Analysis Of The Rite Of Spring

22.  By the 14th century a new system of music notation had evolved.  It allowed a composer to specify almost any rhythmic pattern.  Were beats now divided into two or three parts or both?  Was syncopation used? Both and yes

When one thinks of a ballet they hear soft rhythmic notes and see elegantly dancing ballerinas softly tip-toeing around the stage. This is also what people in early 1900’s expected to see when they planned to attend a ballet. However, a couple of motivated artists in 1913 literally planned to change the design of ballet, music and dance forever. On May 29, 1913 a ballet named The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris, France. The original title as it translates from Russian to French is; Le Sacre du Printemps, meaning the rite of spring, but the literal translation from Russian to English means “Sacred Spring”. The ballet and music were composed by Igor Stravinsky, with the help of Nicholas Roerich, who proposed the general idea behind the

Ensemble Vagabond’s debut performance of The Rite of Spring changed the history of Igor Stravinsky’s outrageous ballet. Arranged for Winds and Piano, Peter Facer has taken this momentous piece to an entirely new level. With the Callaway Music Auditorium at maximum capacity, Vagabond strode confidently onstage to roaring applause to give the performance of a lifetime.

It is then restated by each of the various families of instruments such as the woodwinds, brass, strings, and the percussion. It is then played again at the end, but by the orchestra as a whole. Each variation also changes the theme's dynamics (e.) by making the sounds go from a soft, mellow type of volume to a loud and very energetic volume. Throughout the piece it seemed that the tempo (g.) would go from a very fast, powerful pace to a slow, light and playful pace. In the final parts of Benjamin Britten’s piece, he makes use of counterpoint by showing how a melody (b.) can bounce from one instrument to another while still being in sync. The style period (j.) of Britten’s success musical composition was modern, since it was created in the latter years of the 1940s.The performance medium (k.) of this piece was of various classical instrumental

1. The structure Ives uses in Country Band March is not a true march structure. In the piece, he waives a highly complex mesh of other tunes into the march. The structure used in Country Band March is formed in a five-part sectional, one that brings back the opening march thee in various appearances. Two innovative techniques Ives commonly utilized in his music were quarter tones and polytonality. Quarter tones were an interval half the size of a half step, and with this, Charles Ives realized that the lack of harmony among musical notes were not exceptions, but the norm of American musical life. From this, it led to polytonality, polyharmony and polyrhythm. Polytonality is the musical use of more than one key at the same time. Polyharmony is a structure that characteristically presents two or more simultaneous musical harmonies, while polyrhythm is the use of two or more conflicting rhythms at once.

To begin, The Rite of Spring was composed by Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky was born in 1882 near St. Petersburg, Russia. As a Russian-born composer, his music had “a revolutionary impact on musical thought and sensibility just before and after World War I, and his compositions remained a touchstone of modernism for much of his long working life” (Taruskin; White). According to Wikipedia, he is considered one of the most important and

Modris Eksteins presented a tour-de-force interpretation of the political, social and cultural climate of the early twentieth century. His sources were not merely the more traditional sources of the historian: political, military and economic accounts; rather, he drew from the rich, heady brew of art, music, dance, literature and philosophy as well. Eksteins examined ways in which life influenced, imitated, and even became art. Eksteins argues that life and art, as well as death, became so intermeshed as to be indistinguishable from one another.

Paying homage to the Russian ballet “The Rite of Spring” with his novel’s title, Eksteins begins his analysis of World War I by discussing Stravinsky’s ballet, which premiered in 1913. The ballet, which shocked audiences by straying from what was most accepted during the time, is used in comparison to Germany and both world wars. According to Eksteins, both the ballet and Germany share similar notions of sacrifice being essential to life, and glorify death. Germany, specifically, glorified death as a means of fighting against the old orders in search of liberation and global acceptance of modernism. Therefore, Germany’s reasoning for fighting in World War I

