Igor Stravinsky
Igor StravinskyIGOR STRAVINSKY
Igor Stravinsky is considered by many the greatest composer of the 20th Century. Several composers have made breakthroughs and great accomplishments in the past 100 years, but Stravinsky has dominated nearly every trend set. He was born near St. Petersburg, Russia in Oranienbaum, on June 17, 1882. He was born to a famous Russian bass opera singer, Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky.
Igor Stravinsky was third of a family of four boys. He grew up hearing his father practicing his opera and attending local ballets. He also started taking piano lessons when he was 9 years old and continued on with musical notation and composition instruction. All throughout his early life he studied music. However, although he had been brought up with music and loved it dearly, his parents did not want him to pursue a musical career. His background was musical. His parents viewed his efforts as a musician as childish, but on the other hand indulged him in it with the piano and the operas and the ballets. In 1902 he was sent to St. Petersburg University to study criminal law and legal philosophy to honor his parents� wishes. While he was there, he still concentrated on his music and especially his composing. In the summer of 1902 he was introduced to the Russian composer, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Rimsky was extremely impressed with Stravinsky�s early compositions that he convinced him not to enter the conservatory for academic training, but to study privately with him as his teacher. He was tutored privately by Rimsky in instrumentation and orchestration for about three years. In 1905, Stravinsky graduated from the St. Petersburg University. In the meantime, he continued his studies with Rimsky. The next year, his mind still not made up about becoming a professional musician, he married his second cousin, Catherine Nossenko.
Stravinsky�s Symphony in E Flat Major (1905-1907) was his first piece picked by Rimsky to be performed in private and public concerts in St. Petersburg. His last composition approved by Rimsky was Fireworks (1908). This was a brief symphonic "poem" that Stravinsky wrote as a wedding present for Rimsky�s daughter. Sadly however, Rimsky died in the summer of 1908 before he could hear it performed. After Rimsky�s death, Stravinsky composed a funeral march in memory of his teacher and friend.
When Fireworks and an earlier orchestral piece, Scherzo Fantastique (1907-08), were performed in St. Petersburg on Feb. 6, 1909, they were heard by the impressario Sergey Diaghilev. He was so impressed by Stravinsky\'s promise as a composer that he invited him to join his small group of artistic assistants. For the rest of the 1909 season Diaghilev asked Stravinsky to compose various pieces of ballet music. Then, in 1910, Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to compose his new ballet, The Firebird.
The result of his...
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