Conversations with Igor Stravinsky

Published in 1958, Conversations with Igor Stravinsky marks the beginning of a remarkable literary collaboration between the renowned composer and his assistant, the American conductor Robert Craft. Born out of a series of informal, wide-ranging dialogues conducted in the mid-1950s, the book was intended to document Stravinsky’s aesthetic philosophies, his technical approach to composition, and his personal reflections on his contemporaries. It provided a rare window into the mind of a musical giant during his later years.

The volume is celebrated for its candid, often opinionated, and highly articulate tone, which Craft helped shape by transcribing and refining their spoken exchanges. This dialogue-based structure set a precedent for several subsequent volumes of their conversations, collectively providing a comprehensive primary source for musicologists. Upon its release, the work was received as a significant contribution to 20th-century music literature, praised for its clarity and the intimate perspective it offered on Stravinsky’s evolving creative process and his transition into serialism.