July : Stravinsky : Rite of Spring

[james]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring

This month's listening project is 'The Rite of Spring' by Igor Stravinsky. I am not too sure how to approach this work but I will start with some preliminary remarks to explain how I will try to introduce the work. Personally I love the work and it is one of my favourites. But looking at the 'What Are You Listening To?' and 'Recent Purchases' threads on this site I note a certain lack of interest in modern music [with the possible exception of Mahler].

Of course the Rite is not really modern - chronologically - since next year will be the 100th anniversary of its first performance [in Paris]. But, I believe, it can still shock.

It is interesting to list the previous works in this thread ...

February: Fergus (Vivaldi - Le Quattro Stagioni)

March: Matt (Sibelius - Symphony No. 5)

April: Jared (Moussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition)

May: Darren (R. Strauss - Don Quixote)

June: Simon (Purcell - Ode for St. Cecilia's Day: 1692 'Hail, Bright Cecilia!')

With the exception of March [Sibelius Symphony No 5] all the works have a programme or story and the Rite is similar in this regard [it is, in fact, the score for a ballet about celebrating the arrival of spring in pagan Russia]. But, personally, when I listen to the music I do not think of the story - I just hear agreeable sounds. It is the same when I listen to 'Pictures at an Exhibition' - I don't think of the pictures. I will, of course, in these notes, discuss the ballet but this is how I really listen to music. Obviously, this is just my personal approach. But if you played me a section of the Rite and asked me what was happening in the ballet, I would not know without checking the track number and looking at the the track names on the back of the CD. [And ditto for Pictures at an Exhibition].

The work is very important in the history of music. It is one of the great 'modern' pieces. At the start of the 20th century modern music developed along two paths - one was the path of Stravinsky [and similar], the other the path of Schoenberg [i.e. serialism].

There was a pole on RTE radio a few years ago where listeners were asked to list the most important works of the 20th century - The Rite was the overall winner.

In what follows I will discuss the origin of the work and describe the plot of the ballet .. but when all is said and done the important thing is the music. Yes, it is dissonant but I find it exhilarating and I hope you will too. If you have difficulties with the music remember a) it is quite short and b) in two self-contained parts so you might be best just listenning to one of the parts a few times. Some of it is quite loud but there are also some very soft parts.

--------------------------------------

So here goes ..

The 'Rite of Spring' is a ballet score by Stravinsky, first performed in 1913. It follows on from two other ballets by him viz. 'The Firebird' and 'Petrushka'. Firebird is the most conventional of the three but if you want a taste of the Rite try the 'Infernal dance of King Kashchei' movement.

The Rite is quite a short work .. it lasts about 35 minutes and in the days of LP's there was usually a filler to bring up the total length to 45 minutes. The Rite is divided into two parts representing Day and Night.

Note that Leonard Bernstein said of one passage, "That page is sixty years old, but it's never been topped for sophisticated handling of primitive rhythms...", and of the work as a whole, "...it's also got the best dissonances anyone ever thought up, and the best asymmetries and polytonalities and polyrhythms and whatever else you care to name."

Again according to the wikipedia entry : "Versions differ on the origin of the concept for The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky later in life said that it came to him in a dream. But contemporary sources support that the idea originated with the Russian philosopher and painter Nicholas Roerich. Roerich shared his idea with Stravinsky in 1910, a fleeting vision of a pagan ritual in which a young girl dances herself to death. Together, Roerich and Stravinsky worked out a scenario of pagan dances in pre-Christian Russia. Roerich drew from scenes of historical rites for inspiration and used research of early Russian culture to create settings and costumes to complete the image of an early pagan Russia.".

Stravinsky's earliest concept for the music of The Rite of Spring came in the spring of 1910. Stravinsky writes, "... there arose a picture of a sacred pagan ritual: the wise elders are seated in a circle and are observing the dance before death of the girl whom they are offering as a sacrifice to the god of Spring in order to gain his benevolence. This became the subject of The Rite of Spring."

Based on the above plan the work falls into the following sections .. [again I take the information from Wikipedia].

First Part: Adoration of the Earth (Première Partie: L'adoration de la Terre)

* Introduction
* The Augurs of Spring: Dances of the Young Girls (Les Augures Printaniers: Danses des Adolescentes)
* Ritual of Abduction (Jeu du Rapt)
* Spring Rounds (Rondes Printanières)
* Games of the Two Rival Tribes (Jeux des Cités Rivales)
* Procession of the Oldest and Wisest One [the Sage] (Cortège du Sage)
* The Kiss of the Earth (The Oldest and Wisest One) [(The Sage)] (Adoration de la Terre (Le Sage))
* The Dancing Out of the Earth, OR The Dance Overcoming the Earth (Danse de la Terre)

Second Part: The Exalted Sacrifice (Seconde Partie: Le Sacrifice)

* Introduction
* Mystic Circle of the Young Girls (Cercles Mystérieux des Adolescentes)
* The Naming and Honoring of the Chosen One (Glorification de l'Élue)
* Evocation of the Ancestors OR Ancestral Spirits (Evocation des Ancêtres)
* Ritual Action of the Ancestors (Action Rituelle des Ancêtres)
* Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) (Danse Sacrale (L'Élue))

The premier was notorious and caused a riot - [according to Wikipedia] "[T]he ballet was premièred by the Ballets Russes on Thursday, 29 May 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, conducted by Pierre Monteux ... The première involved one of the most famous classical music riots in history. The intensely rhythmic score and primitive scenario and choreography shocked the audience that was accustomed to the elegant conventions of classical ballet. The complex music and violent dance steps depicting fertility rites first drew catcalls and whistles from the crowd. At the start, some members of the audience began to boo loudly. There were loud arguments in the audience between supporters and opponents of the work. These were soon followed by shouts and fistfights in the aisles. The unrest in the audience eventually degenerated into a riot. The Paris police arrived by intermission, but they restored only limited order. Chaos reigned for the remainder of the performance".

