Igor Stravinsky, a Russian Composer

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.

In the passage by Igor Stravinsky, he uses not only comparison and contrast, but also language to convey his point of view about the conductors of the time and their extreme egotism. Stravinsky believes that conductors exploit the music for their own personal gain, so rather, he looks on them in a negative light.

While Ludwig van Beethoven and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky have much in common, they also have many differences. Both men are famous for their orchestral compositions and their future influence on other composers. They experienced a blend of horrible failures and great successes. Although they were from different musical time periods, they both made huge contributions to the world of music.

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

George Balanchine came to the United States in 1933, following an early career throughout Europe. He studied piano from a young age and graduated from the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, where he first studied dance from the age of nine. He then enrolled in Russia’s Conservatory of Music and studied piano and musical theory, as well as musical theory, composition, harmony and counterpoint. He graduated after three years in 1924. His extensive training made it possible for him to work with composers held in high regard, such as Igor Stravinsky.

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

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.

During his years in Moscow, Tchaikovsky was able to teach, compose, write, travel, and associate with other composers of the time. With one of those, Balakirev, a member of a group of Russian composers known as "the Five", he formed a close friendship, and from him he gained the idea for the fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet. But the relationship between him and the Five soured, and he even later parodied in one of ballets their use of certain folk melodies over and over again. Although Tchaikovsky was enjoying life in Moscow among his composer friends, he found himself constantly in periods of deep depressions and unhappiness. The largest contributor to his bouts of depression and sadness was his self-hatred and guilt that he had from carrying a heavy secret: Tchaikovsky was gay.

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.

From September of 1850 to May of 1859, Tchaikovsky attended the School of Jurisprudence. At this boarding school in St. Petersburg, he received an excellent education and further pursued his interest in music. During this time,

For many music is a way to communicate and express someone’s emotions. This is one of the many beauties people find in this art form. This researcher paper is about the life and work of Anton Bruckner, a great composer of the romantic period. The research paper will be focus from Bruckner’s early life to his last moments.

She was the widow of a wealthy railroad tycoon and a great admirer of his work. She provided him with a monthly allowance allowing him to focus solely on his work as a composer. The two never met in person but they did write each other and exchanged their views on many different subjects (Poznansky, “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky”). With this newfound freedom he was able to travel throughout Europe and America. This freedom allowed him to find the creativity he needed for his music (Wright,