Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso

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Igor Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia and lived from June 1882 to April 1971. His father was the leading bass singer at the Imperial Opera and his mother was a pianist. Although his parents wanted him to stray away from their path and study law, Stravinsky studied music at the University of St. Petersburg. His fame began in 1909 when Serge Diaghilev asked him to write a score for The Firebird for the Paris-based Ballet Russes. The next year he wrote the ballet, Petrushka. His next piece, The Rite of Spring, almost created a riot when first premiered, but a year later, when presented, it was considered to be a masterpiece. In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Igor Stravinsky and his family moved to Switzerland where he wrote Neoclassical works. Some of his best works from this time in Switzerland are Fox and Wedding. He later moved to France in 1920 where he wrote the comic opera, Mavra. During the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Stravinsky moved to Los Angles, California and he later became an American citizen.
Igor Stravinsky did not have one specific style of music he wrote throughout his career. Although he is best known for his revitalization of rhythm on European art music. His music reflected the currents times in the twentieth century. Post-Impressionism was seen in The Firebird, primitivism in The Rite of Spring, to controlled classicism, and serialism in his last pieces. His early pieces, The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, reflect Russia, where he lived at the time and he wrote The Soldier’s Tale during the First World War.
Igor Stravinsky wrote his most famous piece, The Rite of Spring, in 1913. It is said to have revolutionized music by freeing Western music from traditi...

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...vinsky and Pablo Picasso are both examples of “modernism” in twentieth and twenty-first century art. Stravinsky uses polyrhythms, polytonality, polyphony, changing meter, changing colors, and dissonance. He also began using the twelve-tone style later in his life; this is shown in his works, Agon and Threni: Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. Picasso created Cubism, which was one of the major movements in the twentieth century. His work was also the influence for Surrealism, another major movement in the twentieth century.

Bibliography
"Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2013. .
"Pablo Picasso Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2013. .

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