●
The Rite of Spring ●
The Rite of Spring, original French title, Le sacre du printemps (Russian: Весна священная,
Vesna svyashchennaya), is a 1913 ballet
with music by the Russian composer Igor
Stravinsky, original choreography by Vaslav
Nijinsky, and original set design and costumes by archaeologist and
painter Nicholas Roerich, all under impresario Serge
Diaghilev. The music's innovative complex rhythmic structures, timbres, and use of dissonance have made it a seminal 20th century
composition.
In 1973, composer and conductor 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."[1]
A performance of the work lasts about 33 minutes.
●
Name
While the Russian title literally means "Sacred Spring", the English title is
based on the French title under which the work was premiered, although
sacre is more precisely translated as "consecration". It has the subtitle
"Pictures from Pagan Russia" (French: Tableaux de la Russie païenne).
●
Composition
Bassoon solo in the opening measures of the
Introduction, "A Kiss of the Earth",
The Rite of Spring (
Play (help·info)).
The painter Nicholas Roerich shared his idea with Stravinsky in
1910, his fleeting vision of a pagan ritual in which a young girl dances herself
to death. Stravinsky's earliest conception of The Rite of Spring was 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."[2]
While composing The Firebird,[3] Stravinsky began
forming sketches and ideas for the piece, enlisting the help of Roerich. Though
he was sidetracked for a year while he worked on Petrushka (which he intended to be a light burlesque as a relief from the orchestrally intense
work already in progress), The Rite of Spring was composed between 1912
and 1913 for Serge
Diaghilev's Ballets
Russes. Roerich was an integral part of the creation of the work,
drawing from scenes of historical rites for inspiration; Stravinsky referred to
the work-in-progress as "our child".
●
Premiere
After undergoing revisions almost up until the very day of its first
performance, it was premiered on Thursday, May 29, 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris
and was conducted by Pierre Monteux under the Ballets
Russes.
The premiere involved one of the most famous classical music riots in history. The intensely
rhythmic score and primitive scenario shocked audiences more accustomed to the
demure conventions of classical ballet. Vaslav
Nijinsky's choreography was a radical departure from classical
ballet. Stravinsky would later write in his autobiography of the process of
working with Nijinsky on the choreography, stating that "the poor boy knew
nothing of music" and that Nijinsky "had been saddled with a task beyond his
capacity."[4] While Stravinsky
praised Nijinsky's amazing dance talent, he was frustrated working with him on
choreography.
This frustration was reciprocated by Nijinsky with regard to Stravinsky's
patronizing attitude: "...so much time is wasted as Stravinsky thinks he is the
only one who knows anything about music. In working with me he explains the
value of the black
notes, the white
notes, of quavers and semiquavers, as though I had never studied music at
all... I wish he would talk more about his music for Sacre, and
not give a lecture on the beginning theory of music."[5]
The complex music and violent dance steps depicting fertility rites first
drew catcalls and whistles from the crowd. At the start, 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.[6] 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 premiere."[7]) .
Stravinsky ran backstage, where Diaghilev was turning the lights on and off
in an attempt to try to calm the audience. Nijinsky stood on a chair, leaned out
(far enough that Stravinsky had to grab his coat-tail), and shouted counts to
the dancers, who were unable to hear the orchestra (this was challenging because
Russian numbers above ten are polysyllabic, such as eighteen: vosemnadsat vs.
seventeen: semnadsat).[8]
Although Nijinsky and Stravinsky were despondent, Diaghilev (a Russian art critic as well as the ballet's
impresario) commented that the scandal was "just what I wanted".[citation needed]
Some scholars have questioned the traditional account, particularly
concerning the extent to which the riot was caused by the music, rather than by
the choreography and/or the social and political circumstances. Stravinsky
scholar Richard Taruskin has written an article about the
premiere, entitled "A Myth of the Twentieth Century," in which he attempts to
demonstrate that the traditional story of the music provoking unrest was largely
concocted by Stravinsky himself in the 1920s after he had published the score.
