky's innovations in these areas absolutely had an influence as great, if not greater, than these men on future generations of composers.

List of works

Ballets

• The Firebird (1910)
• Petrushka (1911)
• The Rite of Spring (1913)
• Renard (1916)
• Pulcinella (1920)
• Apollon Musagète (1928)
• Le Baiser de la Fée (The Fairy's Kiss) (1928)
• Perséphone (1933)
• Jeu de cartes (1936)
• Orpheus (1947)
• Agon (1957)

Chamber works

• Three Pieces for Clarinet (1919)
• Octet (1923)
• Septet (1953)

Choral works

• Cantata for mixed choir and piano (1904)
• Le roi des étoiles (The King of the Stars) for Men's Choir and Orchestra (1912)
• Pater Noster (1926)
• Mass (1948)
• Threni (1958)
• A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer (1961)
• Abraham and Isaac (1963)
• Introitus (1965)
• Requiem Canticles (1966)

Opera/Theater

• Le Rossignol (The Nightingale) (1914)
• Burleske for 4 Pantomimes and Chamber Orchestra (1916)
• Histoire du Soldat (A Soldier's Tale) (1918)
• Mavra (1922)
• Les Noces (The Wedding) (1923)
• Oedipus Rex (1927)
• Babel (1944)
• The Rake's Progress (1951)
• The Flood (1962)

Orchestral works

• Symphony in E-Flat Major (1907)
• Fireworks (1908)
• Chant du Rossignol (Song of the Nightingale) (1917)
• Symphony of Psalms (1930)
• Violin Concerto in D (1931)
• Concerto in E-flat (Dumbarton Oaks)for Chamber Orchestra (1938)
• Symphony in C (1940)
• Four Norwegian Moods (1942)
• Symphony in Three Movements (1945)

Piano works

• Tarantella (1898)
• Scherzo (1902)
• Sonata in F-Sharp Minor (1904)
• Piano Rag Music (1919)
• Sonate (1924)
• Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (1929)

Vocal works

• Romance for Voice and Piano (1902)
• Deux poèmes (Paul Verlaine) (1910)
• Four Songs (1954)
• Two Poems of K. Balmont (1954)
• In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954)
• The Owl and the Pussy Cat (1966)

External links

• Wikiquote - Quotations by and about Igor Stravinsky (http://quote.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky)
• Stravinsky profile (http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/stravinsky.html)
• Stravinsky and the Pianola (http://www.pianola.org/pages/history/stravinsky.html)

Further Reading

• Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography, ISBN 0393318567