Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky (June 17, 1882 April 6, 1971) was a Russian-French-American composer of modern classical music. He composed in the primitivist, neo-classical and serialist styles, but he is best known for two works from his earlier, Russian period: Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) and L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird). For some, these daring and innovative ballets practically reinvented the genre. Stravinsky also wrote in a broad spectrum of ensemble combinations and classical forms. His oeuvre included everything from symphonies to piano miniatures.

9 Quotes

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading.

— Igor Stravinsky

What force is more potent than love?

— Igor Stravinsky

Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?

— Igor Stravinsky

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

— Igor Stravinsky

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead.

— Igor Stravinsky

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.

— Igor Stravinsky

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

— Igor Stravinsky

I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.

— Igor Stravinsky

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

— Igor Stravinsky