Leonardo da Vinci
93% Profile Match
Photo: Bain News Service (publisher), [between ca. 1920 and ca. 1925], Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-ggbain-32392), cropped and downscaled from the original · Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, George Grantham Bain Collection (item 2014712545, 'Stravinsky', Bain News Service, publisher, glass negative, [between ca. 1920 and ca. 1925]; call number LC-B2- 5464-2 [P&P]; reproduction number LC-DIG-ggbain-32392), via Wikimedia Commons file 'Stravinsky LCCN2014712545.jpg' (original JPEG 5405 x 7487 pixels, grayscale). The Library's rights advisory for the item is 'No known restrictions on publication' and the Bain collection statement reads 'There are no known copyright restrictions on the photographs in the George Grantham Bain Collection. Publicity rights may apply.' The photographer is not named (Bain News Service is recorded as publisher). A 4:5 region (4937 x 6174 pixels) showing the sitter leaning on a piano with a score, excluding the negative's black border and the Bain handwritten caption and number, was cropped from the original and downscaled once to 960 x 1200 (never upscaled). · No known restrictions on publication
composer · 20th Century
Igor Stravinsky
1882–1971
Known For
artisticcultural
Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
He composed The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris. Britannica calls the Rite, with its shifting rhythms and unresolved dissonances, an early modernist landmark, and its premiere on 29 May 1913 caused a famous uproar.
After the First World War he turned to Neoclassicism, reworking music of earlier eras into a personal idiom in Pulcinella (1920), Oedipus Rex (1927), the Symphony of Psalms (1930) and The Rake's Progress (1951), his only full-length opera.
In the 1950s he took up serial technique, which he had earlier ignored, in works that include the Cantata, the ballet Agon (1957), choreographed by George Balanchine, Threni (1958) and Requiem Canticles (1966). Boosey & Hawkes calls Agon one of the most unexpected stylistic turns in modern music.
Moments That Reveal Them
While working with George Balanchine on a new ballet, Stravinsky asked how long one dance should be. Told 'about two-and-a-half minutes', he replied that there is no such thing as 'about' and asked for the exact time so that he could come as close to it as possible. The anecdote appears in Jennifer Homans's review of Charles Joseph's book on the partnership, which adds that Balanchine later said their work often centered on such negotiations about time.
This is consistent with a preference for exact specifications over approximate ones. Detail Orientation
Before composing the ballet Agon, Stravinsky received from Lincoln Kirstein a modern edition of François de Lauze's 17th-century dance treatise Apologie de la danse, with notes and excerpts by Marin Mersenne. According to Charles Joseph's study as summarised by Jennifer Homans, he marked his copy extensively and referred to both writers while composing, and Boosey & Hawkes says he had begun to study Webern's music intensely in 1952.
It sits alongside a habit of reading widely in earlier theory and music while composing. Curiosity
Turning Points
According to Boosey & Hawkes, Stravinsky had ignored Schoenbergian serialism until 1952, when he began to study Webern's music intensely. Britannica describes a series of 'cautiously experimental' works, the Cantata, the Septet and In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, followed by Agon (completed 1957), then Threni (1958) and, in 1966, Requiem Canticles. IRCAM says he took this path on the advice of Robert Craft.
This offers one example of reworking an established style late in a long career with a technique tied to the Schoenberg school. Experimentation
Similar People
People whose overall profiles resemble theirs.
Duke Ellington
90% Profile Match
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
89% Profile Match
James Joyce
89% Profile Match
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
88% Profile Match
Miles Davis
88% Profile Match
Opposite Profile
Not a rival — a different profile shape worth a look.
Susan B. Anthony
8% Profile Match
Sources
- Igor Stravinsky (Q7314) -- verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-10-15): English label 'Igor Stravinsky', description 'Russian, French, and American composer (1882-1971)', Korean label present, instance of human, born 1882 (the entity carries several date values covering the Julian and Gregorian dates), died 6 April 1971 in New York City, citizenship values including the Russian Empire, Russia, France and the United States. Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- Library of Congress Music Division research guide, 'Igor Stravinsky: A Guide to Primary and Secondary Resources at the Library of Congress' (author Paul Allen Sommerfeld, Music Reference Specialist; Introduction and Music Manuscripts pages, last updated July 2026) -- CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE (with the Boosey & Hawkes biography): the national library's own statement that Stravinsky is 'one of the most influential composers of the 20th century', and its description of its holdings: over 40 music manuscripts in his hand (among them a manuscript of the ballet Apollon musagete commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, Agon, Mavra, Oedipus Rex and the Symphony in C) and, in the Igor Stravinsky / Robert Craft collection, publisher's proofs carrying his holograph corrections, including early proofs of Threni with 'corrections and instructions to the engravers and the publisher' and numerous corrected copies of Requiem Canticles, Variations, Movements and Canticum Sacrum. Institutional description of archival objects, neutral in tone. Read in full (the Special Collections, Published Music, Music Literature, Iconography, Lectures and Databases tabs were not opened).
