Igor Stravinsky - Greeting Prelude (Happy Birthday) (1955) [with score]

Greeting Prelude (Happy Birthday) - for orchestra Written by Igor Stravinsky Thanks to Thomas Van Dun for the preparation of this score video. Performed by the Radio Philharmonisch Orkest, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw Boosey and Hawkes © The Greeting Prelude (W93) is a composition by Igor Stravinsky for orchestra, composed in 1955 ’For the eightieth birthday of Pierre Monteux’. The 45-second work was first performed on April 4, 1955 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, by Charles Munch. The work is based on Happy Birthday, a composition by Clayton F. Summy. Stravinsky heard the work for the first time during a rehearsal in 1950, when the orchestra members used Happy Birthday because one of the members of the orchestra had become a father. The composer remembered the melody later when he wrote a “sort of sung telegram“ for Monteux’s 80th birthday. Stravinsky was under the assumption that the song belonged to the old folklore; he did not realize that the composer was still alive, but asked as Stravinsky said ’generously no compensation’ - a situation that was different with the Jambe and bois motif that he had processed in Petrushka (W18) and for which he had to pay duties . According to the composer, the music is’ a one-and-a-half minute introduction in canon art for small children and critics.