L oiseau de feu igor stravinsky biography

Petersburg with the intention to continue his work on the composition of his opera The Nightingale. Unexpectedly, however, he received a telegram from Sergey Diaghilev. The famous impresario offered the young and still barely known composer to write the music to the Firebird ballet, which was scheduled for performance in the spring of We Diaghilev, a group of artists and me began to search for tales.

The best literary adaptations of Russian tales had already been used in theatrical works mainly as operas by Rimsky-Korsakov. All images created by folk fantasy had already been artistically reproduced. Only the image of the Firebird remained untouched, and the Firebird happens to be the most fantastic creation in folk tales, and at the same time best suited for impersonation in dance.

But there was no fairy-tale that was totally suited to be recreated as a ballet. However, Stravinsky's use of motivic development was unique in the way he permutated his motifs. In the 'Rite of Spring' he introduces additive permutations, that is, subtracting or adding a note to a motif without regard to changes in meter. The same ballet is also notable for its relentless use of ostinati.

The most famous passage, as noted above, is the eighth note ostinato of the strings accented by eight french horns that occurs in the section Auguries of Spring Dances of the Young Girls. This is perhaps the first instance in music of extended ostinato without either variation or being used to accompany melody. At various other times in the work Stravinsky also pits several ostinati against one another without regard to harmony or tempocreating a pastichea sort of musical equivalent of a Cubist painting.

These passages are notable not only for this pastiche-quality but also for their length: Stravinsky treats them as whole and complete musical sections. Such techniques forshadowed by several decades the minimalist works of composers such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich. It can be said that Stravinsky was the inventor of the 'neoclassic' style, a style that would be later adopted by composers as diverse as Sergei Prokofiev and Aaron Copland.

Stravinsky announced his new style in with the stripped-down and delicately scored Octet for winds. The clear harmonies, looking back to the Classical music era of mozart and Bachand the simpler combinations of rhythm and melody were a direct response to the complexities of the Second Viennese School. Stravinsky may have been preceded in these devices by earlier composers such as Erik Satiebut no doubt when Copland was composing his Appalachian Spring ballet he was taking Stravinsky as his model.

Certainly by the late s and s, Neoclassicism as an accepted modern genre was prevalent throughout art music circles around the world. Ironically, it was Stravinsky himself who announced the death of Neoclassicism, at least in his own work if not for the world, with the completion of his opera The Rake's Progress in A sort of final statement for the style, the opera was largely ridiculed as too 'backward looking' even by those who had lauded the new style only three decades earlier.

Stravinsky used the now very postmodern technique of direct musical quotation and pastiche as early as in his work Pulcinella. Here he uses the music of Pergolesi as source material, sometimes directly quoting it and other times simply reinventing it, to create a new and refreshing work. He used the same technique in the ballet The Fairy's Kiss of Here it is the music of Tchaikovskyspecifically Swan Lakethat Stravinsky uses as his source.

Such compositional 'borrowing' would come into vogue in the sas in the work Sinfonia by Luciano Berio.

L oiseau de feu igor stravinsky biography: He then commissioned a ballet inspired

There were other composers in the early 20th century who collected and augmented their native folk music and used these themes in their work. Yet in Le Sacre du Printemps we see Stravinsky again innovating in his use of folk themes. He strips these themes to their most basic outline, melody alone, and often contorts them beyond recognition with additive notes, inversionsdiminutionsand other techniques.

The late 19th century and early 20th century was a time ripe with orchestral innovation. Composers such as Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler were well regarded for their skill at writing for the medium. They, in turn, were influenced by the expansion of the traditional classical orchestra by Richard Wagner through his use of large forces and unusual instruments.

Stravinsky continued this Romantic trend of writing for huge orchestral forces, especially in the early ballets. But it is when he started to turn away from this tendency that he began to innovate by introducing unique combinations of instruments. For example, in L'Histoire du Soldat A Soldier's Tale the forces used are clarinetbassoontenor and bass trombonedouble basscornetviolin and percussiona very striking combination for its time This combining of distinct timbres would become almost a cliche in post- World War II classical music.

Another notable innovation of orchestral technique that can be partially attributed to Stravinsky is the exploitation of the extreme ranges of instruments. The most famous passage is the opening of the Rite of Spring where Stravsinky uses the extreme reaches of the bassoon to simulate the symbolic 'awakening' of a spring morning. It must also be noted that composers such as Anton WebernAlban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg were also exploring some of these orchestral and instrumental techniques in the early 20th century.