- Boosey & Hawkes, 'Igor Stravinsky' composer page (Snapshot summary and Biography tab, the publisher's own biography reproduced with its permission note) -- CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE (with the Library of Congress guide): his publisher's account of the career arc (study with Rimsky-Korsakov, The Firebird for Diaghilev's Ballets russes in 1910 bringing 'sudden international prominence', Petrushka and The Rite of Spring as 'one of the major landmarks in the history of music' that 'marked the coming of modernism in music' and met 'astonishment and hostility', the smaller-scale theatrical ventures such as The Soldier's Tale with Ramuz prompted by economic conditions, Pulcinella launching the neoclassical phase that ran from the 1920s to the 1940s through Oedipus Rex, Symphony of Psalms and The Rake's Progress, the ballets generally made with George Balanchine, and the 1957 ballet Agon as 'one of the most unexpected stylistic volte-faces in modern music' after he began studying Webern intensely in 1952), with his work as a pianist and then conductor of his own music and the near-complete recorded legacy. Publisher's promotional page, admiring in tone: its sentence that he is 'widely regarded as the most original and influential composer of the 20th century' is the publisher's own claim and is not repeated as fact in any row or card. Read in full except the work list, timeline, news and discography tabs.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Igor Stravinsky' (article by Eric Walter White, fact-checked by Britannica's editors, last updated 11 September 2026; the page's AI-generated summaries were not used) -- encyclopaedia biography: a Russian-born composer 'whose work had a revolutionary impact on musical thought and sensibility just before and after World War I' and 'whose compositions remained a touchstone of modernism for much of his long working life'; the Diaghilev ballets (The Firebird, 25 June 1910, 'a dazzling success'; Petrushka, 1911; The Rite of Spring, 29 May 1913, 'an early modernist landmark' whose premiere 'provoked one of the more famous first-night riots in the history of musical theatre'); the wartime small-scale works including The Soldier's Tale (1918); the Neoclassical idiom of the 1920s to the 1950s (Octet, Oedipus Rex, Symphony of Psalms, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements, The Rake's Progress, 'his only full-length opera'); the 1950s serial works (Cantata, Septet, Agon, Canticum Sacrum, Threni, Requiem Canticles, 1966); the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal (1954) and Wihuri Sibelius Prize (1963). It also states that his 1936 autobiography and his six later collaborations with Robert Craft are 'factually unreliable'. Encyclopaedic, neutral in tone. Read in full.
- Library of Congress Music Division blog 'In the Muse', 'Acquisition Highlights for the Past Year: A Top Five List' (December 2023), item 2, 'Two Groups of Igor Stravinsky Correspondence' -- curators' note: Stravinsky as 'by any reckoning, one of the most important and influential classical composers of the twentieth century', the Library as 'the major American repository for original scores and correspondence of Stravinsky' (earliest music manuscript the Apollon-Musagete score, performed in 1928 in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium, then about 50 more manuscripts), and two new groups of letters, including 72 items of 1941-47 correspondence with the Associated Music Publishers editor Arthur Mendel that 'center on pre-publication changes to several of Stravinsky's works'. Institutional, admiring but factual. Read the Stravinsky item only.
- Poppy Farr (Music Manuscripts and Archives Cataloguer), 'The life and music of Stravinsky in two newly catalogued collections', British Library blog, 3 June 2026 -- archive cataloguer's account of the Boosey & Hawkes production materials (Stravinsky the best represented composer, over 60 files): his signing with Boosey & Hawkes in the 1940s, his revising of 'many of his compositions' and producing new editions in the decades that followed (citing Helen Wallace's history of the publisher), the 1956 Mavra vocal score with his handwritten revisions of 1966 and several proof copies showing 'the repeated revisions the score underwent' before the 1968 edition, a score of Elegy for J.F.K. with his amendments to dynamics, articulation and phrasing, and the printed score he used to conduct the 1948 premiere of Orpheus. The Dartington Summer School visit (accommodation, catering and other hospitality details) is private and was not used. Archival description, neutral in tone. Read in full.
