Product Description
Stravinsky's work spanned the major part of the twentieth-century and was engaged with nearly all its principal compositional developments. Reflecting the breadth of his phenomenal achievement, this Companion contains a wide range of essays in three broad sections covering the contexts within which Stravinsky worked--Russian, modernist and compositional, with his key compositions--Russian, neoclassical and serial, and with the reception of his ideas--through performance, analysis and criticism. The volume concludes with an interview with the composer Louis Andriessen and a major re-evaluation of "Stravinsky and us" by Richard Taruskin. ... Read more

Product Description
'I think my music deserves to be considered as a whole', Igor Stravinsky remarked at the end of a long and restless career, and that is exactly what the authors of The Apollonian Clockwork do. In 1982, convinced that there is no essential difference between 'early' and 'late' Stravinsky,Louis Andriessen and Elmer Schönberger were the first to write a monograph on the composer which radically breaks with the habit of dividing his works into 'Russian', 'neoclassical' and 'serial'. In an essay which continually shifts in its approach, style and perspective, the authors elaborate on their insight that a single, immutable compositional attitude underlies the whole of Stravinsky's oeuvre. By this token the book not only offers an analysis of the composer's protean work and artistry but takes example by it as well. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

45 urbane, ironic essays -- "a paradigm of Stravinsky"
THE APOLLONIAN CLOCKWORK was originally published in the Netherlands in 1983, and the English translation was published in 1989.The authors, Louis Andriessen and Elmer Schonberger, are both Dutch composers (Schonberger is also a musicologist and critic), and are clearly both steeped in and enamoured of Stravinsky:

"The authors' decision to collaborate on this book arose not only from a shared love of Stravinsky's music, but from an agreement on a few fundamental points: that there is no essential difference between early and late Stravinsky; that the familiar division of his works into 'Russian', 'neoclassical', and 'serial' periods more often obscures rather than clarifies the music; and that the distinction commonly made between 'arrangements' and 'original compositions' is not pertinent to Stravinsky.What they heard in the music was that all his works have been composed from an immutable musical *mentality*." (xiii)

The book, not one linear narrative but rather 45 interconnected essays, vignettes on various aspects of Stravinsky's music, life and context, is "a paradigm of Stravinsky" in its *drobnost* structure (splinteredness -- from Taruskin).

Stravinsky's sensibility is captured in a quote from D.C. Muecke's "Irony":"There is yet another feature of irony which appears regularly in discussions of irony.We can choose from among a number of terms: detachment, distance, disengagement, freedom, serenity, objectivity, dispassion, 'lightness', 'play', urbanity."The authors go on to say: "It cannot be coincidence that precisely these terms (or their pejorative counterparts: lack of feeling, coldness, superficiality, etc.) rate highly in the descriptions of Stravinsky's music.Stravinsky is first and foremost an ironic buffo-composer, no matter how serious the music may get.But his good humour is not carefree." (219-220)

In this light, there is a priceless photo on page 51 of Stravinsky face-to-face with a giraffe, seemingly carrying on a conversation.This accompanies a chapter called "Zoonology" which is about the many and various animals that appear in Stravinsky's music.Of Stravinsky himself, the authors conclude, "[h]e reminds one of the Cheshire Cat in "Alice in Wonderland", whose grin 'remained some time after the rest of it had gone'." (54)

Speaking of animals, the authors' wit is illustrated by their anology of Stravinsky as a wasp in his 1942 book of essays "Poetique musicale", based on six lectures delivered at Harvard in 1939:

"The Stravinsky of 'Poetique' is like a wasp who tries to remove its own sting, who says it will not harm a fly, or better, thinks it *is* a fly, a responsible, hard-working, cultivated, reasonable fly that believes in a Supreme Fly, but a fly that, oh dear, is continually being hit by the fly-swatter, first from the right, now from the left." (84)Stravinsky, the musical revolutionary of "Le sacre", did not want to be considered a revolutionary!

