Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky, Igor (1882–1971), Russian-born U.S. composer. He caused a sensation with his scores for the ballets The Firebird (1910), Petrouchka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). Living in France from 1920, he adopted an austere neoclassical style, as in Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920), the opera Oedipus Rex (1927), and Symphony of Psalms (1930). As a U.S. resident after 1939, he wrote many works, including Symphony in Three Movements (1945) and the opera The Rakes' Progress (1951). He adopted 12-tone composition for such late pieces as Agon (1957) and Threni (1958).