Igor Stravinsky

Born into a musical family in Saint Petersburg in 1882, Stravinsky studied law before Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov took him on as a pupil. Impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned three ballets for Paris - The Firebird, Petrushka, and the scandalous Rite of Spring - that made him a name by 1913. He moved through three distinct periods: Russian folk-inflected works like Les noces, a neoclassical stretch drawing on Greek myth and sonata form (Apollon musagète, Oedipus rex), and finally a serial phase adopting twelve-tone technique in pieces like In Memoriam Dylan Thomas. The constant reinvention baffled supporters but redefined what rhythm and form could do in modern music, influencing composers from Copland to Boulez. He died of pulmonary edema in New York in 1971, leaving six memoirs and a Requiem Canticles performed at his funeral.