June 17 marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of the Russian composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky.
Russian composer and conductor Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born on June 17 (June 5, old style) 1882 in Oraniembaum (now the city of Lomonosov), near St. Petersburg. The Stravinsky family came from Polish landowners (the original surname was Sulima-Stravinsky, after the names of two tributaries of the Vistula - Strava and Sulima). Stravinsky's father was the famous opera singer Fyodor Stravinsky in St. Petersburg, and his mother was a pianist.
From the age of nine, Igor studied piano.
In 1905, Stravinsky attended the full course of lectures at the Faculty of Law, but did not take the final exams. In April 1906, he received a certificate of the courses he had attended and passed.
Stravinsky began serious professional studies in the field of music after 1902, when, as a student at St. Petersburg University, he studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for five years, spontaneously expanding his own knowledge in other areas of musical art.
At the same time, he became close to Sergei Diaghilev, the artists of the “World of Art” (an association based on a circle of young artists and art lovers led by Alexander Benois and Diaghilev), visited the musical branch of this association “Evenings” modern music", as well as concerts new music, hosted by pianist and conductor Alexander Ziloti.
Stravinsky's first compositional experiments - sonata for piano (1904), vocal-symphonic suite "Faun and Shepherdess" (1906), symphony in E-flat major (1907), "Scherzo Fantastique" and "Fireworks" for orchestra (1908), were marked by influence the school of Rimsky Korsakov and the French impressionists.
Since 1910, Stravinsky lived alternately in Paris (France), Switzerland, and Russia. In 1914-1920 he lived in Switzerland.
During this period of creativity, the composer turned to Russian folklore, various layers of which were uniquely refracted in the ballets of Stravinsky, commissioned by Diaghilev for the Russian Seasons.
The first ballet by Igor Stravinsky "The Firebird" on the stage of the Paris Grand Opera. It marked the beginning of the composer's fame.
Later, Stravinsky wrote music for the ballets Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) for Diaghilev.
Elements of Russian folklore with the means of musical modernism were used by the composer in the choreographic scenes of "Weddings" (1914-1923), the opera "The Nightingale" (1914), "The Tale about the Fox, the Rooster, the Cat and the Ram" (1917), "Stories of a Soldier" (1918 ).
In 1920, Stravinsky moved to France, and in 1934 he accepted French citizenship.
An important milestone in his work is "Pulcinella" - a ballet with singing, which is based on fragments of music by the 18th century composers Pergolesi, Gallo, Kelleri and Parisotti, re-instrumented by Stravinsky, the plot of the ballet was designed jointly with Diaghilev and choreographer Leonid Massine. The ballet "Pulcinella" was first staged on May 15, 1920 under the direction of conductor Ernest Ansermet, with decorations by Pabla Picasso.
Among the works of the Parisian period are the opera buffe "The Moor" based on Alexander Pushkin (1922), the ballets "Apollo Musagete" (1927-1928), "The Fairy's Kiss" (1928), written for the troupe of Ida Rubinstein and provoked a break with Diaghilev. Stravinsky wrote the ballets "The Game of Cards" (1936) and "Orpheus" (1947), the opera-oratorio "Oedipus the King" (1927), the melodrama "Persephone" (1938), the opera "The Rake's Progress" (1951), and the octet for winds (1923), "Symphony of Psalms" (1930), concert for violin and orchestra (1931) and other works.
In 1939, Igor Stravinsky moved to the United States and in 1945 accepted American citizenship.
The composer's work in the 1950s and 1960s was characterized by immersion in the music of the pre-Bakhov era, turning to biblical subjects, and the use of a constructive 12-tone (dodecaphonic) composition system. The most significant works of this time are “Sacred Hymn in Honor of the Apostle Mark” (1955), ballet “Agon” (1957), “Monument of Gesualdo di Venosa for the 400th Anniversary” for orchestra (1960), cantata allegory “The Flood” in the spirit of the English Mysteries XV century (1962). Stravinsky's style became increasingly ascetic and constructively neutral.
In 1966, when Stravinsky was seriously ill, he wrote Requiem Canticles (Funeral Hymns) for soloists, choir and chamber orchestra. The epitaph essay is imbued with a bright anticipation of God and a reverent human approach to the other world.
The composer's latest work - an orchestration of two sacred songs by Hugo Wolf - was written in German, a language he had not previously used.
Since 1924, Stravinsky performed as a pianist and conductor of his own works. His concert activity acquired a wide scope after the Second World War, this was due to the growing popularity of the composer and his influence on the development of world musical culture as a whole.
In 1939, the composer began teaching - he gave a course of lectures on "Musical Poetics" at Harvard University in the USA.
In 1962, at the invitation of the USSR Ministry of Culture, Igor Stravinsky gave several concerts in Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
In Ukraine, a museum of Igor Stravinsky was created in the city of Ustilug.