At that later date, Stravinsky was constructing an image of himself as an
innovative composer to promote his music, and he revised his accounts of the
composition and performances of The Rite of Spring to place a greater
emphasis on a break with musical traditions and to encourage a focus on the
music itself in concert performances. once the music became popular, later
writers appropriated Stravinsky's version of events. Taruskin summarizes how
unimportant the music apparently was to most of the audience at the
premiere:
In 1913 [the music] was not the primary object of attention. The most
cursory perusal of the Paris reviews of the original production, conveniently
collected in Truman C. Bullard's dissertation, reveals that it was the
now-forgotten Nijinsky choreography, far more than Stravinsky's music, that
fomented the famous "riot" at the premiere. Many if not most reviews fail to
deal with Stravinsky's contribution at all beyond naming him as composer. And,
as most memoirs of the premiere . . . agree, a lot of the music went unheard,
which did not dissuade the protesters in the least.
[9]
The ballet completed its run of six performances amid controversy,[10] but experienced no
further disruption. The same performers gave a production of the work in London
later the same year. And when the following year saw the first concert (i.e.
non-staged) performance of the work given in Paris, Stravinsky was afterwards
carried through the streets on the shoulders of a cheering crowd.[11] The United
States premiere was in 1924 in a concert version.
●
Music
●
Themes
The Rite is divided into two parts with the following scenes (there
are many different English translations of the original titles; the ones given
are Stravinsky's preferred wording[12] followed by the
original French in parenthesis):
First Part: Adoration of the Earth (Première Partie: L'adoration
de la Terre)
- Introduction[13]
-
- The Augurs of Spring: Dances of the Young Girls (Les Augures Printaniers:
Danses des Adolescentes)[14]
- Ritual of Abduction (Jeu du Rapt)[15]
- Spring Rounds (Rondes Printanières)[16]
- Games of the Two Rival Tribes (Jeux des Cités Rivales)[17]
- Procession of the Oldest and Wisest one [the Sage] (Cortège du
Sage)[18]
- The Kiss of the Earth (The Oldest and Wisest one) [(The Sage)] (Adoration
de la Terre (Le Sage))[19]
- The Dancing Out of the Earth, OR The Dance Overcoming the
Earth (Danse de la Terre)[20]
Second Part: The Exalted Sacrifice (Seconde Partie: Le
Sacrifice)
- Introduction[21]
-
- Mystic Circle of the Young Girls (Cercles Mystérieux des
Adolescentes)[22]
- The Naming and Honoring of the Chosen one (Glorification de
l'Élue)[23]
- Evocation of the Ancestors OR Ancestral Spirits (Evocation
des Ancêtres)[24]
- Ritual Action of the Ancestors (Action Rituelle des Ancêtres)[25]
- Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen one) (Danse Sacrale (L'Élue))[26]
Though the melodies draw upon folk-like themes designed to evoke the feeling
of songs passed down from ancient time, the only tune Stravinsky acknowledged to
be directly drawn from previously existing folk melody is the opening, first
heard played by the solo bassoon. Several other themes, however, have been shown
to have a striking similarity to folk tunes appearing in the Juskiewicz anthology of Lithuanian folk songs.[citation needed]
● Musical characteristics
Stravinsky's music is harmonically adventurous, with prominent use of
dissonance for the purposes of color and musical energy. Rhythmically, it is similarly adventurous, a number of
sections having constantly changing time signatures and off-beat accents.
Stravinsky used asymmetrical rhythms, percussive dissonance, polyrhythms, polytonality, layering of ostinati (persistently repeated ideas) and melodic
fragments to create complex webs of interactive lines, and is influenced by primitivism (specifically, West African tribal art[citation needed]). An example of primitivism
can be seen below (from the opening of the final section, the "Sacrificial
Dance"):
Stravinsky,
The Rite of Spring, "Sacrificial
Dance"
Play (help·info)
According to George Perle (1977 quoted in 1990), the "intersecting
of inherently non-symmetrical diatonic elements with inherently non-diatonic
symmetrical elements seems... the defining principle of the musical language of
Le Sacre and the source of the unparalleled tension and conflicted energy
of the work". This idea is elaborated more fully by Van Den Toorn, who gives a
detailed analysis of the pitch structure of the piece in terms of diatonically
derived tetrachords intersecting with symmetrical 'partitions'
of the octatonic scale.[27]
Like the symmetrical partitioning of the twelve-tone scale in Le
Sacre, the work's diatonicism may be explained in terms of interval cycles more simply and coherently than in
terms of traditional modes or major and minor scales. With the single exception
of interval[-class] 5, every interval[-class] from 1 through 6 partitions an
octave into equal segments. A seven-note segment of the interval-5 cycle [C5],
telescoped into the compass of an octave, divides the octave into unequal
intervals: 'whole-steps' and 'half-steps'".
