Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky Creative path Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (born June 5 (17), 1882, Oranienbaum - died April 6, 1971, New York; buried in Venice at the San Michele cemetery) - Russian composer, conductor and pianist, one of largest representatives world musical culture of the 20th century.

Biography Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born in 1882 on Swiss Street in Oranienbaum at the dacha that his father, a Russian singer, bought Polish origin, soloist Mariinsky Theater. According to some Ukrainian researchers, the Stravinsky family comes from Volyn in Ukraine.

At the age of nine, Stravinsky began taking private piano lessons; at the age of eighteen, at the insistence of his parents, he entered the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg state university simultaneously starting self-study musical theoretical disciplines. From 1904 to 1906, Stravinsky took private lessons from Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov, who offered the composer classes twice a week, in parallel with his lessons with Vasily Pavlovich Calafati.

Under the direction of Rimsky-Korsakov, the first works were written - a scherzo and a sonata for piano, a suite for voice and orchestra “Faun and the Shepherdess”, etc. Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev was present at the premiere of the latter, who highly appreciated the talent young composer. After some time, Diaghilev invited him to create a ballet for production at the Russian Seasons in Paris. During three years collaboration with Diaghilev's troupe, Stravinsky wrote three ballets, which brought him world fame- “The Firebird ballet” 1910, “Petrushka ballet” 1911 and “The Rite of Spring” ballet 1913.

During these years, Stravinsky periodically traveled from Russia to Paris and back, and in 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War, he went to Switzerland to buy watches, where he remained for the next four years. Among the works of this time are the opera “The Nightingale” based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen (1914) and “The Story of a Soldier” (1918).

After the end of the war, Stravinsky decides not to return to Russia, and after some time he moves to France. In 1919, the composer, commissioned by Diaghilev, wrote the ballet Pulcinella, staged a year later.

Stravinsky lived in France from 1920 to 1940. The premieres of his opera “The Moor” (1922), “Weddings” (1923) - the final work of the Russian period, as well as the opera-oratorio “Oedipus the King” (1927), which marked the beginning of a new period in the composer’s work, which is commonly called “ neoclassical."

In 1928, new ballets appeared - "Apollo Musagete" and "The Fairy's Kiss", and two years later - the famous and grandiose Symphony of Psalms based on Latin texts Old Testament. In the early 1930s, Stravinsky turned to the concert genre - he created the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra and the Concerto for Two Pianos. In 1933-1934, commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, together with Andre Gide, Stravinsky wrote the melodrama “Persephone”. Then he finally decides to accept French citizenship (obtained in 1934) and writes an autobiographical book, “Chronicle of My Life.”

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky died on April 6, 1971, and was 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.

The presentation was prepared by Anastasia Timofeeva Teacher: Natalya Efimovna Borodkina, 2011

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 own 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 his Fatherland.
short biography

Igor was born in 1882 in the town of Oranienbaum in theater family. The father of the future composer shone on opera stage Mariinsky Theater, and his mother, being a pianist, accompanied her husband during concerts. All the artistic and cultural elite 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 form and content. musical compositions. But 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 they began to teach him 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. Is it true, famous composer and a close friend of the family, 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 preparation when you need to focus on practice. He managed to give Stravinsky a strong composing 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 of the Russian Seasons in Paris, Sergei Diaghilev. In 1909, the famous entrepreneur, planning his fifth “season,” was engrossed in the search for a composer for a new ballet performance, “The 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 the premiere showing of “The Firebird,” which opened up another facet of Russian art for Parisians in 1910, 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.

Ballet "Firebird"

During this time, Stravinsky wrote two more ballets - “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring”. But if “The Firebird” and “Petrushka” aroused frantic delight among the public almost from the first bars, then the audience initially did not accept “The Rite of Spring” to such an extent that one of the most enormous 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" became for the composer last essay, which he wrote in his homeland. Then long and difficult years of forced emigration awaited him.

Ballet "The Rite of Spring"

Family of Igor Stravinsky

First World War caught Stravinsky and his relatives in the Swiss town of Montreux. Since 1920, Paris became his main place of residence. 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 a 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. Stravinsky wrote his last masterpiece at the age of 84, when he was already seriously ill and foresaw his imminent departure. “Requiem”, in fact, summed up his life.
The composer died on April 6, 1971. According to his wishes, he was buried in Venice next to his longtime friend Sergei Diaghilev.
Interesting Facts
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. 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 an outburst 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 musical critic Florent Schmitt named his Vacation home"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.

Film "Igor Stravinsky. Long road to yourself".

Italian Suite.

