Who's Simon Defending Now?: Igor Stravinsky

(Due to Internet problems and college-related stresses, Pretzel Logic experienced some downtime this past week. However, things are now resolved and I’ll be posting at a slightly more rapid pace this upcoming week to compensate for missed time.)

I spend most of my time here on Pretzel Logic discussing what musicologists refer to as “popular music.” This poorly defined term describes virtually anything that doesn’t fit in the equally vague categories of “folk music” and “art music.” “Art music” is music supposedly informed by complicated musical relationships and so forth and so on… it’s what most people would call “classical music.” Now, as a diehard cultural postmodernist, I simply refuse to believe that music can be classified in such black and white terms. All these types of music blend and mix, creating the vast range of music the world knows and loves. Why do we need arbitrary dividing lines? In keeping with this line of thinking, this month’s Who's Simon Defending Now? is dedicated to the most badass, intense and all-around hardcore “art music” composer of the twentieth century: Igor (mo’fuckin’) Stravinsky!

Now, full disclose time: I’m not much of a musicologist. I’ve got a very limited understand of music theory and keys and diminished, Mixolydian quarter notes and so forth. I can’t talk about Stravinsky’s formal musical inventions from any real, educated place. All I can speak for is the way music makes me feel… which is precisely why I like Stravinsky’s music so much. His music doesn’t require focused cerebral scrutiny to be rewarding. He just assaults you with powerful emotions. Sounds good to me.

Particularly on two of his greatest ballets, The Rite Of Spring and The Firebird, the sheer power of Stravinsky hits you. His most bombastic sections abandon any attempt at sounding “pleasant,” usually resulting in a belligerent, atonal attack, full of screeching violins, blasting horns and some ruthless timpani. Just give a listen to the second part of Rite Of Spring (accompanied by Disney dinosaurs). An ominous build-up eventually culminates in a roaring, rhythmic motif, full of fear and anger and intensity. From its first subtle entrance on the horns all the way to its final, full-orchestra reemergence, it’s an unforgettable snippet of music.

Stravinsky was also a bit of a rock star in his time. When Rite Of Spring premiered in 1913, people, for lack of a better term, lost their collective shit. There were riots. There were tears. There were accusations that it “wasn’t music at all! Just noise!” Good ol’ Igor challenged the musical conventions of time, pushing highbrow music down a path that was too dark for many listeners. In tone, his music actually parallels (and preempts) so much of what modern hard rock and metal musicians have accomplished in the past forty years. Stravinsky confronted you with a cataclysmic collection of notes, played fast and loud, breaking away from the all-too-boring conventions of “nice and pretty” music. Just listen to the final segments of The Firebird (again, accompanied by Disney’s loving animations). How can you not pump your fist in the air during those last moments? The strings soar, the horns crash all around you, while the drums pound and hammer away. And the whole thing sounds absolutely majestic. “Art music” or not, “classical” or not… it makes no difference what genre it gets arbitrarily lumped into. It’s music that makes you feel something. That’s all I could ever want from a piece of music.