The Resume

(June 17, 1882-April 6, 1971)
Russian composer
Moved to Paris and then the United States
Composer of many works - including operas, symphonies, chamber music, songs, and ballets

Why he might be annoying:

He sometimes signed his name by placing his initials, I and S, over one another--creating a dollar sign ($).
After writing masterpieces like 'The Rite of Spring' and 'The Wedding,' he sold out and wrote cheesy neoclassical, but lucrative, commissions.
He exploited the notorious riot that greeted the premiere of his ballet 'The Rite of Spring' for celebrity.
He charged enormously high fees for his music ('on behalf of my brother composers, Schubert and Mozart, who died in poverty').
He smoked (enough to contract nicotine poisoning).
He 'borrowed' Russian folksongs in his music but hid this fact from listeners and scholars.
When the Venice Festival was upset that the work they commissioned, the Canticum sacrum, was too short, Stravinsky told them to play it twice.
For many years in Beverly Hills, he was neighbors with Arnold Schoenberg, the great Austrian composer, but never spoke to him.
>He wrote: 'Music means nothing in itself.'
When Samuel Goldwyn hired Stravinsky for scoring a film, Stravinsky gave him some music. Goldwyn said, 'Oh, you don't understand--we do the movie and then you do the score.' Stravinsky said, 'No, you don't understand: this is the score; you do the movie.
He slept with Coco Chanel.

Why he might not be annoying:

He ranked in Time Magazine's Top 100 Artists of the Twentieth Century.
He slept with Coco Chanel.
He was a musical genius.
His 'Rite of Spring' is the most important work of classical music of the twentieth century.
He said: 'I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes.'
He said: 'I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.'
Four days before he died, he signed a note in Russian with his name in English letters, and when his wife told him to sign in Russian, he wrote instead 'Oh how I love you!'

Credit: Joshua Cody

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• An Asteroid was Named in My Honor (Ranked: 4382)
• Carnegie Hall Concerts
• Composers Featured in 'Fantasia' [1940]
• Composers Featured in 'Fantasia 2000'
• Google Modified Its Logo For My Birthday (Google Doodles)
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (Ranked: 1987)
• I Abused LSD
• I am on a U.S. Postage Stamp [R-T]
• I Am On the Voyager Golden Record [1977]
• I Died in 1971 (Ranked: 89)
• I Have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame[R-T]
• Life Magazine's 100 People Who Changed the World [2010] (Ranked: 82)
• Look at Me, I'm a Man in Shades
• Look at Me, Yes You! - Finger Pointers
• My Song was Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (Ranked: 2000)
• Opera Singers and Composers
• Profiles 4751-5000 (Ranked: 4974)
• Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Musical Stars of the 20th Century (Ranked: 82)
• Time Magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century [1998]

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 70 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 152 Votes: 60.53% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 29 Votes: 17.24% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 145 Votes: 56.55% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 109 Votes: 55.96% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 34 Votes: 79.41% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 138 Votes: 64.49% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 87 Votes: 59.77% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 40 Votes: 65.00% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 73 Votes: 68.49% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 65 Votes: 52.31% Annoying
In 2010, Out of 99 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2009, Out of 55 Votes: 52.73% Annoying
In 2008, Out of 51 Votes: 56.86% Annoying
In 2007, Out of 107 Votes: 53.27% Annoying
In 2006, Out of 138 Votes: 51.45% Annoying
In 2005, Out of 221 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
In 2004, Out of 239 Votes: 46.86% Annoying
In 2003, Out of 556 Votes: 47.84% Annoying
In 2002, Out of 1162 Votes: 41.74% Annoying