Product Description
IGOR STRAVINSKY- An Autobiography. Contents include: Foreword: ONE Development of the Composer 1. TWO Composer and Performer 87. Foreword The aim of this volume is to set down a few recollections connected with various periods of my life. It is equally in tended for those interested in my music and in myself. Rather therefore, than a biography it will be a simple account of im portant events side by side with facts of minor consequence bothy however, have a certain significance for me, and I wish to relate them according to the dictates of my memory. Naturally I shall not be able to keep within the bounds of bare statement. As I call my recollections to mind, I shall necessarily be obliged to speak of my opinions, my tastes, my preferences, and my abhorrences. I am but too well aware of how much these feelings vary in the course of time. This is why I shall take great care not to confuse my present reactions with those experienced at other stages in my life. There are still further reasons which induce me to write this book. In numerous interviews I have given, my thoughts, my words, and even facts have often been disfigured to the extent of becoming absolutely unrecognizable. I therefore undertake this task today in order to present to the reader a true picture of myself, and to dissipate the accumulation of misunderstandings that has gathered about both my work and my person. ONE Development of the Composer I As memory reaches back along the vista of the years, the increasing distance adds to the difficulty of seeing clearly and choosing between those incidents which make a deep impres sion and those which, though perhaps more important in themselves, leave no trace, and in no way influence ones development. Thus, one of my earliest memories of sound will seem somewhat odd. It was in the country, where my parents, like most peo ple of their class, spent the summer with their children. I can see it now. An enormous peasant seated on the stump of a tree. The sharp resinous tang of fresh-cut wood in my nos trils. The peasant simply clad in a short red shirt. His bare legs covered with reddish hair, on his feet birch sandals, on his head a mop of hair as thick and as red as his beard not a white hair, yet an old man. He was dumb, but he had a way of clicking his tongue very noisily, and the children were afraid of him. So was I. But curiosity used to triumph over fear. The children would gather round him. Then, to amuse them, he would begin to sing. This song was composed of two syllables, the only ones he could pronounce. They were devoid of any meaning, but he made them alternate with incredible dexterity in a very rapid tempo. He used to accompany this clucking in the fol lowing way pressing the palm of his right hand under hi left armpit, he would work his left arm with a rapid move ment, making it press on the right hand... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

What a delightful way for any music lover to learn about the first half of Stravinsky's great career.
It is always interesting when a great artist communicates with us about their life and art.However, like most of us, they tend to try and put events and ideas in the best possible light.So, it is for later scholars to come along, dig deeper, and get things right.And the history of artists talking about art has proven that what they say about what they do is seldom as useful as the work itself.As Hemingway noted in "Death in the Afternoon", it is always a mistake to meet the author.

And yet it is often most interesting.Stravinsky wrote this in 1934 when he was in his early fifties.The book covers the his life from his childhood to that time and his compositions through the Duo Concertant, Concerto for Violin, and Persephone.Of course, he could not have expected all the music and the direction still in his future.His Symphony in C, the Symphony in Three Movements, The Rake's Progress, and so much more through the Requiem Canticles were all in the future.Who could have expected the horrors of the Second World War at that time?So, it is an interesting document from that point of view because of the way that time was viewed as the context for the past.Nowadays, we would reconstruct everything differently because of what we know of those subsequent years.

Not only is it most useful to know the way his compositions came about (to the extent these anecdotes are accurate), but his views on Beethoven, composition, executants versus interpreters, musical form, and the great artistic personalities he met and knew and worked with along the way.Now, in order to understand Stravinsky's comments about music's inability to communicate anything we have to keep in mind the times.Remember, this was the time when the public lived for Wagner's lietmotive and Richard Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben" (A Hero's Life) and the autobiographical "Symphonia domestica" in which he tried to use music to communicate events from daily life.This was not the art Stravinsky was interested in.And because his music was so different than the nineteenth century musical traditions, it is understandable that his views of how his music should be played free of that tradition make a great deal of sense.His music is much more familiar to us than to his contemporaries, however his rather strident comments about merely executing his music and recreating his recordings is still a cause for great debate in musical circles.Myself, I think we can be informed by his comments and the recordings, and they should carry a great deal of weight, but music requires artistry not merely craftsmanship in the hands of its "executants".Stravinsky's views on the false notion of making Art a substitute for religion are most interesting. He also has a compelling argument why one cannot treat religion and faith critically (as in intellectual analysis) because criticism involves rejection of this or that and that is not faith.

This is a very interesting book and has great historical importance.However, it is also an interesting read for the general music lover.It is a great way to get some context for the first half of Stravinsky's very wonderful and important career. ... Read more

Product Description
Soon to be a major motion picture

Coco Chanel and Composer Igor Stravinsky.
Their love affair inspired their art.
Their art defined an era.

In 1913, at the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the young couturiere Coco Chanel witnesses the birth of a musical revolution- one that, like her designs, rips down the artifice of the old regime and ushers in something profoundly modern. Seven years later, she invites Stravinsky and his family, now exiled from their Russian homeland, for a summer at her villa, and the powerful charge between them ignites into a deep love affair. As Stravinsky enjoys a new burst of creativity and Chanel brings forth her own revolutionary creation-the perfume Chanel No. 5-their love threatens to overtake work, family and life.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Story does not match the writing style
Interesting story but the main, female character is obviously written by a male. Descriptions of lust and sexual awakenings are so off kilter and not natural to a woman. And then the author writes: "A hot slippery softness that makes him [Stravinsky] think of a licorice." What? Stravinsky is a russian refugee recently arriving to France. Russians do not know what licorice is and tend not to like the taste of it when introduced to it.
It reads as if though the author butchered a wonderful story. Perhaps a movie is better.

A FIERY LOVE STORY
This is a fictionalized story of the love affair between the Russian composure Igor Stravinsky and the French fashion designer Coco Chanel. According to the book, Coco came from a meager background and clawed her way to the top of the fashion business through her inherent wit and self-drive. She was smart, beautiful and a driven workaholic. Igor Stravinsky was considered to be one of the world's most famous composers. He was the consummate musical artist.

Igor was married and had young children at the time he met Coco, and he and his family were living in France, where they had been displaced after World War One. Economically, times were rough and Igor was having trouble making ends meet. It was at that point that Coco, who had taken a liking to the composure, invited him and his family to live in her country home for an indefinite period. And that's when the sparks began to fly. Coco and Igor began their affair right under the nose of his ailing wife, who was bed-ridden with consumption. Of course, she was hurt and angry at the behavior of her husband and their overly affectionate host. What follows is a wonderful story, well researched, and written in a lovely style.