In the Swiss city of Montreux there is a street "Rite of Spring", the largest in the country concert hall is named after the composer - Auditorium Stravinsky. In Paris, in front of the Center Georges Pompidou, a fountain is named after Stravinsky, in the city of Lomonosov (formerly Oranienbaum), where the composer was born, a music school. The name of the composer was assigned to the A-319 aircraft of the Aeroflot company. On the planet Mercury, one crater is named after Igor Stravinsky.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STRAVINSKY'S WORK
Years of the composer's life 1882 - 1871.
For long life this Stravinsky managed to use all the achievements of modern
avant-garde music. Russian folk song, the richness of its rhythmic and melodic structure
were a source for Stravinsky to create his own folklore-type melodic music.
Stravinsky was never just an epigone of any styles. On the contrary, any stylistic
The model was transformed by him into an exclusively individual creation. With all the stylistic
contrast, Stravinsky's work is distinguished by unity due to his Russian
roots and the presence of stable elements manifested in works of different years. He's alone
one of the first to discover new musical and structural elements in folklore, assimilate some
modern intonations (for example, jazz), introduced a lot of new things into the metrorhythmic organization,
orchestration, interpretation of genres.
But still, the figurative and stylistic plurality of S.’s work is subordinated in every creative period
its core tendency. All extremely long lasting creative path Stravinsky
It is customary to divide it into three periods.
During the Russian period (1908-early 20s), Stravinsky showed special interest in the ancient
and contemporary Russian folklore, to ritual and ceremonial images. During these years
the principles of Stravinsky’s musical aesthetics related to the “performance theater” are formed,
the basic elements of the musical language ｫsingingｻthematism, free
metrhythm, ostinacity, variant development, etc. The period is marked by undivided
the dominance of Russian themes - be it a folk tale, pagan rituals, urban everyday life
scenes or Pushkin's poem. It was during this period that ｫPetrushkaｻ Russian funny books were created
scenes in four scenes (1910-1911), ｫThe Firebirdｻ (1909-1910), ｫThe Rite of Springｻ (1911-
1913), ｫThe Story of a Soldierｻ, ｫThe Tale about the Fox, the Rooster, the Cat and the Ramｻ (1915-1916), ｫThe Moorｻ
(1921-1922), ｫThe Weddingｻ (1917, final version 1923).
In the next, so-called neoclassical, period (until the early 1950s) replaced by Russian themes
came ancient mythology, biblical texts occupied a significant place. Stravinsky
turned to various stylistic models, mastering the techniques and means of European music
Baroque (opera-oratorio Oedipus the King, 1927), ancient polyphony technique (Symphony
psalmsｻ for choir and orchestra, 1930) etc. These works, as well as a ballet with singing
ｫPulcinellaｻ (on themes by G.B. Pergolesi, 1920), ballets ｫThe Fairy's Kissｻ (1928), ｫOrpheusｻ
(1947), 2nd and 3rd symphonies. (1940, 1945), opera ｫThe Rake's Progressｻ (1951) �not so high
samples of stylization, how many bright original works (using various historical
stylistic models, the composer, in accordance with his individual qualities, creates
modern-sounding works).
The third period of Stravinsky’s work, which was prepared gradually, within the second,
occurs in the early 50s. Having visited Europe twice during 1951-1952 (at this time
the composer lives permanently in America), he masters the dodecaphonic technique (however, in
within the framework of Stravinsky's tonal thinking). On its basis, his latest
works - ballet ｫAgonｻ (1953-1957), cantata ｫTreniｻ, opera-ballet ｫDelugeｻ (1961-1962),
ｫThree Songs from William Shakespeareｻ, ｫFuneral Musicｻin memory of the poet Dylan Thomas and others.
Also, the late period of the t-va S. is characterized by the predominance of religious themes (ｫSacred
chantｻ (1956); "The Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah" (1957-1958); requiem ｫFuneral chantsｻ
(1966, the final work of the composer), etc.), strengthening the role of the vocal principle (words).
By genre for clarity:
Musical theater
ｫFirebirdｻ, ballet in two scenes (1909-1910)
ｫPetrushkaｻ, Russian funny scenes in four scenes (1910-1911, edition 1948)
ｫThe Rite of Springｻ, scenes of pagan Rus' in two scenes (1911-1913, edition 1943)
ｫThe Nightingaleｻ, opera in three acts (1908-1914),
ｫThe Tale about the Fox, the Rooster, the Cat and the Ramｻ (1915-1916), libretto by the author based on Russian fairy tales from
ｫWeddingｻ, Russian choreographic scenes for soloists, choir, four pianos and percussion
ｫThe Soldier's Storyｻ (ｫThe Tale of the Runaway Soldier and the Devil, played, read and dancedｻ) for three
readers, dancers and instrumental ensemble (1918)
ｫPulcinellaｻ, ballet with singing in one act based on music by Gallo, Pergolesi and others
composers (1919-1920)
ｫThe Moorｻ, comic opera in one act (1921-1922)
ｫApollo Musageteｻ, ballet in two scenes (1927-1928)
ｫThe Fairy's Kissｻ, ballet in four scenes based on the music of Tchaikovsky (1928)
ｫPersephoneｻ, melodrama in three scenes for reader, tenor, chorus and orchestra (1933-1934)
ｫPlaying cardsｻ, ballet ｫin three handsｻ (1936-1937)
ｫOrpheusｻ, ballet in three scenes (1947)
ｫThe Rake's Progressｻ, opera in three acts with an epilogue (1947-1951)
ｫAgonｻ, ballet (1953-1957).