Example: The last few bassoon solo measures
from the main theme from the Introduction, preceded by the head motif,
transcribed to treble clef.
The boundary of what Perle considers the principal
theme from the Introduction, following the solo bassoon head motif in
measures 1-3, is a symmetrical tritone divided by minor thirds, making an interval-3
cycle (C 3) (p. 19). Like Edgard Varèse's Density
21.5, "it partitioned the interval of a tritone into two minor
thirds and differentiated these by twice filling in the span of the upper
third--first chromatically and then with a single passing note--and leaving the
lower third open". The theme repeats "truncated" in 7-9, the head motif only in
13, and then fully, transposed down a half step, fifty three measures later, 66,
at the end of the movement with "(c-flat)-(b-flat)-(a-flat)
instead of the head motif's c-b-a" (p. 81-82).
Like Density 21.5, it "implies the complete representation of each
partition of the C3 interval cycle." C30 begins in the head motif's
c-b-a and is completed by the main theme which immediately
follows (see example above). However, "the otherwise atonal C 3 cycle is
initiated by a minor third that is plainly diatonic and tonal" (p. 83). Thus
The Rite of Spring has something in common with No. 33 of Béla Bartók's 44 Violin Duets, "Song of the Harvest", which, "juxtaposes tonal and
atonal interpretations of the same perfect-4th tetrachord" (p. 86).
The enduring celebrity of The Rite of Spring is partly due to its
constant discussion and analysis by musicologists and music theorists. Allen
Forte,[28] Pierre
Boulez[29] and Van den Toorn
have given analyses of the work's structure in terms of abstract relations of
rhythm and pitch, arguing for a modernist understanding of its musical language. on the
other hand, Richard Taruskin's monumental study of Stravinsky's
early music gives an explanation of the musical characteristics as fundamentally
and directly derived from Russian folk music.[30] American composer
and parodist Peter Schickele said in a radio broadcast in the 1990s
that The Rite of Spring had such a profound effect on composition that
virtually all subsequent 20th century music could be said to be “The Rewrite of
Spring”.[citation needed]
●
Instrumentation
The Rite of Spring is scored for an unusually large orchestra consisting of the following:
- woodwinds: piccolo, 3 flutes
(3rd doubling piccolo 2), alto
flute, 4 oboes (4th doubling English horn 2), English
horn, clarinet in E-flat and D, 3 clarinets in B-flat, A (3rd doubling bass
clarinet 2), bass
clarinet , 4 bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon 2), contrabassoon
Stravinsky scored the instruments of the orchestra in unusual sounding registers in the Rite of Spring, often emulating
the strained sounds of untrained village voices.[31] An instance of
this is heard in the very opening bassoon solo which reaches near to the highest
notes of the instrument's range. The composer also called for instruments that,
before the Rite of Spring, had rarely been scored for in orchestral
music, including the alto flute, piccolo
trumpet, bass trumpet, Wagner
tuba, and güiro. The use of these instruments, combined with the
aforementioned manipulation of instrumental registers, gave the piece a
distinctive sound.
In his 1951–52 Charles Eliot Norton lectures, Aaron
Copland characterized the Rite of Spring as the foremost
orchestral achievement of the 20th century.[32]
●
Arrangements for piano
Stravinsky composed a piano
four-hands version before finishing the orchestral score. The
composer was continually revising the work for both musical and practical
reasons, even after the premiere and well into ensuing years. The transcription
for piano four-hands was performed with Debussy; since Stravinsky composed the
Rite, as with his other works, at the piano, it is natural that he worked
on the piano version of the work concurrently with the full orchestral score. It
was in this form that the piece was first published (in 1913, the full score not being published until 1921 by Editions Russe de Musique). Owing to the disruption
caused by World War I, there were few performances of the work in
the years following its composition, which made this arrangement the predominant version by which the piece
gained public exposure. This version is still performed quite frequently, as it
does not require the massive forces of the full orchestral version.