Many think that with his "neoclassical" phase Stravinsky ceased to be a revolutionary, a view the authors emphatically reject.They quote Friedrich Blume, who says the classical artistic attitude "leaves the finding of some content in this form to the listener's power of imagination," as opposed to Romanticism, which imputes to music "concrete content, condemning the listener to passivity."The authors then go on to say that "[c]lassicism is radical.It manifests itself in art as avant-garde and defines the attitude of the artist who holds back, distances his work from the audience, withholds information ... Stravinsky's classicism is always slightly irritating, the music is unfinished ... But it cannot be emphasized enough: renewal is concealed in the old.It hides itself.Only a sharp sleuth will discover it and thereby change history." (101)

And finally, on the great Stravinsky-Schoenberg battle, regarding Stravinsky's use of the 12-tone method after Schoenberg's death:"The Viennese School was history, that was the crux.And the Viennese School were always the others, the representatives of 'Mitteleuropa', separated from him by a 'gigantic abyss', the kind of abyss that cannot be bridged.'The principle of developing variation that led to the twelve-tone technique and at the same time legitimized it, is known just as little in the serial scores of Stravinsky as in his earlier scores,' wrote Adorno, who detested Stravinsky but who sometimes had a clear insight into his music." (119)

This is a fantastically enjoyable read, a glimpse into the Stravinsky universe that conveys in its light, ironic tone and splintered structure the essence of his "immutable musical mentality."

For a more standard treatment of Stravinsky that focuses on the nature of his innovations and his influence on later 20th Century composers, see The Stravinsky Legacy by Jonathan Cross.

(verified library loan)

A brilliant and playful analysis of Stravinsky's work
I love this book! I read a single chapter every week. It is not difficult reading but the ideas are so provocative that I needed time to digest them. For anyone interested in a creative and non-dogmatic approach to understanding the compositional process of one of the greatest composers of all time, this is the book. Did I mention that I love it? ... Read more

Product Description
This book is the first to be devoted to the music of Stravinsky's last compositional period. It focuses on five historical, analytical, and interpretive issues: Stravinsky's relationship to his serial predecessors and contemporaries; his compositional process; the problem of creating formal continuity in a repertoire so obviously discontinuous in many ways; the problem of writing serial harmony; and the problem of expression and meaning. Challenging conventional interpretations, the book shows that Stravinsky's serial music is not only of great historical significance, but also of astonishing structural originality and emotional power. ... Read more

Product Description
The music of Igor Stravinsky has had a profound impact on the development of twentieth-century music. In this book, Jonathan Cross explores the technical and aesthetic legacy of Stravinsky in relation to a broad range of composers, from Varèse to Andriessen, from Messiaen to Birtwistle. He also proposes a reexamination of Stravinsky's own neoclassical music and Theodor Adorno's notorious critique of Stravinsky. This book is part history, part analysis, part aesthetics, and will be of value to anyonewho takes an interest in the music of our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Stravinsky's modernism:a deeper look
It is widely agreed that the three most important innovators in 20th Century classical music were Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg.But I recently began to wonder whether I really understood Stravinsky's place in this pantheon.Debussy and Schoenberg both challenged standard harmony, Debussy by pushing the boundaries toward chromaticism of a distinctively pretty variety, and Schoenberg with two successive innovations -- first, an expressionist atonality which shattered the old system entirely, and then the 12-tone/serialist system which was built as a new alternative.Stravinsky's innovation, from what I could recall reading several years ago, was mainly in two areas -- rhythm and orchestral coloration.These are both prominent in his most well-known work, "Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)".But neither of these seemed to me to be on the same level as the fundamental revolution in/beyond harmony represented by Debussy and Schoenberg.Further, Stravinsky moved on to a long neoclassical period, which certainly doesn't sound innovative based on the name, and later to a 12-tone period, adopting Schoenberg's method. So I went in search of Stravinsky's contribution, if indeed there was something more to be found.

THE STRAVINSKY LEGACY by Jonathan Cross is what I was looking for.Cross enunciates and elaborates the nature of Stravinsky's modernism, which involved new structures for composition at a much deeper level than rhythmic drive or exotic orchestration.The best parts of the book are the 15-page introduction, "Stravinsky's modernism," and the 15-page conclusion, "Stravinsky, Adorno, and the problem of development," which addresses the well-known critique in Adorno's essays on Schoenberg and Stravinsky.The bulk of the book consists of four chapters on "Block forms," "Structural rhythms," "Ritual theatres," and "Minimal developments," in which Cross presents detailed analyses of numerous Stravinsky compositions to illustrate their structural principles.But these are summarized in main outline in the introduction.