ｫThe Flood (opera)ｻ, biblical opera for soloists, actors, reader and orchestra (1961-1962).
Orchestral works
Symphony in Es major, op. 1 (1905-1907)
The name of Igor Stravinsky is known throughout the world. His brilliant musical works are performed in the most different corners land. Russia, France and the USA have a special attitude towards genius composer. He was born in Russia and began his career, and in France he received world fame, and spent his last years in America.
Childhood and youth
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born not far from St. Petersburg. His father, lead singer Mariinsky Theater Fyodor Stravinsky had a dacha in Oranienbaum (now the city of Lomonosov). There, on June 5 (17), 1882, he was born future composer. The Stravinsky family was close to many artists. In addition to actors and musicians, writers and journalists visited the house. Fyodor Stravinsky was familiar with. At the age of nine, Igor began learning to play the piano, but his training was limited only to private lessons.
Parents sent their son to the private gymnasium of Yakov Gurevich, one of the best educational institutions then St. Petersburg. At the age of 19, Stravinsky entered the law department of St. Petersburg University. All this time he continued to play music as an amateur. From 1902 to 1904, Stravinsky took piano lessons from two outstanding teachers: Vasily Calafati and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The latter saw extraordinary talent in the student and, in addition to playing lessons, gave Stravinsky composition lessons.
The composer's first glory
Rimsky-Korsakov guided the young composer. Under the guidance of the master, Stravinsky wrote his first works. In 1906, classes with Rimsky-Korsakov stopped. Stravinsky never received any more music education. In the same year, the first public performance of his works took place: his suite “The Faun and the Shepherdess” was presented in St. Petersburg. Sergei Diaghilev really liked this work, who invited the young composer to write the music for the ballet that Diaghilev planned to stage in Paris. The first ballet for the Russian seasons, “The Firebird,” made Stravinsky famous. But the greatest fame, controversial and scandalous, was brought to him by the third ballet for Diaghilev, “The Rite of Spring,” staged in 1913.
Emigration
When it began, Stravinsky left Russia, as it later turned out forever. In 1915 he settled in France, but the “Russian” period of his work lasted until 1920. His operas “The Nightingale”, “The Story of a Soldier” and “Le Noces” belong to this period. In the twenties, Stravinsky turned from classical Russian subjects to ancient ones. This marked his transition to a "neoclassical" creative period.
First a major work This period was the opera "The Mavra", followed by the opera "Oedipus Rex" and "Symphony of Psalms". Distinctive feature The works of this period were not only the composer's orientation towards classical subjects, but also the rethinking of classical musical works of the 18th century. In 1939, Stravinsky left Europe. He settled in the United States and took American citizenship in 1945. After the war, he resumed touring the world, but visited Russia only once, in 1962.
Later creativity
In the fifties, the last period of Stravinsky’s work began – the “serial” period. It is distinguished by the active use of serial technique, a special type of harmony invented by Austrian composers at the beginning of the twentieth century. The greatest work Stravinsky's series of works for choir under the general title "Requiem Canticles" ("Funeral Hymns") is considered to be one of Stravinsky's works created in serial time. Stravinsky completed his last works - music for two poems by Hugo Wolf - in 1968. Three years later, the composer passed away (04/06/1971). He was buried in Italy not far from the grave of Sergei Diaghilev.
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky(1882 – 1971), Russian composer, conductor and pianist.
“Man of a thousand and one styles”, “Chameleon Composer”, “Musical Trendsetter” Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky is the largest composer of the 20th century.
His legacy today belongs to the classics of our time. It was he who managed to reflect the most important features of the era, its conflict, dynamism. The variety of themes, subjects, and fluidity of creative manner are the hallmarks of his universal style, which managed to embrace and embody the spiritual processes of our time with an encyclopedic breadth.
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born on June 5 (17), 1882 in Oranienbaum in the family famous singer, soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky. The composer's mother Anna Kirillovna Kholodovskaya was a good pianist.
From the age of nine, Igor studied music, but, as he himself recalls, already “from three years realized himself as a musician." During his summer holiday in the village, he listened to and imitated the singing of peasant girls; from his childhood, a memory emerges of the impression of military brass music coming from the barracks located not far from the Stravinskys’ St. Petersburg apartment near the Kryukov Canal.
As the composer recalls in “Chronicle of My Life,” one of the unforgettable impressions was 1892, when anniversary performance“Ruslan and Lyudmila” he was lucky enough to see Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - the subject of his special love: the young musician even then managed to appreciate the “Power of instrumental visualization” in his works. Later, a photograph of Tchaikovsky with a dedicatory signature to Fyodor Ignatievich was kept in the house of the future composer as a family heirloom.
