IGOR STRAVINSKY
(1882 - 1971)
The son of a distinguished Russian singer, Stravinsky spent his
earlier years in Russia, either in St Petersburg or, in the summer,
at the country estates of his relatives. He studied music briefly
with Rimsky-Korsakov but made a name for himself first in Paris
with commissions from the impresario Diaghilev, for whom he
wrote a series of ballet scores. He spent the years after the
Russian Revolution of 1917 in Western Europe and in 1939
moved to the United States of America. There in the post-war
years he turned from a style of eclectic neoclassicism to
composing in the twelve-note technique propounded by
Schoenberg. A versatile composer, inventive in changing styles,
he may be seen as the musical counterpart of the painter Picasso.
Stage Works
Stravinsky made an immediate impression in Paris with his score
for LOiseau de feu (The Firebird) for the Ballets Russes of
Diaghilev. There followed the very Russian Petrushka, set in a
Russian fairground, and then the 1913 succs de scandale of Le
Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring). After wartime works
on a smaller scale, including The Soldiers Tale, Stravinsky
turned again to ballet for Diaghilev in Pulcinella, based on music
wrongly attributed to Pergolesi. Later ballets include Apollon
musagte, Le Baiser de la fe (The Fairys Kiss), Jeu de first, although the second, like so much of the composers work, existed
cartes(Card Game) and Agon. The Latin opera-oratorio Oedipus
Rex, with a text translated from Cocteau, was first staged in 1928,
while the opera The Rakes Progress, neoclassical in form and
based on the engravings of Hogarth, with a libretto by W.H.
Auden and Chester Kallman, was staged in Venice in 1951.
Orchestral Music
Stravinskys orchestral music includes symphonies, suites from
some of the ballets, and two suites arranged from sets of easy
piano pieces. Concertos of various kinds include a 1936 concerto
for piano, winds, timpani and double basses, the Ebony
Concerto for jazz band, and a violin concerto.
Chamber and Instrumental Music
Stravinskys chamber music includes some arrangements of
orchestral works, in particular two versions of music
from Pulcinella, one for violin and piano and one for cello and
piano, both under the title Suite italienne.
Choral and Vocal Music
Stravinskys choral music ranges from major works such as the
Symphony of Psalms to settings of Latin and Slavonic religious
texts, the arranged Four Russian Peasant Songs, and the final
Requiem Canticles. His solo vocal works are equally varied,
including songs from traditional Russian sources, his sacred
cantata Abraham and Isaac with its Hebrew text, the Elegy for
JFK with a text by W.H. Auden, and a setting of Edward Lears
The Owl and the Pussycat.
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
(1862 - 1918)
Claude Debussy has exercised widespread influence over later
generations of composers, both in his native France and elsewhere. He
was trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and decided there on a career as a
composer rather than as a pianist (his original intention). His highly
characteristic musical language, thoroughly French in inspiration,
extended the contemporary limits of harmony and form, and he had a
remarkably delicate command of nuance, whether in piano writing or in
the handling of a relatively large orchestra.
Operas
Debussy attempted many operas, two based on stories by Edgar Allan
Poe, but he completed only one: Pellas et Mlisande, a version of the
medieval play by Maurice Maeterlinck, with its story of idealised love
perfectly matched by the composers musical idiom.
Orchestral Music
The most influential piece of orchestral music by Debussy is the Prlude
laprs-midi dun faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), based
on a poem by Mallarm. This was later used for a ballet, with
choreography by Nijinsky, who created a considerable scandal at the first
performance. The music evokes a pagan world, as the satyr of the title
takes his ease in the afternoon shade on a summer day.
Chamber Music
Debussys chamber music includes a fine string quartet, known as the
only as a future project. He wrote his Rapsodie for saxophone (later
orchestrated) somewhat reluctantly, while Syrinx, for unaccompanied
flute, in which the pagan god Pan plays his flute, was originally written
as incidental music for the theatre. Towards the end of his life Debussy
planned a series of six chamber works, patriotically announced as by
Claude Debussy, musicien franais. He completed three of these
projected works: a violin sonata, a cello sonata and a sonata for flute,
viola and harp.
Vocal Music
Debussy made a significant addition to the French song repertoire,
capturing the spirit, in particular, of the work of poets like Verlaine and
Mallarm, but also turning to earlier poets, including Villon and Charles
dOrlans. His Chansons de Bilitis, settings of verses by Pierre Lous,
turn again to the pagan world, while the settings of the Verlaine Ftes
galantes, includingClair de lune, capture the nostalgia of the poems, their
yearning for an unattainable past. His cantata Le Printemps was his
submission for the Prix de Rome.
