Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known for being one of the most important and influential figures in twentieth-century classical music. His unique approach to rhythm, instrumentation, and tonality made him a pivotal figure in modernist music.[1][2][3][4]
Stravinsky studied composition under composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from 1902 to 1908, Stravinsky's Feu d'artifice being his last piece composed under Rimsky-Korsakov.[5][6] During this time, Stravinsky completed his first full composition, the Symphony in E-flat major, catalogued Op. 1.[7] Attending the premiere of Stravinsky's Scherzo fantastique and Feu d'artifice in 1909 was the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, owner of the Ballets Russes ballet company. Diaghilev was impressed enough that he commissioned Stravinsky to write some arrangements for the 1909 ballet season.[8] In the following years, Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to write three ballets: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913).[9] These ballets remain Stravinsky's most famous works today.[10][11][12][13]
Stravinsky's music is typically divided into three style periods: the Russian period (c. 1907–1919), the neoclassical period (c. 1920–1954), and the serial period (1954–1968). Stravinsky's Russian period is characterized by the use of Russian folk tunes and the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, and Taneyev.[14][15] His neoclassical period reflected back to the techniques and themes of the Classical period, like his use of the sonata form in the first movement of his Octet (1923) and the Greek mythological themes in Apollo (1928), Perséphone (1933), and Orpheus (1947).[16][17] His serial period began with using Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique dodecaphony in Agon (1954–57), later experimenting with non-twelve-tone techniques in his Cantata (1952) and Septet (1953).[18]