Debussy, at the age of eighteen, was sponsored by Madame Nadejda von Meck, who was also the patroness of Tchaikovsky. However, Madame von Meck permitted Debussy to Travel with her and her family, unlike her arrangement with Tchaikovsky. Although this encouraged his career, it made him have an expensive taste the rest of his life, forcing him to never be in a financially safe place. Stravinsky achieved fame through his teacher and friend, Rimsky-Korsakov, who arranged for some of Stravinsky's music to be played. Diaghilev, who worked for the Russian Ballet Company, heard the music and commissioned Stravinsky to write an original ballet. Stravinsky found inspiration in old legends, creating the The Firebird. A few years later, Stravinsky wrote one of his most famous works, The Rite of Spring. This ballet caused a riot, partly because of the strange music, including a very high bassoon piece, but Stravinsky put all the blame on the choreographer, Nijinsky. Despite the controversy over his music, or perhaps because of it, Stravinsky rapidly became a known name in the music world. Although the ways in which the two became famous were different, they both greatly influenced classical music of the twentieth

Music is constantly changing. The Baroque period (1600-1750) and the Classical period (1750-1820) have both differences and similarities in elements such as form, texture, and dynamics. I will be comparing the first movement of Spring from the Four Seasons composed by Antonio Vivaldi and the first movement of Symphony No. 5 in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven. I will construct a stylistic comparison of the two compositions and their musical stylings with regard to the periods of music of which they belong.

Almost definitely imitating the act of new life waking in the spring soil, Stravinsky starts the haunting introduction to his world-renown ballet, Rite of Spring, with a high-pitched lone bassoon. The unstable eeriness continues as a horn and pair of clarinets join in the rubato tempo. Just as everything wakes and bursts into life in spring, so does the piece as more and more instruments join in. Each instrument seems to have a different theme, but seems necessary in portraying the thick texture needed to symbolize the inevitable climactic arrival of Spring. After the orchestra has finished its first outburst and almost all instruments have initially come in, a strange harmonic effect is applied to the viola. As the orchestra draws to a

The music of Stravinsky has always been “ahead of time” in the way of using new and different ways of presenting music. His early ballets such as Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring being a great example of his modernism and will to compose music which is both innovative and shocking. For this essay I have chosen to write about The Firebird (1910) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Firebird was Stravinsky’s first Ballet and his first composition that reached many people because of its modernism and exoticism. The Rite of Spring is still renowned for its portrayal of primitivism, a concept that was accentuated by the riot that happened at its premiere.

Rimsky Korsakov was Stravinsky’s teacher and mentor. Much of Korsakov’ style can initial be seen in Stravinsky’s writing, specifically in works such as Firebird. Unlike Firebird, the Rite of spring breaks away from Korsakov’s style. The timpani parts of Scheherazade and The Rite prove the drastic differences between the two composers writing style. The timpani writing in Scheherazade parallel Korsakov’s lush romantic writing style.

The fourth movement is titled “thunderstorm” and is a romantic movement. It is in episodic form (a format of the romantic period). It is extremely programmatic. The movement depicts a thunderstorm through the use of the timpani that creates the rumble of the thunder and the punctuated sforzando chords that create a harsh lightning (for example in bar 21). These programmatic features are romantic traits and show Beethoven’s ability to push the boundaries of the style he was contained to. The use of percussion and brass in a dominant role is also a romantic feature. There are multiple dramatic dynamic changes throughout the movement ranging from pianissimo to fortissimo, which is unusual for the classical period. The movement also exercises dissonance and the melody is unresolved, a

First of all, the baroque is known by the exaggerated uses of ornamental decorations in their compositions. These ornaments were exposed in all types of art at that time as: painting, architecture, sculpture and music. In addition, baroque music uses a tonal harmony that produces musical contrast in high levels. This contrast is a very important element in the dramatic aspects of the baroque music, and it was reflected through the melody and texture of the compositions. Furthermore, the most important characteristics in the Baroque music style were the basso continuo and a simple melody with chord accompaniment. Those elements provided a variety of compositions with better stability in the harmony. Moreover, the music of this period presented the counterpoint and polyphony, two elements which caused movement in the melody, and also created expectations and captured the attention of those who listened to that music. On the other hand, romantic music is known for his great expressiveness in their compositions. This expressiveness allows to the composers, add their feelings and emotions to their music. Furthermore, the romantic music was showed a depletion of the capacity of tonal music, so it was passed to the trend of atonal music. Moreover, this kind of music presented a great use of melody, which was responsible to capture the beauty of the written music and as well