This is the author's first book. He also wrote the screenplay for the movie, and my only criticism is that, at times, the prose reads like a movie script. That's a minor criticism, however, and I thought the book was an overall excellent read. I give it five stars.
... Read more

Product Description
POETICS OF MUSIC IN THE FORM OF SIX LESSONS by IGOR STRAVINSKY.First published in 1947. CONTENTS: Preface by DARIUS MILHAUD 1. Getting Acquainted 1 2. The Phenomenon of Music .... 21 3. The Composition of Music 45 4. Musical Typology 67 5. The Avatars of Russian Music .... 91 6. The Performance of Music . . .119 EPILOGUE PREFACE: THE POETICS OF MUSIC is like a searchlight turned by Stravinsky on his own work on one hand, and on music in general on the other. Every new work by this great composer is laden with far reaching significance. Each one possesses its own structure, its own tonal equilibrium, even its own moral climate. And the painstaking honesty the craf tsmanly exactitude of each work raises it to the heights of abstract thought and at the same time to that austerity, economy of means, and essential au thenticity which characterize the true laying bare of a soul. Igor Stravinskys book invites us to follow him into the secret world that is the counterpart to the world of sou ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Cretinous verbal diarrhea
There's opinion that Stravinsky was the most overrated composer of the 20th Century; this is no doubt controversial. What this book proves beyond controversy is that he was absolutely inept as a writer/thinker/communicator: these six lectures have no focus and no observable objective(s), no identifiable theme, no cogency: this is simply an ocean of completely disjointed and illogical, really incoherent verbiage whose surface is now and then breached by a random outcropping of observation and personal opinion, intelligible but unargued and not particularly interesting, fragmented and unconnected with anything else before or after. Horribly hard reading if you really try to make sense of it (you'll fail, but you'll probably try first). Absolute waste of time, gibberish; avoid, escape, save your brain. Inviting Strav. to give these lectures was probably a tactful way of tossing some dough his way -- and there's nothing wrong with that per se, except he would have done everyone a great favour if he had simply taken the money and skipped the town. Btw, a comical detail: Strav did not speak English, so he delivered these rants in a broken French. Imagine this. Maybe it was good 'cause the audience -- who I don't think was Francophone to any noticeable degree and thus probably understood nothing -- took it for granted that the Maestro was saying something intelligent...

Finally, by way of comparison -- in '49-'50 (if memory serves), another European escapee, composer Paul Hindemith, was invited to give the same lectures, an intelligent, quiet, erudite book, _The Composer's World_, being the result of this endeavour. So it _was_ possible to take the task seriously rather than as a pretext for a sympathetic payout requiring but a perfunctory let's-get-it-over-with response. Imo, Hindemith's book is a must -- in the same degree as Strav's _Poetics_ is a must-not.

Added later: just read Copland's _Music and Imagination_ -- which, too, started as a Charles Eliot Norton Lecture presentation, as it turns out. A great book, highly recommended. So here's one more proof of that it was possible to offer something meaningful, and that it was by no means an accepted procedure to gibber from that podium.

much chaff and a little wheat
There are composers like Arnold Schoenberg and Pierre Boulez who are also gifted communicators and insightful students of music history and theory. Then there are composers like Igor Stravinsky, whose genius of expression lies purely in non-discursive domains.

This series of lecture transcripts gives the impression of an animated but disorganized speaker extemporaneously presenting on vague topics without preparation. His basic unit of thought seems to be about the size of a sentence, and Stravinsky never develops ideas or sustains his attention for more than a few paragraphs. Occasionally his observations have anecdotal value, and there are buried gems, but there is much chaff and little wheat in this slender book.

The best thing I got out of reading it is a mild sense of personal connection to one of the great musical minds of the twentieth century, but he gives little insight into the nature of his genius or his method.

PS - I picked up my copy second-hand for less than $3. I am surprised to see how expensive this book has become, considering its length.

Clear your writer's block
One of the things this offers is real insight into the creative process. If you're having writer's block, I recommend these lectures for you. Igor's ideas may well help in clearing up some of the problems we create for ourselves.

Essential reading for Stravinsky devotees, but requires some background and additional reading
These six lectures were given at Harvard during the 1939-40 academic year in French.They are presented here in English translation and have been the subject of a great deal of discussion over the past sixty-plus years.In re-reading them, I have to say that my opinion of them has risen a great deal from my student days.Maybe it is because I am now about the age he was when he gave them, maybe it is because I am now more well read and have thought more about music since my youth, or maybe it is because I now see the solid philosophy and healthy insights he had and the rather unhealthy directions that academia was taking that he was resisting.Probably it is all of these.

Reading these lectures are not easy sledding for those not already familiar with Stravinsky, his life, work, and the context for these lectures.Also, the reader will need to go to the various conversation books Stravinsky did with Robert Craft to get later clarification and further insight into what he was saying.However, they are not profoundly technical in music theory.What they require from the reader is a broad understanding of music, art, and European political and religious history to have a framework for understanding what Stravinsky is saying.

The first lecture lays out what he intends to do with the lectures.The second talks about what he believes music is, what it isn't, and provides great insight into what Stravinsky believes is important in the art of music and what corrupts it.In the third lecture he talks about composition and provides wonderful insights into what it is for him.He really does undermine the common notion of the role of inspiration in composition.

The fourth lecture says it talks about musical typology (whatever that is).What it talks about is what the composer must do in choosing his own rules in composition.In Stravinsky's view the stricter the rules the more free the composer is to create.I think this is a particularly strong lecture.The Russian character in music and the Soviet corruptions of that are the topic of the fifth lecture.In 1939, taking on Stalin was a brave thing even in the West because of the way academics and the media lauded Uncle Joe.

The last lecture talks about performance issues that were of particular concern to him.This is also quite interesting because of the way performance practice became such a vital force in the last quarter of the twentieth century.His principles and desires are quite profound and interesting, and do require the clarification from the conversation books to avoid being taken out of context.

The epilogue ties things up nicely and raises the issues of ontology once again.Along the way Stravinsky over and over again talks about religion and music in the Church versus the attempts to replace religion with art (which Stravinsky considers a terrible and failed notion).

A fine and important work by one of the great composers.

about art by an artist
it is always interesting to me to read a book by an artist talking about his art. why read on the subject of some art by a critic rather than artist, who can reveal the thought process and energy that goes into the actual creation? here, the art is music, but the whole book (especially chapter three) should be read by artists in all fields. here he discusses inspiration, and the role that it plays and how it functions in making art (less than one might suppose). the crux of stravinsky's claim is that artists should always make art, as a function of their being, and not wait for inspiration (which should, in any case, be found everywhere).

being a fan of other russian composers, especially those of communist ussr, the chapter on russian composers was interesting. he discussses the role that politics played and how it stiffled music and art there.

there is also an interesting discussion on the role of the artist in contemporary times. he abhors the notions of 'modern' and 'academic,' and considers himself (and the 'rite of spring') as conservative music, and not revolutionary, while demeaning the critics and listeners whom he describes as 'snobs.' (in fact it is this conservativism that allows him to attack wagner and deride his music.) the arguments that he presents in such discussions are very enlightening for any artist, as well as a musician. ... Read more

Product Description
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) is regarded as the inventor of modern music. His phenomenal achievements are comparable to those of his close friend and contemporary Pablo Picasso. This comprehensive biography traces the influences that informed his style and sets all of his major works into context, devoting particular attention to the composer s childhood in pre-revolutionary Russia. It charts his discovery by Diaghilev and traces his ensuing collaborations with choreographers, dancers, painters, designers, and writers. Above all the book concentrates on Stravinsky s creativity, describing how his musical mind worked and relating this to his complex and fascinating personality.


