Editing Igor Stravinsky (section)

=== Higher education, 1901–1909 ===
==== Student compositions ====
[[File:Rimsky-Korsakov_Serow_crop.png|alt=Painting of Rimsky-Korsakov wearing glasses, looking left|thumb|[[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]], painted by [[Valentin Serov]] in 1898]]
Despite his musical passion and ability, Stravinsky's parents expected him to study law at the [[University of Saint Petersburg]], and he enrolled there in 1901. However, according to his own account, he was a bad student and attended few of the optional lectures.{{Sfn|Dubal|2003|p=565}}{{Sfn|Stravinsky|Craft|1960|p=27}} In exchange for agreeing to attend law school, his parents allowed for lessons in [[harmony]] and [[counterpoint]].{{Sfn|Walsh|2001|loc=2. Towards 'The Firebird', 1902–09}} At university, Stravinsky befriended Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, son of the leading Russian composer [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]].{{Efn|In his 1936 autobiography, Stravinsky described his admiration for Rimsky-Korsakov and [[Alexander Glazunov]], both leading figures of Russian music at the time: "I was specially drawn to [Rimsky-Korsakov] by his melodic and harmonic inspiration, which then seemed to me full of freshness; to [Glazunov] by his feeling for symphonic form; and to both by their scholarly workmanship. I need hardly stress how much I longed to attain this ideal of perfection in which I really saw the highest degree of art; and with all the feeble means at my disposal I assiduously strove to imitate them in my attempts at composition."{{sfn|Stravinsky|1936|p=11}}{{sfn|White|1997|p=14}}}} During summer vacation of 1902, Stravinsky traveled with Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov to [[Heidelberg]] – where the latter's family was staying – bringing a portfolio of pieces to demonstrate to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. While the elder composer was not stunned, he was impressed enough to insist that Stravinsky continue lessons but advised against him entering the [[Saint Petersburg Conservatory]] due to its rigorous environment. Importantly, Rimsky-Korsakov agreed personally to advise Stravinsky on his compositions.{{Sfn|Walsh|2001|loc=2. Towards 'The Firebird', 1902–09}}{{Sfn|White|1997|p=15}}

After Stravinsky's father died in 1902 and the young composer became more independent, he became increasingly involved in Rimsky-Korsakov's circle of artists.{{Sfn|White|1979|p=26}}{{Sfn|White|1997|p=16}} His first major task from his new teacher was the four-movement [[Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor (Stravinsky)|Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor]] in the style of Glazunov and [[Tchaikovsky]] – he paused temporarily to write a [[cantata]] for Rimsky-Korsakov's 60th birthday celebration, which the elder composer described as "not bad". Soon after finishing the sonata, the student began his large-scale [[Symphony in E-flat (Stravinsky)|Symphony in E-flat]],{{Efn|The Symphony in E-flat was designated Opus 1, though Stravinsky's inconsistent use of Opus numbers makes them futile.{{sfn|White|1997|p=18}}{{sfn|White|1979|p=192}}}} the first draft of which he finished in 1905. That year, the dedicatee of the Piano Sonata, Nikolay Richter, performed it at a recital hosted by the Rimsky-Korsakovs, marking the first public premiere of a Stravinsky piece.{{Sfn|Walsh|2001|loc=2. Towards 'The Firebird', 1902–09}}

After the events of [[Bloody Sunday (1905)|Bloody Sunday]] in January 1905 caused the university to close, Stravinsky was not able to take his final exams, resulting in his graduation with a half-diploma. As he began spending more time in Rimsky-Korsakov's circle of artists, the young composer became increasingly cramped in the stylistically conservative atmosphere: modern music was questioned, and concerts of contemporary music were looked down upon. The group occasionally attended chamber concerts oriented to modern music, and while Rimsky-Korsakov and his colleague [[Anatoly Lyadov]] hated attending, Stravinsky remembered the concerts as intriguing and intellectually stimulating, being the first place he was exposed to French composers like [[César Franck|Franck]], [[Paul Dukas|Dukas]], [[Fauré]], and [[Debussy]].{{Sfn|Walsh|2001|loc=2. Towards 'The Firebird', 1902–09}}{{Sfn|Stravinsky|1936|pp=17–18, 20}} Nevertheless, Stravinsky remained loyal to Rimsky-Korsakov – the musicologist Eric Walter White suspected that the composer believed compliance with Rimsky-Korsakov was necessary to succeed in the Russian music world.{{Sfn|White|1997|p=16}} Stravinsky later wrote that his teachers' musical conservatism was justified, and helped him build the foundation that would become the base of his style.{{Sfn|Stravinsky|1936|p=20}}