It must be said that Igor’s father did not want his son to have a career as a professional musician and sent him to the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. The young man was not interested in studying law, and at the same time, his music studies continued. Since 1902, Stravinsky has become close to the family of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who recognized his talent as a composer, but advised him to develop a harmonic ear, and also allowed him to periodically seek advice. Over the next five years, communication between them became closer and went beyond musical studies.
Having entered the circle of the living musical process, the young Stravinsky attended musical “environments” where the most prominent musicians, including V.V. Stasov, gathered. Premieres of works by Stravinsky himself also took place there (the sonata fis-moll and the vocalise “Pastoral”, which was performed by Nikolai Andreevich’s daughter, Nadezhda). Under the strict guidance of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky wrote his First Symphony with a dedication to his “dear teacher.” It is worth noting that studying with Rimsky-Korsakov became Stravinsky’s only school of composition, thanks to which he mastered the composing profession to perfection.
Around 1903-1904, he entered the “Evenings of Contemporary Music” circle, at first secretly from his teacher, and only after a while Rimsky-Korsakov learned that his student was “cheating” on his school. “Igor Fedorovich went too far into modernism,” Nikolai Andreevich said with regret. “All these decadent lyrics are full of darkness and fog.” “Fireworks”, “Fantastic Scherzo” (after Maeterlinck), the opera “The Nightingale” (based on the fairy tale of the same name by Andersen) - all this is the influence of impressionism and symbolism.
In 1905, Stravinsky graduated from university, and a year later he married his cousin Ekaterina Nosenko. Having abandoned his legal career, he decides to devote himself entirely to music.
The premiere of Fireworks (1908) was attended by Sergei Diaghilev, at that time a famous philanthropist and founder of the World of Art magazine, which set the tone for all the “new” art of that time. It was this man who was destined to play a special role in future fate Stravinsky.
Highly appreciating the talent of the young composer, Diaghilev invited him to create a ballet for production at the Russian Seasons in Paris. This enterprise, especially at first, introduced the European public to brilliant examples of modern Russian art. It was thanks to Diaghilev that Paris heard Mussorgsky's entire operas and saw Russian ballet. The thought of a Russian fairy-tale ballet had long haunted Diaghilev. As choreographer M. Fokin recalls, “the most fantastic creation folk tale and at the same time, the Firebird is the most suitable for dance embodiment!”
A few months after the start of work, composer A. Lyadov returned the libretto of the ballet that he had sent him, and Diaghilev finally decided to choose Stravinsky. By 1910, the score was ready, brightly timbre, impressionistic in spirit. This sensational ballet was gradually prepared by choreographer M. Fokin, future performers of the main roles - T. Karsavina, V. Nijinsky, artist A. Golovin, as well as Diaghilev’s permanent consultants - A. Benois, and L. Bakst. Stravinsky and Fokine sat at the piano for a long time, searching for synchronicity between movement and music. “I mimed scenes for him,” recalls the choreographer. - At my request, he broke his or folk themes into short phrases, corresponding to moments in the scene, gestures. Stravinsky watched me and echoed me with fragments of the Tsarevich’s melody against the background of a mysterious trembling, depicting the garden of the evil Kashchei.”
A few years later, Stravinsky made a new orchestral piece from the ballet music, re-editing its text and eliminating all timbre excesses. In a new version, the suite from “The Firebird” gained worldwide popularity.
During his three years of collaboration with Diaghilev’s troupe, Stravinsky created two more ballets that brought him world fame, including “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring.” The first of them is “amusing scenes”, the authors of which were Stravinsky himself, Benois and Diaghilev (1911). After the premiere of the ballet in Paris, Debussy spoke with delight about the music of “Petrushka,” calling the author “a genius of color and rhythm.”
Ballet “The Rite of Spring” - “pictures of pagan Rus'” based on Roerich’s libretto. After playing the newly completed score of “Spring” four hands, Lalois recalls: “We were mute, struck to the core, as if after a hurricane that came from the depths of centuries and took root in our lives” (1913).
Shortly after the premiere, Stravinsky, while in Switzerland, fell ill with typhoid fever and at one time was almost dying. The patient was visited by Debussy, M. de Falla, A. Casella, and Ravel. The only meeting between Stravinsky and Scriabin deserves mention. Both musicians expressed mutual interest in a discreet manner. Stravinsky asked the author of “The Poem of Ecstasy” to send him his last piano sonatas. Here he became acquainted with expressionism, “Pierrot Lunaire” by A. Schoenberg.
The “Swiss” period played a special role in the life and work of Stravinsky. He felt an interest in Russian national images, in Russian exoticism, in fairy tales, folklore. This is evidenced by at least the list of works created in those years: “Jokes”, “The Tale about the Fox, the Rooster, the Cat and the Ram”, “The Story of a Soldier”.