Igor Stravinsky is part of Phaidon s successful 20th Century Composers series, which presents authoritative and engaging biographies of the great creative musicians of our time, augmented by striking visual material and essential reference information. This edition of the book features a whimsical new cover by Jean-Jacques Sempé, the world-renowned illustrator and cartoonist.Amazon.com Review
From his unhappy childhood in St. Petersburg through his yearsin Paris and the United States, from The Nightingale throughThe Owl and the Pussycat, British writer Michael Oliver tracesthe life and work of Igor Stravinsky. His landmark ballet, The Riteof Spring is thought of as a classic today, but it inspired riotsat its Paris premiere in 1913. Oliver follows Stravinsky's work fromjuvenilia through modernism and serialism and back to tonalism in aneasily accessible biography, part of the Phaidon Press Limited 20thCentury Composers series. This book, which never gets too technical,makes a good start for anyone with a growing interest in Stravinskyand his music. There is a guide to his works and to other biographiesin the back of the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The little known Stravinsky
This is an interesting little book about a somewhat overlooked composer. The author has packed it with a number of surprising details of his private life which help give insight into his creative genius. Additionally, he spent a great deal of time analyzing each of his major works and then liningthem up to demonstrate the evolution of his final imprint on music. Near the end of his life, for instance, the influence of Arnold Schoenberg's twelve note serial techniques began to seep into Stravinsky's works for the first time - something he had long resisted. Finally, the book is filled with rare and long forgotten photographs of the man and his time and these alone are almost worth the price of the book.

A Accurate Account of A 20th Century Master
Igor Stravinsky is truly one of the giants, if not the giant, of 20th century music. Michael Oliver accurately captures the essence of the man and his music in this book about the man and his life and times.

First of all, the book is well written. The music is described thoroughly and there is also a discography as well as a catalogue of the works written by Stravinsky. For the most part, this book is a biography with its central focus on Stravinsky. We meet various characters that played an important role in Stravinsky's life including the impresario Serge Diaghilev. I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to be enlightened about one of the giants of twentieth century music. ... Read more

Product Description
Brilliantly orchestrated, filled with Russian folksong as well as new and striking harmonies, this score is one the most popular and acclaimed musical works of the 20th century. General Note. Stage Directions. Instrumentation. All materials in English and French, newly translated for this edition.
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Customer Reviews (3)

good
I'm quite happy with this score which was given to me as a Christmas present(!).

Despite the small print size, it is completely legible apart from a couple of places where the staff lines are a bit faint - but still discernible. The printing is better than some other Dover reblications I have encountered (and some Eulenburgs also).

NB: This score was first published in Moscow in 1912, by Editions Russe de Musique. Hence it is the 1911 version not the 1947 one.

original score
I got this score because the orchestra I belong to was going to play this piece and thought it'd give me a better understanding of it.This score has a clear description of each tableau and detailed stage directionswhenever the mood or musical theme changes, and has been a great help for me to understand what's happening in this ballet.However, this isan original score and while very helpful as a whole, since my orchestra was playing the revised edidtion, there were many differences between them in instrumentation, sometimes in a number of measures and even time signatures, and sometimes it was very confusing. Although I was glad that I had this score while practicing this piece, I did wish if I'd gotten the revised version.Beware ofthe type of edition you want to read!

Petrushka
Petrushka is arguably the best ballet Stravinsky ever wrote. If you liked The Rite of Spring or The Firebird, then you will love this score. Stravinsky was a brilliant composer and Petrushka is an example of one ofhis finest works. The story is about a Russian puppet show, but the musiccan be interpreted in so many ways, there really is no way to review theballet based on what one person thinks it should have been. Therefore, Iwill tell you just that the music is wonderful even if you would haveinterpreted the ballet itself otherwise. ... Read more

Product Description
Widely regarded as the greatest composer of the twentieth century, Igor Stravinsky was central to the development of modernism in art, yet no dependable biography of him exists. Previous studies have drawn too heavily from his own unreliable memoirs and conversations, and until now no biographer has possessed both the musical knowledge to evaluate his art and the linguistic proficiency needed to explore the documentary background of his life--a life whose span extended from tsarist Russia to Switzerland, France, and ultimately the United States.In this revealing volume, the first of two, Stephen Walsh follows Stravinsky from his birth in 1882 to 1934. He traces the composer's early Russian years, laying bare the complicated relationships within his family and showing how he first displayed his extraordinary talents. Stravinsky's brilliantly creative involvement with the Ballets Russes is illuminated by a sharp sense of the internal artistic politics that animated the group. Portraying Stravinsky's circumstances as an emigré in France trying to make his living as a conductor and pianist as well as a composer, Walsh reveals the true roots of his notorious obsession with money. He also describes the nature of his long affair with Vera Sudeykina.While always respecting Stravinsky's own insistence that life and art be kept distinct, Stravinsky makes clear precisely how the development of his music was connected to his life and to the intellectual environment in which he found himself. But at the same time it demonstrates the composer's remarkably pragmatic psychology, which led him to consider the welfare of his art to be of paramount importance, before which everything else had to give way. Walsh, long established as an expert on Stravinsky's music, has drawn upon a vast array of material, much of it unpublished or unavailable in English, to bring the man himself, in all his color and genius, to glowing life.Amazon.com Review
Already noted for a book on his subject's art (The Music of Stravinsky), Stephen Walsh is equally illuminating about Igor Stravinsky's turbulent life. This first installment of a projected two-volume work covers the years 1882 to 1934, during which time Walsh shows the composer creating many of his famous works, most notably The Rite of Spring, whose riotous 1913 premiere announced the arrival of a boldly modern classical music. He follows Stravinsky from his native Russia to Switzerland and France, as well as a 10-week tour of America in 1925. Delving into Russian-language documents seldom consulted by Western scholars, Walsh corrects many factual errors and, more importantly, makes evident the importance of Stravinsky's Russian roots and musical training, which the composer himself often downplayed in later years in order to "cultivate the image of the 'synthetic' international master." He's similarly judicious in evaluating Stravinsky's stormy 20-year association with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and his seldom-adept juggling of a long-suffering wife and a more sophisticated mistress. Candid about his distaste for some of Stravinsky's behavior and character traits, Walsh never seems nasty: "It is the richest personalities," he reminds us, "who engage us most fully." --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

At last - the definitive Stravinsky
Stephen Walsh has done a job of research that boggles the mind. Revelations on every page about an elusive composer who projected so many personas and opinions he seemed almost a chameleon. Can't wait for Volume two.

A fascinating new biography
This major British musicologist has produced the most significant piece of work on Igor Stravinsky to date. It has changed our views of the man and his work as well of some of his associates. When will the final volume appear?

A revealing biography of a brilliant composer.
Stravinsky was a fine composer who contributed to the development of modernism in art, but little about his personal life reveals his background. This biographical sketch evaluates both his music and his art, examining his contributions with a critical eye to revealing how his pastinfluenced his creations and eventually his world. An excellent, in-depthcritical profile evolves. ... Read more

Product Description
Igor Stravinsky and George Balanchine, amongthe most influential artists of the twentieth century, together created the music and movement for many ballet masterpieces. This engrossing book is the first full-length study of one of the greatest artistic collaborations in history.Drawing on extensive new research, Charles M. Joseph discusses the Stravinsky-Balanchine ballets against a rich contextual backdrop. He explores the background and psychology of the two men, the dynamics of their interactions, their personal and professional similarities and differences, and the political and historical circumstances that conditioned their work. He describes the dancers, designers, and sponsors with whom they worked. He explains the two men's approach to the creative process and the genesis of each of the collaborative ballets, demolishing much received wisdom on the subject. And he analyzes selected sections of music and dance, providing examples of Stravinsky's working sketches and other helpful illustrative materials. Engagingly written, the book will be of great interest not only to music and dance historians but also to ballet lovers everywhere. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I live with this book.It is a masterful work.
If you were (in a word) "stunned" by the work "Apollo" by George Balanchine, or works like "Agon", you will want to own and cherish this masterpiece of a book.This is ballet as literature.Mr. Balanchine elevated ballet to the level of literature.

