What Makes Stravinsky's Music Revolutionary?

A deep look into Stravinsky's life, his major works, and his major musical periods, including his "Russian period", experiments with Musical Primitivism, his Neoclassical period, and his Serialist period, and the impat he made on music.
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Written and Narrated by Oscar Osicki
Video Edited by Eddie Muniz
0:00 - Introduction
0:43 - Early Life and First Major Works
2:44 - The Firebird
4:11 - Petrushka
5:16 - The Rite of Spring
6:11 - The Russian Period and Primitivism
9:05 - Les Noces
10:15 - WW1, The Russian Revolution, Stravinsky Goes to USA
11:05 - New Creative Alliances
12:24 - The Neoclassical Period
15:43 - Stravinsky and Serialism
17:56 - Stravinsky's Legacy

[@juanbatista5302]

Every time I re-visit it The Rite of Spring amazes me how new that 110 years old piece sounds.

[@robbes7rh]

That was as rich a tribute to Stravinsky in under 20 minutes as there is ever likely to be. You really drove home the vibrancy and color of his music particularly as it pertained to ballet. It serves as a reminder to many of us who only know these as concert pieces, that they are ballets that tell stories with sensual dancing and elaborate visual stagings. What a charmed life he lead as a composer who impacted the world of classical music in the 20th century like no other, and received the recognition and accolades he so well deserved. There is so much inspiration to be had here.

[@michaelnoble8098]

I admire Stravinsky’s trajectory! “Inside The Score” has captured and revealed this extraordinary life of creative genius, beauty, and chaotic energy. I’m not ashamed to say I cried as Stravinsky became pure light and jumped to light speed in the last few seconds! We’ll done, Oscar and crew.

[@pelodelperro]

Thank you. Love Stravinsky since I first heard his music. My favorite piece of his is Oedipus Rex.

[@emanuelebabici]

Little note: Sergej Diaghilev wasn't a choreographer, he was the producer and director of "Les ballets russes". He wasn't even a dancer, but he has worked with arts for his whole life, mainly as a producer. The Firebird and Petrushka were choreographed by Michel Fokine, and other ballets like Rite of Spring were choreographed by Nijinsky himself.

[@GojiGuru]

Thank you for introducing me to the idea of musical “primitivism”. That’s a great word for so much music that I enjoy. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was the direct influence on the great Japanese composer Akira Ifukube. Would love if you did a video essay on Ifukube’s music. Though best known in the West for his film scores, his classical/concert repertoire is quite impressive, and much of his music I think would count as primitivism, particularly a favorite of his-Sinfonia Tapkaara-which is his tribute to the traditional dance music of the native Ainu people he grew up among.

[@davidaviles9764]

Wow perfectly timed! I'm a teacher and was gonna be talking to my students about Stravinsky soon. Thanks!

[@MANGOES1ARE1AWESOME1]

New Inside the Score video! Lets gooooooooooooo 🎶 🎶 🎶

[@SussyDucky]

I'm very thankful for this video. I enjoyed every second of it and learned a lot! Thanks!

[@anled.composition]

Great video, thanks for sharing !

[@Imakemusicandstuff333]

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE YOUR ANALYSIS AND VIDEOS

[@MutantsInDisguise]

His Firebird is my favourite ballet!

[@godzilla964]

We probably wouldn't have metal without Stravinsky.

[@TenderVittles]

I’ve been saying this for twenty years and you’re the first person I’ve seen say it other than myself. You get it.

[@juangames3092]

Right

[@CarlosASainzCaccia]

Him and Shostakovich.

[@Hastenforthedawm]

​@@TenderVittles x to doubt. It's a common thing to hear from metalheads.

[@Hastenforthedawm]

If you want real heavy though, try Xenakis

[@Tylervrooman]

Great video!! Stravinsky has been a huge influence on me and many others!

[@andreabachioni8048]

what an amazing video, congrats!!

