Happy Birthday!

On this day in 1882, Igor Stravinsky was born. He's a foundational figure for 20th century music and I also think that there is something profoundly interesting in the dramatic stylistic shift he undertook in the 20s, going from works like Rite of Spring to the "cold blooded abstractions" of his neo-classical period. Stravinsky also made the baffling comment that music is essentially incapable of being able to express anything. An attempt to escape reality? Perhaps. Music seems to me to be the most immediately affecting of all the arts; it's akin to a language and thus should be amply able to express a wide number of things. I even think that some of Stravinsky's music which is described as emotionless is nonetheless expressive - it's not something you can escape. There's a certain cocky swagger to the opening of the Concerto in D; Dumbarton Oaks has moments of wit, humor and, like most of his work, is infused with a rhythmic vitality that I think is inherently expressive.

But oh well. Fun fact about Stravinsky: He was arrested in Boston for "tampering" with national property (there was a Massachusetts law against tampering with national property) via his interpretation of the Star Spangled Banner; he inserted a major seventh chord into it somewhere or something - I haven't actually heard it. But, here's his mug shot: