Stravinsky
Stravinsky
Stravinsky
Adamm W. Creel
FA 207 A
18 November 2018
Music has a way of capturing the minds and emotions of the audience. Classical
composers by use of nothing more than the sounds of instruments are able to capture and hold
the emotions of the audience, and even stir up those emotions into a volatile elixir. Modern
composers often add lyrics to get the emotional response they are looking for, and to root an idea
in the mind of the listener. At times the audience can become frenzied by the composer, and this
may lead to volatile reaction, leading to a ballet rioting harder than a rap concert. Igor Stravinsky
has composed several amazing works as one of the most influential of the modernist composers.
His masterful works sparked a riot in Paris that overshadow a riot in Detroit decades later, thus
Early on, music was integral in the life of Igor Stravinsky. In an interview in 1957
Stravinsky explained how starting at seven years old he had piano lessons, and they were very
dull, but he had to do them. “Oh I was eight years old… I had piano lessons from 7. But regular
piano lessons I took at 9. And it was a very, very dull, but I had to do it. And exercise were dull.
And everything seemed to me too large, too big” (Stravinsky). Being the son of a Russian opera
singer Igor was immersed in music from an early age. This immersion helped to grow his talent
for composition.
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Shortly before graduating from St Petersburg University, Stravinsky met with one of his
fellow law student’s father, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Talent can see talent, Rimsky-Korsakov
being impressed with the early compositions of Stravinsky agreed “to take Stravinsky as a
private pupil” (Taruskin). At the same time Rimsky-Korsakov advised Stravinsky “not to enter
the conservatory for conventional academic training” (Taruskin). On this advice and tutelage
Stravinsky was able to work on composition as well as graduate based on studies in philosophy
and law in 1905. The following year he married his cousin Catherine Nossenko.
accomplishments and publicized the works of his protégé. With Rimsky-Korsakov’s influence
“the Symphony in E-flat Major and The Faun and the Shepherdesswere played by the Court
Orchestra in 1908” which with his “weekly gatherings of Rimsky-Korsakov’s class” propelled
the fame of Stravinsky (Taruskin). After Rimsky-Korsakov’s death in 1908, Stravinsky was
asked by Serge Diaghilev to create some arrangements for his ballets in Paris, France. These
compositions were well enough received to lead to want more, and not just small parts for
shorter ballets. Diaghilev commissioned “the musical score for a new full-length ballet on the
subject of the Firebird” (Taruskin) in 1910. This would be a key point in Stravinsky’s career as a
composer. With the Successes of Firebird and Petrushka Stravinsky “had conceived the idea of
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, California, some 75 years after Stravinsky finished the work
on his symphonic ritual, a young man named O’Shea Jackson, better known as Ice Cube (Kautz),
published a song that would lead to his own pivotal moment in music infamy. Debuting on the
1988 album Straight Outta Compton the song “F__ Tha Police” shocked the music community
and caused outrage in law enforcement communities. This all came to a head in 1989 when on
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June 19 in Detroit Michigan, Ice Cube’s group N.W.A. against the wishes of the Detroit Police
preformed “F___ Tha Police” on stage. The police “ended up taking out the amplifiers while the
song was being played. Members of the audience didn't take that well, and some of them began
rioting outside of the venue. A total of 18 people—nine adults and nine juveniles—were arrested
for misdemeanor that night” (Berry). This was just one example in a line of music leading to riot,
Back in 1913 having finished the Great Sacrifice, though now titled Le Sacre su
printemps or The Rite of Spring, composed by Stravinsky and choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky
was set to unveil. “The first performance of The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs
Élysées on May 29, 1913, provoked one of the more famous first-night riots in the history of
musical theatre. Stirred by Nijinsky’s unusual and suggestive choreography and Stravinsky’s
creative and daring music, the audience cheered, protested, and argued among themselves during
the performance, creating such a clamour that the dancers could not hear the orchestra”
(Taruskin). There were by “one account … about 40 people were arrested” (Hewett). It was not
just the dance that was shocking “Stravinsky himself said that when he first played the beginning
of the Rite, with its dissonant chords and pulsating rhythm, to Serge Diaghilev, the founder of
the Ballets Russes, Diaghilev asked him a "very offending" question: "Will it last a very long
time this way?" (Stravinsky replied: "To the end, my dear.")” (Hewett).
Not all of Stravinsky’s compositions ended in a riot. The primer of Petrushka a season
before The Rite of Spring “was not such a forbidding score, by any means” (Hewett). Nor was
The Rite of Spring premier the last time one of Stravinsky’s compositions played without some
While starting as a ballet in Paris, Petrushka was recently performed by the Oregon
Symphony. However, the symphony goers got more than they bargained for in the adaptation by
conductor Carlos Kalmar. Not just a feast for the ears, the puppeteers and even orchestra
provided a wonderous feast for the eyes. This symphony told a wonderful tale of hopelessness,
love and even death. All while the audience was bombarded with amazing visuals of the titular
character’s plight throughout the symphony, the accelerando of the fight leading to the sad, sad
death of Petrushka. The percussion section was able to fully ham it up as they portraid various
carnival goers and acts throughout the performance. Rather than remaining in the classic dress
that marked the first part of the evenings symphony, the orchestra donned colorful scarves.
Rather than sit and play stoically they at times rose and danced in the carnival manner that was
It was fun to see the orchestra rise and fall like the tides, starting off with a smaller
arrangement for Joseph Hayden’s Symphony No. 103 in E-Flat major, “Drumroll” and gaining
members as needed for William Walton’s Johannesburg Festival Overture. The conductor
disappeared post intermission for the performance of Arthur Honegger’s Pastorale d’ete’
replaced by Norman Huynh, only to once again swap out so that Kalmar could bring to life the
climax of the evening. Keeping with the carnival theme that spawned from Petrushka all of the
selections for the orchestra flowed magnificently for the night at the symphony that not only was
a pleasure to hear, but a pleasure to observe. Happily there was no riot afterwards. Yet having
listened to The Rite of Spring (Orchestra) I don’t see what all the fuss was about.
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Works Cited
Berry, Peter A. TODAY IN HIP-HOP: N.W.A ARRESTED IN DETROIT FOR PERFORMING “F*!K THA POLICE”.
19 June 2018. Internet Article. 18 November 2018.
<http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2018/06/today-in-hip-hop-n-w-a-arrested-fuck-tha-police/>.
Hewett, Ivan. Did The Rite of Spring really spark a riot? 29 May 2013. Internet Article. 18 November
2018. <https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22691267>.
Kautz, Justin. Ice Cube. 11 June 2018. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Internet Article. 18 November 2018.
<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ice-Cube>.
Orchestra, New York Philharmonic. "The Rite of Spring." cond. Leonard Bernstein. By Igor Stravinsky.
1958. YouTube. 18 November 2018. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP42C-4zL3w>.
Stravinsky, Igor. "A Conversation with Igor Stravinsky" with Robert Craft. The Wisdom Series. NBC. 17
November 1957. YouTube. 18 November 2018.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJIXobO94Jo&t=507s>.
Taruskin, Richard and White, Eric Walter. Igor Stravinsky. 12 October 2018. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
Internet Article. 18 November 2018. <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Igor-Stravinsky>.