Yet their influence on succeeding generations of composers was equalled if not exceeeded by that of Stravinsky. Stravinsky described the orchestra as "wastefully large", [ ] but White opined that the orchestration allowed him to use a variety of effects, including horn and trombone glissandi borrowed from Rimsky-Korsakov's parts of Mlada The Firebird opens with a slow introduction describing Koschei's enchanted garden, underlined by the low strings presenting the basis of the Firebird's leit-harmony.

The Firebird's capture by Ivan is depicted with sforzando chords in the horns, and exotic melodies in the oboe, English horn, and viola play as she begs to be released. After the Firebird is freed, Ivan takes one of her feathers, and thirteen enchanted princesses all captives of Koschei enter the garden to play a catching game. Ivan introduces himself to the youngest princess, with whom he has fallen in love, and they perform a slow khorovod.

The melody for the khorovod is taken from a Russian folk song that Rimsky-Korsakov used in his Sinfonietta on Russian Themes Before Koschei can turn Ivan into stone, the prince summons the Firebird with the feather, and she enchants Koschei and his subjects and begins the famous "Infernal Dance". Another Rimsky-Korsakov reference, the melody is borrowed from Rimsky-Korsakov's parts of Mladaadding syncopation and startling strikes throughout the theme.

The bassoon introduces the Firebird's tranquil lullaby. Ivan is instructed to destroy the egg that holds Koschei's soul. The music jostles around as Ivan tosses the egg from hand to hand. When Ivan crushes the egg, Koschei dies and the scene is surrounded in "Profound Darkness" while his subjects and enemies are freed from their enchantments.

The finale opens with a solo horn announcing the break of dawn, another theme borrowed from Rimsky-Korsakov. The theme grows in the orchestra, building into a triumphant celebration among the freed subjects ending in a brass fanfare. Shortly after the completion of The FirebirdStravinsky wrote a piano solo reduction of the whole ballet. Jurgenson the following year.

The instrumentation is essentially the same as that of the ballet.

L oiseau de feu igor stravinsky biography: The Firebird is a ballet and

The score was printed from the same plates; only the new endings for the movements were newly engraved. A performance of the suite lasts about 21 minutes. This suite was composed in MorgesSwitzerland, for a smaller orchestra. Walsh alleged the suite was composed to re-copyright the work, as Stravinsky sold the new suite to his publisher J. Chester, despite the original ballet still being in copyright.

Inshortly before he acquired American citizenship, Stravinsky was contacted by Leeds Music with a proposal to revise the orchestration of his first three ballets to recopyright them in the United States. A performance of the suite lasts about 28 minutes. Stravinsky received several commissions to transcribe his works for player pianossome from the London Aeolian Company and some from the Paris Pleyel Company.

The composer identified many of the leit-harmonies in the opening comments of the roll, providing an invaluable resource for information on the ballet. Stravinsky recorded the suite with the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York inand the complete ballet with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk.

Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. This article is about the ballet to Stravinsky's music. For other uses of the word, see Firebird. History [ edit ].

L oiseau de feu igor stravinsky biography: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June

Background [ edit ]. Conception [ edit ]. Development [ edit ]. Premiere and reception [ edit ]. Subsequent productions [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. Music [ edit ]. Analysis from recent decades by musicologist Taruskin, has detected this schematic underpinning large portions of The Firebird. Most beautifully, it also provides the hushed musical transition from the underworld to the final tableau, where Ivan-Tsarevich and the princesses celebrate victory.

Yet for the mortal, tonal characters, Stravinsky, in places, incorporates folk melodies, another popular tradition among Russian composers. Stravinsky was always squeamish when questioned about his use of folk melodies, even flatly denying it. Yet as later analysis has shown, other works of this period, such as The Rite of Spring, feature them in abundance.

The influence of Rimsky-Korsakov can be noted in other ways, too, not least in his own opera about the very same Kashcheyand his final opera, The Golden Cockerelalso, tellingly, about a magical bird. But that would miss the most important point: for audiences in the West, The Firebird was a hit. The belated development of Russian music had for a century remained relatively hidden to the rest of the world.

And after a long gestation, it was Stravinsky who revealed many of its treasures.