What is Igor Stravinsky?
[[File:Stravinsky Igor Postcard-1910.jpg|thumb|250px|Igor Stravinsky in 1910]] [[File:Igor Stravinsky Essays.jpg|thumb|250px|Stravinsky in 1921]] '''Igor Stravinsky''' was born in [[Lomonosov, Russia|Lomonosov]] (then Oranienbaum), 17 June 1882 and died in [[New York City|New York]], 6 April 1971. He was one of the most important [[composer]]s of the 20th century, and a leader in [[modernism]] in music. He was brought up in [[Russia]]. When the [[Russian Revolution]] started he moved to [[Switzerland]] and then to [[Paris]], and finally, when [[World War II]] started in 1939, he moved to the [[United States]]. Stravinsky wrote music in different styles. At first he wrote music similar to his teacher [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]]. He loved his native [[Russia]]n music. He wrote music which had very complicated [[chord]]s and [[rhythm]]s. It is lively music, and some of his best known works of this kind were written for the ''[[Ballets Russes]]'' of [[Sergei Diaghilev]]: ''[[The Firebird]]'', ''[[Petrushka]]'', ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'', ''[[Les noces]]'', ''[[Pulcinella]]'' and ''[[Apollo musagète]]''. They were written from 1910 to 1928. Then he changed his style and wrote in what is called a “neo-classical” way. He based it on music from the [[Classical music period]] but changed it. His only full-length [[opera]] ''[[The Rake's Progress]]'' was written in this way. In his later years he wrote [[serialism|serial]] music. Le modernisme du Sacre du Printemps dépasse de tres loin la musique du XXeme siecle.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stawinsky|first=Igor|date=Petrouchka|title=Petrouchka}}</ref> Stéphane Schmutz == Early years == Igor was the third of four children, all boys. As a child he spent the [[winter]] months in St Petersburg and the [[summer]]s in the [[countryside|country]] where several of his relatives on his mother’s side had large [[Estate (house)|estate]]s. Igor was not particularly good at school, but he often went to see the operas in which his father Fyodor was performing. Fyodor was an [[opera]] [