Stravinsky and Prokofiev: Stages of the Way to New Music

Main Article Content

Vera B. Valkova

Abstract

The article reveals a deep commonality between the initial stages of the composing career of I.F. Stravinsky and S.S. Prokofiev, the two audacious innovators in Russian music of the early XX century. With all the obvious differences in their personalities and destinies, several short periods can be distinguished in their work of the 1900–1910th, coinciding in the time (taking into account some blurring of chronological boundaries), their role in their careers and the general direction of their searches. The first stage is the 1900s, period spent as students, when both composers show their individual character within the framework of the academic traditions. The second stage (1910–1912) brought first daring performances challenges: for Stravinsky these are the ballets “Firebird” and “Petrushka”, for Prokofiev – the Second Piano Sonata and the First Piano Concerto. The third stage on the way to new music (1912–1913) was the high-profile musical scandals at the premieres of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto. The fourth stage (1914–1917) is the rejection of direct challenges, the “branching” of searches with a “look-back” at the outgoing traditions, the appeal to different genre areas: opera, chamber vocal and instrumental music, and, finally, the fifth stage (the end of 1910s) – again with a touch of challenge – the proclamation of a “new simplicity” and “neoclassicism” (Prokofiev’s First Symphony, Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella”).
The coincidence of the career stages of young Stravinsky and Prokofiev can be seen as a reflection of certain important general patterns in the development of art in the first two decades of the 20th century.


Keywords: Stravinsky, Prokofiev, early 20th century, new music, career stages.

Article Details

How to Cite
Valkova В. Б. . (2022). Stravinsky and Prokofiev: Stages of the Way to New Music. Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 46(1), 28–37. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/1335
Section
To S. Prokofiev Anniversary
Author Biography

Vera B. Valkova, Gnessins Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia

Vera B. Valkova, DrSci (Arts), Professor, Music History Department, Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, State Institute of Art Studies Leading Researcher