Tchaikovsky VS. Stravinsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Igor Stravinsky were both incredible musical composers. These men changed the way music will be looked at for the rest of forever. Their famous ballets are still very widely known today and will last into many years in the future. In this paper I will write about both of these composers and how they got their start, where they come from, and how they changed music. I will also write about each of their famous ballets, The Nutcracker and The Rite of Spring. This will include what the story of each ballet is about, how the reception on them has changed through the years, and the popularity of each different forms of the ballet. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in a small town called Votkinsk …show more content…
He also combined this piece with other more modern pieces to create a serious affirmation of love. He also wrote smaller works alongside his large well know ones. Some of his instrumental works included the Piano Concerto, the Sonata, and the Serenade as a piano solo ("Igor Stravinsky Biography"). The Nutcracker was written in 1891 by Tchaikovsky. It was commissioned by the legendary choreographer Marius Petipa ("The Nutcracker Ballet"). The first showing of this ballet took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1892 (“The Nutcracker”). This ballet soon made its way into Western Europe and the Americas (“The Nutcracker Ballet”). The first showing was unsuccessful but has become enormously popular since the late 1960’s (“The Nutcracker”). The Nutcracker is based on the story “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice” writted by E.T.A. Hoffman. The story line has since changed in the fine details since 1891 but the plot remains the same. It is about “a young German girl who dreams of a Nutcracker Prince and a fierce ballet against a Mouse King with seven heads. The ballet ends when the young German girl “awakens from her dream and finds herself by the Christmas tree with her beloved Nutcracker ("The Nutcracker Ballet