Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky; }} (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with citizenship in France (from 1934) and the United States (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music.

Born to an established bass opera singer, Stravinsky grew up taking piano and music theory lessons. While studying law at the University of Saint Petersburg, Stravinsky met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and studied under him until Rimsky-Korsakov's death in 1908. Stravinsky met the impresario Sergei Diaghilev soon after, who commissioned Stravinsky to write three ballets: ''The Firebird'' (1910), ''Petrushka'' (1911), and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913), the last of which brought him international fame after the near-riot at the premiere and changed the way composers understood rhythmic structure.

Stravinsky's compositional career is divided into three periods: his Russian period (1913–1920), his neoclassical period (1920–1951), and his serial period (1954–1968). Stravinsky's Russian period was characterised by influence from other Russian composers like Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov, and Tcherepnin, and use of Russian folk songs and themes in works like ''The Nightingale'' (1914) and ''Les noces'' (1917). His neoclassical period exhibited themes and techniques from the classical period, like the use of the sonata form in his Octet (1923) and use of Greek mythological themes in works like ''Apollon musagète'' (1927), ''Oedipus rex'' (1927), and ''Persephone'' (1935). In his serial period, Stravinsky turned towards compositional techniques from the Second Viennese School like Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique. ''In Memoriam Dylan Thomas'' (1954) was the first of his compositions to be fully based on the technique, and ''Canticum Sacrum'' (1956) was his first to be based on a tone row. Stravinsky's last major work was the ''Requiem Canticles'' (1966), which was performed at his funeral.

In the later parts of his life, Stravinsky conducted around the world, and was known for his polite, courteous, and helpful manner. Some composers and academics of the time disliked the avant-garde nature of his music, particularly ''The Rite of Spring'', though he may have considered their negative reviews to be part of a ''scandale.'' While others found that none of his later works lived up to ''The Rite of Spring'', later writers recognized his importance to the development of modernist music. Stravinsky's revolutions of rhythm and modernism influenced composers like Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Béla Bartók, and Pierre Boulez. In 1998, ''Time'' magazine named Stravinsky one of the 100 most influential people of the century. Stravinsky died of pulmonary edema on 6 April 1971 in New York City. Provided by Wikipedia