Stravinsky and His World

(Paperback)

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Stravinsky and His World brings together an international roster of scholars to explore fresh perspectives on the life and music of Igor Stravinsky. Situating Stravinsky in new intellectual and musical contexts, the essays in this volume shed valuable light on one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. Contributors examine Stravinsky's interaction with Spanish and Latin American modernism, rethink the stylistic label "neoclassicism" with a section on the ideological conflict over his lesser-known opera buffa Mavra, and reassess his connections to his homeland, paying special attention to Stravinsky's visit to the Soviet Union in 1962. The essays also explore Stravinsky's musical and religious differences with Arthur Lourie, delve into Stravinsky's collaboration with Pyotr Suvchinsky and Roland-Manuel in the genesis of his groundbreaking Poetics of Music, and look at how the movement within stasis evident in the scores of Stravinsky's Orpheus and Oedipus Rex reflected the composer's fierce belief in fate. Rare documents--including Spanish and Mexican interviews, Russian letters, articles by Arthur Lourie, and rarely seen French and Russian texts--supplement the volume, bringing to life Stravinsky's rich intellectual milieu and intense personal relationships. The contributors are Tatiana Baranova, Leon Botstein, Jonathan Cross, Valerie Dufour, Gretchen Horlacher, Tamara Levitz, Klara Moricz, Leonora Saavedra, and Svetlana Savenko.

Reviews

"Framed by Jonathan Cross's stylish response to the theme 'Stravinsky in exile', and Leon Botstein's thoughts on the rewards of considering the composer alongside fellow Russian exile Vladimir Nabokov, the book seeks new angles on Stravinsky and Russia in the years after 1912, and on the role of Russians ... during Stravinsky's time in France... [L]evitz herself can be unsparing in drawing a detailed, warts-and-all portrait of the great composer."--Arnold Whittall, Musical Times

Author Bio

Tamara Levitz is professor of musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her books include "Teaching New Classicality" and "Modernist Mysteries: Persephone".