Composer, Igor Fyodorvich Stravinsky

Musical conductors are individuals that help direct a musical performance. They will ensure that the band is in the right tempo and that each section of the ensemble enters the performance at the correct time. The conductors may use hand gestures or a baton in order to guide the band. Many people believe that musical conductors are beneficial and help improve a band’s performance. However, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky disapproves of the usage of musical conductors as he believes that they are useless. Through comparisons and sarcastic language, Stravinsky criticizes the egotistical personalities and deceitful nature of musical conductors.

This contrasts the motives of the composer and the conductor, which should be to keep the integrity of the piece of music, but as mentioned above, Stravinsky believes that the conductor's are usually for personal gain.

In addition to asymmetrical rhythms the use of polytonality is vibrant throughout the piece especially in the introduction which begins with different clarinets playing polytonal. Stravinsky structured The Rite very differently, melody was not the only dominant feature of the piece, other features such as the fore mentioned polytonality and asymmetrical rhythms were also at the dominant features of the piece. By breaking from many common practices of his own and of the time, Stravinsky created a piece slated in modernism's history.

The first of Igor Stravinsky's three famous early ballets, The Firebird is the most traditional and derivative. While The Firebird, similar to Petrushka and The Rite Of Spring, is unquestionably one of Stravinsky's masterpieces, if considered strictly historically it can be, with some justice, viewed as warmed-over Rimsky-Korsakov (the device of contrasting a folkloristic, diatonic style representing human characters, with a highly chromatic style reserved for depicting the supernatural had its most conspicuous use in Rimsky's

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the author of six symphonies and the finest and most popular operas in the Russian repertory. Tchaikovsky was also one of the founders of the school of Russian music. He was a brilliant composer with a creative imagination that helped his career throughout many years. He was completely attached to his art. His life and art were inseparably woven together. "I literally cannot live without working," Tchaikovsky once wrote, "for as soon as one piece of work is finished and one would wish to relax, I desire to tackle some new work without delay." The purpose of this paper is to give you a background concerning Tchaikovsky's biography, as well as to discuss his various works of

Johannes Brahms works were absolutely created as expanded developments of older forms, similarly to many of Beethoven's. (Guthrie) Johannes admired him so much that he wanted to follow in his footsteps, and make the impact of his music spread. By doing this, more composers were influenced by the ways of Ludwig. Berlioz admired Beethoven's sixth symphony because of the way each movement was connected to nature. (Guthrie) Like Brahms, Berlioz wanted to spread this influence, so he wrote his music with the same ideas in mind. He showed this in his Symphonie Fantastique by subordination the entire form of the piece to the feverish narrative that is exhibited in Beethoven’s music to accompany the symphony. (Guthrie)[p Thus spreading Beethoven's influence even deeper into the music world. Beethoven influenced Stravinsky in Juxtaposing chords. (Discuss) He did this by creating juxtaposed chords, using a D major chord and a B minor chord simultaneously. While they are similar, this contrast is influential during this time, seeing as it was unheard of. Using the strength of this new idea, Stravinsky put juxtaposed chords in his Russian Ballet. (Discuss) Beethoven’s music was extremely personal and idiosyncratic in style. (Beethoven) Which was strange for this time period, considering music used to only be made for the use of entertainment and not for the sake of passion. This style also fits perfectly

Born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on the 25th September, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the composer began his descent into classical music at the age of 9, before later moving on to study at the Petrograd conservatory. Throughout his life he compiled 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets and 36 film scores as well as many other compositions. Within his musical work and the course of his career Shostakovich managed to both adhere to traditions set within classical music as well as dissent from them, I will be exploring these.

Igor Stravinsky was third of a family of four boys. He grew up hearing his father practicing his opera and attending local ballets. He also started taking piano lessons when he was 9 years old and continued on with musical notation and composition instruction. All throughout his early life he studied music. However, although he had been brought

Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 and showed an aptitude for music at a young age. In 1919, he enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory where his abilities mesmerized the head of the institution, Alexander Glazunov. Shostakovich was never politically naïve; he imitated his parent’s ideals who initially

Richard Strauss, one of the most iconic classical composer during the 1900s, has been known by his music such as Don Juan and Thus Spake Zarathustra. His music style plays a major role in the mid 1900s, creating new music elements while looking back, and have even influenced modern film music. He himself is also a successful conductor, with successful recordings especially in Mozart and his own pieces.

He remained a clerk for three years. He hated his job but he worked feverishly at it for he worked hard at every task he was given. He continued to be drawn into the music world and he took piano and theory lessons. Finally, in 1862, he quit his job and devoted the rest of his life to music which he began by entering the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He graduated with a silver medal in 1865. After graduation he was unsure of what to do until 1866 when Nicholas Rubenstein offered him the job of professor of harmony at the newly formed Moscow Conservatory. It was here that he wrote his first serious works which included AA Festival Overture on the Danish National Hymn,@ his First Symphony in G AWinter Daydreams,@ and his first opera AThe Voyevode.@ Showing his desire for perfection he tore up the opera because he was dissatisfied with it and it wasn=t until 1949 that it was revived.5

The music of Stravinsky has always been “ahead of time” in the way of using new and different ways of presenting music. His early ballets such as Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring being a great example of his modernism and will to compose music which is both innovative and shocking. For this essay I have chosen to write about The Firebird (1910) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Firebird was Stravinsky’s first Ballet and his first composition that reached many people because of its modernism and exoticism. The Rite of Spring is still renowned for its portrayal of primitivism, a concept that was accentuated by the riot that happened at its premiere.

At 1889, he attended the Paris International Exposition, where he discovered the wondrous colours of Asian music that picked up his interest. He was also fascinated by the pieces composed by the Russian composers Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, therefore he was lured in to the folk music of Russia soon after.

Neoclassical and Romantic movements cover the period of 1750 to 1850. Neoclassicism showed life to be more rational than it really was. The Romantics favoured an interest in nature, picturesque, violent, sublime. Unlike Neo_classicism, which stood for the order, reason, tradition, society, intellect and formal diction, Romanticism allowed people to get away from the constrained rational views of life and concentrate on an emotional and sentimental side of humanity. In this movement the emphasis was on emotion, passion, imagination, individual and natural diction. Resulting in part from the liberation and egalitarian ideals of the French Revolution, the romantic movement had in common only a revolt against the rules of classicism. There are

Composition of this piece was the acclaimed Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov; he was born in Tikhvin, Russia, on March 6, 1844. From an early age and through the influence of his family, Nikolai loved the sea (Britannica 1). One of his inspirations was the works of Richard Wagner. According to goodreads, Scheherazade is frequently used fairy tale and folk subjects in his music. In staying true to his Russian heritage, he widely used Western methods to create mysterious compositions with the elements of tempo, tunes and harmony (goodreads 1). His diligent study of both counterpoint and fugue culminated with some