In July 1914, Stravinsky began work on Les Noces, originally planned as a ballet divertissement. The composer went to Kyiv, hoping to find a collection of Russian poetry folk songs P. Kireevsky and some other materials. Having then stopped at Ustilug, his family estate, he intended to return to Kyiv that same fall for materials. But life disrupted his plans: a few days after returning to Switzerland, the war began. Stravinsky decided not to return either to Paris or to his homeland, but to remain in neutral Switzerland. He settled in Clarens. And over the next seven years, he traveled around almost the entire part of French Switzerland - Clarens, Salvan, Walrus.
In 1917 Stravinsky visited Rome and Naples. There he met Pablo Picasso, with whom he developed a close friendship. In Switzerland, he made his debut as a conductor of his own music, and formed a close friendship with the poet C. Ramuz and conductor Ernest Ansermet.
In 1919, Stravinsky went to Paris. A circle of close friends formed around him, with whom increasingly close relations were established; these were young modernists: “the most fashionable Parisians”, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Ravel, Benois, Nijinsky, artists Matisse, Goncharova, Larionov. In the salon of the philanthropist E. Polignac, who particularly favored Stravinsky, he became close to Manuel de Falla, Gabriel Fauré, and Erik Satie. The young French “Six” (J. Auric, F. Poulenc, D. Milhaud and others) also saw Stravinsky as their inspiration. Later, Stravinsky communicated a lot with the writer Andre Gide and Charlie Chaplin.
In the first years after returning to France, the composer remained closely associated with Diaghilev. His ballets, especially “Petrushka,” were successful in Europe. In 1921 he went on tour to Spain, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. On May 22, 1924, Stravinsky made his concert debut as a pianist. He performed his Piano Concerto with S. Koussevitzky's orchestra.
In 1925, he went on a trip to the USA for the first time. Subsequent American tours in 1937 and 1939 increasingly strengthened his creative ties with this country. The mid-1920s saw Stravinsky's next passion for a mechanical piano, designed by the French company Pleyel. The composer was fascinated by the possibility of creating a documentary author's recording that could serve as a kind of standard. He specially studied the acoustic principles of recordings and the resulting features of harmony and voice guidance, adapted orchestral scores to the piano, and even created a new orchestration of Les Noces, specially designed for the use of mechanical pianos and electroharmonium.
Stravinsky actually lived in the house of the head of the Pleyel company. And, by the way, it was there that he met with V. Mayakovsky, who arrived in Paris in 1923. The passion for pianolas passed as quickly as many other passing hobbies. For example, in Switzerland he was fond of cycling, and in France he became a passionate motorist. Having quickly learned to drive, he drove his Renault Hotchkiss all over the Cote d'Azur.
In 1939, the wife of composer E. Nosenko died in France. Some time earlier he had lost his mother and eldest daughter. The composer felt the death of his loved ones very acutely, and then for the first time the desire to move to another country arose. But besides this there were other reasons. In 1936, friends played with Stravinsky cruel joke: they persuaded him to nominate himself as a candidate for the “immortals” - the French Academy fine arts. In the elections, however, he was scandalously failed, and a rather average one was elected instead French composer Florent Schmidt. This incident was not an accident. Even before that, many French people, especially French musical youth, began to betray their former idol: voices were increasingly heard demanding that the foreign “master” be overthrown from the pedestal.
All this took its toll on the well-being of Stravinsky, then already a French citizen. At the same time, trips to the USA strengthened his connections with American companies, orchestras, and patrons of the arts. Based on their orders, he wrote a number of essays. In 1939, at the invitation of Harvard University, he gave a course of lectures on his musical aesthetics.
Erupted Second world war served as the final and immediate impetus for the final decision: the Mauntbatten steamer delivered the composer to the shores of his “third homeland.” Stravinsky lived in France from 1920 to 1940. In Paris, the premieres of his opera “The Moor” (1922), “Les Noces” (1923) - the final work of the Russian period, as well as the opera-oratorio “Oedipus Rex” (1927), which marked the beginning of the period in the composer’s work, which is commonly called “ neoclassical."
Opened in the early forties new period creative biography Stravinsky, who can be called “American”. In December 1939, by invitation, he left for the West Coast of the United States - to San Francisco and Los Angeles. The cities of the California coast reminded the composer of the Cote d'Azur of France. It was decided to settle here in California, in Hollywood. In those years, many major writers and musicians who emigrated from Europe, engulfed in flames by the war against fascism, settled on the Pacific coast: Thomas Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger, Arnold Schoenberg and many others.
Living in the heart of the American film industry, Stravinsky consistently rejected any offers to work for films, claiming that he was not satisfied with the principle of chance that governs the composition of film music. Being at the very epicenter of jazz, the composer does not shy away from this direction. For the black orchestra of Woody Herman, he wrote the “Black Concert” in 1945, with typically jazz effects, virtuosic clarinet solos and a “color score” (his performances were accompanied by lighting effects using multi-colored spotlights).
