Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) was one of the twentieth century’s most admired and influential composers, conductors, and music theorists. His ballets and symphonies, including The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, cemented his central place in the evolution of musical modernism. George Seferis (1900–1971) was a Nobel Prize–winning Greek poet, essayist, and diplomat. One of the most influential Greek authors of his generation, he received honorary doctorates from Cambridge, Oxford, and Princeton, and was made an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1957 to 1962, he served as Greek Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

[These lessons] provide penetrating glimpses into the thought processes of Stravinsky's mind. While dealing with his chosen topics--the phenomenon of music, the composition of music, musical typology, the avatars of Russian music, and the performance of music--he reveals his reverence for tradition, order and discipline. He believes "the more art is controlled, limited, worked over, the more it is free." His opinions about Wagner, Verdi, Berlioz, Hindemith, Weber, Beethoven, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky and Bach are refreshing. He also analyzes the function of the critic, the requirements of the interpreter, the state of Russian music, and musical taste and snobbery.

• Preface by George Seferis 1. Getting Acquainted 2. The Phenomenon of Music 3. The Composition of Music 4. Musical Typology 5. The Avatars of Russian Music 6. The Performance of Music Epilogue