Symphony of Psalms.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STRAVINSKY'S WORK

Years of the composer's life 1882 - 1871.

Behind 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 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 the works 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. The entire extremely long career of 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

principles are formed musical aesthetics Stravinsky, associated with the ｫperformance theaterｻ,

basic elements are laid 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 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 paintings(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 took 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. The named 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 Theatre

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)

4.7.1. General characteristics of creativity

1. Asafiev, B. Book about Stravinsky / B. Asafiev. – L., 1977.
2. Vershinina, I. Early ballets of Stravinsky / I. Vershinina. – M., 1967.
3. Druskin, M. Igor Stravinsky / M. Druskin. – M., 1982.
4. Yarustovsky, B. I. Stravinsky / B. Yarustovsky. – M., 1962.
5. Zaderatsky, V. Polyphonic thinking of I. Stravinsky / V. Zaderatsky. – M., 1980.
6. Smirnov, V. Creative formation I.F. Stravinsky / V. Smirnov. – L., 1970.
7. Stravinsky, I. Chronicle of my life / I. Stravinsky. – L., 1963.
8. Stravinsky, I. Dialogues / I. Stravinsky. – L., 1971.
9. I.F. Stravinsky: Articles and materials. – M., 1973.
10. I.F. Stravinsky: Articles, memoirs. – M., 1985.
11. I.F. Stravinsky - publicist and interlocutor. – M., 1988.

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky came from the school of Rimsky-Korsakov, absorbed the traditions of Russian classics - Glinka, “ Mighty bunch”, Tchaikovsky, was nurtured by the era of social upsurge and cultural flourishing of Russia in the 900s. One of the most prominent representatives Russian music of the pre-revolutionary decade, Stravinsky after his departure from Russia (1913) became a generally recognized leader foreign music and largely determined musical process XX century.

After sixty years of active creative work Stravinsky left a colossal creative legacyheritage ; its evolution was unusually complex.

– Operas: “The Nightingale”, “The Moor”, “Oedipus the King”, “The Rake’s Progress”.

– Ballets(10): “Firebird”, “Parsley”, “Rite of Spring”, “Pulcinella”, “Apollo Musagete”, “The Fairy’s Kiss”, “Playing Cards”, “Ballet Scenes”, “Orpheus”, “Agon” "

– Musical and theatrical works of mixed genres: “A tale about a fox, a rooster, a cat and a ram”, “Wedding”, “Persephone”, etc.

– Works for orchestra: Symphony in Es major, Symphony in C, Symphony in three movements, Fantastic scherzo, “Fireworks”, fantasy.

– Concerts: for piano, wind instruments, double basses and drums; for violin and orchestra; for two pianos; in Es for chamber orchestra; for string orchestra in D; Movements for piano and orchestra, etc.

– Vocally-symphonic works: “Star-faced” (“The Joy of White Doves”), cantata for male choir and orchestra, Symphony of Psalms for choir and orchestra, “Babylon”, cantata for male choir and orchestra with reader, Mass for mixed choir and double quintet of wind instruments, etc.

– Works for voice accompanied by piano, instrumental ensemble, orchestra, and choir: “The Faun and the Shepherdess”, suite for voice and orchestra, 2 songs for voice and piano to the words of S. Gorodetsky, 2 romances for voice and piano to the words of P. Verlaine, 3 poems from Japanese lyrics for voice and instrumental ensemble, “Jokes ", comic songs for voice and eight instruments based on texts from the collection of fairy tales by A. Afanasyev and others.

– Instrumental ensembles : 3 pieces for string quartet, Ragtime for eleven instruments, Octet for wind instruments, Septet.

– Piano works : 4 etudes, 3 easy pieces for three hands, 5 easy pieces for four hands, “Five Fingers” – 8 very easy pieces on five notes, 3 fragments from the ballet “Petrushka”, Sonata, Serenade in A, Sonata for two pianos.

– Editing, processing, instrumentation: works by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Grieg, Sibelius, Gesualdo di Venosa, Bach, Wolf and others.

– Literaryworks: “Chronicle of my life” (1935), “Musical poetics” (1942), “Dialogues with R. Kraft” (six books, 1959 - 1969).

There are several approaches toperiodization creativity of Stravinsky:

1. Geographical: Russian, Swiss, Parisian, American periods.
2. Style: impressionistic, neoclassical, avant-garde.
3. Synthesizing: Russian (1903 – 1923), neoclassical (1923 – 1953), late, dodecaphonic (1953 – 1968).