Stravinsky also made two arrangements of The Rite of Spring for player
piano. In late 1915, the Aeolian
Company in London asked for permission to issue both the Rite
and Petrushka on piano roll, and by early 1918 the composer had made
several sketches to be used in the more complex passages. Again owing to the
war, the work of transcribing the rolls dragged on, and only the Rite was
ever issued by Aeolian on standard pianola rolls, and this not until late 1921, by which
time Stravinsky had completed a far more comprehensive re-composition of the
work for the Pleyela, the brand of player piano manufactured by Pleyel in Paris.
The Pleyela/pianola master rolls were not recorded using a "recording piano"
played by a performer in real time, but were instead true "pianola" rolls, cut
mechanically/graphically, free from any constraints imposed by the ability of
the player. Musicologist William Malloch observed that on these rolls the final
section is at a considerably faster tempo, relative to the rest of the
composition, than in the generally used orchestral score. Malloch opines—based
upon this evidence, the composer's revisions of the orchestral score, and a
limited number of very early phonographic recordings of performances—that
Stravinsky originally intended the faster tempo, but found that significant
numbers of orchestral players at the time were simply unable to manage the
rhythmic complexity of the section at that tempo, and accordingly revised the
tempo markings.[citation needed] The Zander recording
includes both the pianola version, and the orchestral Rite with the
faster tempo restored to the final section. A low-fidelity recording is
available here.
●
Ballet
●
Reconstruction of ballet
Although Nijinsky's choreography was poorly preserved, his choreography and
Roerich's costuming and set design were reconstructed in 1987 by dance historian
Millicent Hodson, art historian Kenneth Archer, and choreographer Robert
Joffrey, for performance by the Joffrey
Ballet.[33] The piece
premiered in Los Angeles, and in 1990, Joffrey's reconstruction was televised as
part of the Dance in America/Great
Performances series on PBS.[34] Hodson's
reconstructed version of Nijinsky's "Sacre" has since been added to the
repertory of the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet Company (formerly the Kirov)
of St. Petersburg, Russia and has been filmed by that company and released on
video.[35]
●
Influence on dance
The music is used as a standard of dance troupes around the world, including
for choreography by Pina Bausch and Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Different from the long and
graceful lines of traditional ballet, arms and legs were sharply bent in
Nijinsky's choreography. The dancers danced more from their pelvis than their
feet, a style that later influenced Martha
Graham. The "anti-ballet" aspects of the Nijinsky choreography (body
components curled inward not opened outward, body pulled down not lifted up,
steps heavy not light, focus on grotesqueness not elegance) as well as the
controversial, violent, pagan, or primitivist thematic material, greatly
influenced Tatsumi Hijikata and Tamano method Butoh.
■
Disney's Fantasia
The Rite of Spring was further popularized through Walt
Disney's Fantasia (1940), an animated feature
film in which original animated images and stories were combined with
works of classical music. The Rite of Spring is the fourth piece in the
film's program, illustrated by "a pageant, as the story of the growth of life on
Earth" according to the narration read by Deems
Taylor. The sequence depicts the evolution of life on earth, from the
beginning of simple life forms up to the dinosaurs and their eventual
destruction. The original score of Stravinsky's work was edited for its use in
Fantasia. Part I was considerably shortened and the opening bassoon solo
was repeated at the end.