Cross persuasively argues that Adorno was influential in creating a Grand Narrative of Modernism in which Schoenberg represented progress, and Stravinsky was a representative of regression.Cross argues that in retrospect it is clear that there is no One Modernism, but rather a pluralistic modernism in which Stravinsky represents an alternative strand to Schoenberg's.Stravinsky did not advance a method and did not create a school, which put him at a disadvantage relative to Schoenberg.But Fredric Jameson has called Stravinsky "the true precursor of postmodern cultural production," and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen has noted that the "true influence of Stravinsky has only just begun," in contrast to Schoenberg, whose serialism is no longer as influential as it once was (5).Elliott Carter has noted Stravinsky's ability to achieve a "unified fragmentation," describing "The Soldier's Tale," for instance, as follows:"all the brief, almost discrete fragments, however roughly they connect with each other, end up by producing a work that holds together in a very new and telling way." (8)Cross draws on Richard Taruskin to spell this out in greater detail.According to Taruskin, Stravinsky was crucially influenced by his Russian heritage in his use of "drobnost," or splinteredness, like film montage, utilizing blocks that do not develop organically as in the Germanic sonata form.The overall effect is "nepodvizhnost," orstasis -- the music is non-teleological, and non-developmental (10).The emphasis on repetition and the use of rhythm as a central structural feature, equal to or greater than pitch, only makes complete sense in light of the overarching structure characterized by this "splintered stasis."

Cross, drawing heavily on Taruskin, maintains that these structural features run through the entirety of Stravinsky's oeuvre, not just the early Russian ballets, where they are hard to miss.Elsewhere, Stravinsky's music has been described as "fractal," with discrete fragments that could in principle be reconfigured without changing the effect.Andriessen argues that it is the NEO in neoclassical, that is important, not classical, that Stravinsky radically modifies the existing formsas an "alienation technique" (13).Finally, Stravinsky's oft-noted "objectivity" can be seen as progressive, not regressive, which was Adorno's view.As Cross says, "many subsequent composers have read Stravinsky's objectivity differently: its playfulness, its sense of irony and critical distance from the musical materials, its eclecticism, its positive celebration of collective ritual, have all proved provocative and creatively fruitful" (14).

The main composers who were decisively influenced by Stravinsky, and documented by Cross are:Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varese, Elliott Carter, Steve Reich & the minimalists, John Adams, and the British composers perhaps nearest and dearest to Cross, Michael Tippett, Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle (the subject of another book by Cross, which illuminates the Stravinsky influence extensively).

Listening to Stravinsky's music, it is clearly distinctive -- cool, with angular sufaces, an elegant cubism, marked by irony and detachment.And the distinctive surface and tone of the music reflects its deeper structure.Are Stravinsky's innovations on a par with those of Debussy and Schoenberg?Upon reading Cross, as well as other sources, I am convinced that they are.Further than that I will not go.Cross forwards an argument that Stravinsky is greater and more influential than Schoenberg, his great rival of the early 20th century.But I will go as far as acknowledging that what Cross calls "the non-developmental, non-narrative objectivity of Stravinsky and the subjective, Expressionist continuity with the Romantic tradition in Schoenberg" have proved comparably influential (16).

Many thanks to Jonathan Cross for answering my question!

For a very stylish, witty, interconnected (drobnost-style) series of essays on Stravinsky that captures his sensibility perfectly, see The Apollonian Clockwork by Andriessen and Schonberger.

(verified library loan)



... Read more

Product Description
This definitive edition of The Rite of Spring is Stravinsky's important final revision of the work and presents the composer's own authorized version of the score. Stravinsky's third ballet for Diaghelev's Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring was the most revolutionary in style and impact, and remains one of the twentieth century's defining works of musical and artistic modernism. The scenario was evolved in collaboration between Stravinsky and the painter and ethnographer Nicolas Roerich, who also designed the costumes for the first production. It combines depictions of pre-Christian festivals of Spring, as observed by ancient Slavic tribes, with Stravinsky's personal vision of a girl, a chosen sacrifice, dancing herself to death before the tribal elders. The riots and violent controversy that accompanied the premiere of the work in 1913 created the greatest succs de scandale of twentieth-century music and catapulted Stravinsky to an international notoriety that lasted the rest of his life. The music's dissonance and dynamism struck its more conservative hearers as a descent into a new and terrible musical barbarism, and excited its supporters as a brilliant vision of primeval man, infusing the arts with a strong and primitive power. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

