THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSICIANS OF ALL TIME

7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

his property in Russia during the revolution, Stravinsky
was compelled to earn his living as a performer, and many
of the works he composed during the 1920s and ’30s were
written for his own use as a concert pianist and conductor.
His instrumental works of the early 1920s include the Octet
for Wind Instruments (1923), Concerto for Piano and Wind
Instruments (1924), Piano Sonata (1924), and the Serenade in
A for piano (1925). These pieces combine a Neoclassical
approach to style with what seems a self-conscious severity
of line and texture. Though the starkness of this approach
is softened in such later instrumental pieces as the Violin
Concerto in D Major (1931), Concerto for Two Solo Pianos
(1932–35), and the Concerto in E-flat (or Dumbarton Oaks
concerto) for 16 wind instruments (1938), a certain cool
detachment persists.
Though Stravinsky was raised in the Russian Orthodox
Church, his parents were not highly observant. None-
theless, in 1926 Stravinsky experienced a reconnection to
the religion of his upbringing, which in turn had a notable
effect on his stage and vocal music. A religious strain can
be detected in such major works as the operatic oratorio
Oedipus Rex (1927), which uses a libretto in Latin, and the
cantata Symphony of Psalms (1930), an overtly sacred work
that is based on biblical texts. Religious feeling is also
evident in the ballets Apollon musagète (1928) and in
Persephone (1934). The Russian element in Stravinsky’s
music occasionally reemerged during this period: the
ballet The Fairy’s Kiss (1928) is based on music by Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and the Symphony of Psalms has some of
the antique austerity of Russian Orthodox chant, despite
its Latin text.
In the years following World War I, Stravinsky’s ties
with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes had been renewed,
but on a much looser basis. The only new ballet Diaghilev