How Did Stravinsky Write The Spring Ritual?

The Rite of Spring is a ballet and orchestral concert work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on May 29, 1913. It is considered one of the first examples of Modernism in music and is noted for its brutality. Stravinsky completed the composition, two parts of roughly equal length (Adoration Of The Earth and The Sacrifice), by the beginning of 1912 and finished the instrumentation by late spring. The piece caused a scandal in 1913, partly because the audience found the music too dissonant and violent and partly because they were offended by Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography.

The Rite of Spring represents pagan Russia and is unified by a single story. Stravinsky conceived the idea of writing a kind of symphonic pagan ritual called Great Sacrifice, which led to the creation of The Rite. The inspiration to write the score was that Serge Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes, paid him to write it.

Despite being a new piece, the motifs and tunes are actually based on traditional folk melodies. A young virgin chosen as a human sacrifice dances herself to death, goaded on by frenzied polyrhythms propitiating the renewal of life. The piece has grown so important in the history of music, with its best recordings and riot heard around the musical world.

What is so special about The Rite of Spring?

The Rite of Spring, a ballet by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, premiered in Paris on May 29, 1913, and is considered one of the first examples of Modernism in music. The piece is known for its brutality, barbaric rhythms, and dissonance, with its opening performance being one of the most scandalous in history. The piece was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev, the impresario of the Ballets Russes, and developed by Stravinsky with the help of artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich.

The production was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, and its sets and costumes were designed by Roerich. The Rite of Spring, inspired by Russian culture, challenged the audience with its chaotic percussive momentum, making it a startlingly modern work.

Why didn’t people like Rite of Spring?

The Rite of Spring, a ballet by Igor Stravinsky, premiered in Paris on May 29, 1913, and was expected to be a major cultural event due to the talent involved. The Ballets Russes, or “Russian Ballet”, was a hot ticket due to the Eastern exoticism of previous productions, such as Firebird and Petrushka, both composed by Stravinsky. The audience was shocked by the ugly costumes, heavy choreography, and harsh music, which was expected to shock the audience.

The choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky, was known for his shocking and often risqué choreography, such as his 1912 performance of Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune. The audience was shocked and with good reason.

What did audiences find shocking about The Rite of Spring?

Stravinsky believed that the crowd, who had seen the Sacre du Printemps, were upset by the dissonance in the score, dancers’ movements, and the woodwind section’s rapid sounds. The storm broke when the curtain opened, and the composer reacted by saying “go to hell” to the naive and stupid people. Contrary to popular belief, the riot was likely not due to the shock of the music, exotic choreography, or Roerich’s bizarre settings, but rather by anti-Russian, anti-Diaghilev, and anti-Nijinsky factions in Paris who were determined to disrupt proceedings before music was heard.

How did Stravinsky compose Rite of Spring?

Stravinsky, a composer known for his folk music, sought inspiration from a book of folk songs rooted in pagan rituals. He needed to find instruments that could play these folk sounds, as modern orchestras are sophisticated instruments with no connection to traditional instruments. Stravinsky wrote for modern orchestra instruments in bizarre ways, pushing them to extreme heights and depths, and placing them in uncomfortable positions.

He mimicked the authentic village sound by adding grace notes, suggesting vocal breaks of untutored singers. Village dances were composed of teams moving in different patterns, similar to how instruments play in the Rite. The alternation of these teams maintains the excitement of the piece.

How does Stravinsky evoke primitivism in The Rite of Spring?

In Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the composer employs traditional Russian themes and percussive elements to evoke a sense of primitivism and a lack of civilization within the context of the ballet. This results in an atmosphere that is nostalgic in nature.

Why was Rite of Spring so controversial?

On May 29, 1913, Les Ballets Russes in Paris performed The Rite of Spring, a ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky. The performance was characterized by a rhythmic score and primitive scenario, setting scenes from pagan Russia. The complex music and violent dance steps, depicting fertility rites, initially sparked unrest, leading to a riot. The Paris police intervened but only restored limited order, causing chaos for the rest of the performance.

Despite this, Sergei Diaghilev, the director of Les Ballets Russes, praised the scandal as “just what I wanted”. The ballet completed its run of six performances without further disruption. The piece is considered a 20th-century masterpiece and is often heard in concert. In 1988, the Joffrey Ballet reconstructed Nijinsky’s original setting, televised nationally on PBS, 75 years after its premiere.

What style did Stravinsky compose?

Stravinsky’s music can be divided into three main styles: a Russian period, a neoclassical period, and a serial period. His Russian period (1907-1919) began with compositions under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s tutelage, including the orchestral works Symphony in E-flat major, Faun and Shepherdess, Scherzo fantastique, and Feu d’artifice. These works showcase Stravinsky’s influence on composers like Glazunov, Taneyev, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Dvořák, and Debussy. Stravinsky’s performances of Scherzo fantastique and Feu d’artifice attracted Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned him to orchestrate Chopin’s piano works for the ballet Les Sylphides in 1909.

What was so revolutionary about The Rite of Spring?

The Rite of Spring, a groundbreaking score by Anton Stravinsky, was groundbreaking in its rhythm, stress, and tonality. Stravinsky had little immediate tradition and no theory, relying on his ear for inspiration. This led to difficulties in notating and expressing the complexity of the music, and the original orchestral musicians had to stop interrupting during rehearsals. Today, the score still sounds radical and is an eternally modern piece.

The piece begins with a bassoon melody in a high register, sounding otherworldly and disturbing. The first dance features a repeated, stamping chord, with the accented beat constantly shifting. The final’sacrificial dance’ is heavily percussive.

What elements made The Rite of Spring shocking to its first audiences?

The Rite of Spring ballet, a controversial early-twentieth-century piece, employs dissonant sounds characteristic of early modernism and the avant-garde to transport the audience to prehistoric pagan Russia.

What is the form of The Rite of Spring?

The Rite of Spring is a ballet and orchestral concert work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company in 1913. The avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation and near-riot in the audience. The music achieved equal or greater recognition as a concert piece, and is widely considered one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century. Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes.

The concept behind The Rite of Spring, developed by Nicholas Roerich from Stravinsky’s outline idea, suggests that after primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death. The ballet was not performed again until the 1920s, when a version choreographed by Léonide Massine replaced Nijinsky’s original. In the 1980s, the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles reconstructed Nijinsky’s original choreography.

Stravinsky’s score contains many novel features for its time, including experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress, and dissonance. The music has influenced many of the 20th-century’s leading composers and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire.

What are the musical elements of The Rite of Spring?

The ballet, Le Sacre du printemps, was created for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and danced by Nijinsky. It featured complex polytonalities, intentional dissonances, densely overlapping polyrhythms, and foregrounded percussion. Despite its aesthetic unfamiliarity, the ballet’s crazed audience, where elegantly dressed strangers turned on each other with their fists, earned it a devoted following. The ballet’s premiere and the musical revolution that followed it are studied by music historians and psychologists.

Designer Nicholas Roerich developed the ballet’s scenario from Stravinsky’s outline, which envisioned a stage action based on Russian pre-Christian folk rituals. The ballet’s storyline is a composite pagan ritual celebrating the advent of spring, with a young virgin chosen as a human sacrifice dancing herself to death, goaded on by frenzied polyrhythms propitiating the renewal of life.

Despite its success, the music of Sacre was initially challenging for instrumentalists and dancers during rehearsals due to its rhythmic complexity. Leonard Bernstein, a meticulous preparer, found the score insurmountable on his own and sought help from musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, a friend of Stravinsky who emigrated to America.