This week’s Musical Moment is from our Operations Manager, Miss Snowden – celebrating Stravinsky who has an important anniversary this week!

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky

This year marks the 50th anniversary Igor Stravinsky’s death (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971) – one of the most influential and celebrated composers of the twentieth century. The Russian-born composer wrote symphonic works, operas, concertos and masses but is best known for his ballets which pushed the boundaries of rhythm, orchestration and harmony. The Rite of Spring (1913) famously caused a riot during its premier at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

In a note to the conductor Serge Koussevitzky in February 1914, Stravinsky described The Rite of Spring as “a musical-choreographic work, representing pagan Russia … unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of the creative power of Spring”. The work is split into two main sections Part I: L’Adoration de la Terre (Adoration of the Earth) and Part II: Le Sacrifice (The Sacrifice).

Leonard Bernstein described The Rite Of Spring as, “the most important piece of music of the 20th Century.” It is considered of the earliest examples of modernism in music noted for its brutality, barbaric sounding rhythms and dissonance which result in an overall sense of unease. “The music always goes to the note next to the one you expect,” wrote one exasperated critic at the time. The avant-garde score coupled with Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography caused a very split reaction from the audience who began arguing so loudly that the dancers were unable to hear their orchestral cues. The score contradicted every musical rule and both shocked and outraged audiences at the time.

There were five further performances in Paris following its premier. The composer Giacomo Puccini, who attended the second performance on 2ndJune reported that “the public hissed, laughed—and applauded”. The production had four subsequent performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. A critic from The Times thought Stravinsky had entirely sacrificed melody and harmony for rhythm, writing that “if Stravinsky had wished to be really primitive, he would have been wise to… score his ballet for nothing but drums”.

Listen out for the opening bassoon line which is uncomfortably high for the instrument. It is a very exposed an unsettling moment which sets the tone of the work and shows how Stravinsky pushed the limits of both the music and the performers. As the curtain pulls up in this performance after the opening section, watch how the dancers accent Stravinsky’s irregular rhythms with their sharp movements.

Click here to listen to The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky