An Autobiography - The Original Classic Edition

Overview

Finally available, a high quality book of the original classic edition of An Autobiography.

This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by Igor Stravinsky, which is now, at last, again available to you.

Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside An Autobiography:

When I got into touch with some of the members of this group, its transformation into a new school had already been accomplished, so that I found myself confronted by an academy whose aesthetics and dogmas were well established, and had to be accepted or rejected as a whole.

...He told me that before anything else I must continue my studies in harmony and counterpoint with one or other of his pupils in order to acquire complete mastery in the schooling of craftsmanship, but at the same time he strongly advised me not to enter the Conservatoire.

...Although in my ingenuousness I was somewhat downcast over the lack of enthusiasm that the master had shown for my first attempts at composition, I found some comfort in the fact that he had nevertheless advised me to continue my studies, and so demonstrated his opinion that I had sufficient ability to devote myself to a musical career.

...Indeed, every doctrine of aesthetics, when put into practice, demands a particular mode of expression-in fact, a technique of its own; for, in art, such a thing as technique founded on no given basis-in short, a technique in the void-would be utterly inconceivable; and it would be still more difficult to imagine when a whole group, or school, is under consideration.

...It was at this point that I began the close relations with Diaghileff which lasted for twenty years, right up to his death, and developed into a deep friendship based on a reciprocal affection that was proof against the difference of views or tastes which could not but arise from time to time in such a long period.

Read More