Paw Prints Anecdotes: Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky Anecdote 1...

Stravinsky wrote a ballet for Billy Rose's Broadway show The Seven Lively Arts. After the opening one of the dancers sent a wire to the composer: "Ballet great success but if you would allow violin to play pas de deux instead of trumpet it would be a triumph." Stravinsky cabled back: "Satisfied with great success."

Anecdote 2...

In the 1950s the Venice Festival commissioned Stravinsky to write an original composition. When the piece was submitted, its length—only fifteen minutes—was found unsatisfactory. Stravinsky was unruffled. "Well, then," he said, "play it again."

Biographical Note...
Igor Stravinsky

Russian-born composer who became a U.S. citizen in 1945. He first achieved fame with his ballet scores commissioned by impresario Sergei Diaghilev—"The Firebird" (1910), "Petruska" (1911), and "Le Sacre du printemps" (1913). The dissonances and rhythms of these works exercized a powerful influence on subsequent twentieth-century music; Stravinsky's own later works were influenced by classical and baroque styles, adapted to modern idiom.

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