Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions, Volume One: A Biography of the Works Through MavraThis book undoes 50 years of mythmaking about Stravinsky's life in music. During his spectacular career, Igor Stravinsky underplayed his Russian past in favor of a European cosmopolitanism. Richard Taruskin has refused to take the composer at his word. In this long-awaited study, he defines Stravinsky's relationship to the musical and artistic traditions of his native land and gives us a dramatically new picture of one of the major figures in the history of music. Taruskin draws directly on newly accessible archives and on a wealth of Russian documents. In Volume One, he sets the historical scene: the St. Petersburg musical press, the arts journals, and the writings of anthropologists, folklorists, philosophers, and poets. Volume Two addresses the masterpieces of Stravinsky's early maturityÑPetrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Les Noces. Taruskin investigates the composer's collaborations with Diaghilev to illuminate the relationship between folklore and modernity. He elucidates the Silver Age ideal of "neonationalism"Ñthe professional appropriation of motifs and style characteristics from folk artÑand how Stravinsky realized this ideal in his music. Taruskin demonstrates how Stravinsky achieved his modernist technique by combining what was most characteristically Russian in his musical training with stylistic elements abstracted from Russian folklore. The stylistic synthesis thus achieved formed Stravinsky as a composer for life, whatever the aesthetic allegiances he later professed. Written with Taruskin's characteristic mixture of in-depth research and stylistic verve, this book will be mandatory reading for all those seriously interested in the life and work of Stravinsky. |
Contents
Stravinsky and the Traditions I | 21 |
Bibliography 1683 | 266 |
Rightists of the Left | 423 |
Trajectories | 487 |
Myths for Export Firebird | 555 |
Punch into Pierrot Petrushka | 661 |
New Times New Birds New Birds New Songs | 779 |
Contents v | 796 |
Index 1719 | 826 |
PROGRESSIVE ABSTRACTION | 841 |
The Great Fusion The Rite of Spring | 849 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alexander Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov artistic Balakirev ballet Belyayev Belyayevets Benois Benois's Borodin Chaikovsky Cherepnin chord chromatic circle composition concert Conservatory dance Diaghilev diatonic early esthetic EXAMPLE F-sharp Faun Firebird Fokine folklore French Fyodor Fyodor Stravinsky Glazunov Glinka Gnesin harmony Ibid Igor Stravinsky iskusstva Kashchey Korsakov kuchkist later Leningrad letter Lyadov Mamontov Mariyinsky maslenitsa melody memoirs minor thirds Mir iskusstva Moscow movement musicians Musorgsky Musorgsky's Muzika N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov neonationalist Nikolai octatonic scale opera orchestral original Paris passage Peredvizhniki performance Petersburg Petrushka Petrushka chord piano piece played première published pupil quoted Rimsky Rimsky's Rite of Spring Robert Craft role Russes Russian art Russian composers Russian music Russian School Russkaya Sadko scale scene Scherzo Scherzo fantastique score Scriabin Siloti Snegurochka Sonata song Soviet Stasov Steinberg Stravin style Symphony in E-flat tableau talent Theater theme tion tonal tone tonic triads tritone Ustilug Vospominaniya whole-tone wrote Yastrebtsev