The author dug deeply and with sincere devotion to the work that Mr. Balanchine and Mr. Stravinsky produced during their collaborations, and it is loaded with treasures that I cannot even go into here because there are too many.

You may at first be put-off by the price, but I must say that once you have the book open and in your hands and are skimming-through the knowledge accumulated by this generous scholar who has provided us all with materials we would never had access to otherwise you will see that each and every penny you spent on this tome will have been well spent.

The book can be read in a light manner once through, or you can carry it around with you and live with it (as I have done) having it by your bedside, while watching and studying the works on video & DVD, and/or while listening to Mr. Stravinsky's compositions.

When I was a dancer during the last part of Mr. Balanchine's working life I would have given blood to have had my hands on this book.I had to rely mostly on oral-tradition of transmission of knowledge within the dance and theatre community of artists to gain only a molecule of what is related in this book for you by the author.

And if you enjoyed this book you will also enjoy the DVD I have inserted as a product link here.

Felia Doubrovska Remembered - From Diaghilev's Ballets Russes to Balanchine's School of American Ballet

Works like these are few and far between and you should get them before they become limited in availability (it is an investment) because they will enhance the joy and quality of your life and expand your knowledge of the arts if you are an student of music or a dancer or simply a lover of the arts in general.

If you wish to delve deeper in this arena I must strongly and enthusiastically point you in the direction of both The George Balanchine Foundation & The George Balanchine Trust:the work they are doing is of the highest standards and they should know.You will find like-minded individuals performing scholarly endeavor there that are noble to say the least.

I cherish this book, the works described in it, and the artistic collaborations described in priceless detail here.I became a student of dramatic literature in the university for many years no doubt due to the impact and enlightenment that Balanchine's "Apollo" had in my life when I was a young dancer.Mr. Balanchine's vast genius, and the genius of Mr. Stravinsky, opened my eyes and mind - and I shrink at the concept of what the quality of my life would have been like without the works of these two men,their collaborations, and all of the other works of art that this vortex of creativity pulled into my life enriching it.

I thank the author of this book here.Please do not miss his work!

These attached works (below) should not be missed if you have not yet already seen and studied them:

Balanchine: A Biography: With a New Epilogue

Balanchine

Choreography By Balanchine / Tzigane, Andante from Divertimento No 15, The Four Temperaments, Selections from Jewels, Stravinsky Violin Concerto

And, currently, Ms. Farrell is carrying on the strict tradition and vision at The Suzanne Farrell Ballet:

Suzanne Farrell - Elusive Muse

Holding On to the Air: An Autobiography

(Ms. Farrell is an American National Treasure in my opinion, and anybody seriously studying the work of Mr. Balanchine and the work that Mr. Stravinsky did with him would by wise to listen to each and every thing she has to say regarding them in microsopy:after all, she was there!)

You will also enjoy Ms Bently's beautiful book:

Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal, with a new preface

And, lastly, a book that should not be missed by dancers and any lovers of Mr. Balanchine's works:

Dance Is a Contact Sport (A Da Capo paperback)

I hope you will enjoy these works and that they will enrich your life as much as they have enriched my own throughout the years, and that you will recommend this book and return to write your own review of it and your own observations here. ... Read more

Product Description
Popularly known during his lifetime as "The World's Greatest Living Composer," Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) not only wrote some of the twentieth century's most influential music, he also assumed the role of cultural icon. This book reveals Stravinsky's two sides--the public persona, preoccupied with his own image and place in history, and the private composer, whose views and beliefs were often purposely suppressed. Charles M. Joseph draws a richer and more human portrait of Stravinsky than anyone has done before, using an array of unpublished materials and unreleased film trims from the composer's huge archive at the Paul Sacher Institute in Switzerland. Focusing on Stravinsky's place in the culture of the twentieth century, Joseph situates the composer among the giants of his age. He discusses Stravinsky's first American commission, his complicated relationship with his son, his professional relationships with celebrities ranging from T. S. Eliot to Orson Welles, his flirtations with Hollywood and television, and his love-hate attitude toward the critics and the media. In a close look at Stravinsky's efforts to mold a public image, Joseph explores the complex dance between the composer and his artistic collaborator, Robert Craft, who orchestrated controversial efforts to protect Stravinsky and edit materials about him, both during the composer's lifetime and after his death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A CONTROVERSIAL BUT REVEALING PORTRAIT OF PERHAPS THE GREATEST 20TH CENTURY COMPOSER
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was perhaps the greatest composer of the 20th century.This is not a hagiographic portrait such as those by Robert Craft (e.g., Stravinsky in pictures and documents / by Vera Stravinsky and Robert Craft).Charles Joseph notes that "Yet in addition to Stravinsky's many humane qualities, his perspicacious manner, his acerbic wit, his bottomless thirst for learning, he was quite capable of vindictiveness, duplicity, and contemptible behavior, even in his treatment of friends."

Joseph's book contains many interesting insights and details; e.g., Stravinsky composed at the piano, until the last years of his life; he sent nude photos of himself to friends while he was working on his masterpiece, "The Rite of Spring"; he was actually arrested in 1940 for illegally arranging the Star Spangled Banner; in 1963 he nearly consented to be interviewed for Playboy magazine; he disliked Leonard Bernstein, etc. Stravinsky was also very interested in American jazz. "Ever since his first trip to America in the mid-1920s, Stravinsky eagerly sought every opportunity to her jazz performed live. He was captivated by its freedom, its expressive qualities."

Stravinsky's relations with his own family are also chronicled---often not to his credit."One must realize that the composer's children were raised in a rigidly patriarchal family ... in which authority, submissiveness, and deference were inviolable."The composer carried on an extramarital relationship while his first wife "wasted away from tuberculosis."

Although Stravinsky had belittled Schonberg's twelve-tone method, after Schonberg's death, "Stravinsky rescinded his earlier denunciations of Schoenberg, embracing the previously maligned tenets of Viennese serialism.... He now made a commitment to a compositional style that would serve him for the rest of his life."

Finances were often a problem.Stravinsky wrote, "How does a composer of serious music survive economically in our time?The same as any other time---very badly."Joseph notes, "Even with his reputation secure, the composer constantly had to work, often unsuccessfully, at selling himself."

This is perhaps not the most exhaustively detailed biography of Stravinsky out there, but it is very helpful as a supplement to other works.

Fluff
This book is remarkably light. It is a breezy discussion of Stravinsky from the viewpoint of a fan interested in the man more in terms of gossip than insight, with a big mis-step in its irrelevant focus on Stravinksy's son and the hardships of being Stravinsky's son. Does this have anything to do with Stravinsky's music. It is gossip, trite.

Thoughtful, fresh, and controversial
I found this book to be an extremely new and interesting look into the mind and personal life of Igor Stravinsky.Understanding the artist as a person helps us to understand and appreciate the art he creates.

In response to Craig Matteson... everyone is entitled to their opinon (and of course, no better place to put one's opinon but in a review).However, Mr. Matteson was off on one point (well, in my opinon, he was off on MANY points, but I'll only discuss one).Joseph has written a very thorough book entitled Stravinsky and the Piano in which he studies Stavinsky's "actual piano music performance scores" in detail - fingerings and markings included.Maybe Mr. Matteson is unaware of this book because it is only available to music scholars, which quite obviously, he is not.So it makes perfect sense to me why Joseph did not include such information in this book.A) he already wrote a book about this, and B) this book is about Stravinsky's split lives (the person vs. the public composer) - therefore the scores and fingerings are obtuse.

