Stravinsky composed what is arguably one of the two most important musical compositions of the twentieth century, The Rite of Spring. He forged a new "musical language" to portray the sense of the ballet's primitive and earthy theme. More than a dozen excerpts of Stravinsky's works are examined.
Great Masters: Stravinsky—His Life and Music
Discover this master of musical creativity to be a one-man compendium of people, places, compositional styles, and techniques.
01: Introduction and There’s No Place Like Home
Igor Stravinsky was raised in a St. Petersburg that was an amazing mix of Western and Eastern Europe, a blend that is a key to understanding Stravinsky's musical development. His father, Fyodor, was one of the great Russian operatic bass-baritones of his time. Accepted into law school, he continued music lessons and was steadfast in his ambition to become a composer.
48 min
02: From Student to Professional
Rimsky-Korsakov was so impressed with Stravinsky's Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor (1904) he agreed to take Stravinsky as a private student. In 1909, Stravinsky met the impresario Serge Diaghilev, who commissioned Stravinsky to write a ballet on the folk tale "The Firebird," which was followed by the ballet "Petrushka," a great success. Stravinsky's next score, "The Rite of Spring," would become arguably the most influential work of its time.
47 min
03: "The Rite of Spring"
"The Rite of Spring" changed the way we think about rhythm, melodic patterning, compositional technique, and expressive content. When it opened in Paris in 1923 it caused a scandal unparalleled in the history of music. Its lasting modernity is a testament to the fact that it does not sound like any work that preceded it, nor any that followed it.
46 min
04: The War Years (WWI)
The war years enforced an economy of means on the composer; large-scale works were out of the question. Among the creations of these years were the Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914), "Renard" (Fox) for four voices and small orchestra (1916), "Ragtime for 11 Instruments" (1918), and "L'Histoire du Soldat" ( "The Soldier's Tale ") (1918). "Les Noces" ("The Wedding"), finished in 1923, is a great masterpiece of this period.
47 min
05: Neoclassicism
In 1919, Diaghilev proposed a ballet based on music by the Italian baroque composer Pergolesi. Immediately after the war, Diaghilev and Stravinsky, collaborated on a ballet "Pulcinella;" based on music by the Italian baroque composer Pergolesi. From 1920 to 1923, Stravinsky composed the Symphonies for Wind Instruments, the opera "Mavra", and the four-piano version of "The Wedding."
46 min
06: Maturity
By the mid-1920s, Stravinsky's musical philosophy embraced the belief that a composition should be governed by purely formal considerations. In 1930 he wrote "The Symphony of Psalms", a deeply religious work with elements similar to, and an austerity totally different from, "The Rite of Spring."
47 min
07: A Citizen of the World
With the outbreak of World War II, Stravinsky and his wife settled in Los Angeles, where he became one of Hollywood's most sought-after celebrities. In 1948, Stravinsky met Robert Craft, who exposed the composer to 12-tone music. Stravinsky, in his early 70s, was about to change his compositional language and enter an entirely new musical world.
46 min
08: The New Stravinsky
The parallels between Schoenberg and Stravinsky are many. In the early 1950s, Robert Craft began conducting serial works by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, which captured Stravinsky's interest. In 1962, Stravinsky visited Russia for the first time since 1914. "Requiem Canticles" (1966), Stravinsky's last major work, is considered the most accessible of his late works. He died April 6, 1971, and was buried in Venice on the island of San Michele.
46 min
Overview Course No. 754
About
Dr. Robert Greenberg is Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances. A graduate of Princeton University, Professor Greenberg holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He has seen his compositions-which include more than 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles-performed all over the world, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands.
He has served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley; California State University, Hayward; and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, and the Chicago Symphony. For The Great Courses, he has recorded more than 500 lectures on a range of composers and classical music genres.
Professor Greenberg is a Steinway Artist. His many other honors include three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and a Koussevitzky commission from the Library of Congress. He has been profiled in various major publications, including The Wall Street Journal; Inc. magazine; and the London Times.
You can find more music content from Robert Greenberg on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RobertGreenbergMusic.
