Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?

By the late 1920s and 1930s the use by composers of neoclassicism had become widespread. Other pieces from the Russian period include: Le Rossignol (The Nightingale); Renard (1916); Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale) (1918); and Les noces (The Wedding) (1923). From then until his wife's death in 1939 Stravinsky led a double life spending some time with his first family and the rest with Vera.

S. His "Russian phase" was followed in the 1920s by a period in which he turned to neoclassical music. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso fugue and symphony).