Worth reading, some great points, but ...
We seem to be at an unfortunate stage of music history writing. The approach of many books, including this one, is the antithesis of the hero worship books written by the shelf-full not too many decades ago. Do we really need this style of book as an antidote? To me, it seems to belabor the obvious that composers, even the very greatest, such as Brahms, Mahler, and Stravinsky, should be mere mortals after all.

Why is it important at all that we point out moments or even decades of pettiness, vainglory, or difficult family relations? How exactly is that supposed to help us understand the art? Why not write a book about a fellow named Bob who lives down your down the street and his ordinary to miserable life?

Of course, we don't write about Bob down the street because he is ordinary and he isn't Stravinsky. Haven't we long ago realized that even Stravinsky the composer is something other than Stravinsky the husband, father, or businessman. Of course extraordinary people have much about them that is quite ordinary.

Some feel that knowing the artist as a human being helps us understand his art.Maybe on the margins it could, but only children believe that a composer was necessarily sad when writing a sad piece or happy when writing a happy piece and so on.Nothing Mr. Joseph tells us about the composition of The Flood helps us understand how it comes out of a Stravinsky. (Even if the author is trying to put forward that in this case it DIDN'T come out of Stravinsky).

Don't get me wrong, this book by Charles Joseph isn't bad. Really, it has much to recommend it and I am glad that I read it and hope you do too. But I was frustrated by the mixing in of well known stories and photographs into a book that claimed to be revealing new things based upon new access to Stravinsky's papers and artifacts in Basel. It isn't that there isn't anything new or semi-new, it is that it isn't set apart from the ho-hum there's that old chestnut again regurgitation of Stravinsky tales.

It is like going to a dinner party and listening across the table to a very knowledgeable guest who tells a few enthralling tales about a very interesting subject, but then spoils the enchantment by going on too long by telling a few too many tales that have no spark or wit about them.

Joseph also doesn't follow up on things that ARE really interesting. For example, when he discusses the actual piano music performance scores that Stravinsky used and the interesting fingerings the composer used as a performer. But we don't get a picture of even one page of those piano scores nor do we get even a hint as to why Stravinsky's written in fingerings are telling. As a pianist of sorts, I can surmise why Stravinsky's fingerings would be interesting, but it would be nice to get even a bit of discussion on such an interesting topic. I would have traded all of those re-printed pictures for one or two of the actual new material and one page of the marked-up piano music.

Yes, there is a 1983 text available through ProQuest that talks about Stravinsky's piano music, but Mr. Joseph indicates in the book that there were new things learned from his seeing the materials in Switzerland.In any case, this book is generally available and his 1983 book is not.Again, why reprint the nude photo of Stravinsky that is NOT original to this book and leave out something that would be valuable and a real contribution such as Stravinsky's piano fingerings?

It would be a real service if Mr. Joseph (or SOMEONE) put together an edition of the piano works with those fingerings in them. Not that pianists will necessarily use those precise fingerings, but they would certainly aid in understanding how the composer himself interpreted the piece.

Especially annoying to me was yet another tired discussion about Robert Craft. Mr. Joseph does demonstrate that Mr. Craft did play a significant role in the genesis of Stravinsky's work "The Flood". The author approaches the point of almost intimating that Craft is at least the co-composer of "The Flood", but never is bold enough to make that accusation. My guess is because for all the support and creative priming that Craft provided for Stravinsky, the evidence is that the composer did indeed compose the music himself. For heaven's sake, every composer since music began based it on some other creative spark or borrowed a theme from another work or even included suggestions from performers for whom the work was written. Composition is not done in a vacuum chamber on the dark side of the moon!

However, anyone who knows anything at all about Stravinsky's output from the fifties onward knows that Craft did us all a tremendous service. Why anyone wants to criticize Craft is beyond me. Unless someone wants to make the case that Stravinsky simply signed his name to Craft's scores and present real evidence they should either whine to people who care or thank Craft for the music he enabled Stravinsky to make in the fifties and sixties.

All in all, it easy for us in our age of sarcasm and witless irony to see the flaws of books that extol our favorite composers as heroes or as flawless paragons of humanity. My suspicion is that it won't take too many more years for people to turn their backs on the recent spate of books that take as their mission the whittling down of the tree of the great artist to a toothpick of a human. It is just too easy to write about human failings. We don't learn much at all about the art from such books and they are tiresome to read.

Finally, I am curious about the surmise that I am not a music scholar?By what definition?In europe a student is a scholar.Over here, what is the definition of a scholar?One who agrees with your points of view?I happen to have spent seven years at the University of Michigan School of Music and have a degree in music theory and several years of graduate school before my life took a different direction.But I have always played my piano and kept up on music.So, my views are not uninformed.

He was his own greatest composition
Stravinsky, whether you like him or not, was one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.Alternately deified by his collaborators (like Ballanchine, W.H. Auden, and Robert Craft), or villified as a worthless hack by Schoenberg and his accolytes, the truth lies somewhere in between those extremes.While the composer has not lacked for documentation of his life (notably his own Autobiography, and the "conversation books" edited by Robert Craft), there's still a need to balance facts with Stravinsky's own carefully constructed fictions.Few artists in any discipline have been more self-conscious of their public image than Stravinsky, and there is a real need to sort out how much of the composer's lifestory was his own invention.Joseph's well-written, meticulously researched book stops short of being a hatchet-job, but isn't afraid to display the idol's clay feet.(If fact, there's a nude photo of the composer in the book, so you'll see more than just his feet!)Joseph leaves the musicological analysis to others, and provides an engaging, provocative look at the man behind the hype.Turns out, like most human beings, he had his share of flaws as well as moments of genius. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A must read for anyone interested in musical culture in the 20th century
This was the first of what turned out to be six of the "conversation" books between Robert Craft and Igor Stravinsky.They were quite popular for many reasons and deservedly so.When this book came out in 1958, Stravinsky was the great living master of Music.His "Canticum Sacrum" had been premiered at the St. Mark's cathedral in Venice with Stravinsky on the podium to both acclaim and opprobrium in 1956.Time magazine's review was entitled "Murder in the Cathedral" (a title borrowed from T.S. Eliot which caused the poet some embarrassment when he and Stravinsky met some time later).No one knew how much more the 76 year old composer had in him, but he was still considered a revolutionary.

This book clarifies a great deal about his attitudes toward music and many of his compositions.Some of his more doctrinaire statements in the autobiography and the poetics about performance, performers (executants), and interpretation versus execution are given more nuance and a better context.Several fine pictures of the composer with his friends and other notables are also included.

He also discusses his thoughts about Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Ravel, and others.Several letters from notable composers are provided, as well.

While it is true these books were constructed conversations rather than transcripts of an interview between Craft and Stravinsky, they are most informative and most interesting.Think of the conversation as a compositional device and all will be well.

Most strongly recommended for any lover of Stravinsky's music and / or interested in the music of the 20th century.There is also a great deal of information on the artistic culture of Europe before, during, and after the world wars.

