Igor Stravinsky was born in 1882 and lived to be nearly ninety years old, dying in 1971. What accomplished during his lifetime changed the music world and inspired many musicians to come. He was a very disciplined pianist who loved composing and thinking outside the box. But how did he begin his musical career? What was his music like? Why did he compose and who did he compose for?
Igor Stravinsky was born near St. Petersburg, Russia into a very musical family. His father was famous for being an operatic bass and his mother was a pianist. Their home was filled with art, literature, and music, and Igor started piano lessons at age nine. But his parents didn’t want him to follow in their footsteps, so they encouraged him to study law, which he did. He went to a university to study, and it was there that he befriended Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, a celebrated composer, who Stravinsky was apprenticed under for three years. After a year and a half of this excellent music instruction, Stravinsky began his first symphony. It was around this time that he graduated from the university and married his cousin, Catherine Nossenko. When he and his wife went to the country that summer, Stravinsky promised Rimsky-Korsakov, his good friend as well as mentor, that he’d send him the finished music of the piece he was working on. A few weeks later, he sent the completed composition, his well-known Firworks, to him. But the parcel was returned with a message: “Not delivered owing to the death of the addressee”. This was a sad time for Stravinsky, but it was also one full of promise, because before his death Rimsky-Korsakov arranged for some of Stravinsky’s music to be performed. In the audience of one of these performances was Sergei Diaghilev, a dire...
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...and his mother, as well as the outbreak of World War II, he left France and went to the United States where he settled down, remarried, and lived for the rest of his days. In the last few years of his life his health began to decline. He died in 1971 and at his request was buried next to Sergei Diaghilev on the Island of San Michele. Stravinsky was a great composer who deeply influenced the music world with his novel compositions and radical rhythms.
Works Cited:
1. Smith, Jane Stuart and Betty Carlson. “The Gift of Music: Great Composures and Their Influence.” Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books Publishing. 1987. Print. April 2014.
2. “The World book Encyclopedia”. World Book, Inc., 1991. Print. April 2014.
3. "Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky”. 2014. The Biography.com website. Web. April 2014.
http://www.biography.com/people/igor-fyodorovich-stravinsky-9497118.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)9: 708-709
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I thought Igor Stravinsky was just another musical genius, but there was more to his character than one would expect. Stravinsky was known to be a chemist and a photographer. By the way he was describing, one would think he was obsessed with creating the perfect picture by capturing every aspect and color he can. Stravinsky is known for his famous 1910 ballet, “The Firebird”. He uses lots of imagery to capture what he’s trying to portray in music, such as a young woman dancing till exhausted men dry out and turn to stone. A man named Nicholas Roerich, a
Many performances followed resulting in awakening his passion and excitement for music.''His father got him a pass that enabled him to attend most of the opera's rehearsals" (White, 1984) and he would spend most of his nights at the theatre. It is fair to say that although his parents' direct musical contribution during his upbringing and musical development was minimum, their place in the Russian society, his father's career and his connections highly influenced young Stravinsky. Nevertheless, his parents would never allow his to pursue a career in music and thus he entered St Petersburg university to study law. During the course of his studies, he spent most of his time playing the piano, taking part in performance and pursuing his passion for music, therefore, he failed law school due to low attendance. He was lucky to meet Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov who suggested that Igor should consult his father about his musical inspirations and so happened. Rimsky-Korsakov discouraged Stravinsky from joining the conservatoir and strongly suggested that he takes private lessons. Stravinsky became his student and he was taught the art of orchestration, counterpoint and
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He began piano lessons at five and quickly read music as well as his teachers. When he was 14, he attempted to write a composition for a waltz in memory of his mother, who had died. Although his parents had planned for him to be a civil servant, he was lucky enough to attend St. Petersburg Conservancy where he learned not only Russian music theory and composition, but also western music theory and composition. This allowed him to be influenced by Russian and European styles of music, which was in contrast to most Russian composers of the time who concentrated on the Russian music style. This made him popular outside of Russia and is believed to be one reason his music has endured.
What was fascinating about the symphony was the relationship Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Stravinsky wanted the audience to feel the their inner self locked away. Stravinsky wanted the audience to feel restless, awaken and even scared. These feelings he himself felt that inspired him to
He grew up in St. Petersburg. Both of Stravinsky’s parents were involved in music. His father was a bass singer and his mother was a very talented piano player. His parents didn’t think he should follow in their footsteps and become a musician. They wanted him to study law. After he joined the University of Saint Petersburg, Igor made friends with a classmate named Vladimir Korsakov. Vladimir’s father, Nikolai, was a very well known composer. In 1902, Stravinsky’s father passed away, which made it possible for him to become Nikolai Korsakov’s pupil. Igor married Catherine Nossenko in 1906 and ended up having four children with Catherine. Soon after this, he would compose one of his vary famous pieces, “The Rite of Spring”. It is said that the premiere of “The Rite of Spring” helped spark a riot in 1913. Stravinsky and his family fled to Switzerland because of the start of World War one. While in Switzerland, Igor used Russian folklore to inspire some of his work. He composed “Renard” and started “Les Noces’ while he was in Switzerland. In 1920, Igor and his family moved to France. They only lived in France for about two years. After his wife and daughter died of tuberculosis, Igor and his remaining family moved to the United States in 1939. While in the United States, Igor gave a few lectures at Harvard University and he got remarried to Vera Bossett in 1940. He even became a citizen in 1945 and eventually
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