[@davidwright8432]

Many thanks! Now I have a more complete idea of Stravinsky's work and development. Wonderful musical examples, using great audio. And a sympathetic examination of Stravinsky's life and work.

[@Bguitarney]

Hey just letting you know these videos on composers put together better than any other on classical music subjects. Much more entertaining which is more important than just the info alone. Thanks

[@antarae]

Thank you for this video!! (and thanks for including Les noces, which is sadly underrated)

[@debarjo]

The narration and this presentation has transformed the subject! Scary, provocative!!!

[@Ylva-xv4fz]

I love his elegie for solo viola. It's a true rendition of grief!

[@kenmoore137]

Very interesting presentation about one of my favorite composers. Btw, Handel was not a renaissance composer.

[@underBight]

Yeah, Handel as “renaissance” was an odd statement in otherwise well stated little essay.

[@hlodovikaGrabn]

I love the passion you describe these works and composers with. Your explanations really help understand and appreciate even more this music that I love, but am unable to read. Thank you so much!!

[@rubyzlan]

About to see the Orlando Phil playing Stravinsky‘s Rite of Spring this Saturday. Your video came out at the perfect time!

[@kevintmusic]

Really good documentary; great explanations of techniques for composers! Thanks

[@EpreTroll]

My favourite piece is the ending of the Psalm Symphony

[@giampierogirolamo7134]

Greatly done❤

[@addictfull1999]

Thank you, I enjoyed watching ❤

[@betamax6080]

ah yes! my favourite composer!

[@helbabuska]

excellent taste

[@Rosie-chen]

Thank you as always！

[@ericleiter6179]

This was a great survey of the master...certainly a titan of the 20th century. I thought you gave some great examples from each period of his amazing career, a concise overview for beginners...one note though, did you say Handel was from the Renaissance??? You meant to say Baroque right???

[@federicoarrighi5459]

I love Stravinsky! Thank you for giving us this content!

[@hannahmichaels9992]

another unclockable video excellent thank you!

[@shadynagy5462]

Beautiful.. thank you.. shukran

[@BrendaBoykin-qz5dj]

Thank you,ITS. Marvelous!!!⭐🌹⭐

[@pslogge]

Accurate and concise. Thank you.

[@bigfakenetwork]

Excellent!

[@hypnotyzzer]

Great video, great work. I was wondering, have you planned one for Jean Sibelius? I would be so happy to watch it... And yes, its a suggestion! 🙏

[@mel_163]

YES YES MY MAN STRAVINSKY I was waiting for this video

[@JBorda]

Amazing biography. To me musical genius of the s XX. Hearing The Rite live is a trascendental experience!

[@paddington249]

Love this video! May I suggest that you should probably put a d'esser on your voiceover, as some parts can be very piercing with plosives lots of p and s sounds! other than that though, great video very informative and exciting

[@rogerhardy6306]

I'm glad you picked Les Noces as well as the more famous pieces. For me, it is as original as The Rite! Thanks!

[@samyakhaled4629]

I can't thank you enough for introducing me to Les Noces. My life hasn't been the same ever since.

[@lbozo996]

Could you please do a video on Wagner! I love his music, and I would love a video that dives deeper into his life and how he was influenced musically! He's truly composed some of the most complex yet beautiful music that I've listened to.

[@andresmaynez3060]

Hey @insidethescore I just came from watching your videos about Mozart. Lovely videos. You should make a video about Salieri to judge if he was truly mediocre like the movie Amadeus says or if he was a genius

[@ASclassical]

Fantastic video and a great tribute to the inmortal Igor Stravinsky

[@alisonkasperian5117]

I did not know I shared my birthday with Stravinsky 😮. This is a good video tho, very educational :)

[@jeffrogers210]

My second favorite piece of Stravinsky's, after The Rite of Spring, is his Octet for Wind Instruments, from early in his classical period.

[@thomasdequincey5811]

'Petrushka', 'The Firebird' and 'The Rite Of Spring' are my absolute favourites. Just magical stuff. P.S. 'Les Noces' is revolutionary in its own way too, it's just not as good as the other three I mentioned.