Musical Masterpiece
This book is wonderful.It really allows one to get into the head of a musical genius, Igor Stravinsky.Through question and answer format between Robert Craft and Stravinsky, one learns how a man of Stravinsky's caliber survives all the pressure and attention.This book is perfect for anyone wanting to understand the mind of a musician. ... Read more

Product Description
A sort of choreographic cantata depicting Russian peasant nuptials, Les Noces ("The Wedding") was produced by Diaghilev in Paris in 1923. This outstandingly original work broke new musical ground with its compact, concise style, using unusual combinations of instruments with vocal accompaniment rather than a large orchestra. Reproduced from an authoritative score, this handsome, inexpensive volume incorporates new lists of contents and instrumentation; a glossary and preface (with illustrations); a Note on the Translation and Translation of the French Text.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Quality and large size at an unbelievably good price.
Dover reproduces old editions of masterworks at very economical prices."Les Noces" is a fine example and at an unbelievable price.The format is large, which is welcome, and the text is in both the originalRussian (indispensable), and in French.An English translation is providedseparately, in the introduction.

The volume is more sturdilyconstructed and in a much larger format than the Boosey and Hawkes scoresof Stravinsky pieces; my "Persephone", while it is a beautifuledition, is small, expensive, and falling apart despite careful treatment. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (9)

Best gift for a musician
I actually bought The Rite of Spring for me boyfriend, who is a musician. He loved it! Here in Brazil music sheets like this are extremely rare and expensive, so it sure was the perfect gift. :)

Simply put - a great score
Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" is excellent, but even if it weren't, this score would still be wonderful.

Major positive points:
1) The score stays open and flat on a table or conductor's stand. Dover seems to take great care with this in their full scores, and it really makes score reading/studying much simpler.

2) The paper is thin enough to keep the size of the score small, but it's thick enough that markings/highlighting don't bleed through, which is wonderful.

3) Every system has either instrument names or understandable abbreviations.

4) MEASURE NUMBERS!

5) The music is dark and easy to read. There are no faded or missing barlines, which is a problem I seem to encounter with Kalmus and Lucks scores, as well as Dover miniature editions.

6) Attractive layout and engraving. This doesn't just look like a Finale print, unlike some other new scores.

I've always been proved with Dover's orchestral scores, and this is no exception. I worked from the Boosey's score last semester, and I definitely prefer this one.

Now THIS is what you call modern music!
Can anyone actually imagine playing this difficult piece for 33 minutes? If you look inside, you can see the many complexities that are within the score. Time signatures change almost constantly, brass play twenty random notes in one measure, tubas play much higher notes than usual, strings do a lot of plucking, and the woodwinds go all over the place in many scenes )including the Introduction to the "Adoration of the Earth" sequence). This just shows you how much of a genius Stavinsky really was. Fantastic!

Oh, and I never performed this piece, so that's why I was asking in the first place...............

Great Cheap Score
If you are enthralled with the Rite's rhythm, harmony, or whatever... this is the perfect opportunity to see the orchestration and metric usage. As someone who loves the Rite, and analyzing music, this was a no brainer. Cheap and easy to read. Absolutely fantastic.

Well Worth The Money!
From Jordan in Minnesota
In 1998 I bought the original score of Le Sacre du Printemps from Kalmus for 65.00 dollars!! Although the Kalmus version in cited from numerous musicians and stravinsky himself, this version of dovers is well worth the 10 dollars!! It is pretty much the same as Kalmus' but it has no chief editor, and since its a reprint it will have the same concept as the Kalmus score, only it is 55.00 dollars cheaper. If anyone wants the 4 extra pages of the kalmus version that compares the scores, I would be happy to copy it and send them, as long as people realize that the Kalmus version as of January 16 2006 is almost 100.00. So stick with this dover version it will definately save you the money!!
cojo0502@stcloudstate.edu ... Read more

Product Description
Stravinsky was one of the most original creative musicians of the twentieth century.In a career spanning six decades he composed a glittering sequence of works of astonishing diversity, from the three vividly colorful early Russian ballets, through the sharp wit and purity of his neo-classical scores and the powerful spirituality of works like the Symphony of Psalms and the Mass, to the highly individual application of serialism in the late works.This is a critical survey of Stravinsky's entire output in chronological order written in an accessible style for students, scholars, and all music lovers.Walsh draws on recent literature and the composer's own letters and sketches to provide fresh insights into Stavinsky's works. He argues persuasively that Stravinsky needs to be seen whole, and that the works are more closely connected in style and method than is generally acknowledged. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

authoritative
The most authoritative examination to date of the music of the premier composer of the twentieth century. We eagerly await Mr. Walsh's two volume biography of the subject. ... Read more

Product Description
Igor Stravinsky's Three Pieces for solo clarinet, revised and edited by Nicholas Hare in 1993. ... Read more

Product Description
This book undoes 50 years of mythmaking about Stravinsky's life in music.During his spectacular career, Igor Stravinsky underplayed his Russian past in favor of a European cosmopolitanism. Richard Taruskin has refused to take the composer at his word. In this long-awaited study, he defines Stravinsky's relationship to the musical and artistic traditions of his native land and gives us a dramatically new picture of one of the major figures in the history of music.Taruskin draws directly on newly accessible archives and on a wealth of Russian documents. In Volume One, he sets the historical scene: the St. Petersburg musical press, the arts journals, and the writings of anthropologists, folklorists, philosophers, and poets. Volume Two addresses the masterpieces of Stravinsky's early maturityPetrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Les Noces. Taruskin investigates the composer's collaborations with Diaghilev to illuminate the relationship between folklore and modernity. He elucidates the Silver Age ideal of "neonationalism"the professional appropriation of motifs and style characteristics from folk artand how Stravinsky realized this ideal in his music.Taruskin demonstrates how Stravinsky achieved his modernist technique by combining what was most characteristically Russian in his musical training with stylistic elements abstracted from Russian folklore. The stylistic synthesis thus achieved formed Stravinsky as a composer for life, whatever the aesthetic allegiances he later professed.Written with Taruskin's characteristic mixture of in-depth research and stylistic verve, this book will be mandatory reading for all those seriously interested in the life and work of Stravinsky. Amazon.com Review
We are used to thinking of Stravinsky in terms of avant-garde Parisin the 1920s, the epitome of modernism. These two hefty volumes ofunassailable scholarship and fascinating detail correct this blinkeredvision, which to some extent is a product of Stravinsky's own self-marketing.Richard Taruskin demonstrates Stravinsky's place in the specific culturaltraditions of his homeland, pulling together with impressive intellectualbreadth the influences of Russian music, art, literature, folklore, religiousliturgy, and more. He illustrates the composer's legacy from Rimsky-Korsakov,Glazunov, Scriabin, and Tchaikovsky in the pre-Diaghilev period, and dazzleswith his analysis of folk influence in "Petrushka" and on throughthe famously innovative, yet rooted "The Rite of Spring." Furthervolumes will be eagerly awaited by all lovers of Stravinsky's music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

On shaky ground
"The Rite of Spring" is a work of a Russian composer on a Russian sujet. But that a serious musicologist tries to tell me that, due to a few vague allusions to traditional folk tunes, it is a pure product of the Russian musical tradition. Please!

No doubt, it is work of genius, a great dark musical vision, but, conceding that in its spirit it is a "authentic" Russian composition,in its composing strategies it owes Debussy and Ravel much more than any Russian composer.

Frankly, I don'tunderstand why Taruskin tries so hard to hide this vital influence on Stravinsky in this book. Though Stravinsky emancipated from these influences in later years, the impact on his early ballet music was tremendous. And Stravinsky was the last one to deny it.

Surely it is worth to discuss the influences in detail, since there are a lot of interferences. Debussy and Ravel themselves were strongly influenced by Russian composers like Mussorgsky and Borodin.