I hope that is enough to get us started. I will write some more tomorrow ..

[By the way there is a 4-handed piano version, by Stravinsky, also available].

ends==

[Seán]

James, your first post gets this thread off to a great start, well done.

In what follows I will discuss the origin of the work and describe the plot of the ballet .. but when all is said and done the important thing is the music. Yes, it is dissonant but I find it exhilarating and I hope you will too. If you have difficulties with the music remember a) it is quite short and b) in two self-contained parts so you might be best just listenning to one of the parts a few times. Some of it is quite loud but there are also some very soft parts.

and I love it.

[Diapason]

Great start indeed James. I'm a huge fan of the work and, like you, have little idea of what's being represented at any given moment. In fact, I only ever think of it as part 1 and part 2. That said, there are so many changes in the musical structure along the way maybe it's time to enlighten myself.

[DaveF]

Like Simon has said above I've always been fascinated by the many changes in music that you come across in this work. That said, I've never really taken the time to really understand what's going on and what exactly Stravinsky was trying to convey at any one point.
To begin with, I've started to listen to the recording here by the Concertgebouw/Davis which was the first ever classical CD that I bought nearly over years ago. The recording is crystal clear and with huge dynamics.

[fergus]

Well done James; a great start indeed. You have given me much to ponder already!

[Diapason]

Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is on Sky Arts 2 (and Sky Arts 2 HD) a few times over the next week. It's on now (!), again at 3:30am, Thursday at 3pm and Friday at 9am. Orchestra is the San Francisco Symphony, and the programme also features the Firebird and Copland's Appalachian Spring.

[Seán]

Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is on Sky Arts 2 (and Sky Arts 2 HD) a few times over the next week. It's on now (!), again at 3:30am, Thursday at 3pm and Friday at 9am. Orchestra is the San Francisco Symphony, and the programme also features the Firebird and Copland's Appalachian Spring.

Feck, I don't have Sky.

[james]

I have been reading this book ...




to try to get some more information on the music.

To some extent I would say "Just listen to the music .. if you like it then look at the analysis .. if you don't like it then understanding how clever it is is quite irrelevant"

But maybe seeing how clever the music is might make you decide it is worth the effort to try it out by listening to it a few times. Personally there is a lot of music which is considered as works of genius which I just don't get so I am really trying to get you to listen to the Rite and give it a fair chance .. i.e. listen a few times. I can see why people might hate it .. so if you dislike it the the first time I would say just listen to part-1 or part-2 a few times rather then the whole lot.

Anyway, after reading Peter Hill's book on the Rite and here is some information I have gathered ..

Stravinsky used some folk-tunes in the early parts of the Rite but really did not make much of an effort to use folk-tunes .. he wrote his own tunes.

Some [a few] parts of the Rite uses the octatonic scale. This was a favourite of Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky's teacher and father in law. The scale consists of "eight steps of alternating semitones and tones".

"There are two main types of 'melodies' - one formed by step-wise melodies using the intervals tone-semitone-tone within the compass of a perfect fourth, in the other the intervals of fourths and seconds predominate."

"Another unprecedented feature of the Rite is the way Stravinsky combines line with line, layer with layer, in such a way that they retain a reptilian indifference to one another. This is one source of the lack of sentiment or 'pity' for which the Rite was famous and which still has its power to disturb. Th lack of expressive 'contact' between ideas is found also in the total lack of reaction as on event follows another."

Elsewhere in the book Hill describes how sections of the work just stop and are replaced by new sections. This approach works until Stravinsky has to actually finish the work and so takes a different approach at the very end.

To be honest I find the book interesting [particularly in the historical background] but it does not really tell me much about the work that helps me appreciate it. Also the technical analysis [some of which I have quoted] is way over my head.

ends==

[james]

I am now going to try to actually listen to the work ..

It is hard to pick a recording for this project .. I have a few recordings but most of them just have two tracks viz. part-1 and part-2. I have found one recording that does have all the different tracks and its this one.



Its fairly inexpensive [since naxos] and I quite like the violin concerto. But there are lots of other versions.

So we start with the Introduction to Part-1.

It's basically 'about' the awakening of nature after the long winter. What is really interesting in the solo instrument .. a bassoon playing quite high. I understand that it i quite hard to play in this register and thet Stravinsky wanted a certain sense that the soloist was straining ..

There is a story from wikipedia ...
Stravinsky had called for a bassoon to play higher in its range than anyone else had ever done. Fellow composer Camille Saint-Saëns famously stormed out of the première allegedly infuriated over the misuse of the bassoon in the ballet's opening bars (though Stravinsky later said "I do not know who invented the story that he was present at, but soon walked out of, the première."

The opening of part-1 is quite and slow .. he starts part-2 in more or less the same way.

ends==

[fergus]

To some extent I would say "Just listen to the music .. if you like it then look at the analysis .. if you don't like it then understanding how clever it is is quite irrelevant"

But maybe seeing how clever the music is might make you decide it is worth the effort to try it out by listening to it a few times. Personally there is a lot of music which is considered as works of genius which I just don't get so I am really trying to get you to listen to the Rite and give it a fair chance .. i.e. listen a few times. I can see why people might hate it .. so if you dislike it the the first time I would say just listen to part-1 or part-2 a few times rather then the whole lot.

To date this has been a work that although I do not hate it neither do I like it. I am not a great fan of Stravinsky in general so I will take your advice and start to give the work a few more listens to see if I can get some appeal from it. Hopefully this thread will give me something to go on in terms of information and more analysis so that I can perhaps get to grips with the work. The two versions that I have are....




and