[@signodeinterrogacion8361]

I'd have to disagree: Les Noces is my favourite piece of his. It's shorter than any other of his ballets but incredibly unique and well crafted, like a jewel. To me it serves as a development on the style pioneered by the Rite of Spring, with a ensamble more fine tuned to the percussive nature of his Russian period, but also an expansion on it's emotional pallete, getting more restrained percussive passages that nevertheless maintain the wild energy of the Rite and some genuinely warm elements. And man, that ending is just devine. Apparently the man himself also found Les Noces to be his best work, it certainly took him the longest.

[@Overlycomplicatedswede]

The firebird music and ballet are incredible and beautiful.

[@happyMOO5]

stravinsky will always be my favorite composer

[@cjjones258]

A man who was ahead of his time musically

[@51bpm]

Literally ... my hero!

[@drbassface]

Listen to his Dumbarton Oaks Concerto! Love it. He goes Baroque a bit. Memorable melodies with Counterpoint. The Knights have a great recording. It’s on KZbin.

[@jameslabs1]

Thanks

[@angowong1407]

Would you make some guides on Mahler 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 just like those on brahms? This actually give people the passion to listen to the whole piece

[@PhantomdeOpera-qb2ok]

For some strange reason I associate Stravy with Freddie Mercury. A few days ago I was listening to the "March of the Black Queen" and immediately thereafter I had to listen to The Rite of Spring. Now I can't stop.

[@matyasajtai9124]

Next topic maybe Bartók?

[@kimchin9740]

7:30 should Eb dominant 7th instead?

[@oliverwakila]

Adore this video!! Does anyone know the name of the music at 10:15?

[@TheMuni777]

That would be from the Rite of Spring, specifically the "Spring Rounds" section. The music then transitions to the "Coachmen and Grooms Dance" from Petrushka.

[@zushiistek2444]

I want to hear your opinion about Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky

[@eriksatieofficiel]

Igor was my friend

[@briseidemorales3387]

Gracias

[@chicolofi]

IMO the greatest of all music creators.

[@theopaopa1]

11:59 ! 🤩🙏

[@Ceremolligence]

Why listen to Stravinsky? Because he's the God of Harmony 🎉❤

[@Cancoillotteman]

There are so many sounds from the rites of Spring which clearly inspired the Jurassic Park BO

[@TheMusterion76]

You missed to talk about the Histoire du Soldat

[@IakobusAtreides]

The greatest of all time.

[@sciagurrato1831]

Regrettably you didn’t mention Apollo [Musagète] which is a unique masterpiece unlike any others of Stravinsky.

[@JohannSebastian101]

You should do a Why listen to Chopin?

[@SeattleSkippy]

Just adding to the earlier comment and someone really needs to fact check these things. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the Ballet Russes knows that Diaghilev was a great impresario (equivalent to a modern-day producer) but that he didn't contribute artistically to the works, even though he also had studied privately with Rimsky-Korsakov. Not to discount his contribution in the least. He brought together so many great artistic talents to work together from composers like Stravinsky and Ravel with choreographers like Fokine and Nijinsky to artists such as Picasso and Kandinsky and even designers like Coco Channel herself.

[@magdalenaj.1390]

Renaissance work by Handel or the likes?

[@mdcatdad]

His works before he left Russia are wonderful, but his only great work after he emigrated was the Symphony of Psalms (although there are a few good moments in the Symphony in Three Movements).

[@madrigal1956]

Les Noces is a great work! (among others)

[@bobblues1158]

If one is smart, one can use serialism as a starting place with rules or randomly constructed forms. After so doing, adjust the resulting composition to ones´ own aesthetic and discard the self imposed form. Make some rules and then break the rules.