Piano Music
In his writing for the piano Debussy proved himself a successor to
Chopin, who had died in Paris 13 years before Debussys birth. His own
debt to Chopin was overtly expressed in his two books
of tudes (Studies), completed in 1915. The Deux Arabesques, early
works, enjoy continued popularity, as does the Suite bergamasque, with
its all too popular Clair de lune. Estampes(Prints) evokes the Far East
in Pagodes, Spain in La Soire dans Grenade (Evening in Granada),
and autumnal sadness in Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain),
while LIsle joyeuse turns to Watteau for inspiration. Two sets
of Images offer further delicate pictures.

BLA BARTK
(1881 - 1945)
Bla Bartk was one of the leading Hungarian and European composers
of his time, proficient also as a pianist. He joined his friend Zoltn
Kodly in the collection of folk music in Hungary and neighbouring
regions, including, in his case, Anatolia. His work in this field deeply
influenced his own style of composition, which is, however, very much
more astringent in its apparent mathematical organisation than much of
what Kodly wrote. He was out of sympathy with the government that
replaced the immediate post-1918 republic in Hungary, where he was
held in less official esteem than abroad, and moved in 1940 to the United
States, dying there in relatively straitened circumstances in 1945.
Orchestral Music
Probably the best loved of Bartks orchestral compositions is
the Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by Koussevitzky for the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. The two violin concertos are important
additions to the solo violin repertoire, as is the Viola Concerto, now to be
heard in two possible reconstructions. This last and the Third Piano
Concerto were left in various stages of incompleteness when Bartk died.
Both are moving works, while the earlier two piano concertos have much
to offer. Other important orchestral works that form not infrequent parts
of concert programmes are the Divertimento for Strings and the
challenging Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. The
energetic Romanian Dances appear in various versions, including one for
solo violin and string orchestra, arranged from an original piano
composition.
Stage Music
Bartk wrote relatively little for the theatre. His opera Duke Bluebeards
Castle was first staged in Budapest in 1918, a year after the premire of
the ballet The Wooden Prince. The pantomimeThe Miraculous
Mandarin enjoyed a succs de scandale in Cologne, where it was first
staged in 1926.
Chamber Music
Bartks six string quartets are a significant and important part of
repertoire, extending the musical and technical range of the form. The
44 Duos for two violins are primarily educational compositions, but
make attractive concert pieces in various groupings suggested by the
composer, while the Sonata for Solo Violin follows, in a modern idiom,
the example of J.S. Bach. Bartks two violin sonatas date from the early
1920s, while Contrasts, for violin, clarinet and piano, was written in
America for Szigeti, Benny Goodman and the composer.
A work of some importance is the spectacular Sonata for Two Pianos and
Percussion, later rescored by the composer for two pianos and orchestra.
The original version makes use of three kettledrums, a xylophone, two
side drums, cymbals, suspended cymbal, bass drum, triangle and tam-
tam, with the two pianos. It has an extended first movement, a night-
music second and a tautly rhythmic third. Written in 1937, the sonata
experiments fruitfully with the varied percussive sonorities of pianos and
percussion instruments.
Piano Music
Mikrokosmos consists of six books of pieces of progressive difficulty,
intended to be used for teaching, with the last two volumes including
more demanding pieces possible for concert use. Folk melodies form the
basis of 85 Pieces for Children, while Allegro barbaro shows the
composer in a more aggressive mood.
MAURICE RAVEL
(1875 - 1937)
Common Misspellings of Maurice Ravel
French, of paternal Swiss and maternal Basque descent, Ravel
combined skill in orchestration with meticulous technical command of
harmonic resources, writing in an attractive musical idiom that was
entirely his own in spite of contemporary comparisons with Debussy,
a composer his senior by some 20 years.
Stage Works
Operas
Ravel wrote two operas. The first, Lheure espagnole (The Spanish
Clock), is described as acomdie musicale; the second, with a
libretto by Colette, is the imaginative LEnfant et les sortilges (The
Child and the Enchantments), in which the naughty child is punished
when furniture and animals assume personalities of their own.
Ballets
Ravel wrote his ballet Daphnis et Chlo in response to a commission
from the Russian impresario Diaghilev. The work, described as
a symphonie chorographique, is based on the Hellenistic pastoral
novel of Longus.
