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Welcome to the
IGOR STRAVINSKY
COMPOSITION NOTES Page of
aMUSIClassical Directory
Our Classical Music website
for good music lovers.
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Brief synopsis' of the most popular classical music by
Igor Stravinsky
Russian born-French, then American nr. St.Petersburg 17 JUN
1882 ~ NYC, 6 APR 1971
Orchestral works, Piano, Chamber and Vocal Works
He is buried at Russian section of cemetery on island of San Michele
- Stravinsky, Igor Agon.
- Stravinsky Apollon Musagete
(Ballet in two tableaux)
(
Ah POH' lohn moo sah jhet)
Composed in 1927-28 for Adolph Bolm formerly with the Diagheliv troop, who
left the company to live
in the USA.
Apollo is the Muse leader in a court ballet set in 17th century France. Stravinsky revised his score
in 1947. Simple title is Apollo.
- Stravinsky
Capriccio
It was Christmas time in 1928 when Stravinsky began his
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. It was finished in
September of 1929. It was revised in 1949.
- Stravinsky Card Game
Jeu de cartes, a ballet in three
deals...(acts).
- Stravinsky Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D
- Stravinsky Dumbarton
Oaks
Named after the Washington, D.C. estate of a weathly couple who
commissioned the work for their 30th
wedding anniversary in 1938. Inspired by Bach's 3rd Brandenburg Concerto.
- Stravinsky Ebony Concerto
Composed in 1945 for Woody Herman's first heard jazz band.
- Stravinsky The Fairy's Kiss "Le baiser de la fee"
Composed in 1928 on commission of Ida Rubenstein the ballet impresario. Based on the melodies of
Tchaikovsky. He had concieved material for the 35th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's death. The story is based on the
Hans Christyian Anderson fairy tale The Ice Maiden. From the ballet score Stravinsky combined several sections into
a divertimento.
In this form it was revised and completed in 1934.
- Stravinsky Firebird or
"L'Oiseau
de
Feu"
The score was dated May 18, 1910. FP in June 1910 at the Paris Opera
House as presented by ballet choreographer Diagelev who commissioned the
work. Stravinsky was his fifth choice to compose the music. There were
revisions
for orchestra and a 1945 revision for piano instead of celeste with the
orchesetra... The ballet is based on an old Russian legend.
- Stravinsky History of a Soldier
Concert Suite. See
"Soldier's Tale"
L'Histoire du Soldat
- Stravinsky Petrushka
Composed in 1911, Revised in 1947
The story of the Russian puppet who was in love with a ballerina who rejects him. The tale of
unrequeted love was one of three ballets for Diaghelev to stage. Originally Stravinsky had conceived
the work as a piano concerto. He played two MMTs of the work for the ballet emprasario who suggested
the ballet. It was a good idea and was FP in Paris on June 13, 1911. It was the 2nd produced for the Ballet
Russe. (Firebird was first). The score was re-orchestrated in 1947.
- Stravinsky
Pulcinella
The ballet music for Pulcinella was composed by Igor Stravinsky for
Diaghilev's ballet Russe in 1919
from operatic fragments of Pergolesi. The Stravinsky score was later
revised in 1947.
- Stravinsky La Sacre du Printemps
"The Rite of Spring"
Few works have created the sensation that ROS did at its FP in 1913. With its somewhat barbaric
power, critics attacked the work as an attempt to destroy music as an art. However, over the years,
its inventiveness has won over audiences. The ballet score is divided
into
two parts. 'The
adoration of the earth', which depicts the emergence of spring and a new
season through pagan
ceremonies and dances; and the 'Sacrifice' which depicts the selection of
a virgin whose sacrifice
will fertilize the earth, and concludes with the frenetic dance of death.
LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS
depicts the primitive forces of nature by primitive man. Bedlam broke loose
at the FP in Paris on
May 22, 1913. The audience booed and cheered at the Theatres de Champs Elysees. The work never caught on
as a ballet because of its difficult staging, but the music made a transition
to the concert hall where
it has long been a staple of the symphonic repertoire.
- Stravinsky Scenes de Ballet
Broadway producer Billy Rose called composer Igor Stravinsky one day in
the spring of
1944, and offered him $5,000 dollars for a 15 minute ballet suite. The composer also choreographed the
'Scenes de Ballet'...for Rose's 'Seven Lively Arts'.
There was a well publicized telegram exchange between the two after the
score was submitted. Rose to Igor, "Your music great success...could be
sensational success if you would authorize Robert Russell Bennett retouch
orchestration". Stravinsky's dry responce was "Satisfied with
great success". Only parts of the score were used on Broadway.
- Stravinsky "Soldier's Tale"
L'Histoire du Soldat
In 1917 Igor Stravinsky joined French poet
Ramuz in the score for a dramatic orchestral piece for a small
chamber group. The work is loosly based on a cycle of legends about the mis-adventures of a young soldier.
- Stravinsky Song of
the Nightingale
Taken from a story by Hans Christian Anderson it began as an opera in 1908. The tone poem was premiered
in 1919.
- Stravinsky
'Symphony in C'
- Stravinsky Sym in 3
MMTS,
written while living in California, in 1945. Dramatic and exciting with pulsating rhythms
much of it was inspired by the world conflicts of the time. However Starvinsky did say the
work was not programmatic.
- Stravinsky Symphony of
Psalms
Composed in 1930 to 'The Glory of God'. the work is dedicated to the Boston SO which commissioned the work
It is a setting for chorus and orchestra of the passages of Psalms in the Bible.
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