Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
The Firebird Suite (1919)
After a long search, and being rejected by four composers, Diaghilev turned to the 27-year-old Stravinsky to compose his “Firebird” ballet score.
Born in the Russian resort town of Oranienbaum, on June 17, 1882, Igor Stravinsky was raised in St. Petersburg by his father, Fyodor, a leading opera singer, and his mother, Anna, a pianist. Enveloped by his family’s strong influence of music, theater, and literature, Stravinsky was given lessons in piano and music theory. But his talent was slow to surface. His family encouraged him to study law.
In 1901, Stravinsky entered the University of Saint Petersburg where his attendance was spotty. He became friends with Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, whose father, Nikolai, was an accomplished composer and master of instrumentation. Rimsky-Korsakov became Stravinsky’s music teacher and mentor; his support and influence became key to Stravinsky’s success.
Stravinsky’s father died in 1902, freeing him to pursue a music career. In February 1909, Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique was performed in St. Petersburg at a concert attended by Ballets Russes’s founder, Serge Diaghilev, who commissioned the aspiring composer to orchestrate a couple of Chopin works for his ballet, “Les Sylphides.”
Diaghilev desperately searched for a composer for his upcoming ballet, “The Firebird,” a fairy tale whose story came from Russian folklore. After being rejected by four composers, Diaghilev turned to the 27-year-old Stravinsky.
Thrilled by the opportunity, Stravinsky dropped everything in November 1909 to begin writing a showpiece score—exotic, colorful, exciting and beautiful—featuring highly lavish orchestration. Final orchestration and retouching were completed by May 1910.
The premiere of “The Firebird” at the Paris Opera on June 25, 1910, was a mega-splashy success. Stravinsky’s ingenious, virtuosic use of orchestral colors and repetitive rhythms (basically reinventing syncopations) swept a stunned audience off on a brand-new journey. Stravinsky catapulted to the top of preeminent composers.
From the score, Stravinsky used a slimmed down orchestra to compose “The Firebird” suites. A true tour-de-force, Stravinsky’s highly evocative 1919 version brilliantly fuses flamboyant Romanticism and Rimsky-Korsakov’s vast orchestral palette to depict the fairy tale in five movements.
In the Introduction, Prince Ivan goes hunting and discovers an enchanted garden, where he captures a magical firebird, whose glittering bird feathers are illustrated through shimmering chromatic lines. Misty-like opening notes, expressed by strings playing near the bridge, shuddering repetitions, glissandi (string sliding notes), low winds and brasses, all work to establish a swirling, mythical, other-worldly atmosphere.
During Dance of the Firebird, Ivan frees the magical bird and in return she gives Ivan one of her magic feathers (agitated strings alternating with brooding winds). In the Firebird’s solo dance, syncopations enhance the rendering of the bird’s musical portrait.
As Ivan’s hunt continues, he discovers a castle where the evil (sorcerer-ogre) King Kashchei is holding 13 princesses captive, and Ivan falls in love with one of them. As the princesses, under Kashchei’s spell, dance in the courtyard to a lyrical oboe solo, they warn Ivan that Kashchei turns people into stone.
Protected by the magic feather, Ivan confronts Kashchei. The Firebird appears and causes the ogres to dance themselves into exhaustion in the Infernal Dance. Loud dynamics and combinations of varying savage rhythms generate an unnerving and disorienting atmosphere. Trombone glissandi add to the frenzy, and the harps sometimes play on top of the strings to create freaky harmonic overtones.
The Firebird’s Lullaby, featuring a serene, ethereal bassoon melody, sends Kashchei and his ogres into a deep sleep. Ivan destroys the giant egg containing Kashchei’s soul (his power). The princesses and Kashchei’s stone captives are freed.
For Final Hymn, dazzling, triumphant chords and a solo horn sing the score’s most-famous folk tune. Ivan and the rescued captives celebrate with music that surges and resounds in triumphant resplendence. Massive orchestration and an extended seven-measure closing draw the glorious suite to an end.
“The Firebird” marked the first of Stravinsky’s collaborations with Diaghilev. He went from the fairy tale to an avant-garde pagan ritual, “Rite of Spring,” which demanded an even larger orchestra, a more austere but dynamic rhythmic style, and chaotic percussive momentum that incited a riot upon its 1913 premiere. It was later lauded as revolutionary.
Stravinsky never returned to Russia. He had married his cousin Catherine Nossenko in 1906, and, after the premiere of The Firebird in 1910, he brought her and their children to France.
But the outbreak of World War I in 1914 crippled the Ballets Russes, and Stravinsky took his family to Switzerland for the remainder of the war. He moved to the United States in 1939, where he lived out the rest of his life as an American citizen. Stravinsky died in New York City on April 6, 1971, leaving music lovers grateful he chose music over the law.
Jayce Keane, who began her career as a journalist for The Rocky Mountain News, has been working in the orchestra industry and writing about music for 18 years. A longtime resident of California, she now lives in Colorado.