Orchestral Music
In addition to the scores for ballet and arrangements of piano works
for the same purpose, Ravel wrote an evocative Rapsodie
espagnole (Spanish Rhapsody). Other orchestrations of original
piano compositions include a version of the very well-known Pavane
pour une infante dfunte (Pavane for a Dead Infanta), the Menuet
antique, Alborada del gracioso from Miroirs, and pieces from Le
Tombeau de Couperin. Ravel wrote two piano concertos: the first,
completed in 1930, was for the left hand only, commissioned by the
pianist Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in the war; the
second, for two hands, was completed in 1931.
Vocal Music
Songs by Ravel include the remarkable Shhrazade (settings of a
text by Tristan Klingsor for mezzo-soprano and orchestra) and
the Don Quichotte Dulcine (Don Quixote to Dulcinea) songs,
originally written for a film about Don Quixote in which the famous
Russian bass Chaliapin was to star. Songs with piano include settings
of Jules Renards Histoires naturelles, portraying its instinctive
sympathy with the birds and the cricket. Ravels five unsuccessful
attempts to win the Prix de Rome are represented by five cantatas,
submitted according to the rules of the competition as he chose to
interpret them.
Chamber Music
Ravels chamber music includes the evocative nostalgia
of Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet,
a violin sonata with a jazz-style blues movement, a piano trio, and a
string quartet. Tzigane, written for the Hungarian violinist Jelly
dArnyi, is a remarkable excursion into extravagant gypsy style.
Piano Music
Ravel himself was a good pianist. His music for the piano includes
compositions in his own nostalgic archaic style, such as
the Pavane and the Menuet antique, as well as the more complex
textures of pieces such as Jeux
deau (Fountains), Miroirs and Gaspard de la nuit, with its sinister
connotations. The Sonatina is in Ravels neoclassical style and Le
Tombeau de Couperin is in the form of a Baroque dance suite.
 ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
(1874 - 1951)
Arnold Schoenberg exercised very considerable influence
over the course of music in the 20th century. This was
particularly through his development and promulgation of GEORGE GERSHWIN
compositional theories in which unity in a work is provided by (1898 - 1937)
the use of a determined series, usually consisting of the 12
possible different semitones, their order also inverted or In a period in which American nationalist music was
taken in retrograde form and in transposed versions. developing with composers of the calibre of Aaron Copland
Schoenbergs earlier compositions are post-Romantic in and others trained in Europe, George Gershwin, the son of
character, written before the period in which he developed Russian Jewish immigrant parents, went some way towards
his theories of atonality (music without a key or tonal bridging the wide gap between Tin Pan Alley and serious
centre). Born in Vienna in 1874, he spent his early career in music. He won success as a composer of light music, songs
Berlin, until the rise to power of Hitler made it necessary to and musicals, but in a relatively small number of
leave Germany and find safety in America, where he died in compositions he made forays into a new form of classical
1951. With his pupils Anton Webern and Alban Berg, both of repertoire.
whom he outlived, he represents a group of composers
known as the Second Viennese School. Stage Works
Stage Works
Schoenbergs most important opera is Moses und Aron, of
which he completed only two of the three acts. Other stage Gershwin won serious attention with his opera Porgy and
works include Erwartung (Expectation), a one-act Bess, a drama of Black America, set at first in Catfish Row,
melodrama, the drama with music Die glckliche Hand (The Charleston, South Carolina. There is an effective instrumental
Fortunate Hand) and the one-act Von heute auf suite, Catfish Row, derived from the opera, while the
morgen (From Today to Tomorrow). attractive song Summertime has proved particularly
Choral and Vocal Music memorable.
Gurre-Lieder, written between 1901 and 1903, is a work of
Wagnerian proportions and mood for solo voices, large Orchestral Music
chorus and orchestra. Other, later vocal music includes A
Survivor from Warsaw (1947) for narrator, male voices and
Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue, written in 1924 for Paul
orchestra. Solo songs range from the 1909 settings of Stefan
Whiteman and his jazz band, marries jazz with something of
George in Das Buch der hngenden Grten (The Book of the
the classical concerto form, an avenue further explored in
Hanging Gardens) to the cabaret songs he wrote for the
Gershwins Piano Concerto of the following year. The tone
Berlin berbrettl in his earlier years. Pierrot lunaire, a study
poem An American in Paris again offers a synthesis between
of madness based on German translations of seven poems by
apparently divergent forms of music.
Albert Giraud and using Sprechgesang (words half spoken,
half sung), was completed in 1912.
Orchestral Music Piano Music
Schoenbergs music for orchestra includes a violin
concerto, Pelleas und Melisande (a symphonic poem based on Gershwins piano music includes the three preludes, written
Maurice Maeterlincks medieval drama) and Five Orchestral in 1926, pieces that retain a modest place in modern
Pieces. He transcribed for cello a harpsichord concerto by the American piano repertoire.
