Born in June of 1882, Igor Stravinsky was on of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. He wrote music on the brink of the twentieth century. Researchers say that his piece The Rite of Spring was the piece that broke the classical music barrier to twentieth century music. There was a full on riot at the premiere of that piece, because the sound of the piece was so outrageous and outlandish. Some people adored this piece, while others thought it was abhorred. Stravinsky practically broke all of the laws that had been established in classical music.
Igor Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia on June 17, 1882. Both of his parents were highly musical influenced. His father was a famous bass singer named Fyodor, and his mother was a talented pianist. Neither of his parents wanted him to
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This piece could be described as cubist music. Cubist music is where musical sounds slice into one another, and interact with brutal edges. It challenges the logical and almost mathematical musical perspective that many Europeans were accustomed too. Going back to Stravinsky’s use of rhythm, The Rite of Spring’s rhythms are highly irregular, but still pulse in such a way that goes with the theme of the piece and sound wrong, but right to the listener. These astounding rhythms are pounded into the listener’s ears, and are not hidden at all by other instruments in the piece.
In addition to funky rhythms, Stravinsky utilizes crunching harmonies. There is one movement in the piece that is slow, but the harmonies give it a sense of drive and energy that is related well to the theme of the piece. Many of the chords are disturbingly dissonant. They were chosen with impeccable refinement. “The huge wind and brass sections steal the foreground from the habitually warmer sonority of the strings, and the percussion section dominates over everything”
Debussy was the first modernist composer; and considered by many to be the greatest French writer, this was because he was not a part of the common fundamental German tradition in music. Instead of following to the rules created at an earlier time for common practice harmony, he liked to make up his own chords, which he called "chords with no names." He is known for composing "Voiles" and "The Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." He was connected to the symbolist poetic movement and known for using selective orchestration. Debussy's famous opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, was completed in 1895. It became a sensation when it was first performed
A biography written by gives a good chronological story of her life which will be described in the following paragraphs23. Chopin was born February 8th 1850 in Saint Louis. Her father was from Ireland while her mother was from Saint Louis. From the time she was five years old she went to Saint Louis boarding school known as Sacred Heart. She was very close to her family.
Almost definitely imitating the act of new life waking in the spring soil, Stravinsky starts the haunting introduction to his world-renowned ballet, Rite of Spring, with a high-pitched lone bassoon. The unstable eeriness continues as a horn and a pair of clarinets join in the rubato tempo. Just as everything wakes and bursts into life in spring, so does the piece as more and more instruments join in. Each instrument seems to have a different theme, but seems necessary in portraying the thick texture needed to symbolize the inevitable climactic arrival of Spring. After the orchestra has finished its first outburst and almost all instruments have initially come in, a strange harmonic effect is applied to the viola.
In the passage by Igor Stravinsky, he uses not only comparison and contrast, but also language to convey his point of view about the conductors of the time and their extreme egotism. Stravinsky believes that conductors exploit the music for their own personal gain, so rather, he looks on them in a negative light.
The first movement is in sonata form - Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso. Strings and horns appear from the distance as if they had been already playing out of earshot. The music gradually intensifies in volume until the final explosion into the first subject. Then this whole process is repeated. The first movement shows a contrast of emotion that seems to return in the recapitulation befor...
Sergei Rachmaninoff is considered to be the final, magnificent composer of the Romantic era in Russian classical music, ushering forward its traditions into the twentieth century. His four concertos are a reflection of his development as a composer and pianist, with regard to maturity and compositional style. The evolution of music during the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century had no significant effect on Rachmaninoff; rather he continued to produce ingenious works reflective of his Russian upbringing and the Romantic era.
Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the greatest classical music composers of all time. He was born around December 16, 1770 to a middle class family in the city of Bonn in the Electorate of cologne. His exact date of birth is unknown but he was baptized on December 17, 1770 and during this time it was law and custom for babies to be baptized within 24 hours of birth. His father Johann Van Beethoven was a court singer and his mother was Maria Magdalena Van Beethoven. Ludwig had four other siblings. The first Ludwig had passed away 6 days after he was born. Anton Karl was born on April 1774, Nikkolaus Johann October 1776 and Maria Margareta Josepha in 1786.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 25, 1906, Shostakovich was the second of three children born to Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. His father was of Polish descent but both his parents were Siberian natives. Dmitri was a child prodigy as a pianist and composer. He began taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine. He displayed an incredible talent to remember what his mother had played at the previous lesson and would get caught pretending to read the music, playing the music from his last lesson instead of what was placed in front of him.
The second movement, andante, opens with a fluid piano solo introducing the theme quietly. Then, the orchestra takes it over. Everything has a soothing feel to it, bringing relaxation to the listener. It is wonderfully calming and the orchestra comes in occasionally to supplement the piano, which is often alone. The movement is very short, soon fading into silence.
Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. Leonard's father, Samuel immigrated to America in 1908 at the age of sixteen from the Russian province of Volhynia where he came from a long line of rabbis. (Gradenwitz 1987: 20)
There are two main rhythmic ideas that are present in this piece. The first is the regular rhythmic pulse in the pianos and mallet instruments
Taylor, Jake. “Igor Stravinsky – Le Sacre du Printemps.” SputnikMusic. 10 August 2008. Web. 17
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia, on February 7, 1834. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy was the son of Maria Dmitrievna Korniliev and Ivan Pavlovitch Mendeleev and the youngest of 14 children. Dmitri’s father, Ivan died when Dmitri was still very young and Dmitri’s mother, Maria was left to support her large family. Maria needed money to support all her children, so she took over managing her family’s glass factory in Aremziansk. The family had to pack up and move there.
This lyrical movement is a lot calmer than the First Movement, but still has some grand moments. It has two main themes, which intertwine and have a little "theme and variations" game. The Third Movement was in the scherzo, which is a rounded binary form; and just like the minuet, it is usually played with an accompanying trio, followed by a repeat of the scherzo, thus creating the ABA or ternary form. At this point, we return to the dramatics; as Beethoven decides to go for a more delightfully dark, doom and gloom scherzo. Technically this part is more of a waltz, since it is in three–fourths time; however, Beethoven manages to slow it down, thus placing a huge emphasis on the first beat, in order for it to sound more like a thundering slow march in four–fourths time. The same can be said for the Second Movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular of all composers. The reasons are several and understandable. His music is extremely tuneful, opulently and colourfully scored, and filled with emotional passion. Undoubtedly the emotional temperature of the music reflected the composer's nature. He was afflicted by both repressed homosexuality and by the tendency to extreme fluctuations between ecstasy and depression. Tchaikovsky was neurotic and deeply sensitive, and his life was often painful, but through the agony shone a genius that created some of the most beautiful of all romantic melodies. With his rich gifts for melody and special flair for writing memorable dance tunes, with his ready response to the atmosphere of a theatrical situation and his masterly orchestration, Tchaikovsky was ideally equipped as a ballet composer. His delightful fairy-tale ballets, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker are performed more than any other ballets. Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky's first ballet, was commissioned by the Imperial Theatres in Moscow in 1875. He used some music from a little domestic ballet of the same title, composed for his sister Alexandra's children in 1871.