Ballet Composer Profile: Igor Stravinsky | Part 1
“I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.”
Name: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky
Birth: 17th June, 1882, Oranienbaum, Gulf of Finland (West of St Petersburg, Russia)
Death: 6th April, 1971, New York City, U.S.A.
Musical Study:
There is no doubt that Stravinsky came from a well connected and musical background. On one side, his mother, Anna, was the daughter of a ‘high-ranking official’ in the Kiev Ministry of Estates., and on the other side, his father, Fyodor, had built a successful career for himself as a bass opera singer in both the Kiev Opera (Ukraine), and the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. Therefore, there were certainly musical and theatrical influences swirling around their household as Stravinsky and his three brothers grew up.
Although Stravinsky’s introduction to music tuition started fairly young, his pathway towards becoming a composer wasn’t all that straightforward. By the age of nine he was taking regular piano lessons, soon accompanied by additional tutoring in composing and music theory. And at the age of eight, he had been taken to see a performance of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre, which was the spark that instigated his lifelong interest in ballet. Although, throughout his teenage years, Stravinsky still continued to develop his music skills, particularly pianistically, he didn’t receive too much encouragement to go onto study as a professional. In fact, his parents expected him to study law, and so in 1901, he was enrolled as a student of criminal law and legal philosophy at the University of St. Petersburg. However, it was clear that his heart wasn’t in it, as he admitted later on that his attendance was pretty poor throughout the four years of training.
Nevertheless, it was through studying law that he met Vladimir, a fellow law student and son of the leading Russian composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, then a professor at the Conservatory of Music in St. Petersburg. Through Vladimir, Stravinsky was able to meet Rimsky-Korsakov, who although advised him against attending the conservatory, gave him private music theory lessons instead.
There were a couple of large events that occurred within Stravinsky’s life, within these years, that propelled Stravinsky to pursue music more seriously. The first being his fathers death from cancer in 1902, and the second was the tragic massacre that occurred on Bloody Sunday in 1905, that forced his university to close for two month, preventing Stravinsky to sit his final law exams. As a result, in 1906, Stravinsky was received a half-course diploma, thus deciding to concentrate on music going forward. Fortunately, as of 1905, he had been studying with Rimsky-Korsakov twice a week, lessons that continued until Rimsky-Korsakov’s death in 1908. During this period of tuition, Stravinsky completed his first composition: The Symphony in E-flat (Op.1).
In February, 1909, two of Stravinsky’s pieces- Scherzo Fantastique (Op.3) & Fey d’Artifice (Op.4)- were performed in a concert in St. Petersburg. Fortuitously, in the audience was no other than Sergei Diaghilev, Russian impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes. This marked a huge turning point in Stravinsky’s career as a composer, as Diaghilev was greatly enthused by Stravinsky’s, work and was wanting to commission new music for a new ballet titled The Firebird…
Ballet Scores:
The Firebird (1910)
It is clear that Stravinsky was quite the unknown composer at the time of his commission to compose The Firebird. But, what’s more, is that The Firebird was also Diaghilev’s first ‘ballet proper’; the first ballet in which the music was specially commissioned, encouraging a close collaboration between choreographer, composer, and designer. Therefore, in many ways, it was a new and somewhat risky collaboration between two men who were both diving into fairly unknown waters as far as their own experiences were concerned, yet, the result was a collaborative relationship that spanned 19 years.
The scenario for The Firebird, also known as the L’Oiseau de Feu, was written by both Michel Fokine and Alexandre Benois, inspired by the Russian fairytale by the same name. The music for The Firebird was composed by Stravinsky between 1909 and 1910, for the 1910 Paris season. Both Stravinsky and the choreographer, Michel Fokine, worked in close co-operation, with Stravinsky later commenting that they had “studied the libretto together, episode by episode, until [he] knew the exact measurements required of the music." It became clear that Stravinsky had much more to say about the creation of the ballet than, likely, any of the composers that preceded him. He had a deeper understanding of the world of ballet and was able to grasp the requirements of ballet music; both to inspire movement and of course, tell a story.
It was on the 25th June, 1910, that the ballet received its premiere, performed by the Ballets Russes at the Opéra de Paris, in Paris. It was an instant success, causing Stravinsky to go from being an unknown composer to being admired internationally, almost overnight. In fact, one of the most interesting things about Stravinsky’s ballet music, including that of The Firebird, is that although it was created for the stage, it also can be enjoyed in the concert hall without the theatrics to support it. Most ballet music, even the famous scores, lose too much when performed without the dancing, but Stravinsky’s scores seem to work both ways. Therefore, in the case of The Firebird, while it came to have an established place in the repertory of ballet music, it also received equal if not greater recognition as an orchestral concert work.
Petrushka (1911)
Petrushka very much seems to be the second collaboration between many of the same people involved in the creation of The Firebird, except this time it was produced in preparation for the 1911 Paris season. The choreography was by Michel Fokine, the designs were by Alexandre Benois, the music was, of course, by Stravinsky, and the libretto was a collaboration between Stravinsky, Benois, and Diaghilev. It was premiered by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes on the 13th June 1911 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, famously with Vaslav Nijinsky performing the title role.
Like The Firebird, Petrushka was a huge success, becoming the most popular of all the Ballets Russes productions. In many ways, it did become the ‘favourite’ Stravinsky Ballet for many people, being often cited as a tremendous masterpiece. Yet, because of the controversial and somewhat revolutionary The Rite of Spring, in the long run, Petrushka was perhaps surpassed by The Rite of Spring as far as fame was concerned.
As far as the libretto, is concerned, it was actually Stravinsky who was the ‘originator’. While preparing his score for The Rite of Spring, he had written two short pieces- Russian Dance & Petrushka’s Cry. (In Russia, Petrushka is a puppet very much like Punch from the Punch and Judy shows long famous in England.) Although Stravinsky’s initial ambitions for these short pieces had been for the concert hall rather than the ballet theatre, after playing them to Diaghilev and receiving an enthusiastic response, it was decided that they would make ideal material for a ballet.
Now, Petrushka, like Punch, was quite a braggart and a bully, beating his wife and committing nefarious crimes, only to meet a terrible downfall, much to the delight of the children spectators. However, on hearing Stravinsky’s piece, Petrushka’s Cry, Benois had the idea to incorporate a human element into Petrushka, transforming him into a puppet with a soul sewn into him, causing him to feel emotions unknown to the two other puppet characters- The Ballerina and The Moor.
Soon, Michel Fokine was drafted in as choreographer, and although he had already collaborated with Stravinsky on The Firebird, he was initially baffled by some of the bizarre rhythms used in the Petrushka score. Nevertheless, he soon became accustomed to them, and worked to match the spirit of the music with new forms of dance. Aside from unusual rhythms, it seems that Stravinsky’s use of bitonality (a combination of C major and F# major triads played simultaneously), has also become a distinguished trait of the score and characterisation of Petrushka himself.
All in all, undeniably, Petrushka is a masterpiece that unites music, dance, and design together to create one magnificent whole, in which all is equal in calibre as well as necessity. Even today, many ballet companies stick to the original choreography and design, which certainly cannot be said for many other ballets from the past, perhaps proving the level of ‘perfection’ they achieved right off the bat.
For me, this will always be my most favourite ballet and the one that has certainly inspired be the most, and likely always will.
“Although more than thirty years have elapsed since Petrushka was first performed, its position as one of the greatest ballets remains unassailed. Its perfect fusion of music, choreography, and décor and its theme—the timeless tragedy of the human spirit—unite to make its appeal universal.”