Evolution

• Stravinsky's path is replete with frequent modulations: from the youthful symphony, marked by the influence of Glazunov and Brahms, to the Russian impressionism of The Firebird, then to the riotous neo-primitivism of The Rite of Spring. Octet for winds announced unexpected turn to neoclassicism, in which several parallel trends have also emerged over the course of 30 years. The 1952 septet opened another new chapter – the period of “serialism”.
• There are many violent hobbies for various orchestral tones. In the early 20s he persistently experimented with wind instruments, then he fell in love with the dulcimer; later the violin, the English bugle, and the mandolin became the focus of attention.
• Various genre-thematic strata his works: Russian Scythianism, ironic fairy tale, mythological and pastoral epic, biblical-Catholic works, epitaphs and anniversary dithyrambs.
• Worked in almost all existing genres. IN different periods creativity, the picture of genres changed. IN early period(until 1908) the choice of genres was dictated by imitation of the teacher - Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1909 – 1913 Ballet occupied an exceptional position. Later, from the 10s, other genres were put forward musical theater. In the neoclassical period, along with ballet and opera, instrumental works played a prominent role. In the years before and during the Second World War, he turned to the symphony, which reflects the general aspiration towards conceptual symphonism, characteristic of the leading composers of Europe in those years. IN late period his work is dominated by cantata-oratorio works.

Aesthetic views

Stravinsky left a lot of interviews, a number of books that contain an outline of his views on art. He was one of the most educated people of his time, had a phenomenally tenacious memory, his mind was enriched by constant self-education, communication with outstanding representatives artistic culture, philosophers.

• Occupied a characteristic position for that time anti-romantic position. Criticizes romanticism for subjectivism and emotional anarchy, believing that these tendencies lead away from the correct idea of ​​the world. The reference eras for Stravinsky are those preceding romanticism; Among them, he especially singles out the Baroque. The composer comes from a wide variety of styles and national traditions, assimilating compositional techniques Bach, Lully and Rameau, Pergolesi, Rossini and Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Weber, Mozart, Delibes... Therefore, his neoclassicism is universal in nature, not associated with any one national tradition.
• Stravinsky tears away all romantic veils from artist's personality as a being called upon in a fit of inspiration to create according to inspiration from above. He avoids the very word “creator,” contrasting with it the concepts of “master” and “craftsman” in the sense in which they were used in the Middle Ages. He also does not like the expression “to create”, preferring to it “to create”, “to create”. This also reflects the anti-romantic general position of Stravinsky, for whom music is “not a subject for pleasant dreams”, but “a way to create a work according to certain methods.”
• Aestheticist "pure" art . In the opera genre, he refuses the expressive-pointed genre musical drama, preferring the more objective and traditional genre of number opera. IN symphonic genre avoids symphonic dramas, acute conflicts of Beethoven's plan, refuses programmaticity, and the consistent affirmation of the idea of ​​the work. As a result, he abandons the dramatic schemes of the 19th century, end-to-end development, and sonata form.
• Category of "order" - one of the most important aesthetic categories in Stravinsky’s aesthetics. “We live in a time when human existence is experiencing profound upheavals. Modern man loses the concept and sense of stability, the meaning of relationships.” The artist has the task of reviving and strengthening the lost stability and meaning of relationships, and restoring “order.” Therefore, Stravinsky opposes the vagaries of taste and intellectual anarchy in the work of both the romantics and some of his contemporaries.
• Stravinsky's understanding traditions – considers it not as something motionless, frozen, but as being in development, movement. “Tradition is a generic concept; it is not simply “transmitted” from fathers to children, but undergoes a life process: it is born, grows, reaches maturity, declines and, sometimes, is reborn.” For him, the main thing is an active attitude towards tradition.

Style, musical language

Stravinsky changes his attitude towardsfolk melody.Already in “The Firebird” he moves away from direct quotation, outlining ways to prolong and compress the song. In “Petrushka” it is stunning in that it deviates from the Kuchka tradition of relying on the melody of a peasant song. He chooses songs that exist in the city, and moreover, he freely combines them, placing them in the “sound environment” of the hubbub of the crowd, rejecting ethnography and asserting the artist’s right to his own vision of folklore. In The Rite of Spring, traditionalrhythm displaces irregular accent, rooted in Russian folk speech, verse, dance. Habitualharmonic warehousedisappears. Consonances and chords either expand, absorbing complex overtones and intruding tones, or disperse, revealing melodic lines. The liberated modal energy of the chants “breathes”, sends out melodic shoots, and is combined in different polytonal and polymodal layers. Based on the characteristics of the intonation material used, Stravinsky finds anddevelopment technique- mainlyvariant, with the useostinacity. It fully corresponds to the pictorial static nature of the image he creates. musical image. Forshapingcharacterized by a variety of reprise constructions. However, he avoided any squareness of forms. Small cells are very diverse in the number of cycles, often asymmetric. Characteristic is the interlocking of the most contrasting elements through bold metric “seams”. Also, the cohesion of cells is cemented by ostinate figurations.