But to blindthis part out of the composer biography is just not possible if you want to give a comprehensive picture. The plenty musical examples that Taruskin offers documenting the sources of Stravinsky's compositions are too selective in this respect. It might though be admitted that the impressionistic influences are harder to describe since they refer less to thematic references but much more to matters of technique. There would have been a great opportunity in these extensive volumes to look at all this in detail. Instead of this Taruskin simplifies things or makes awkward derivations. The bitonal Petrouschka chord-combination c major/f-sharp majorfor example happens to be already accidentally in Wagners "Siegfried" and happens even literally in the cadenza-like part of Ravel's "Jeux d'eau" where Stravinky most likely took his inspiration from. It's just strange and exerted to derive it from Rimsky's system of "octatonic" chord-combinations. Apropos "octatonic", even to claim this system, that Rimsky theoretically fixated for his teaching, as a Russian specific is strange enough, since it is well known that those harmonic influences came to Russian music through Berlioz, Liszt and especially Wagner.

Despite this serious objections, Taruskin deserves a lot of praise for his great research. I never read such abrilliant report about the history ofRussian music between Glinka and Stravinsky and the circle around Diaghilev with all its paradoxes.

An enormously interesting book despite the fact that its main thesis, i.e. that Stravinsky is rooted mainly in the Russian tradition, stays on very shaky ground.

Essential reading
This is an extraordinary book which will re-define Stravinsky scholarship. It is by far the best book published on Stravinsky, with perhaps one exception (The Apollonian Clockwork by Andriessen and Schoenberger). Taruskin's scholarship is of the highest quality, his knowledge of Russian music awe-inspiring, and the revelations he uncovers simply by being a Russian-speaker investigating the sources first-hand make this book a watershed in the way we think about Stravinsky. This book only takes the story to 1923 - I can only hope Mr Taruskin is working on the next volume as I write.

debunking the myth
Taruskin's 2 volume set into Stravinsky's "Russian" period is still the MOST comprehensive investigation for those wanting a more discernible picture of the gestation of works from that period, includingthe Firebird, Petrushka, the Rite and Les Noces. For example Taruskincompares wedding laments used by Russian brides with those found in theopening of Les Noces.This link becomes significant when one is trying toresolve how much Stravinsky knew about his Russian heritage during thecomposition of these works.In his conversation books with Robert Craft,several inconsistencies emerge as to the influence of Russian music onStravinsky's own music.For an interesting read, check out Taruskin'sarticle, "Stravinsky and the traditions: Why the memory hole?" inOpus Magazine 1987. Getting back to the books, of particular significanceis a "thematic" catalog of folk materials in which Taruskinattempts to reconstruct the origins of Stravinsky's Russianmasterpieces.

I did not give the book 5 stars because I reserve that forthe rarest of rarities which are reserved for books/movies/cds whichprovoke thought in the most unexpected of ways and are unlike anything elselike the movie "Being John Malkovich". Another insightful andrecent book on early Stravinsky (purely biographical) is Stephen Walsh's"Stravinsky : A Creative Spring : Russia and France, 1882-1934". ... Read more

Product Description
Stephen Walsh's magisterial, engagingly written two-volume Stravinsky is the most detailed and extensive work available on the life of the man widely regarded as the greatest composer of the twentieth century. This second volume takes up the composer's story in 1934, in a Europe growing ever more chaotic in the lead-up to World War II. Walsh follows Stravinsky's emigration to the United States, where he courted Hollywood, associated with writers and artists including Aldous Huxley, W.H. Auden, and George Balanchine, began a career as a conductor and recording artist, and composed a string of masterpieces that changed the course of twentieth-century music. Stravinsky: The Second Exile takes full account of Russian-language sources, including much correspondence, made available since the composer's death and since the fall of the Soviet Union, and is the first work to thoroughly assess the authenticity of many of the writings published under Stravinsky's name. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Detailed, but, thankfully, not exhaustive.
I normally HATE this type of bio.Most composers lead pretty dull lives.If you were to make a truthful movie of one, you'd have long stretches of Our Hero scratching on a piece of paper.In other words, it's not the life itself that's interesting, but the work that life produced.Of course Stravinsky's life lacks the excitement of Rite of Spring or Oedipus Rex or Agon.I can't think of any life that measures up.But Stravinsky was a more interesting personality than most, especially in light of the music he produced and the contradictory things he said about it.Without quite uncovering the mystery of genius, Walsh nevertheless manages to keep our attention and build suspense, mostly through explicating the course of the composer's life and offering shrewd guesses into the composer's character.I happen to love almost everything Stravinsky wrote, so naturally I'm interested in the man.However, Stravinsky's family and personal relations are so tangled that I'm confident this book would appeal to those who can leave the work alone.Even so, Walsh provides valuable "bird's-eye" insights into several major scores.

A fine historian, Walsh scrupulously separates fact from the notoriously wishful thinking of Craft's accounts.Of course, Craft becomes the second major player in the narrative.Walsh isn't interested in bashing Craft and in several places vigorously defends him against the charges of careerism and Svengali-ism.On the other hand, he doesn't overlook Craft's flaws.Walsh tends to see neither gods nor demons, but people.He also has the gift of tying often-mundane facts into a compelling story and of bright, elegant prose.I can't praise this book (and its predecessor) highly enough.

Not the best work on Stravinsky
Mr. Walsh's new book on Stravinsky has some interesting anecdotes and insights into the years in America for the composer but seems to lack real relevance historically.

What seems to be missing from this new book is any primary sources for his many anecdotes. The Stravinsky estate after his death is a matter of public record in the courts, yet Mr. Walsh has not done the research to get the real facts. Why?

There are excellent books by sources much closer to Stravinsky--to say the least Robert Craft's. Craft a twenty year associate of Stravinsky documented just about every waking moment of Stravinsky's life. Referring back to some of Craft's books on Stravinsky I find that Walsh has lifted numerous writings from Craft rather than bringing anything of real interest to life for the reader.

I have to say, this book is not the best work on Stravinsky and I hope other readers will go to better sources for a cohesive and cogent telling of Stravinsky's life and career.

The apex of the biographer's art
unless Mr. Walsh prefers 'musicologist' to 'biographer'. When I finished volume II, I immediately went and bought volume I. I rated the book 5 stars but wish I could give it 6. As a retired music librarian, I am cautious in following the hype about any new book on music/musicians/musicology that is making the rounds and more often than not, while the reviews may be accurate, regrettably, there are times they're not accurate enough. I think Mr. Walsh's two volumes are stunning. I think they are so good that once started, one wants to do nothing but sit and read them.
The period and the musical life out of which Stravinsky emerged is not unknown to me and I think the deepest connection I developed with Stravinsky's music was when I played in a performance of Symphony of Psalms. Whether or not I walked away humming portions of it (which is unlikely since I cannot sing), the music has left, to use a trite phrase, an indelible mark on both my musical and cultural psyche, but so has the personality of Stravinsky himself. And Mr. Walsh does an incredibly job of making him breathe. It isn't just Stravinsky who breathes in the course of reading this book (I haven't finished Volume I) but the words and the events and the people take on a life that is far more than facts as accurate as they might be.
I cannot recommend these two volumes highly enough and I only wish it was possible for Mr. Walsh to write a third.

