Neoclassical Music Composers and Their Works

Perhaps the most famous Neoclassical musician and composer was Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky’s best known compositions were The Firebird, Pulcinella, The Soldier’s Tale, Apollon Musagete, The Rite of Spring, his Symphony of Salms, Orpheus and L’Histoire du oldate, and Symphony in Three Movements. In these works Stravinsky changed things up by using mostly the piano, wind instruments and choral works instead of the typical grand orchestra style of ballet of the time. Especially Pulcinella is an important work in his career asit was Pulcinella that led him to neoclassical style. First performance of Pulcinella was a big success with costumes produced by Picasso and simple, modern music of Igor Stravinsky.

Paul Hindemith was a very famous viola player during the Neoclassical music era. He was a talented composer and conductor. He composed viola sonatas as well as a viola concerto. Some of his famous compositions were six string quartets and three trios. To this day Hindemith is recognized as the most talented German composer of his generation. His neoclassical style differed from that of Igor Stravinsky. In Stravinsky’s style you can hear a hint of a clear classical sound resembling Mozart. Paul Hindemith had some classical sound to his music also but in a more contrapuntal style resembling Bach. One of the things that Paul Hindemith was known for in his neoclassical music was the solos he wrote for instruments that weren’t commonly used as solo instruments. He did a series of works called Kammermusik in which you can hear examples of these solos. Listen to Kammermusik No 6 of this series and you will hear a viola d’amore playing a solo concerto. This instrument hadn’t been heard much since the baroque period. Paul Hindemith himself played the viola d’amore. However, Paul Hindemith faced a harsh reaction of the audiences during the performance of Kammermusik No 1  in 1923.

Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian composer who was forced to compose and play happy music during a time when his true passion was dark music, full of tension. It was the dark music full of tension that Dmitri Shostakovich was most talented at composing. He lived in St. Petersburg Russia in the early 1900s and studied at the Petrograd Conservatory. His first success was the satirical opera Lady McBeth of Mtsensk. After this he composed Symphony No. 5 which was subtitled ‘the creative reply of a Soviet artist to justified criticism’. Shortly after this Shostakovich composed Symphony No. 7 followed by Piano Quintet in G, OP. 57. Over his life he composed 15 symphonies and fifteen string quartets. Best known Neoclassical works of Shostakovich were his first, fourth, fifth and tenth symphonies, his two operas, The Nose and Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk. One of Shostakovich’s greatest works and best known works of the Neoclassical music era were his fifteen string quartets. His style was often viewed as sharp and some times grotesque.

Another Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev is perhaps next to Igor Stravinsky as one of the top two best known composers of the Neoclassical music era. It is said that Sergei Prokofiev was inspired by Igor Stravinsky and that Sergei Prokofiev’s nine piano sonatas are the most important set of sonatas of the twentieth century and of Neoclassical music. Sergei Prokofiev was very non-traditional in his composing and early on in his career he experimented quite a bit with playing in two keys at the same time, one key in one hand and the other key in the other hand. Sergei Prokofiev’s most famous pieces of the Neoclassical music era are Peter and the Wolf, Cinderella, and Romeo and Juliet.

Aaron Copland was an extremely accomplished American pianist during the Neoclassical music era. He is most widely recognized for his incorporation of percussive orchestration, polyrhythms and tone rows. Some of  the best works of Aaron Copland were El Salon Mexico, Fanfare for the Common Man, Third Symphony, Billy The Kid and the ballet Rodeo. The first performance of the ballet Rodeo was a great success as an innovative work.