Igor Stravinsky’s essay

9/18/13
Stravinsky Essay
In Igor Stravinsky’s essay, he describe his hatred toward the way conductors attract their audience with little effort and talent. In the passage, Stravinsky a composer of music, describe what Conductors are and what they do. He compares them to politicians and actors, who only care to play themselves and rarely attract people with original minds sets. A Conductor need not understand the concepts of music, nor does he/she need to have any musical talent of any sorts. Composer Igor Stravinsky uses unflattering comparisons to politicians and actors as well as sarcasm and negative diction to reveal his point of view that conductors are arrogant fools.

Stravinsky states in his passage that like great politicians, conductors need not be creative, nor do they need to be talented. Like Politicians, conductors “rarely attract original minds.” The tone shows an element of how Stravinsky think conductors are selfish people with little or no talent, but people think highly of them. Stravinsky also compares conductors to great actors who are unable to play anything but themselves. Conductors like great actors, “are unable to adapt themselves to the work, but they choose to adapt the work to themselves, to their style, their mannerism.” Stravinsky shows an element of hatred toward conductors and how lazy and arrogant they are, how they believe they are better in every way. Conductor do not have to be educated on music to do what they do, all they truly need is to look the part of a conductor, and orchastret the orchestra well and people will think of them as great conductors. “The field is more for the making of careers and the exploitation of personalities-another resemblance to politics- than a profession for the application of exact and standardized disciplines.”

Stravinsky uses sarcasm to describe how the public view conductors. Stravinsky states that conductors are “great” and that “they are titans of the podium.” The tone shows an element of disgust for conductors and how they think they are anything but powerful or worthy of worship. The leadership of a conductor is obstruct, a conductor tend to lead his/her audience away from the music sound, and focus them more on his/her appearance, and to confuse the audience to believe that the conductors gesture is the music’s meaning. “The important part of the performance is the gesture. If you are incapable of listening, the conductor will show you what to feel.”

Igor Stravinsky a composer of music uses comparisons of politicians and actors that are unflattering, as well as sarcasm and harmful diction that reveal his point of view that conductors are arrogant and selfish fools.