Stravinsky and the Post-War Generation in France: Aspects of Influence

This article explores aspects of Stravinsky’s influence on some key composers of the Francophone post-war avant-garde, namely Pierre Boulez, Jean Barraqué, Henri Pousseur and Michel Philippot. While Messiaen, Boulez and Barraqué build on Stravinsky’s rhythmic innovations, Pousseur focuses on the sonic complexity of the Russian composer’s scores. Boulez and Philippot praise Stravinsky’s unique instrumental groupings and later Boulez finds in certain of Stravinsky’s scores a renewed source of musical form, as well as the structural coherence afforded by Stravinsky’s use of pitch polarity.