The music of Stravinsky - Term Paper Example

?Baroque Opera Singer Igor Stravinsky was an American composer who was born in Russia in June 17, 1882. He was a son of an operatic bass and started hi work a s composer while he was twenty years old.Although Stravinsky’s father was a star singer in the imperial opera he expected him to become bureaucrat. Before he made his decision to become a musician Stravinwsky had finishd his law course at the University of Saint Petersburg. Since Stravinsky was interested in his loaw course he spend most of his time in music after his father’s death. However due to the University’s closure following a bloody Sunday, he could not take his final exams and could only receive a diploma. As a result he chose to consntrate in music and was taught private lessons on music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov who almost acted like his second father. Stravisky got married to Katerina Nossenko, his cousin and despite the Orthordox church’s opposition on such marriages, they finaly managed to tie the not on January 23, 1906. Thye gave birth to four kids that is Fyodor born in 1907, Ludmilla born in 1908, Soulima(1910) and Maria Milena(1913) according to Straus (22). By the time he finished hi studies Stravinsky was already a excellent amateur pianist and also could play along with the singer.He was also an expert in Russsian, Italian and French opera. Stravinsky’s best friend was Stephan Mitusov who was a step son of a prince and who helped him advance his career in music. Mitusov would translate French poems and Stravinsky would make music from them. The idea of objectivity is a central theme both in life and in compositions of Stranvinsky.Stranvinsky grew up I environment where he was exposed to music, literature and art given that his father was a known operatic bass.At the age of nine Stravinsky started his piano classes and he studied counterpoint as well as music theory. Rimsky adviced him to compose on his own and gave him composition and orchestra lessons, which helped him, begin his career in music composition. Stravisky music compositions continued to be more confident and the soon started to apper in concert programs at St. Petersburg. A certain Russian impressrio who attented one of Stravinsky’s concerts asked the boy to compose a ballet which resulted to be very successful. The aggressive rythms, abrasive harmonies and the shifting meters he applied in this ballet on ritual pagan sacrifice remained in the memories of many listeners. This became Stravinsky’s first work which permanently placed him at the international repertory. The World War 1 totally disrupted Strvinsky life hence his compositions were disrupted. However, he continued with his compositions but did it smaller scale productions. After the war, he settled in France and his style of composition started to change as now he was inspired by eighteenth century music of Europe. For thirty years he composed using neo-classical style during which he experienced a spiritual transformation which encouraged him to compose liturgical and sacred works. By the time he was in his thirties, Stravinsky found that his music was mostly demanded in the US.At the same period he had lost his mother, daughter and wife in a span of two years. While in Eurpoe, due to condition of war, Stravinsky could not compose held the position of the chairperson of poetry in Harvard. He later married his mistress, Vera de Bosset who he had dated for a long time. They settled in Hollyhood where he started to compose The Rake’s progress. While he was still composing The Rake’s Progress, he came across Robert Craft who later became Stravinsky’s musical aide.This relationship was significant as Craft managed to encourage Stravinsky to create interest in twelve-one techniques which he initially disliked. They also manage to publish co-authored books ewhich explored the musical views of Stranvisky.After completing the Rakes Progress his music compositions took another form which resulted from intergrating the twelve-one techniques in his language of composition. Through this Stravinsky managed create a serial style which was highly personal. He managed to do compositions such as In Memoriam Dylan Thomas; a ballet, A sermon, Agon, a prayer and A Narrative. The mostly notable compositions of Stravinsky during his Russian period began with Fireworks which attained fame following the three ballets which were composed for Diaghilev. The three compositions had several features in common for instance had large orchestra, used Russian folk motifs and themes and finally he was inspired by the imaginative making and instrumentations he acquired from Rimsky. These compositions also had various stylistic development acquired from the firebird and which employed particular trends from Rimsky. The firebird, first ballet, is distinctive of its imaginative orchestration and Petrushka was first ballet based on folk mythology. The third ballet the Right of Spring, Stravinsky musically depicted the brutality of pagan Russian and it was an inspirations to the violent motifs in his works. Stravinsky’s premeire of The Rite of Spring , 1913, is one of the most famous classical music riots according to Taruskin (187), which he refered to as Scandale. Other compositions during this period included The Nightingale of 1916, The Soldier’s Tale of 1918 and The Wedding of 1923. The neoclassical period was Stravinsky’s next phase of compositional style until 1952 when he turned to Serialism. Stravinsky compositions during the neoclassical period included three symphonies.These symphonies are sympyony of psalms produced in 1930, Symphony in C composed in 1940 and Symphony in three movements composed in 1945.Stravinskys also composed Apollo Persephone of 1933 and also Orpheus of 1947 which showed his ability to explore different themes from past classical world including Greek mythology. He was able to complete his final neoclassical work in 1951 on the opera titled The Rake’s Progress.The Rakes Progress was premiered in in Venice and was then given an additional creation other different location before it was finaly staged in 1953 in New York and Paris. The Rake’s Progress was presented Santa Fe Opera in 1957 in its foremost season while Stravinsky was present and this marked the beginning of his partnership with company. In 1962 during Stravinsky’s 80th birthday the Opera hous staged in honour as the composer. The music is broadly based on classical tonal harmony but still incorporates