TRIAL LESSONUncategorized
Igor Stravinsky
Apr
We could say that the most influential music composer of the 20th century, and an important figure in the world of classical music, due to his early contributions to modernist music, but also Neoclassicism and Serialism. Apart from being a composer, Stravinsky was also a pianist and a conductor.
Stravinsky was born in Lomonosov, located on the Southern coast of the Gulf of Finland.
Stravinsky was of Russian descent and later gained French and American citizenship.
One can assume that Stravinsky had a very early exposure to classical music. His father was a member of the Kyiv Opera and the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg as a bass opera singer. Stravinsky studied maths, history, and languages in his teenage years at school, including Latin, Greek, French and German.
Along these studies, Stravinsky was also enjoying musical studies – which he started early on with taking up piano lessons at the age of nine, later including theory and composition. It was evident to Stravinsky himself that he wanted to continue seriously with his musical studies, as he had a distaste for this school studies and considered himself a lonely student. By the age of 15, he could already play to a professional standard the famous Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
Despite his passion and obvious strong ability in music, Stravinsky enrolled for a law and philosophy degree, at around 19 years of age, at the University of Saint Petersburg, following his parents’ expectations for him to follow a more academic path. Although Stravinsky did study there for four years, his time was arguably devoted elsewhere.
As he expressed himself, it is questionable if he attended even fifty lectures during those years. This was a conscious decision of Stravinsky, as he received advice from the famous composer Rimsky-Korsakov in the Summer of 1902 whilst spending some time with Korsakov and his family, to continue with some private lessons in music theory. These lessons from Korsakov to Stravinski continued during 1905, privately, without needing to attend the conservatoire where Korsakov used to teach. These lessons lasted until the time when Korsakov died in 1906. During those years, Stravinsky formed a strong relationship with Rimsky-Korsakov, regarding him not only as a mentor but as a second father to him as well. In 1906, having received a half-course diploma from his university – as his university was closed for some time in the previous year due to the events of Bloody Sunday making it impossible for him to take his final exams – he was finally able to pursue music education on a full-time basis. The moment when he completed his first composition, the Symphony in E flat, Opus 1.
Another significant moment in Stravinsky’s life and career was when two of the compositions he wrote later, the Scherzo Fantastique Op.3, and Feu d’artifice Op.4, were performed publicly in Saint Petersburg. This allowed Stravinsky to form a professional relationship with the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Thus, in 1910 Stravinsky’s ballet and orchestral concert The Firebird, was performed at the Opera de Paris under Diaghilev’s funding. The ballet immediately received widespread critical acclaim, raising Stravinsky’s fame as a composer. In 1911, another ballet of Stravinsky, Petrushka, was also performed with success. Around this time, Stravinsky moved with his wife to Switzerland.
Stravinsky’s third ballet, The Rite of Spring, was also the most influential. In 1913 when it was premiered, it was considered avant-garde since it contained many experimentations with tonality and dissonance, metre and rhythm that was deemed radical. It is considered one of the first modernist musical works that influenced many composers and still widely performed today. Also, revisited some parts of the musical score to make changes over the next 30 years. Although radical, the immediate reception was positive, and the work followed success with its concert version being performed with big success over the next years.
Being considered ineligible to be conscripted to fight in World War I, Stravinsky stayed in Switzerland with his family until 1920. In the years before 1920, Stravinsky also started struggling financially due to being unable to receive royalties from his works as a result of the political changes in Russia. June 1920 found Stravinsky and his family in France, where they lived for the next two decades, moving from one town to the other over the years until 1939.
Stravinsky managed early on there to secure an income. Notably, once Stravinsky landed in France, it was the famous fashion designer Coco Chanel who helped him stand on his feet financially in the beginning, as the family was able to live in her mansion in Paris. There, in France, Stravinsky met his second wife, maintaining an affair with her until his first wife died in 1939. Over the years, Stravinsky composed more, such as the ballet Les noces, and the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. During this period, Stravinsky’s writing showed an interest for the Classical period, considered then Neoclassical, with works such as Persephone(1933).
This would be a very good point to note that, apart from music, Stravinsky always had a love for literature and art as well. For example, many of his works have as their background various programme scenarios, and some of them are based in folklore.
An outcome of this love of art can be considered his collaboration with Pablo Picasso for his Pulcinellaballet. In the last years of Stravinsky’s life in France, he managed to make professional relationships with artists in the United States, which enabled him to move there in 1939, where he stayed until 1971. Once arriving in the United States, Stravinsky started delivering some lectures at Harvard University, staying at Gerry’s Landing, Cambridge. In January 1940 Stravinsky married Vera, and then moved to Beverly Hills, California. He also conducted his Symphony in Cwith the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, shortly after settling in Hollywood in 1941. These were very productive years for the composer.
During the Second World War, Stravinsky found himself to be involved in the vibrant artistic circle of Los Angeles. An outcome of this might have been his growing interest in writing film music, writing music for Walt Disney’s Fantasia. During his time there, Stravinsky wrote more works considered of much value, such as the Concerto in D. During his time in the US, Stravinsky also showed an interest in Serialism with works such as The Flood (1962). It was later in 1964 when Stravinsky managed to revisit his home country, conduct performances in Moscow, and meet other composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich.
Having lived an entire adventurous life, Stravinsky passed away in 1971 in Manhattan after suffering from ill health for the last four years. He is buried at the San Michele cemetery, Italy.
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