Stravinsky's own 1961 recording of the work for Columbia Records included liner
notes by him, transcribed from an interview for which the audio still exists. Therein, he
stated that he received $1,200 (his share of a total $5,000) for the use of his
music in the film, explaining that since his music was not copyrighted for use in the USA it could be used
regardless of whether he granted permission or not, but that Disney wished to
show the film in other countries. In order for the music to follow the animated
story concerned, much of Part I either was omitted entirely or was moved to, or
repeated at, the end. Stravinsky, the only living composer featured in the film
at the time of its release, spoke critically of the significant re-ordering and
cuts made to his composition. one source states that he also conceded that the
animators understood the meaning of the piece,[36] but Stravinsky
said in his autobiography that the musical performance of the work was
"execrable", and about the animation, "I do not wish to criticize an unresisting
imbecility." [37]
■ Other references/arrangements
As one of Western music's genre-defining compositions, the piece has been
used in dozens of prominent places. Among them:
●
Recordings
- Pierre Monteux conducting the "Orchestre Symphonique du
Gramophone". 4 discs, 78 rpm, 12 in. Disque Gramophone W-1016, W-1017, W-1018,
and W-1019. Nogent, France: Disque Gramophone, recorded 1929 (premier recording)
- Igor Stravinsky conducting an "orchestre symphonique",
5 discs, 78 rpm, 12 in. Columbia, LX 1027; LX 1028; LX 1029; LX 1030; LX 1031;
LX 1032; LX 1033; LX 1034; LX 1035; LX 1036; D 15213. [N.p.]: Columbia. recorded
1929
- Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, Victor, recorded 1929-30 (first US recording)
- Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, Fantasia film soundtrack, recorded 1939 (abridged)
- Igor Stravinsky conducting the New York Philharmonic, recorded 1940 (mono)
- Pierre Monteux conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, RCA,
recorded 1951 (mono)
- Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic,
Columbia, recorded 1958 [See notes below.]
- Antal
Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mercury
Records, recorded 1959
- Igor Markevitch conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, EMI,
recorded 1959 (reissued on Testament)
- Igor Stravinsky conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Columbia, recorded 1960
- René Leibowitz conducting the London Festival
Orchestra, i.e. the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Reader's Digest, recorded
1960
- Karel Ančerl conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Supraphon, recorded 1963
- Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon, recorded 1964 [See notes below.]
- Yevgeny Svetlanov conducting the USSR Symphony Orchestra, Melodiya, recorded 1966
- Seiji
Ozawa conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, RCA, recorded 1968
- Pierre Boulez conducting the Cleveland Orchestra, Columbia, recorded 1969, and
Deutsche Grammophon, recorded 1992
- Leonard Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, Sony Music Entertainment,
recorded 1972, (Bernstein Century Collection)
- Bernard Haitink conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philips, recorded 1973
- Sir
Colin Davis conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philips, recorded 1976
- Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic
Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon, recorded 1977
- Ricardo
Muti conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, EMI, recorded 1979
- Lorin Maazel conducting the Cleveland Orchestra, Telarc, recorded 1980
- Antal
Dorati conducting the Detroit
Symphony, Decca recorded May 1981, digital, Grand Prix du Disque
- Leonard Bernstein conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon, recorded 1982
- Simon Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, recorded 1987
- Benjamin Zander conducting the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, IMP Records, with the
solo pianola version, played by Rex Lawson, recorded 1990
- Alexander Rahbari conducting the BRT Philharmonic
Orchestra, Brussels, Naxos, recorded 1990
- Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Decca, recorded 1990
- Pierre Boulez conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, RM Arts (DVD/VHS), recorded
1993
- Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony, RCA/BMG, recorded 1996
- Valery Gergiev conducting the orchestra of the Kirov
Opera, Philips, recorded 1999
- Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deutsche Grammophon, recorded
2006
- Mariss Jansons with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
RCO Live Holland, recorded 2008
- Gustavo Dudamel with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Deutsche
Grammophon, recorded 2010
Notes: Stravinsky recorded the work himself thrice: with the Paris Symphony
Orchestra in 1929, with the New York Philharmonic in 1940, and with the Columbia
Symphony in 1960. He reportedly greeted Leonard Bernstein's 1958 recording with
the one-word reaction, "Wow!"[38] In a detailed
review of Herbert von Karajan's 1964 recording, Stravinsky described it as
"generally odd, though polished in its own way; in fact, too polished, a pet
savage rather than a real one." Further he observed, "There are simply no
regions for soul-searching in The Rite of Spring."[39]
■ 영문텍스트 - WIKIPEDIA
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● 세기의 명배우
세기의 미인 - 엘리자베 테일러 타계(4.23. 2011) ●
리즈 테일러 그녀의
별세를 애도하며 스트라빈스키 - 봄의 제전
'Igor
Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps'를 그녀의 영전에..♡
