Anyone intersted in Stravinsky?

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For some reason I like the Igor Stravinsky music I have heard in "Fantasia", so now I like Igor Stravinsky in general! Please reply if you would like a YouTube link to some Igor Stravinsky music or if you have heard or like him too!

Regards, mightyzebra

That'd be the "Rite of Spring". It famously inspired fistfights and ultimately a riot at its 1913 Paris premier (no joke!).

Firebird is beautiful - when I was still a musician, I must have played it a thousand times...

His Romeo and Juliet theme is well-known.

No, it is not the theme from the 1968 movie (directed by Franco Zeferelli).

Tim

Ah, that's right: "Firebird" is in "Fantasia 2000".

What instrument did you play, Lady Mahler?

Huh? Maybe Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev.

Tchaikovsky might have been the one I was thinking about.

Tim

I like the finale of the Firebird when all the fanfare of brass comes in.

In fact one of my favourite dreams of all time (I had it about 20 years ago when I was 29) involved me standing in the centre of a huge brick ampitheatre and the thousands and thousands of people who were in the auditorium were a giant orchestra playing the finale of the Firebird.

I remember seeing and hearing different brass sections in different parts of the auditorium.

It was one of the most exhilerating moments of my life and it was a dream.

Not only did people riot, they burned the ballet hall.

I love Le Sacre du Printemps.

Really? This, from Wikipedia:


Sorry: niggling Aspie musician here, who's also performed it about a thousand times.

I am pleased that the discussion I started up already has nine replies (a lot them must have happened while I was asleep! ) and that they are really cool replies. I'm glad one had a great dream about the Firebird, that is very nice as well, I do agree (even though I have only heard it in Fantasia 2000). I'm glad so many Aspies enjoy his music. I think he is better for Aspies because quite a lot of Aspies like music with no real "beat", meanwhile NT people will prefer music such as Mozart's because it has a "beat" (Not that I don't enjoy him too, I do like him - he was autistic! ) , Stravisnky goes ALL OVER the place.

Thanks for all the replies everyone,
mightyzebra

The house was not burned down for the Rite of Spring. I remember reading a few stories of the premire. People starting laughing as soon as they heard the opening bassoon intro. Najinsky's choreography also helped with the scandal. It was viewed as unnatural and not even ballet.

I love early Stravinsky best. I never tire of Petrouchka. Even the piano version is great. mightyzebra, I think you would enjoy watching/listening to that ballet. The violin concerto is probably the only classical period piece that I often listen to, although the symphony of psalms is interesting. I never bother with the serial period. He stopped being Stravinsky at that point. I just heard on the proms Hans Werner Henze talking about how he thought Stravinsky was more radical than Schoenberg because Schoenberg was a bourgeois who saw himself as carrying on the great german tradition. Stravinsky treated the classical tradition like a garbage dump.

I disagree. Most people when they think about Stravinsky will mention the Rite of Spring as a definative work and it is precisely that serial method of composition which makes it so distinctive and definative.

This is the what makes the piece so full of glorious patterns.

I like patterns.

I like Bach.

I like 'serial' Stravinsky.

This is not just nice tunes it is great music.

I agree with you. I love Bach. I like patterns, and the rhythmic patterns in The Rite. But the Rite is not a serial piece. The Rite is early Stravinksy and I love it. I like a good deal of Stravinsky's music until the late 1940s. I was referring to the 12 tone method of Schoenberg that Stravinksy adopted in the 50s and 60s, when even Copland felt a need to follow the Darmstadt crowd.

I remember seeing a programme in which Stravinsky was talking about the Rite of Spring and demonstrating the series of notes the themes where based on. He was definately talking in terms of it being a result of his interest in serial composition but I accept it may have been an early example.

Unless I am getting hazy on my theory I'm sure that there is a very subtle difference between purely serial compositional principles and the basic atonal theory of Schoenberg (although Schoenberg used serial principles too).

Difficult to tell if you like Stravinski: he composed in so much different styles: for example, "the firebird" is both original, but close to Rimsky-Korsakoff style.
"the rite of spring"is very Stravinsky, bur has still an expressionnist orchestration.
"Renard", "the Soldier's tale" is a new style, more "years 20", more dry.
And many works are homages: the Dumbarton oaks concerto is an homage of Bach' concerto brande bourgeois", his symphonies have differents styles.
He wrote some works which has some jazz style (example, the ragtime")
And last but not least, his last style (Agon), is dodecaphonic and looks like the vienna school (Webern, Schoenberg)
So, Stravinsky is very interesting because he composed very differnets works, ansd I'm sure everyone can find some work he will like, even if he won't like others.
He even made a ballet with Tchaikovsky themes (the fairy's kiss)
I listened to it: it's very beautiful (but I enjoy Tchaikovsky, lol)
PS: the famous "romeo and juliet" theme is Prokofiev, even if thcaikovsky composed a tone poem about those two.