Stravinsky Spring Influences

The first of Igor Stravinsky's three famous early ballets, The Firebird is the most traditional and derivative. While The Firebird, similar to Petrushka and The Rite Of Spring, is unquestionably one of Stravinsky's masterpieces, if considered strictly historically it can be, with some justice, viewed as warmed-over Rimsky-Korsakov (the device of contrasting a folkloristic, diatonic style representing human characters, with a highly chromatic style reserved for depicting the supernatural had its most conspicuous use in Rimsky's

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

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.

The title of the book, The Rites of Spring, and the plunge into the world of the Ballet Russe in the first chapter, made clear that Eksteins intended to use Stravinsky's ballet as an image for

Listening to Music class has taught me a new way to listen and enjoy music. I have learned how to differentiate the melodies, rhythms, and instruments in a song. It has also introduced me to different genres in the music world, aside from what is usually played on the radio. I can now attend any concert, listen to any genre, or watch any ballet and easily recognize the many specific aspects the music being played has. Ballets are very interesting to me. The audience is able to enjoy the music being played as it is telling a story, and being acted out through the performer’s body language. In the two ballets, The Rite of Spring and The Nutcracker, a great story is told in both referencing the many great dynamics music has. These two specific ballets are written by different composers, and each one of them have certain conditions they were written under. As well as different receptions, popularity, and development. The Rite of Spring and The Nutcracker’s differences has made some sort of an impact in the performing world back then as well as now.

“The Rite of Spring” was certainly the most controversial piece of orchestral music. The piece, composed by Russian Composer Igor Stravinsky, included lots of uncommon musical elements. But was it really that uncommon? The world-changing ballet was so controversial when it debuted in 1913, because it completely contradicted the common rhythmic and harmonic languages of most of the music of the time. Stravinsky’s music, however, was based off early classical music and other compositions written before, where these composers were also accused of composing controversial music, plus Stravinsky’s early life experiences impacted his music.

Spring reflects a deep communion with the natural world, offering a fresh viewpoint of the commonplace or ordinary things in our world by subverting our expected and accepted views of that object which in turn presents a view that operates from new assumptions. Oliver depicts the natural world as a celebration of wonder and awe, the almost insignificant wonders capturing the true beauty nature beholds.

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

Just so you know before hand, the lyrics to the music came from the CD with trademark of Delta Music Inc. The movement opens agitatedly as the orchestra picks up fragments of one theme after another from the previous three movements, as if seeking a satisfactory vehicle for its expression; but each is discarded in turn. The first seven notes of the main theme to come are tentatively uttered, but it too is abandoned as the search continues. Once again the theme begins, this time in the woodwinds, but it soon breaks off. Finally, the theme emerges decisively in the basses for a subdued first statement. The second statement is calm, tranquil, confident, and the theme continues onward in the various voices of the orchestra, broad and flowing. The winds make a strong statement of the theme. The flow of the music abruptly halts--there are rapid shifts--great agitation, until the orchestra introduces the baritone singing the first three lines of the poem, rejecting the feverish discords of the previous passage, calling for a different music, whose nature is suggested by the strings beneath his voice:

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.

'It seems to me, my dear friend, that the music of this ballet will be one of my best creations. The subject is so poetic, so grateful for music, that 1 have worked on it with enthusiasm and written it with the warmth and enthusiasm upon which the worth of a composition always depends." - Tchaikovsky, to Nadia von Meck.

In this performance, the rhythm is apparent and a defining feature of the piece. Sometimes the piece becomes somewhat repetitive with ostinato patterns present a lot of the time. This piece is played and composed in such a way that it draws the listener into a story. The rhythm plays a big part in this. On the first page of the composition, Stravinsky changes the meter eight times in nine measures which grabs the attention of the listener. Though the rhythms in the rite of spring are highly irregular, they are still pulsed. This caused innovations in musical notation in the score to make the piece playable. Sometimes sounding chaotic, Stravinsky expanded the use of polyrhythm. Creating a hectic and unpleasant sound, nothing like this was done before.

Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 4, 1866 in Moscow. His father was a successful tea merchant and his mother was a teacher. From early on in his life, Kandinsky acquired a love for travel moving

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

During the middle phase of the course my interest began to peak more and more. One of the moments I remember most from what was dubbed “the transitionary phase”. This moment was during a class period when it became evident how far ballet has come over the years. The Rite of Spring was choreographed by Vaslay