Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (
Russian ????? ????????? ???????????,
Igor' Fjodorovic Stravinskij) (17 June
[O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6&_160;April 1971) was a
Russian composer,
pianist, and
conductor, widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music.
[1][2][3] He was a quintessentially
cosmopolitan Russian who was named by
Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century.
[4] In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a
conductor, often at the premieres of his works.
Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Ballets) The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911/1947), and The Rite of Spring (1913). The Rite, whose premiere provoked a riot, transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure, and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary, pushing the boundaries of musical design.
After this first Russian phase Stravinsky turned to neoclassicism in the 1920s. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso, fugue, symphony), frequently concealed a vein of intense emotion beneath a surface appearance of detachment or austerity, and often paid tribute to the music of earlier masters, for example J. S. Bach and Tchaikovsky.
In the 1950s he adopted serial procedures, using the new techniques over his last twenty years. Stravinsky's compositions of this period share traits with all of his earlier output rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells, and clarity of form, of instrumentation, and of utterance.