==== First marriage ====
[[File:Katya_Stravinskaya_1907.jpg|alt=Woman wearing a white dress with her hair in a large bun|thumb|[[Yekaterina Stravinsky]] in 1907]]

In August 1905, Stravinsky announced his engagement to [[Yekaterina Nosenko]], his first cousin whom he had met in 1890 during a family trip.{{Sfn|Walsh|2001|loc=2. Towards 'The Firebird', 1902–09}} He later recalled:<blockquote>From our first hour together we both seemed to realize that we would one day marry—or so we told each other later. Perhaps we were always more like brother and sister. I was a deeply lonely child and I wanted a sister of my own. Catherine, who was my first cousin, came into my life as a kind of long-wanted sister{{nbsp}}... We were from then until her death extremely close, and closer than lovers sometimes are, for mere lovers may be strangers though they live and love together all their lives{{nbsp}}... Catherine was my dearest friend and playmate ... until we grew into our marriage.{{Sfn|Stravinsky|Craft|1962|pp=39–40}}</blockquote>The two had grown close during family trips, encouraging each other's interest in painting and drawing, swimming together often, going on wild raspberry picks, helping build a tennis court, playing [[piano duet]] music, and later organizing group readings with their other cousins of books and political tracts from Fyodor Stravinsky's personal library.{{sfn|Walsh|1999|pp=43–44, 47, 56}} In July 1901, Stravinsky expressed infatuation with Lyudmila Kuxina, Nosenko's best friend, but after the self-described "summer romance" had ended, Nosenko and Stravinsky's relationship began developing into a furtive romance.{{sfn|Walsh|1999|p=45}} Between their intermittent family visits, Nosenko studied painting at the [[Académie Colarossi]] in Paris.{{sfn|Strawinsky|Strawinsky|2004|p=64}} The two married on 24 January 1906, at the Church of the Annunciation five miles (eight kilometers) north of [[Saint Petersburg]] – because [[Cousin marriage|marriage between first cousins]] was banned, they procured a priest who did not ask their identities, and the only guests present were Rimsky-Korsakov's sons.{{sfn|Boucourechliev|1987|p=36}} The couple soon had two children: [[Théodore Strawinsky|Théodore]], born in 1907, and Ludmila, born the following year.{{Sfn|White|1979|p=29}}

After finishing the many revisions of the Symphony in E-flat in 1907, Stravinsky wrote ''Faun and Shepherdess'', a setting of three [[Pushkin]] poems for [[mezzo-soprano]] and orchestra.{{Sfn|White|1997|p=18}} Rimsky-Korsakov organized the first public premiere of his student's work with the Imperial Court Orchestra in April 1907, programming the Symphony in E-flat and ''Faun and Shepherdess''.{{Sfn|Walsh|2001|loc=2. Towards 'The Firebird', 1902–09}}{{Sfn|Stravinsky|Craft|1960|pp=58–59}} In 1908, he sent the score of ''[[Feu d'artifice]]'' to Rimsky-Korsakov. It was returned with the note: “Not delivered on account of death of addressee.”<ref name=Schonberg>{{cite news| last=Schonberg| first=Harold| author-link=Harold C. Schonberg| title=Igor Stravinsky: 'An Inventor of Music' Whose Works Created a Revolution| date=April 7, 1971| work=[[The New York Times]]| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/04/07/91278004.html?pageNumber=48}}</ref> Rimsky-Korsakov's death in June 1908 caused Stravinsky deep mourning, and he later recalled that ''[[Funeral Song (Stravinsky)|Funeral Song]]'', which he composed in memory of his teacher, was "the best of my works before ''The Firebird''".{{Sfn|Walsh|1999|p=114}}{{Sfn|Stravinsky|Craft|1960|p=59}}