Igor Stravinsky (June 17, 1882 - April 6, 1971)
Try it with a touch of jazz!
Jazz flutist Hubert Laws released an album of classical "covers" in 1971 on the CTI label. It included a 9-minute version of Rite of Spring, along with music by JS Bach, Gabriel Fuare, and Claude Debussy. The album was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
For more jazz interpretations of The Rite of Spring, try Ornette Coleman's "Sleep Talking," from his Pulitzer Prize-winning album Sound Grammar, Alice Coltrane's "Spring Sounds" (Eternity), and Don Sebesky's very swinging "Rite of Spring."
Music Sources
- Orchestral parts -- 1911 versionCD-ROM set of 13 discs (one for each instrument part). These can check out individually.
- Stravinsky's arrangement for piano (4 hands)Available here through the IMSLP Petrucci online database of public domain music scores.
Sound Recordings
- CD4502Igor Stravinsky conducts the Orchestre Symphonique (of Paris); recorded May 7-10, 1929.
Compact discs check out to graduate students for 1 week and undergrads for 3 days. These recordings are listed in chronological order, from earliest recording date to the most recent.
A pretty good list of orchestral audio recordings, piano version audio recordings, and video recordings is available via Wikipedia.
- CD4512Pierre Monteux conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra; recorded January, 1951.
- CD4409-4410Igor Stravinsky conducts the the "Sinfonie Orchester und Chor des Nord Deutsche Rundfunk Hamburg" at the International Festival of Contemporary Music, Venice; recorded September, 1958.
- CD2626Seiji Ozawa conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; recorded 1968.
- CD5935Pierre Boulez conducts the Cleveland Orchestra; recorded July 28, 1969.
- CD7641Zubin Mehta conducts the New York Philharmonic; recorded 1977.
- CD1584Charles Dutoit conducts the Montreal Symphony; recorded May, 1984.
- CD7642Antal Dorati conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; recorded 1981.
Related Books
Most books check out to graduate students for 4 months and undergrad students for 4 weeks. Click on individual titles to find the call number -- not all are located within the ML/MT music collections area.
- Nijinsky's Crime Against Race: Reconstruction Score of the Original Choreography for Le Sacre Du PrintempsUsing a facsimile of the rehearsal piano score, Millicent Hodson relates steps and spatial figures to musical phrases, indicating in detail the sources for her reconstruction (which include notes from Stravinsky as well as Marie Rambert, Nijinsky's assistant in 1913.
- Le Sacre du Printemps: Seven Productions from Nijinsky to Martha GrahamIncludes some B&W photographs of various dancers in costume and on stage.
- First Nights: Five Musical PremieresIn-depth reconstructions of the first performances of Monteverdi's Orfeo in 1607, Handel's Messiah in 1742, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1824, Berlioz's Symphony fantastique in 1830, and Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps in 1913. Describes the cities, concert halls, audiences, conductors, musicians, as well as popular and critical responses.
- Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (a Cambridge music handbook)"This comprehensive guide tells in vivid detail the story of its inception and composition, of the stormy rehearsals which led to the scandalous premiere in 1913, and of Stravinsky's later betrayal of the ballet's first choreographer, Nijinsky. Peter Hill probes beneath the surface of the music to reveal an architectural conception of unsuspected guile and subtlety. He provides detailed discussion of the work in performance and a hard-hitting conclusion, which poses a radical challenge to the orthodox view of the work." (summary provided by the publisher)
- The Harmonic Organization of The Rite of SpringMusic theorist Alan Forte applies his analytical approach (from The Structure of Atonal Music) to The Rite of Spring, using more than 100 musical examples from the score.
- Perspectives on Schoenberg and StravinskyIncludes two major theoretical writings on Stravinsky's tonal language: "Problems in Pitch Organization in Stravinsky" (Arthur Berger) and "Stravinsky: The Progress of a Method" (Edward T. Cone).
- Skryabin and Stravinsky 1908 - 1914: Studies in Theory and AnalysisThis 1985 doctoral dissertation (Oxford University) includes a 37-page comparison of some of the major theoretical approaches to analyzing Le Sacre--including those of Forte, Katz, Travis, Cone, Berger, and van der Toorn. A bibliography, on pages 289-291, is a useful source for tracking down the original analyses.
- Analysing Musical MediaIncludes a nice chapter on "Disney's Dream: The Rite of Spring Sequence from Fantasia" (pages 174-214).
"Who Wrote This Fiendish Rite of Spring?"
The text to this song by Henry Cowell (1897-1965) was included in the "Letters and Documents" section of Nicholas Slonimsky's Music Since 1900 (published in 1937). The citation by Slonimsky states that it first appeared in the Boston Herald in February 1924. He later included it in his 1952 Lexicon of Musical Invective.
Who wrote this fiendish "Rite of Spring," / What right had he to write the thing, / Against our helpless ears to fling / Its crash, clash, cling, clang, bing, bang, bing?
And then to call it "Rite of Spring." / The season when on joyous wing / The birds melodious carols sing / And harmony's in everything!
He who could write the "Rite of Spring" / If I be right, by right should swing!
The attached file is from a copy of the 1996 H. Wiley Hitchcock edition of Henry Cowell's 1938 Three Anti-Modernists Songs.
Reviews
"Does Mr. Stravinsky imagine that a melody will gain intensity and decisive eloquence because it is doubled during fifty measures with a second above, a second below, or both? One must think so because the innovations embedded in the score of Le Sacre du Printemps are mostly in this category."
H. Quittard, Figaro, Paris (May 31, 1913)
"The most essential characteristic of Le Sacre du Printemps is that it is the most dissonant and the most discordant composition yet written. Never was the system and the cult of the wrong note practiced with so much industry, zeal, and fury."
Pierre Lalo, Le Temps, Paris (June 3, 1913)
"The music of Le Sacre du Printemps baffles verbal description. To say that much of it is hideous as sound is a mild description. There is certainly an impelling rhythm traceable. Practically it has no relation to music at all as most of us understand the word."
Musical Times, London (August 1, 1913)
Recommended Video Resources
Videos are available for check-out (1 week for graduate students), or you can use our viewing stations in the Media Center.
- DVD1556 Keeping Score: Stravinsky's Rite of SpringJoin Michael Tilson Thomas and the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony as they explore the history and inspiration behind The Rite of Spring. Includes a full performance of the orchestral work, filmed live at Davies Symphony Hall in September 2004.
- DVD2468 Stravinsky: Once at a BorderA presentation of the life and works of Stravinsky, with commentary from his three surviving children as well as musical associates and friends. Includes musical performances, documents, photographs, and archival film.
- DVD2776 The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard BernsteinIn Lecture 6 ("Poetry of the Earth"), Bernstein discusses tonality and dissonance in the works of Igor Stravinsky, featuring excerpts from The Rite of Spring.