The Music of Stravinsky
1988
First Published
4.25
Average Rating
324
Number of Pages
Stravinsky is one of the most original creative musicians of the 20th century. In a career spanning six decades he composed a glittering sequence of works of astonishing diversity, from the three, vividly colourful early Russian ballets, through the sharp wit and purity of his 'neo-classical' scores and the powerful spirituality of works like the Symphony of Psalms and the Mass, to the highly individual application of serialism in the late works. Here is a critical survey of Stravinsky's entire output in chronological order from an authoritative lucid guide. Its author, Stephen Walsh, has effortlessly assimilated the new literature on the composer, has examined many of Stravinsky's letters and sketches, and is able, in continuously questioning received views, to provide fresh insight into Stravinsky's works. He argues persuasively that Stravinsky needs to be seen as a whole, and that the works are more closely connected in style and method than is generally acknowledged, with changes in stylistic posture secondary in importance.
Avg Rating
4.25
Number of Ratings
12
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Author
Stephen Walsh
Author · 9 books
Professor Walsh was educated at Kingston Grammar School, St Paul’s School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. From 1963, he worked as a music journalist in London, at first freelance, writing for The Times, Daily Telegraph, and Financial Times, then from 1966 as deputy music critic of The Observer. He has broadcast regularly on musical topics for the BBC; a major feature of BBC Radio 3 programming in 1995 was his six two-hour broadcasts 'Conversations with Craft', in which he talked to Stravinsky's close associate, Robert Craft. Professor Walsh joined Cardiff University as a Senior Lecturer in Music in 1976, and now holds a personal chair in the School. He still contributes music criticism to The Independent and has since published a series of books and long papers on Bartok, Stravinsky, Kurtág and Panufnik, among others. The first volume of his major biography of Stravinsky—Stravinsky: A Creative Spring (Knopf, 1999) — won the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for the best music book published in the UK in the year 2000. Volume Two—Stravinsky: The Second Exile (also Knopf) — was published in 2006.