18th-century composer Monn.
Chamber Music
In addition to four string quartets and a late string trio,
Schoenbergs post-Romantic Verklrte Nacht (Transfigured
Night) of 1899 is particularly noteworthy.
Keyboard Music
Schoenberg wrote Variations on a Recitative for organ, but
most of his keyboard music is for piano, principally in a series
of pieces that demonstrate the development of his theories of
composition.

JOHN CAGE
(1912 - 1992)
A leading American avant-garde musician, John Cage won notoriety for his
famous silent work, 433, for any instrument or instruments. Equally
controversial was 00, ten years later, performed by the composer and
consisting of the slicing of vegetables, which are then juiced in a blender
and consumed by the performer. Cage has had a considerable influence on
younger composers, with his use of chance and indeterminacy, electronic
techniques and every possible experimental device, whether musical or
dramatic. He combined his interest in music with considerable knowledge
of mushrooms and a fondness for bridge and other card and board games.
Compositions
Cages compositions are not easily classified. His early use of percussion
was a natural corollary of his work with dance groups. Devices used
included the prepared piano, pioneered in his 1938Bacchanale, and
followed by a number of other compositions in which various objects are
inserted into the piano to create different effects, largely percussive in
quality. An interest in Zen and the I Ching resulted in Music of Changes,
where chance dictated the choice of notes. Dramatic actions
dominate Water Music, for a pianist, who must empty pots of water and
perform other feats, while later music makes considerable use of tapes or
calls for undetermined forces.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
(1918 - 1990)
The highly successful American conductor, composer, pianist and teacher
Leonard Bernstein had a strong influence on American musical taste,
particularly in his championing of Mahler. In some works, notably in West
Side Story, a modern American version of Romeo and Juliet, he attempted
a synthesis of American musical styles. He blurred the lines between the
concert hall and musical theatre, and he created a rich array of
compositions, recordings and writings.
Stage Works
Popular compositions of Bernstein include the ballet score Fancy Free and
his comic operaCandide, the overture of which is part of general orchestral
repertoire. Other stage works include the musicals On the Town and West
Side Story, and a theatre piece based on the Roman Catholic Mass.
Orchestral and Vocal-Orchestral Music
Bernstein wrote three symphonies. Jeremiah (Symphony No 1) of 1943,
with its mezzo-soprano solo, represents a religious vein in Bernsteins
music, and The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No 2) is based on the work of
the English poet WH Auden. Kaddish (Symphony No 3) is a choral work.
Choral Music
The Jeremiah Symphony was followed 20 years later by another overtly
Jewish work, Kaddish(Symphony No 3). Chichester Psalms, which uses
Hebrew texts,was commissioned for Chichester Cathedral in the South of
England. His theatrical Mass may be mentioned by the side of his
later Missa brevis, based on his own incidental music for a play by Jean
Anouilh (The Lark). A number of his compositions are inspired by his
Jewish heritage.
 PHILIP GLASS
( January 31, 1937)

Philip Glass (b. 1937) discovered modern music while working as a teenager in his fathers Baltimore record shop. When he graduated with a masters
degree in composition from Juilliard in 1962, he had studied with William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti and Darius Milhaud. His early works subscribed to
the twelve-tone system and other advanced techniques. But in spite of some success (including a BMI Award and a Ford Foundation Grant), he grew
increasingly dissatisfied with his music. I had reached a kind of dead end. I just didnt believe in my music anymore, he said. A 1964 Fulbright
Scholarship brought him to Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and met Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar virtuoso. In their different ways, those
two individuals transformed his work. Boulanger, in his words, completely remade my technique, and Shankar introduced him to a whole different
tradition of music that I knew nothing about. He rejected his previous concepts and developed a system in which the modular form and repetitive
structure of Indian music were wedded to traditional Western ideas of melody and simple triadic harmony.

After returning to the United States in 1967, he formed the Philip Glass Ensemble: three saxophonists (doubling on flutes), three keyboard players
(including himself), a singer and a sound engineer. Embraced by the progressive art and theatrical community in New York City during the early 1970s,
the Ensemble performed in art galleries, artist lofts and museum spaces rather than traditional performing art centres. It soon began to tour and make
recordings, providing Glass with a stage on which to premire and promote his ever-growing catalogue of works. It established him as a contemporary
voice with something personal and thought-provoking to say, and since those heady early days he has never looked back. Although he has sometimes
been labelled a minimalist along with composers such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley, Glass rejects the term.