Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky was born in 1882 and died in 1971 at the age of 89. Stravinsky was a Russian, and later French and American composer, pianist and conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.
          Stravinsky worked through three musical periods. These were the Russian period, Neoclassical period and the Serial period.
Russian period (c. 1908-1919)
Stravinsky's first period began with Feu d'artifice and included the three ballets he composed for Diaghilev. These pieces have several things in common: they are scored for an extremely large orchestra; they use Russian folk themes and motifs.
Neoclassical period (c. 1920-1954)
The next phase of Stravinsky's compositional style extends from the opera Mavra, which is regarded as the start of his neo-classical period, until 1952, when he turned to serialism.
Serial period (1954-1968)
In the 1950's, Stravinsky began using serial compositional techniques such as dodecaphony, the twelve-tone technique originally devised by Arnold Schoenberg. He first experimented with non-twelve-tone serial techniques in small scale vocal and chamber works such as the Cantata, the Septet,and Three Songs from Shakespeare.