This course offers a biographical and musical study of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), whose creative longevity, brilliance across a range of styles, and near-universal fame is nearly unrivaled among 20th-century artists.
Stravinsky’s career is a dizzying progression across the miles and the decades from fin de siècle Czarist Russia to Southern California in the 1960s. It features styles ranging from nationalism and impressionism to fauvism and neoclassicism.
These lectures give a sense of the kaleidoscopic changes in musical expression that took place during the first 70 years of the 20th century and offer excerpts from more than a dozen of Stravinsky’s symphonies, ballets, concertos, and other works, including The Rite of Spring, one of the 20th century’s most important works.