The Stravinsky Legacy (Music In The Twentieth Century): 8 (Music in the Twentieth Century, Series Number 8) - Softcover

'This is a well-researched, densely thought and thought-provoking book. It is all too easy to take Stravinsky for granted at the end of the century, but Cross reminds us how long a shadow - and how many shadows - he has cast.' Music Teacher

'Cross has succeeded brilliantly in unearthing the Hydra-like legacy of Stravinsky's innovations, expressed with a lucidity and succinctness that make the book an absolute pleasure to read.' Tempo

'[a] thoughtful overview of the Stravinsky legacy ...' Journal of the American Musicological Society

It has become increasingly apparent in recent decades that Stravinsky's music has had far-reaching influence on the development of music in our century. Stravinsky's modernist innovations - evident in such features as his music's discontinuity, its stasis, its ritualized anti-narrative, its novel rhythmic and formal structures, its articulation of new kinds of musical time, and its reinterpretation of music and materials from the past - have helped shape much of the music of our time. This book represents a first substantial attempt to evaluate Stravinsky's technical and aesthetic legacy. In Part I ('The Stravinsky Legacy'), Jonathan Cross explores the breadth of Stravinsky's impact on the music of composers as diverse as Adams, Andriessen, Birtwistle, Boulez, Carter, Messiaen, Reich, Stockhausen, Tippett, Varèse and Xenakis. In Part II ('Stravinsky Reheard') he returns to Stravinsky's neoclassical music to examine how recent developments in composition and musicology affect our understanding of and analytical approaches to Stravinsky.