[@diegeigergarnele7975]

I know for sure he would have hated you calling him a rebel. It’s funny you say he is revolutionary when in his lessons at Harvard (that you quoted but probably not read) he sarcastically answered that the revolution is the movement of an object coming back to it’s initial position

[@yanayrton]

This is in all KZbin plataform a true excellence channel to those that realy love and know Music. Bravo and deep congratulations!You shinnes. And I speak as a mature classical composer with a high intelligence degree I would like your analisys concerning my composition "Re edited What if YanAyrton had a Bösendorfer Imperial?|’The stoicTrip of the elephants!{Stomping hardᴴᴰ" It is unique and so is its artistic purpose.just discover it and listen to it carefully. Thanking in advance, Sincerely, ― Yan Ayrton a young composer from XXI century Ano Dommini (Note the complex sequences of compasses that I used the extremely fast QUADRI-FUSE notes (twice faster than the semi-fuse ones. The QUADRI-FUSE special note tempo was created by me to the history of human Music and perhaps, only the exceptional gifted Franz Liszt did know how to use them with mastery and domminium ) YAN AYRTON

[@chriscarpenter1920]

Wait, Handel was Renaissance?

[@foreignparticle1320]

Nope.

[@RichardASalisbury1]

A cavil: Handel wasn't a Renaissance composer, he was late Baroque.

[@andresvasquez5411]

You should talk about Khachaturian 👀

[@patrickmaline4258]

glowing words of praise communicate little but your enthusiasm, which is infectious. if you want to learn how to communicate about music on another level, i recommend watching adam neely. not sure about the spelling. his technical breakdown of a piece or a style cuts through the ambiguity of subjective adjectives in a way i can really understand. he is well grounded in history, so this subject would be right up his alley. not affiliated. ☮️

[@tarasubramaniam6191]

Soldier's Tale? Polka fir Elephants...

[@donaldwhittaker7987]

He helped create prog rock also

[@dtyerisd]

I love Stravinsky and much of his beautiful music, but I agree with Adorno, he is "the restoration" the real progress is Schoenberg.

[@stinhuffine4422]

Why all his music sounds like Star Wars soundtrack?

[@madrigal1956]

1) it doesn't, most of time 2) when it does, it's because almost all film composers, including John Williams, pilfered Stravinsky (and aknowledged it) ; not to diminish the quality of said film music!

[@josephromance3908]

Love Stravinsky...almost as revolutionary as Charles Ives.

[@NicholasOngRT]

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's son was 'Andrei' and not 'Vladimir'.

[@thomasjamison2050]

His wonderful sense of beautiful melody? No?????

[@steinklotz69]

I like E

[@user-dc7dr9sp8m]

Revolutionery music are the Dimitry Shostakovish and not Stravinsky. Stravinsky has some modern classical music as Rite of Spring but the rest are mostly just classical.

[@Al.Kour.00]

It's sad that such a great composer was straving.

[@Alix777.]

Burgericans are fascinated by Stravinsky because he lived in Burgerica for a time. He's not even played in Europe so much anymore. That's a good thing.

[@johntiscornia1241]

Did Igor Stravinsky have adhd? I mean, his creativity had to have come from somewhere right?

[@dinitroacetylen]

So, academically speaking, heavy metal is just musical serial primitivism with electric guitars?

[@Fanfanbalibar]

WHY DO YOU DISPLAY A RACHMANINOFF PICTURE IN AN ARTICLE ABOUT STRAVINSKY????????????

[@evanmcdonnal]

These classifications of 'era' are complete nonsense, regardless of whether or not they're broadly accepted. Style isn't associated with time, era is. The definition is literally "a long and distinct period of history with a particular feature or characteristic." - You classified works from say 1920 into an era with one from 1951 and then at the same time interjected works from another 'era' within it like Les Noces from 1923. These works are of different styles but not of different eras or phases. They are interweaved and therefor cannot be different eras. An era is mutually exclusive to other era's, they cannot overlap.

[@FantadiRienzo]

I'm sorry, but sometimes "reinventions" don't improve, but ruin.

[@Keytaster]

Let's be honest about him and his legacy: Petrushka and Firebird were great and important works, Rite of Spring was groundbreaking, fantastic and all the adjectives one can think about. No praise could be higher. The rest of his career was negligible and unimportant. In all ways. Forever. Nobody will ever care about anything other than the three early ballets.

