Stravinsky, Igor Feodorovich

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Stravinsky, Igor Feodorovich (1882–1971) Russian composer who revolutionized 20th-century music. Stravinsky studied (1907–08) with Rimsky-Korsakov. His early ballets, The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911), were commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes. The première of the ballet The Rite of Spring (1913) caused a riot because of its dissonance and unfamiliar rhythms. Stravinsky turned to Russian folk themes for The Wedding (1923) and neo-classicism in Pulcinella (1920). In 1939, he moved to the USA, collaborating with George Balanchine on the abstract ballet Agon (1957). After composing The Rake's Progress (1951), Stravinsky experimented with serial music and twelve-tone music.

http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/twen/stravinsky.htm

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