B&H Masterworks Library version of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring
This is THE edition to buy. Most reliable score in print, clear print, good binding etc. So - everything you need. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Inside Stories from and about Igor Stravinsky
Perhaps due to the several films of late that allude to the life of Igor Stravinsky (17 June 1882 - 6 April 1971) returning to this fine old volume first published in 1966 is not unlike dialing up the master and asking his opinion.The title of the book -THEMES AND EPISODES - describes the content well.Though born in Russia Stravinsky spent a number of years in France and Switzerland, and when WW II broke out in 1939-40 he moved to the United States where he lived a bicoastal life between the East Coast and Hollywood. The contents of this book are extracted from letters, including a lengthy letter from Stravinsky's wife Vera, from diaries and from remembered conversations with his long time supporter and right hand man, Robert Craft.

Stravinksy writes with the same brilliance that makes his compositions so electrifying.He is able to discuss fellow composers with wit(and not a little sarcasm) and in general gives the reader the tenor of the times in classical music as seen through the eyes of one of the most important practitioners of his century. Here are program notes written by Stravinsky himself, opinions by Vera for 'The Rakes Progress' premiere in Venice in 1951, interviews with Stravinsky about certain works in performance, and well carved statements about his own individual compositions.

In Part II we are treated to the diaries of Robert Craft whose writings from 1949 - 1966 are an invaluable source of the mannerisms and the health and the frustrations and the temperament of the great Stravinsky.Almost any subject concerning the composer/conductor can be found here in chronological order.For the student of classical music this volume is a treasure-trove of information (and gossip!), and for those of us who simply admire the magnificent scores he created, this book is a window into his life and thoughts. Highly recommended.Grady Harp, September 10

Half is commentary by Stravinsky and half is from Craft's diaries
About half of this is Stravinsky commenting on trends in art and the art business (and art includes music as well), commentary on some of his works (very interesting), some letters (one by his wife, Vera, to a cousin in Moscow has some most interesting observations about the composer), some transcripts of interview, some talk about T.S. Eliot and his death, and comments about some then current conductors.

The personal comments Stravinsky makes about certain composers and conductors can cause me to scratch my head, but it may be more of a personal reaction by Stravinsky because of the way they treated him and his music.However, it may be that there are things he knows that I have missed.I just don't know.

The second half of the book are selections from Craft's diaries from 1949-66.We get Craft's keen observations of different places around the world, his private meetings with Schoenberg, and his observations during world travels with Stravinsky.

This is very interesting material and something everyone interested in Stravinsky and his music will want to read and think about. ... Read more

Product Description
This latest work in the Meredith Music master class series presents a comprehensive, interpretive analysis and performance guide of three legendary compositions for timpani and percussion. Together, Morris Lang, Charles Dowd, and Anthony J. Cirone have put a lifetime of performance and study experience into an extensive volume featuring Eight Pieces for Four Timpani by Elliott Carter, Concertino for Percussion and Small Orchestra by Darius Milhaud and l'Histoire du Soldat by Igor Stravinsky. This in-depth, one-of-a-kind publication includes: corrections of wrong notes, rhythms, phrasings, and dynamics; far-reaching suggestions on interpretation; revised notation when original music was difficult to read; suggested muffling to enhance interpretation; additional articulations when appropriate; suggested sticking to increase musical phrasing; historical references. ... Read more

Product Description
Stravinsky was a prolific composer for well over half a century, achieving success in a variety of musical styles. An exile from his native Russia for 48 years, he finally returned in 1962 to a great deal of acclaim. Many people consider him one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, with such great compositions as The Rite of Spring, The Firebird, and Petrushka, which remain his most popular pieces. ... Read more

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Five years is added to the time span covered by the first edition. 668 doctoral dissertations, master's theses, and bachelor's essays are represented by 200 colleges and universities in 18 countries. Included are works that deal primarily with one of the most significant composers of the twentieth century and studies that indirectly contain references to the composer. ... Read more

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Retells the story of the ballet, itself based on a Russian folk tale, in which a puppet with a soul tries to win the love of a ballerina during a Shrovetide Fair. ... Read more