[@thanasis_milios]

Speak for yourself. Les Noces, Oedipus Rex, Orpheus, Symphony of Psalms, Soldiers Tale ect. are mostly greater than the 3 ballets (maybe except the Rite).

[@madrigal1956]

How on earth can you dismiss Les Noces, L'Histoire du Soldat, the Symphony of Psalms, Requiem Canticles, to mention just four?

[@BennoWitter]

Nope, still hate Stravinsky. I totally agree with Alma Deutscher. (Classical) music needs beautiful melodies more than it needs to be complex and complicated. And I really despise people that jerk off to classical music, just because it is super complex and totally disharmonic. They think they are something special, because they claim to "understand" music like this and they think you are stupid because you don't. Those people are just pretentious asshole that can't appreciate beauty.

[@fedegwagwa]

This opinion is just as based and wrong as the one you're attacking. A lot of contemporary music is beautiful and masterly crafted, whichever opinion you have on it. It's true that some of these composers and their listeners (a very small minority) are just high up their asses and dont really know what they're talking about. But seeing music as only "beautiful melodies" narrows the possibility of the art to zero. There's much more to music than melodies: composers can play with rhythm, timbre, colour, the physical instruments, harmony, contrapunctus and so on. You can say you don't like it, but it's ignorant to say every contemporary avant-garde composition and composer is rubbish.

[@BennoWitter]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. Of course harmony, rhythm, etc. is part of beautiful music. You can also use tensions created by dissonance, as long as you resolve it to a satisfying, harmonic thing. All composers did that. But, if you torture your listeners with one dissonance after another, you are a terrible musician/composer. Even Hindemith, who did it for fun to demonstrate that horrible orchestra in "Ouvertüre zum „Fliegenden Holländer“, wie sie eine schlechte Kurkapelle morgens um 7 am Brunnen vom Blatt spielt" has to fall back onto a little bit of harmonic melody from time to time.@@fedegwagwa

[@fedegwagwa]

@@BennoWitter I understand your point, because I'm the first to admit I prefer tonal "traditional", sensorially satisfying music; but maybe I didn't complete my point properly just like you. The way you mean it, music is only beautiful when it's beautiful to the ear; but music is also an intellectual, phylosophical art, just like poetry and painting, it's a language. Not all poetry must sound good and rhyme at a perfect rhythm, not every painting has to be pleasing to the eye to be interesting and worthy. Especially to poets and painters, just like music has more to offer than just "ear-pleasure" to musicians. What I'm trying to say is that in all of these composers there are different components taken into account, and they just explore all the possibilities of music in those fields, like Stravinsky with haromy and rhythm, Schoenberg and Webern with tones, Messiaen with colours and orchestration. You can't even say they make it for money and fame, because most of this music is looked upon and forgotten, it has a very small market. But it still has a great value, and there's a reason we remember and study such composers. Then again, you may not like it, just like people don't like Picasso's cubism phase, but you can't deny the fact it has an artistic value

[@dariomosbo4270]

​​@@BennoWitter The function of art is not always to be "beautiful" but to transmit emotions and ideas far beyond what words can. In the case of artists like Stravinsky, Shostakovich or Prokofiev, their music is trying to push forward what kind of feelings music can transmit, and the way to do so may require dissonance. I don't believe that being harmonically traditional could transmit the sheer panic and horror that Shostakovich 5 is able to, or the wildly magical and exotic sounds of Prokofiev 3rd piano concerto, or ESPECIALLY the primitive and completely distant from modern society ambiance in Rite of Spring. To break from traditional ways music tends to make us feel, we must break from theoretical conventions.

[@betamax6080]

just one thing to say your mom

[@Fanfanbalibar]

WHY DO YOU DISPLAY A RACHMANINOFF PICTURE IN AN ARTICLE ABOUT STRAVINSKY????????????