preview

Igor Stravinsky Research Paper

Decent Essays

Although Igor Stravinsky was a Christian and Claude Debussy was a hedonistic atheist, they were both modern classical composers. However, this was not their only similarity. They also studied music at a college, quickly rose to fame, and composed in several different styles.
One similarity was their studies of music. They both studied music at colleges. Debussy, despite his lack of formal schooling, went to the Paris Conservatory for eleven years, starting at the young age of eleven. Although his experimentation with dissonance led him to trouble, he continued to use it throughout his life. Stravinsky spent three years studying composition with Rimsky-Korsakov, a Russian composer and teacher, while studying for a law degree. The two became …show more content…

Debussy, at the age of eighteen, was sponsored by Madame Nadejda von Meck, who was also the patroness of Tchaikovsky. However, Madame von Meck permitted Debussy to Travel with her and her family, unlike her arrangement with Tchaikovsky. Although this encouraged his career, it made him have an expensive taste the rest of his life, forcing him to never be in a financially safe place. Stravinsky achieved fame through his teacher and friend, Rimsky-Korsakov, who arranged for some of Stravinsky's music to be played. Diaghilev, who worked for the Russian Ballet Company, heard the music and commissioned Stravinsky to write an original ballet. Stravinsky found inspiration in old legends, creating the The Firebird. A few years later, Stravinsky wrote one of his most famous works, The Rite of Spring. This ballet caused a riot, partly because of the strange music, including a very high bassoon piece, but Stravinsky put all the blame on the choreographer, Nijinsky. Despite the controversy over his music, or perhaps because of it, Stravinsky rapidly became a known name in the music world. Although the ways in which the two became famous were different, they both greatly influenced classical music of the twentieth

Get Access