- Arnold Schönberg Center, Vienna, 'Three satires for mixed chorus op. 28' (composition page with the program note by Agnes Grond) -- the Schoenberg archive's own note on the 1925/26 choral satires: Schoenberg's explanation in a letter that he wrote them 'when I was very much angered by attacks of some of my younger contemporaries', his four targets named in the foreword (those who seek salvation 'in the middle of the road', those who look backwards, 'folklorists' and 'all the ...ists' he sees as 'mannerists'), and the note's statement that in the third satire, 'Der neue Klassizismus', apart from the musicologist Hugo Riemann 'Stravinsky was the main target'. Institutional note from the rival camp's archive, adversarial in tone towards Stravinsky's neoclassicism and concerned with his music, not his conduct. Read in full.
- Jacques Amblard, 'Survey of works by Igor Stravinsky' (translated by Peter Asimov), IRCAM-Centre Pompidou B.R.A.H.M.S. composer database, updated 2015 -- scholarly overview essay: the Rite of Spring as 'a canonical milestone of music history' and its repeated chord and ostinato as 'one of the most influential, even foundational, tools of twentieth-century music'; Schoenberg's 'der kleine Modernsky' in the Three Satires; the wartime reduction of forces (Soldier's Tale, Renard, Les Noces); Pulcinella and the neoclassical works; the later jazz-band pieces; the turn to serialism on the advice of Robert Craft; Adorno's judgement that neoclassicism was 'restoration' and Boulez's rejection of it; and Valerie Dufour's finding that he was 'a strategist' whose press appearances and interviews systematically preceded his concerts. Passages on politics, religion, psychoanalytic and mental-health speculation, and one 1941 anthem-arrangement episode were not used. Scholarly essay by an institutional research body, critical and admiring by turns. Read in full.
- Jennifer Homans, 'Geniuses Together' (review of Charles M. Joseph, Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention, Yale University Press, 2002), The New York Review of Books, 19 December 2002 -- dance historian's review: the anecdote of Stravinsky answering 'Don't say about, there is no such thing as about' when Balanchine gave an approximate length for a dance, his insistence that music be 'transmitted' and not 'interpreted', the two men 'often seen bent over a score', Balanchine's deference to him, Stravinsky's extensive markings in his copy of de Lauze's Apologie de la danse (with Mersenne's notes) while composing Agon and his use of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in his own Violin Concerto, Balanchine's account of the Apollon musagete score as a revelation; the review's own view that Joseph is good on the music and weak on the dances. Passages on his political and religious outlook were not used. Independent critic's review of a scholarly study (the one scholarly perspective is Joseph's, so this review and the Brooklyn Rail review of the same book are one source of facts, not two). Read in full.
- Paul Grimstad, review of Charles Joseph, Stravinsky & Balanchine: A Journey of Invention (Yale University Press, 2002), The Brooklyn Rail, October 2002 -- composer-critic's review of the same scholarly study: Stravinsky's 'occasionally tyrannical exactitude in matters of metronomic execution' at the first Chant du rossignol rehearsals (a pianola cranked by an 'autocratic' composer), Stravinsky's falling out with Diaghilev 'for business reasons', his own description of Apollo as his 'ballet blanc', the all-string Apollo score that resulted from a 'tangle of correspondence' with the Library of Congress about its auditorium, the origins of Agon in Webern's miniatures, Isaac's Choralis Constantinus, 17th-century French dance manuals and T. S. Eliot's verse, his switch to serialism as 'one of the last major compositional strongholds against the growing orthodoxy of serial technique' giving way, and the reviewer's criticisms of Joseph's method. Independent critic's review that counts, with the Homans review of the same book, as one scholarly perspective (Joseph's). Read in full.
- Robert Craft, 'Stravinsky & Balanchine', The New York Review of Books, 8 October 1998 -- first-person account by Stravinsky's long-time associate, who says he was the only witness to the making of Agon and The Flood: how the two men's collaboration changed from the imperious handling of Balanchine over Jeu de cartes in 1937 to the joint plotting of Orpheus and the 'equal partner from conception to execution' of Agon, Balanchine persuading Stravinsky to expand the Orpheus pas de deux and to repeat the prelude of The Flood, and the order and titles of the Agon dances written down by Stravinsky as they talked. Insider account by one person with a stake in the story (Britannica calls his collaborative books factually unreliable), so used only as one perspective alongside the scholarly and critical sources, never alone. Passages on Balanchine's state of mind and religious feeling were not used. Read in full.
