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As Igor Stravinsky is eminently a "contemporary" composer and decidedly a "modernist," it is sometimes difficult to remember that this Russian innovator in tone, born in 1882, was already 15 years old when Brahms died. It is almost as hard to realize today that the "Firebird, "Petrouchka" and "Rite of Spring" ballets were composed prior to the outbreak of World War I, while "Histoire du Soldat" was created before that war ended. Even the much later "Symphony of Psalms," which had been composed for the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony, dates as far back as 1930. Such biographical details are worth mention, not only for the record but as collateral tribute to the vitality and verve of the composer and his creations. As for the man himself, his opinions on the relation of music to moving pictures set forth in this article acquire additional weight and momentum, of course, because Stravinsky's "Sacre du Printem" ("Rite of Spring") reached the celluloid in Walt Disney's Fantasia.

Some of the Russian's views may startle some readers; hardly one reader will be shocked into anything less profitable than a fresh examination of his own opinions.

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