Gradually musical language Stravinsky becomes more ascetic. Dynamism is replaced by restraint. The composer turns to serial technique, and from now on it will become dominant in the organization of the musical fabric of his compositions. The first serial composition is Septet (1953). A completely serial work, in which Stravinsky completely abandoned tonality as such, was Threni (Lamentation of the Prophet Jeremiah; 1958). A work in which the serial principle is absolute is the Movements for piano and orchestra (1959). Final piece of music serial period- Variations in Memory of Aldous Huxley for orchestra.
In 1947, Stravinsky met Robert Kraft, a young conductor. He soon became Stravinsky's permanent musical assistant and collaborator, and interpreter of his works. Kraft's regular, long-term communication with Stravinsky served as the basis for the publication of their Dialogues.
A significant group is represented by works that are a tribute to the memory of departed friends and relatives. Stravinsky’s circle is thinning out, and towards the end of his life he feels his loneliness more and more: “Today I have no interlocutors who would look at the world through my eyes.”
Memorial opuses include - “Funeral Canons and Song in Memory of Dylan Thomas” (l954), “Epitaph” (l959), “Elegy to John Kennedy” (1964), Variations in Memory of Aldous Huxley (l964), Introitus in Memory of Thomas Eliot, and finally , the last, large work - Requiem Canticles for contralto and bass solo, choir and orchestra (l966). “Funeral chants” completed my entire creative picture”, “Requiem at my age touches too much of my heartstrings”, “I am composing a masterpiece of my recent years“- admits I. Stravinsky.
And yet, the intensity of composing and performing activity did not subside even in old age; until the age of 85, a strict work schedule was maintained: six months - every day creative work, six months - concert tours. In 1962, Stravinsky visited Moscow and Leningrad. The trip to his homeland, according to the composer himself, greatly inspired him.
One of his last completed works is an arrangement for chamber orchestra of two sacred songs by Hugo Wolf (1968), but he still has time to conceive and begin orchestration four preludes and fugues from J. S. Bach's HTC (1968-1970).
But that's it creative activity the master is cut off. On April 6, 1971, 2 months before his 89th birthday, Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky died. He is buried in the San Michele cemetery in Venice (Italy), in the so-called “Russian” part, together with his wife Vera, not far from the grave of Sergei Diaghilev.
Stravinsky's path is replete with frequent modulations: from the Youth Symphony, marked by the influence of Glazunov and Brahms, to the Russian impressionism of The Firebird and The Nightingale, then to the neo-primitivism of The Rite of Spring. The wind octet heralded a turn to neoclassicism, in which several parallel movements also emerged over the course of thirty years.
And finally, the 1952 Septet opened another chapter in Stravinsky’s creative biography - the period of serialism. His artistic sympathies extend from Bach to Boulez, from the Russian wedding party to French modernism, from the strict meters of ancient verse to sharp jazz rhythms - such is the range of his artistic sympathies. Almost every new chapter in Stravinsky's biography is a chapter in the history of Western European music of the twentieth century.
Stravinsky's work, in essence, is far from the events of real life. The composer compares the aesthetic feeling of a music listener with the feeling one experiences while contemplating the “game architectural forms". Therefore, he flees modernity, turns away from its heroes, and only sometimes the powerful wind of life’s storms bursts into his musical world.
In music, Stravinsky is most afraid of the “arbitrariness” of the performer, no matter the pianist, conductor, or actor. The art of presentation - the exact fulfillment of the author's intentions - is his ideal! Heroes should be deprived of “romantic” experiences. Therefore this great value acquires non-personification, depersonalization of the main characters (the Bride in “The Wedding”, the Chosen One in “The Rite of Spring”, in “The Tale” the main characters are mimic figures, and other artists hidden in the orchestra, or a whole choir, sing for them).
The phenomenon of music is given to us solely in order to bring order to everything that exists, including, first of all, the relationship between “man and time.” The composer’s character traits left an imprint on his work, for example, professional qualities of accuracy, punctuality, forethought, and chronometric intuition. It is no coincidence that Stravinsky was called a composer-chronometer, a composer-engineer, and his friend J. Cocteau assured that workplace this composer is reminiscent of “a well-organized surgeon’s operating table.”
Stravinsky's work is still extremely relevant. It was he who managed to go through almost the entire twentieth century, while wearing different masks styles, stay true to yourself. The composer himself, finishing the Chronicle, writes: “I live neither in the past nor in the future. I am in the present. I don't know what will happen tomorrow. For me there is only the truth of today. I am called to serve this truth and I serve it with full consciousness.”
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky is perhaps the most controversial and avant-garde figure in musical culture XX century. His original creativity does not fit into the framework of any one stylistic model; it combines in the most unexpected way various directions, for which the composer was nicknamed “the man of a thousand and one styles” by his contemporaries. A great experimenter, he was sensitive to the changes that took place in life and sought to live with the times. And yet his music has its true face - Russian. All of Stravinsky’s works are deeply imbued with the Russian spirit - this earned the composer incredible popularity abroad and sincere love in the Fatherland.
