Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinskywas a Russian-French-American composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth17 June 1882
CityLomonosov, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
building church knew music praises
The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.
bar felt music understood
I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I've felt it
elements chance fluctuation
What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.
impulse music-is succession
All music is nothing more than a succession of impulses that converge towards a definite point of repose.
greatness masterpiece
Nothing is likely about masterpieces, least of all whether there will be any.
music years challenges
The performance of performance has developed to such an extent in recent years that it challenges the music itself and will soon threaten it with relegation.
years twenties today
One's belief that one is sincere is not so dangerous as one's conviction that one is right. We all feel we are right; but we felt the same way twenty years ago and today we know we weren't always right.
freedom precision constraints
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one
should-have talent born
I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.
art judging criticism
It is my conviction that the public always shows itself more honest in its spontaneity than do those who officially set themselves up as judges of works of art.
inspirational life wisdom
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.
should-have taste pardon
An audience is an abstraction; it has no taste. It must depend on the only person who has (pardon, should have), the conductor.
dream criticism goya
I had another dream the other day about music critics. They were small and rodent-like with padlocked ears, as if they had stepped out of a painting by Goya.
ducks enough
Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.