One cannot fail to mention Stravinsky's discoveries in the fieldinstrumentation. The striking colorfulness and new timbral-dynamic properties of his orchestra come entirely from the peculiarities of the composer’s musical writing: the inextricable connection of timbre with the character of the melody, emphasizing the density of the harmonic fabric by orchestral means, decorative, colorful, phonic effects, etc. Stravinsky selects instruments for each score , defining her individual sound solution, he avoids an impersonal stereotypical composition. He places winds and drums at the forefront of his orchestra.

Control questions:

1. What is the significance of Stravinsky's work?
2. List the composer's legacy.
3. Give a periodization of the composer's work.
4. What are the features of Stravinsky's evolution?
5. Expand aesthetic views composer.
6. What is the innovation of Stravinsky's musical language?

Igor Stravinsky

The heroes of intellectual labor have not disappeared from Rus'! Well, by at least, there is something to be proud of over a period of several decades. Such was Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, one of the most significant figures in the world of music of the twentieth century.

Igor Fedorovich was born in Oranienbaum (now the city of Lomonosov), in the St. Petersburg province of the Russian Empire, on June 5 (old style) 1882. His father was Russian singer of Polish origin, and according to some research data, the Stravinsky family comes from Ukraine. Well, if you consider that the lion's share of Ukraine previously belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, then this may well be true. Another question is how to reliably trace what is already covered with the dust of many decades and the ashes of the Revolution?

Stravinsky's parents. Odessa, 1874

When Igor Fedorovich was nine years old, he began taking piano lessons, but at eighteen he involuntarily entered the Faculty of Law - his parents insisted.

The only one composer school, which Stravinsky managed to take, these were private lessons, which he conducted twice a week. In order not to waste time, Rimsky-Korsakov suggested that Igor take additional lessons from Vasily Pavlovich Kalafati. The lessons were not in vain, since upon completion Stravinsky mastered the profession of a composer to perfection.

It was under the guidance of Rimsky-Korsakov that Stravinsky wrote his first works. These were a scherzo and a sonata for piano, as well as a suite for voice and orchestra, which is known as “The Faun and the Shepherdess.” A little time passed, and Diaghilev invited him to create a ballet for production in the Russian Seasons, which were to be held in Paris.

After this, Igor Stravinsky continued to work with Diaghilev's troupe, and during the three years of collaboration he wrote three ballets for him. This is how Stravinsky’s works appeared, which brought him fame throughout the world. These were “Firebird” 1910, “Petrushka” 1911 and “The Rite of Spring” 1913. After the resoundingly successful Paris premiere of The Firebird on June 25, 1910, Stravinsky became known overnight as an extremely gifted composer of a new generation. This work showed how fully he had assimilated the vibrant romanticism and orchestral palette of his teacher. In addition, after “The Firebird,” Stravinsky met many famous Parisian celebrities, in particular, he became close with, with whom they were friends for nine years, until the Frenchman’s death.

On video - the ballet “Petrushka” from 1997 (in the role of Petrushka - A. Liepa):

All this time, Stravinsky has been living either in Russia or in France - so often he traveled to Paris, preferring to spend only the summer in his homeland.

Igor Stravinsky's wife Ekaterina Nosenko was from her native Volyn

Just before the outbreak of the First World War, he went to Switzerland to buy a watch, and stayed there. The war began, followed by the revolution in Russia, ending all hope of returning to the fatherland. Therefore, Igor Stravinsky is spending the next four years in Switzerland, where he previously traveled with his family - his wife Ekaterina Nosenko and two children - only for the winter.

By 1914, Stravinsky was exploring more restrained and austere, although no less reverent, rhythmic types musical composition. In his musical works subsequent years were dominated by sets of short instrumental and vocal excerpts based on a variety of Russian folk texts and idioms, as well as ragtime (genre American music, popular 1900-1918) and other stylistic models of Western or popular dance music.

Young Igor Stravinsky

It was in Switzerland that he wrote the opera “The Nightingale” and “The Story of a Soldier.” At the same time, he meets, whose style of writing music delights Stravinsky. So the fact that Satie left a noticeable mark on Stravinsky’s work was quite natural.