A short biography of Igor Stravinsky and many interesting facts Read about the composer on our page.
Brief biography of Stravinsky
Igor was born in 1882 in the town of Oranienbaum into a theatrical family. The father of the future composer shone on the opera stage of the Mariinsky Theater, and his mother, being a pianist, accompanied her husband during concerts. All the artistic and cultural colors of St. Petersburg gathered in their house - Lyadov , Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Stasov, Dostoevsky visited. The creative atmosphere in which the future composer grew up subsequently affected the formation of his artistic tastes and the diversity of the form and content of musical compositions.
During his childhood and early youth, it was difficult to even suspect that a genius was growing in the family. At the age of 9, Igor began to learn music, but there were no prerequisites for a promising musical career The parents didn't see it in their son. At their insistence, Stravinsky, who was far from a brilliant student, entered the university at the Faculty of Legal Sciences. It was then that his deep and serious interest in music began to manifest. True, the famous composer and close friend families Rimsky-Korsakov, from whom young Stravinsky took orchestration and composition lessons throughout his student years, advised his student not to enter the conservatory..., believing that it was not worth wasting time on theoretical training when you need to focus on practice. He managed to give Stravinsky a strong compositional school, and the future destroyer of musical stereotypes retained the warmest memories of his teacher throughout his life.
Fame fell upon Igor Stravinsky unexpectedly, and this fact has a direct relationship with the name of the founder " Russian seasons"in Paris by Sergei Diaghilev. In 1909, a famous entrepreneur, planning his fifth “season”, was engrossed in searching for a composer for a new ballet performance « Firebird" This was not an easy task, since in order to conquer the sophisticated French public it was necessary to create something completely special, daring, and original. Diaghilev was advised to pay attention to the 28-year-old Stravinsky. The young composer was not known to the general public, but Diaghilev’s skepticism melted away the moment he heard Stravinsky perform one of his compositions. The experienced impresario, who had an amazing instinct for talent, was not mistaken here either.
After premiere show“The Firebird,” which in 1910 opened up another facet of Russian art for Parisians, Stravinsky gained incredible popularity and overnight became the most fashionable Russian composer among the European public. The next three years proved that the success of the Firebird was not a passing fluke. During this time, Stravinsky wrote two more ballets - “ Parsley" and "The Rite of Spring." But if “Firebird” and “Petrushka” aroused frantic delight among the public almost from the first bars, then “ sacred spring“At first, the audience did not accept it to such an extent that one of the biggest scandals in the history of the theater broke out at the premiere. Indignant Parisians called Stravinsky’s music barbaric, and he himself was called a “unbelted Russian.”
“The Rite of Spring” was the last work for the composer that he wrote in his homeland. Then long and difficult years of forced emigration awaited him.
The First World War overtook the composer and his relatives in the Swiss town of Montreux. According to Stravinsky's biography, Paris became his main place of residence from 1920. Over the next 20 years, the composer experimented a lot with various styles, using the musical aesthetics of antiquity, baroque, and classicism, but interpreted them in an unconventional way, deliberately creating musical mystifications. In 1924, Igor Stravinsky first appeared before the Parisian public as a talented performer of his works.
In 1934, he accepted French citizenship and published an autobiographical work entitled “Chronicle of My Life.” Stravinsky would later call the end of the 30s the most difficult period in his life. He experienced a huge tragedy - for short time the composer lost three people dear to him. His daughter died in 1938, and his mother and wife died in 1939. The deep mental crisis caused by personal drama worsened even more with the outbreak of World War II. His salvation was a new marriage and moving to the USA. Stravinsky became acquainted with this country in 1936, when he first undertook an overseas tour. After the move, the composer chose San Francisco as his place of residence, and soon moved to Los Angeles. 5 years after the move, he becomes a citizen of the United States.
The late stage of Stravinsky's work is characterized by the predominance of spiritual themes. The culmination of his creativity is “Requiem” (“Funeral chants”) - this is the quintessence of the composer’s artistic quest. Mine the last masterpiece Stravinsky wrote at the age of 84, when he was already seriously ill and had a presentiment of his imminent departure. “Requiem”, in fact, summed up his life.
The composer died on April 6, 1971. According to his wishes, he is buried in Venice next to his longtime friend Sergei Diaghilev.
Interesting facts about Stravinsky
- Stravinsky had a rare work ethic; he could work for 18 hours without a break. At the age of 75, he had a 10-hour working day: before lunch he spent 4-5 hours composing music, and after lunch he devoted 5-6 hours to orchestration or transcriptions.
- I. Stravinsky's daughter Lyudmila became the wife of the poet Yuri Mandelstam.
- Stravinsky and Diaghilev were connected not only by ties of friendship, but also by kinship. They were each other's fifth cousins.
- The composer's first museum was created in 1990 in Ukraine, in the city of Stravinsky's childhood, Ustilug, where their family estate was located. Since 1994, Volyn has a tradition of holding a music festival named after Igor Stravinsky.