- Ryan Wenzel, 'Modern Antiquity' (review of New York City Ballet's Stravinsky-Balanchine repertory season), The Brooklyn Rail, October 2012 -- dance critic's review: Balanchine choreographed 'at least 45 ballets' to Stravinsky's music; the Apollo-Orpheus-Agon 'Greek trilogy' as showing how 'both artists were always in the business of self-reinvention' (Stravinsky moving from the 17th-and-18th-century French style of Apollo to serial music in Agon); Balanchine's remark that the Apollo score 'in its discipline and restraint, in its sustained oneness of tone and feeling' was 'a revelation'; the success of Orpheus in 1948 that led to the New York City Ballet. Passages on the 2012 dancers were not used. Independent critic's review, admiring. Read in full.
- Tom Vitale (NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday), 'Then The Curtain Opened: The Bracing Impact Of Stravinsky's Rite', 25 May 2013 (read as published by KUNC) -- public-radio feature for the centenary with the critic Alex Ross (the two adjacent chords 'slammed together', accents landing in unexpected places, 'The Rite felt completely different') and the dance historian Lynn Garafola (Nijinsky's choreography as 'a new kind of ballet'), reporting that within a year of the premiere the score was hailed as a masterpiece and that Nijinsky's choreography was abandoned after the first run; it also quotes Stravinsky's 1965 recollection of the premiere (self). Independent journalism with two expert voices, admiring. Read in full.
- James S. Murphy, 'Spring Fever', The Paris Review (On Music), 11 July 2013 -- essay by a musicologically trained writer on how the Rite premiere is remembered: scholars 'have called into question the size, the ferocity, and the immediate effects' of what was 'definitely a disturbance', Stravinsky leaving his seat 'only to watch backstage' and taking four or five curtain calls, Nijinsky counting time to the dancers all week, the London premiere and later Paris performances passing without major incident, and Diaghilev as a 'master marketer' who with Stravinsky made remarks to the press and invited critics to a preview so that the audience was 'primed'. Independent essay, skeptical of the riot legend and relaying Taruskin's argument at second hand. Read in full.
- Katie Buzard, 'Did "The Rite of Spring" Really Incite a Riot?', Clef Notes, Illinois Public Media (WILL), 18 March 2025 -- public-media explainer drawing on contemporary reviews and on Taruskin and Gillian Moore: no evidence of physical altercations or of police being called, the earliest reports not using the word riot, the premiere preceded by press stories and open rehearsals, a score that took 17 orchestra rehearsals and over 130 dance calls, conductor Pierre Monteux's recollection of first hearing the piano reduction ('I was convinced he was raving mad'), Nijinsky's choreography described by Taruskin as 'ugly earthbound lurching and stomping', and the premiere's role in making the work an icon of modernism. Popular but well-referenced; used for the premiere context and counter-evidence on the riot, not for any trait row on its own. Read in full.
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, item record 2014712545, 'Stravinsky' (Bain News Service, publisher; glass negative, [between ca. 1920 and ca. 1925]; call number LC-B2- 5464-2 [P&P]; reproduction number LC-DIG-ggbain-32392) -- checked for the portrait's rights: the record gives the Rights Advisory 'No known restrictions on publication' and the Bain collection's own statement reads 'There are no known copyright restrictions on the photographs in the George Grantham Bain Collection. Publicity rights may apply.' (credit line: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, with the reproduction number); the title is taken from the Bain negative and the summary identifies the sitter as the composer, pianist and conductor Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky, the same photograph the Library's Stravinsky research guide uses as its illustration. The record was read through the Library's JSON interface and the rights statement through the Library's published rights data because the HTML pages returned HTTP 403 to direct download. Not used for any scoring.
- Wikimedia Commons file page 'Stravinsky LCCN2014712545.jpg' -- checked for the portrait's file and licence: Bain News Service, publisher, from the Library of Congress (digital ID ggbain.32392), tagged with the Commons Bain and public-domain licence tags and the Library's 'No known restrictions on publication' statement; original JPEG 5405 x 7487 pixels (Commons' own date field reads 1900, which conflicts with the Library's [between ca. 1920 and ca. 1925] and was not used). Not used for any scoring.