Neoclassical period

When the war ended, Stravinsky decided to move from Switzerland. But not to Russia - it was completely uneasy there at that time, and many simply left in panic - but to France. There he also wrote the ballet “Pulcinella,” which Diaghilev commissioned from him.

For the next twenty years, until 1939, Stravinsky would live in France, where he would write The Moor, Les Noces and Oedipus Rex.

Around the beginning of the twenties, Stravinsky first appeared before the public as a pianist. As material, he took his own works written for piano and orchestra. He began to act as a conductor much earlier, back in 1915.

In 1926, Stravinsky experienced a religious crisis, after which he turned to Orthodoxy. These spiritual quests were reflected in such works as Oedipus the King (1927) and Symphony of Psalms (1930). Religious feeling also appears in the ballets Apollo Musagete (1928) and Persephone (1934). The Russian element in Stravinsky's music occasionally reappeared during this period: the ballet The Fairy's Kiss (1928) was set to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and the Symphony of Psalms had something of the ancient rigor of Russian Orthodox chants, despite its Latin text.

In the early thirties, after writing the melodrama Persephone to order, Igor Stravinsky finally accepted French citizenship. In 1934, he, among other things, wrote an autobiographical book.

At the same time, Stravinsky actively toured the United States, where he first came on tour back in 1925. His creative connections in this country strengthened over the years, and he was even invited to give a course of lectures at Harvard University, to which he agreed.

But then World War II began, and France became completely unsafe. In addition, Stravinsky experienced a number of difficult personal losses: in 1938 - death eldest daughter, who died of tuberculosis, and in 1939 - the death of his mother, and then his beloved wife. All this taken together, as well as some other factors, lead to the fact that Igor Fedorovich, wanting to change the environment around him, moves to the USA. Before this, at the beginning of 1940, he remarried Vera de Bosset, a ballerina of Diaghilev’s troupe and one of the first Russian film actresses, whom he had known for many years. In America, he lives first in San Francisco and then in Hollywood (California). In 1945, he became an American citizen and continued to create as if nothing had happened. His 1951 work, The Rake's Progress, became the apotheosis of the neoclassical period.

True, he almost suffered with his passion for arrangements. In 1944, he slightly embellished the performance of the American anthem, for which he received a warning from the police. The fact is that there was responsibility for distorting the national anthem. True, this event gave rise to the myth that he was not warned, but arrested. But this is just a myth.

Serial equipment

Having visited Europe twice during 1951-1952, Stravinsky mastered the dodecaphonic technique, a twelve-tone technique developed by Arnold Schoenberg. Soon Stravinsky switched to composing serial works. These include the ballet “Agon”, the cantata “Treni”, the opera-ballet “The Deluge”, “Three Songs from William Shakespeare”, Funeral music in memory of Dylan Thomas, etc. But it is considered that the highest creative achievement Stravinsky became not ordinary serial works, but “Funeral Hymns”. Personally, he himself always treated requiems with special trepidation.

And all this time he actively traveled both in the USA and Europe, performing concerts both as a conductor and as a pianist. He wrote his last fully completed work in 1968.

Stravinsky reverently preserved the traditions of Russian music throughout his creative life.

In 1971, he died and was buried in Italy, not far from the grave of his wife Vera. And nearby is the grave of Sergei Diaghilev.

Despite the fact that Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky lived abroad almost his entire creative life, he carefully preserved the traditions of Russian music, and even despite the fact that he became famous thanks to the synthesis and multifaceted interpretation of works of a wide variety of styles, his music still preserved the original Russian handwriting.

Sometimes he is also compared to Picasso. Certainly, we're talking about not about the fantastic nature of incorrect images, but about the influence on world art.

Essays:

Operas: The Nightingale (1914, Paris), Mavra (based on the poem “The Little House in Kolomna” by Pushkin, 1922, ibid.), Oedipus the King (opera-oratorio, 1927, ibid.; 2nd edition 1948), The Rake’s Progress (1951, Venice).

Ballets: Firebird (1910, Paris; 2nd edition 1945), Petrushka (1911, ibid; 2nd edition 1946), The Rite of Spring (1913, ibid; 2nd edition 1943), Tale about the Fox, Rooster, Cat da Barana, performance with singing and music (1916; staged 1922, Paris), History of a Soldier (ballet-pantomime, 1918, Lausanne), Pulcinella (with singing, 1920, Paris), Les Noces (choreographic scenes with singing and music , 1923, ibid.), Apollo Musaget (1928, Washington; 2nd edition 1947), The Fairy's Kiss (1928, Paris; 2nd edition 1950), Playing Cards (1937, New York), Orpheus (1948, ibid.), Agon (1957, ibid.);