surprising dissonances while featuring Stravinsky’s trade name off-rhythms. It also borrows from the operas and themes of various composers such as Mozart, Monteverdi and Gluck. This particular opera was invigorated in 1997 by the Metropolitan Opera. Stravinsky also produced neo-classical compositions and his first works on this included the ballet Pulcinella which he produced in 1920 and alsom the stripped-down which made him win the Octate for Wind Instruments three years later.However by the late 1920s and early 1930s the use of neo-classical compositions had widely spread among composers as suggested by White (135). During the Serial period, Stravinsky started his serial compositional techniques. These included twelve-one technique initially developed by Arnold Schoenberg. Stravinsky was encouraged by to take this undertaking.He first tried the non-twelve-one techniques in compositions such as the Cantata of 1952, The Three Songs from Shakespeare of 1953 and Septet of 1953. In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954) was one of Stravinsky’s compositions which was completely based the twelve-one serial techniques. Agon was first work to contain composition to involve a twelve-one series while Canticum Sacrum was the foremost composition to involve a movement purely founded on tone row. He later extended his utilization of twelve-one technique in other compositions such as The food, A Sermon, A Prayer, Threni, A Narrative between 1958 and 1962 and they all borrowed from the bible. Agon was a ballet which was designed for only twelve dancers. Agon was a significant midway composition between the neoclassical period style and the seriod period style compositions. Stravinsky often employed a wide orchestral force mostly in composition of his early ballets. For instance first entry to ballets The Firebird confirmed him as almost equal to Rimsky-Korsakov who was his mentor both in life issues and in music. In the composition on The Firebird he chose the orchestra and carefully analyzed it thus leading to his success.Stravinsky’s composition The Rite of Spring has been categorized by Aaron Copland as the first orchestral accomplishment in the whole of the twentieth century. Stravinsky also had distinctive collections of instruments which were chosen due to teir precise tone colors. For instance The Soldiers Tale was chosen for its strikingand distinctive mixture of clarinet, trombone, bassoon, double bass and cornet. He also applied variety offamous instruments especially at beging of Rite of Prings where he applies the use of excessive upper contact of bassoon to stimulate the figurative ‘awakening’ of a spring morning according to Walsh (188). Stravinsky used records to save his ideas on the analysis of his music. With the performance of the original compositionThe Firebird, he was the conductor of his combosition and he recorded it for Columbia records.He als made several records in 1940s for RCA Victor in Los Angeles. Although Stravinsky’s records were done withstudio musicians he patnerd with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmoni Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and CBC Symphony Orchestra among others. During his life Stravinsky featured in many telecasts such as the world premire, The Food, staged on CBS television where Stravinsky only appered on the telecast but the real performance was done by Robert Craft. Stravinsky works were based on continued tradition back in the fifteenth century by composing corks which borrowd from personal pieces of earlier composers.For instance Pulcinella which was composed in 1920 Stravinsky borrowed from the music of Giovanni Pergolesi which he occasionally quoted directly. In his ballet titled The Fairy’s Kiss composed in 1928, he borrowed from the music of Tchaikovsky especially the piano pieces.Stravinsky used additive motives development, a condition where notes could be added or removed from a motif without considering the resulting modifications in meter. This particular technique was used in the sixteenth century in the music of Orlandus Lassus, Cipriano de Rore, Carl Gesualdo among others. Stravinsky’d composition, The Rite of Spring has a disquished due to its persistent use of ostinati and also for its use of passages where many ostinati clash with each other.Stravinsky had a distinctive rhythm use especially in his composition of The Rite of Spring. His music rhythmic structure was more fluid as well as spontaneous. Stravinsky’s ompositions also had a primitive kind of offbeat rhythmic drive. As suggested by Andrew J. Browne, Stravinsky is viewed as the only music composer who managed to lift rhythm in itself to the level of art.His rhythms and animations highly influenced various composers one of them being Aaron Copland. Stravinsky has been referd by many as one of the innovators of music. Stravinsky is recognized due to his technical innovations in music and other works such as the oinnovations of various rhythms and harmony. This is because these innovations changed the face of compositional style and stil retained his distinctive and important identity. Stravinsky was individually inspired by various cultures, literatures as well as languages. His inspirations on composers during and after his death was and has still remained a considerable achieveemant. However Stravinsky’s compositions have been criticized by different people some arguing that it is compositions aimed at extracting music from other aspects of life. For instance Constant Lmbert also a composer criticized Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale as involving cruel abrsatrcations and also argued that its melodic trash as being totally meaningless.Another critique from Gabriel Josipovici states that The Rake of Progress as the only Stravinsky’s composition which justifies human psychology and the world’s real-life situation.However despite the criticism, his compositions are still a source of inspiration for many musicians and his content is even found in their works. Works cited: 188Walsh, Stephen: The music of Stravinsky. Routledge, 1988 White, EEric. Stravinsky, the composer and his works. University of California Press, 1979 Taruskin, Richard. Stravinsky and the Russian traditions: a biography of the works through Mavra, Volume 1. University of California Press, 1996 Whittall, Arnold. Musical composition in the twentieth century. Oxford University Press, 1999 22 Straus, Joseph: Stravinsky's Late Music. 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