- The composer always yearned for Russia. From Stravinsky's biography we learn that in October 1962, his cherished dream came true - after a half-century absence, he came to his homeland, accepting an invitation to celebrate his 80th anniversary here. He gave several concerts in Moscow and his native Leningrad, met with Khrushchev. But his arrival was overshadowed by the close supervision of the security services, who, in their official zeal, even turned off telephones in hotels in order to limit the composer’s contacts with his compatriots. When, after this trip, one of Stravinsky’s relatives asked him why he didn’t move to his homeland, he answered with bitter irony: “A little of the good.”
- Stravinsky was connected by ties of friendship and friendship with many famous people from the world of art, literature, cinema - Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Proust, Picasso, Aldous Huxley, Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel, Walt Disney.
- The composer was always afraid of colds - for this reason he preferred warm clothes and sometimes even went to bed wearing a beret.
- People who had the habit of talking loudly evoked instinctive horror in Stravinsky, but any hint of criticism against him provoked a flare-up of rage in him.
- Stravinsky loved to have a drink or two and on this occasion, with his characteristic wit, joked that his last name should be written “Stravisky”.
- Stravinsky was fluent in four languages and wrote in seven languages - French, German, English, Italian, Latin, Hebrew and Russian.
- One day, customs officers at the Italian border became interested in an unusual portrait of the composer, painted by his friend Pablo Picasso in a futuristic manner. The image, which consisted of incomprehensible circles and lines, bore little resemblance to a portrait of a person, and as a result, customs officers confiscated Picasso's masterpiece from Stravinsky, considering it a secret military plan...
- Stravinsky's music was banned for a long time in the USSR, and students were expelled from music schools for their interest in the scores of the emigrant composer.
- The difficult years of lack of money formed in the composer’s character the habit of saving even in small things: if he saw a stamp on a received letter without traces of a stamp, he carefully peeled it off to use it again.
- Stravinsky drew wonderfully and was a keen connoisseur of painting. Of the 10,000 volumes in his home library in Los Angeles, two-thirds of the books were devoted to the fine arts.
- In 1944, as an experiment, Stravinsky made an arrangement of the official anthem of the United States, which caused a huge scandal. The police warned the composer that if such hooliganism were repeated, he would be fined.
- French bohemia was captivated by Stravinsky's music to such an extent that the popular music critic Florent Schmitt called it his country house"Firebird Villa".
- In 1982, the score of The Rite of Spring was sold at auction to Swiss philanthropist Paul Sacher for $548,000. This amount was the largest ever given for an autograph by any composer. Sacher was personally acquainted with Stravinsky and made every effort to acquire rarities related to the great contemporary. Today, the Sacher Foundation possesses the Stravinsky archive, which includes 166 boxes of his letters and 225 boxes of surviving musical autographs, their total value is $5,250,000.
- Aeroflot's A-319 airliner was named after Stravinsky.
- The main decoration of the picturesque Stravinsky Square in Paris is the original fountain, which also bears his name.
- In Clarens you can walk along the street “The Rite of Spring” - Stravinsky completed work on this ballet in this Swiss village on November 17, 1912.
Stravinsky's biography says that Stravinsky met his first love, Ekaterina Nosenko, when he was...10 years old. But the feeling of mutual sympathy and trust that flared up between the two children in the first minutes of their acquaintance, they carried through their entire lives. Even the fact that Catherine was Stravinsky’s cousin did not prevent them from uniting their destinies. In 1906, they secretly got married, since marriage unions between close relatives, which included cousins and sisters were banned. Ekaterina with early years suffered from lung disease, which did not prevent her from giving birth to her husband and four children - Fyodor, Lyudmila, Svyatoslav and Milena. To support his wife’s poor health, Stravinsky took his family to Switzerland for the winter. In 1914, following the established tradition, they went to Europe, but were unable to return - first the First World War interfered, then the revolution. The family's financial situation turned out to be deplorable, since all the Stravinskys' property and savings remained in Russia. The composer's kind genius during this difficult period of his life turned out to be the famous Gabrielle Chanel, who invited the Stravinskys to live in her villa. Whether these two extraordinary people were connected by something more than ties of friendship is unknown, although there are many guesses about this even today. But what Coco Chanel for many years supported the composer's family, an indisputable fact.
In 1921, another fateful meeting took place in Stravinsky’s life. Diaghilev introduced the composer to the actress Vera Sudeikina, a beauty and a smart woman. Vera was married, but soon left her husband to devote herself to Stravinsky. Despite the passionate love that bound them, the musician did not leave the family. This double life, painful for everyone, including children who knew about the existence of another woman’s father in their lives, lasted about 20 years. In 1939, Catherine died of consumption, and in 1940 Stravinsky married Vera and went to the USA with her. Life proved that their love was not a whim, but a real, deep feeling. They were married for fifty years. Vera passed away at the age of 94, having outlived her famous husband by ten years. She was buried in Venice next to her husband.
