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 Soldate, 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 as it 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.

Pulcinella
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 Macbeth 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.

Lady McBeth of Mtsensk

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.