Thoughts on Stravinsky Part I

So, in Music History we are wrapping up a section on post-romantic composers. Though I previously had known of Stravinsky's works(does the word Dinosaur ring a bell?), I did not fully grasp the magnitude of his music. Stravinsky became a world famous composer through joining and composing music for a dance theater called Ballet Russes.(emily you should enjoy this) This Ballet company focused on being contemporary and new age, Diaghilev, the Russian cofounder(How russian of an name can you get?) worked with Stravinsky for his first two ballets, Firebird Suite, and Petruska. I won't go in to detail about them other than the fact that both were based upon Folk tales. However, I have performed in both in the Uconn Symphony Orchestra, an experience that I will never forget. Of the two ballets, petruska is my favorite, mostly for Stravinsky's increasingly iconic use of dissonant harmonies for the sake of color. The best example of this is the "Petruska chord" or basically using two chords from two different keys at the same time.(bitonality) This concept of two different keys culminates in my ULTIMATE FAVORITE WORK-RITE OF SPRING!!!!! more about that later. but here are some links, one of them is the youtube video of the uconn orch.