Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons

A quintessence of Stravinsky’s reactions to the phenomenon of music. Poetics of Music offers the most coherent statement of the unchanging values behind Stravinsky’s many apparent shifts of manner: his insistence, for example, that music should be a revelation of a higher order to be faithfully executed by the performer, rather than a medium of self-expression to be interpreted. Above all, the composer must submit to rules, no matter how arbitrary, for ‘the more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.’ – G. W. Hopkins * Musical Times *[These lectures] provide penetrating glimpses into the thought processes of Stravinsky’s mind. While dealing with his chosen topics—the phenomenon of music, the composition of music, musical typology, the avatars of Russian music, and the performance of music—he reveals his reverence for tradition, order and discipline. * The American Recorder *

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) was one of the twentieth century’s most admired and influential composers, conductors, and music theorists. His ballets and symphonies, including The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, cemented his central place in the evolution of musical modernism.

Vijay Iyer is an award-winning composer, pianist, and music scholar. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, he has been named Jazz Artist of the Year four times by the DownBeat International Critics’ Poll. He is Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he directs a doctoral program in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry.

George Seferis (1900–1971) was a Nobel Prize–winning Greek poet, essayist, and diplomat. One of the most influential Greek authors of his generation, he received honorary doctorates from Cambridge, Oxford, and Princeton, and was made an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1957 to 1962, he served as Greek Ambassador to the United Kingdom.