At the End of the Text Following the Index Will Be
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AL L RIGHT S RE SE RVE D Co ri ht 193 6 b Simon and chuster py g , , y S , F 3 86 ourth Avenue , New York Printed in the United States by Strat ord ress nc New Yor I . k f P , , At the end of the text following the Index will b e und m t t h fo so e por raits and pho ograp s of Igor Stravinsky FOREWORD The aim this v lume is to set d wn a ew recol of o o f li e It eri d m . lections connected with vario us p o s of y f is equally intended for those interested in my music i m l ather there re than a bi ra h and n se . R y f , fo , og p y it will be simle acc unt im rtant events side a p o of po b side with acts min r c nse uence : b th how y f of o o q o , e ver have a certain si ni icance or me * and I wish , g f f , to relate themacc rdin to the dictates m mem o g of y ory . Naturally I shall not be able to keep within the b unds b ar te As I all rec lle ti ns e sta ment . m o of c y o c o to mind I shall necessaril be bli ed to s ea k m , y o g p of y inions m tastes m re ere nces and m abh r op , y , y p f , y o renees. I amb ut too well w re h m th l a a of ow uch ese fee ' in s var in the course time This i wh I hall g y of . s y s take great care not to confuse my present reactions with th se ex erienced at ther ta e o p o s g s in my life . J F O R E WO RD There are still further reasons which induce me to write thi b In numer u i e vie ave s ook . o s nt r ws I h iven m th u hts m w rds and even acts have g , y o g , y o , f ten b een dis ured to the extent bec min ab of fig of o g solutel unrec nizable y og . I therefore undertake this task today in order to resent to the reader a true icture msel and to p p of y f, dissi ate the accumulati n misunderstandin s p o of g that has gathered abo ut both my work and my per 8 072 . IGO R STRAVIN SK Y s M E M O RY th e fi reaches back along the vista of years , the increasing distance adds to the difficul ty of see ing clearly and choosing between those incidents which make a deep impression and those which , u tho gh perhaps more important in themselves , leave ’ no u . trace , and in no way infl ence one s development u of o u Th s , one my earliest mem ries of so nd will seem somewhat odd . u It was in the co ntry, where my parents , like u most people of their class , spent the s mmer with I see . their children . can it now An enormou s peas on u f a u ant seated the st mp o a tree . The sh rp resino s of - cut tang fresh wood in my nostrils . The peasant simply clad in a short red shirt . His bare legs cov a ered with reddish hair, on his feet birch sand ls , on his head a mop of h air as thick and as red as his — a an be rd not a white hair , yet old man . um b ut of He was d b , he had a way clicking his S TRA VIN SK Y u i of tong e very noisily, and the ch ldren were afraid So . But u u to u him . was I c riosity sed tri mph over . ul un . fear The children wo d gather ro d him Then , u ul . to am se them , he wo d begin to sing This song of was composed two syllables, the only ones he of could pronounce . They were devoid any mean but ing, he made them alternate with incredible u to accom dexterity in a very rapid tempo . He sed pany this clucking in the following way : pressing of h l s i u the palm r ght hand nder his left armpit, he ul his wo d work left arm with a rapid movement, F making it press on the right hand . rom beneath the red shirt he extracted a succession of soun ds which u u but an d were somewhat d bio s very rhythmic, which might be euphemistically described as re u u so nding kisses . This am sed me beyond words , and at home I set myself with zeal to imitate this music -so often and so successfully that I was forbidden to ul u ind ge in s ch an indecent accompaniment . The tw o dul l syllables which alone remained thus lost all their attraction for me . Another memory which often comes back is the singing of the women of the neighboring village . eat sman of ul There were a gr y them, and reg arly S TRA VI N SK Y every evening they sang in unison on their way ’ To I re home after the day s work . this day clearly u member the t ne , and the way they sang it, and h ow u n , when I sed to si g it at home , imitating their e on u of manner, I was compliment d the tr eness my ear . This praise made me very happy . odd hi u 5 And it is an thing that t s occ rrence, tri lin u h as al a f g tho gh it seems , a speci signific nce for u th e of u me, beca se it marks dawn my conscio sness of myself in the réle of musician . I will confine myself to those two impressions of u s u e s mmer, which was alway associated with a pict r of un of the co try, and all the things to be seen and heard there . — w as u Winter q ite another story town . My memories of that do not go so far back as those of sum e was mer, and I date them from the tim when I l u o d . its u of abo t three years Winter, with c rtailing u u liberty and am sements, with its rigoro s discipline to en and interminable length, was not likely make ur d ing impressions . My parents were not specially concerned with u un ue my m sical development til I was nine . It is tr u u that there was m sic in the ho se, my father being the [ 5 ] S TRA VIN SK Y leading bass singer of the Imperial Opera in St . P t u b ut u e ersb rg, I heard all this m sic only at a dis — tance from the nursery to which my brothers and I were relegated . When I was nine my parents gave me a piano u k a u mistress . I very q ic ly learned to re d m sic, and, th e ul of im as res t reading, soon had a longing to rovise u u p , a p rs it to which I devoted myself, and u which for a long time was my favorite occ pation . There cannot have been anything very interesting s u u re in these improvisation , beca se I was freq ently proach ed for wasting my time in that way instead of b ut of practicing properly, I was definitely a dif ferent a opinion, and the repro ches vexed me con ide abl u a u a s r y . Altho gh tod y I nderst nd and admit of or the need of this discipline for a child nine ten , I mu st say that my constant work at improvisation u u was not absol tely fr itless , for, on the one hand, it t u con rib ted to my better knowledge of the piano , and u a , on the other, it sowed the seed of m sic l ideas . u u Apropos of this , I sho ld like to q ote a remark of ’ Rimsky- Korsakov s that he made later on when I a became his pupil . I sked him whether I was right “ S in always composing at the piano . ome compose [ 6 ] S TRA VI N SK Y at a u . the pi no , he replied, and some witho t a piano ” ou ou . As for y , y will compose at the piano As a matter of fact, I do compose at the piano and I do u t u not regret it . I go f r her , I think it is a tho sand times better to compose in direct contact with the physical medium of sound than to work in the ab ’ u stract medium prod ced by one s imagination . — Apart from my improvisation and piano prao u u tice , I fo nd immense pleas re in reading the opera ’ — scores of which my father s library consisted all the more so becau se I was able to read with great M u facility .