A valuable second volume of an important biography of Stravinsky
Regardless of your opinion of his music, there is no doubt that Igor Stravinsky was one of the most significant composers of the twentieth century.I love his music and find his many changes in style fascinating.And while his big well-known masterworks (even the debate over which those are) are more widely appreciated, I also find his smaller works interesting and engaging.No matter what he did, Stravinsky created works that were among the most lively and engaging in whatever style he was using.He was fiercely independent and uncompromisingly himself.Given the course of the life he led and the multiple exiles alluded to in the subtitle, the strength he had to maintain that originality is possibly the most amazing thing about the man.

This very large and very detailed biography of Stravinsky's life from 1934 until his death in 1971 is fascinating on several levels.For me, the most interesting part and the primary reason I wanted to read the book is to read in more detail the circumstances of the birth of the compositions from this half of the composer's life.Who commissioned what, how the final composition was or was not what was originally discussed, what the considerations were for the resources used, and then Stravinsky's use of serial techniques (and how that developed andhow the variety of approaches he took to serialism remained Stravinsky).

There is also the story of his life in Europe and then the move to the United States.The strange relationship between Stravinsky's first wife (whom he loved all his life even after she died) and his second wife, Vera, while his first wife was still alive and Vera was his mistress.Of course, this affected his relationship with his children, as did his life in Hollywood while they lived in Europe.Soulima later came to California and lived with Stravinsky for a time, but got a post on the piano faculty of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.Stravinsky's family details are not simple and it is interesting how the author, Stephen Walsh, teases them out.

Stravinsky never held an academic post beyond some short term lecturing and teaching of composition.He never even received an academic degree.He was a man who had to depend on himself and his music to make his way in the world.The reputation he had developed as modernist was both a source of pride and riches as well as a reason for others to attack him (from both the old and new guard).That he was strong enough to take the blows and keep composing and creating wonderful new works is a testimony of his own internal strength and of those who cared about him and supported him emotionally and in the practical day-to-day matters that allowed him time and space to compose.

Of course, whenever one considers this portion of Stravinsky's life, especially his close associates, the name of Robert Craft is right at the front if a bit off center.Walsh presents a complex picture of Craft (which means it is likely close to realistic) that acknowledges the important role Craft performed in getting Stravinsky through his compositional crisis after "The Rake's Progress".Stravinsky thought he was finished.He was nearly seventy years old and most composers (with a few notable exceptions) are no longer composing by that age.But many writers and composers have a period of being blocked at one time or another and find a way out.Would Stravinsky have found a way out on his own?Maybe.However, Craft was there and it was his support and guidance in the serial methods that gave Stravinsky new impetus and we have several wonderful masterpieces and many other interesting works from 1952 that would certainly not have come about without Craft and the role he played. However, Walsh also takes a clear and dispassionate look at Craft's statements and finds some of them truthful, others somewhat at odds with the facts, and others to be outright misrepresentations.The author is also as clear as it is possible to be about which letters, reviews, and books Craft wrote in Stravinsky's name.At some point it is not knowable whether Craft was saying what Stravinsky wrote in different words or which pieces are Craft using the Stravinsky name to advance his own agenda.

The last few years of the composer's life, after the "Requiem Canticles", are a period of decline and rising family tensions.How all that explodes in sad recrimination and jealousies after Stravinsky's death is quite sad.Nobody comes off all that well, but Vera and Craft least of all.I am sure they would tell this story differently (and Craft has), but it seems to me that the children (then older adults) were not treated as well as they should have been.

In any case, I am grateful to Craft for the support he gave Stravinsky and music that support allowed him Stravinsky to write and the support he gave Stravinsky in promoting his work and in conducting and recording his works, especially when Stravinsky was too frail to do the work himself.Craft as a person is simply human after all with feet of clay (maybe clay up past the knees for all I know), but he still fulfilled an important purpose in Stravinsky's artistic life.Others may well have their own jealousies and resentments against him that exaggerate his flaws and assign motives that do not exist.Still, this book does a fine job in sorting out certain aspects of various situations that have been muddled and misrepresented until now.

The author does say some strange things about disease, but he is using the language the Stravinsky's used.For example, that a cold worsened into the flu or that tuberculosis was inherited.There is more of this kind of thing.He also focuses a great deal on the high commission and conducting fees Stravinsky charged.This is a fair point, but isn't really given its full context.Stravinsky was in huge demand; he was a unique commodity so he simply asked for enough money to make it worth his while.This may have upset some who would have preferred to get his work more affordably, but so what?Just compare what he received to popular artists such as Elvis and Frank Sinatra and all of a sudden he doesn't look so well paid.
For me, the most odd thing the author said is on page 464 where the author refers to "The Rite of Spring" as a late romantic masterpiece.I was so startled that I had to stop reading.I remember when I first heard this work in 1971 or 1972 in a high school music theory class (music rudiments and grammar, really).It astounded me because I had never heard anything like it.As I played recordings for my friends, some thought I was running the music backwards.Nowadays, it does not shock nearly as much as it did even a few decades ago, but it certainly still has freshness and power.Stravinsky is a modern composer, not a Romantic composer of any stripe.You might get away with calling Firebird romantic, but even there it has little in common with Mahler or Richard Strauss or even Rachmaninoff does it?Such a label seems to me to be too much bowing to the serialists and other academic moderns.Is this really the term being used for this founding work of modern music outside the Boulez - Stockhausen - Babbit believers?

I enjoyed this book a great deal and it will have a valued place in my library.

Exhaustive Biography of Stravinsky from 1934 to His Death
Following up the wonderful first volume of his biography of Stravinsky, Cardiff University musicologist Stephen Walsh gives us a second and final volume that begins in 1934 and ends with Stravinsky's death in 1971. This takes us through the unsettled 1930s, his emigration to America and then the final years with his conversion to ultra-modern techniques. It would appear that Walsh has read and digested everything written about the composer during the times in question, and he has interviewed many people who knew and worked with him. At times the narrative is weighted down by 'and then he conducted X in Y' but his always graceful, indeed beautiful, prose makes even those laundry list sections interesting reading. There is some attention paid to the ins and outs of the works themselves but this does not pretend to be an analysis of Stravinsky's oeuvre; Walsh has already written such a book, the exceedingly valuable 'The Music of Stravinsky.'

There is, of course, a good deal of mention of that most important of late Stravinsky associates, Robert Craft, who has himself written extensively about the composer. There are some disagreements with Craft's published statements, but less than one might imagine and it is done with evenhandedness and tact. Nonetheless, he indicates that Craft's personal involvement with Stravinsky led to some imprecision in his observations and assessments.

For those who have read the earlier volume this is a must-have. For those who are tempted to get this volume without having read the earlier one, I'd suggest some caution. In the present volume there are many references to incidents and people whose importance is unexplained and which can only be gleaned from having first read the earlier volume, 'A Creative Spring.' But taken together these two volumes are indispensable for anyone wanting to understand Stravinsky the man.

Scott Morrison ... Read more

Product Description
As perhaps the most influential composer of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky lived much of his long life on the public stage. But behind that public face was a very private man, at once father and husband, and patriarch of an extended but tightly knit Russian family.

Written by the composer’s eldest son Theodore, along with Theodore’s wife Denise, these intimate memoirs take us to the very heart of the Stravinsky family home in the years up to the Second World War.

This chronicle also contains a wealth of family photographs, revealing the composer not as the often-forbidding figure of the official photographic record, but as a husband and father at play and at work in the midst of a large and vibrant family.

In this loving but clear-sighted picture of a family who counted among their friends a glittering cross-section of the twentieth century’s social and cultural elite, this fascinating biography provides a privileged insight into the home behind the public triumphs of one of the undisputed geniuses of modern music. ... Read more