The Classical Music Book

248

A

lthough the turn of the

20th century saw an

increasing fascination

with the exotic, no music really

prefigured the explosion of violent

primitivism that was Le Sacre du

printemps (The Rite of Spring). Igor

Stravinsky’s ballet portrayed a

brutal scenario—a pagan ritual in

which a sacrificial virgin danced

herself to death to “propitiate the

god of spring.”

The work was first staged by

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

in Paris in 1913, choreographed by

Vaslav Nijinsky—a performance

that famously led to a riot. From its

plot alone, it is not difficult to see

why. Part one introduces a strange

and primitive world in which a

succession of rituals takes place.

These are characterized by wild

energy (as in “The Augurs of

Spring/Dances of the Young Girls,”

“Ritual of Abduction,” “Spring

Rounds,” and “Ritual of the Rival

Tribes”)—until the arrival of the

Sage, who stoops to kiss the earth,

prompting an orgylike “Dance of

the Earth.” In part two, as night

falls, a sacrificial victim is chosen

from among the “Mystic Circles of

Young Girls” and then “glorified” by

her peers in another frenzied ritual.

Slower pieces follow—“Evocation”

and “Ritual Action of the Ancestors,”

after which the victim dances

wildly for the onlookers until she

dies of exhaustion.

Folk origins

Stravinsky may have been inspired

by Sergei Gorodetsky’s poem

“Ya ri la,” in which two priestesses

sacrifice a young linden tree to a

sage. The concept was developed

in collaboration with Nikolai

Roerich, a leading artist-scholar

with expertise in Russian folklore.

While many of the details of this

scenario have some basis in folk

history, its main event is fictitious:

human sacrifice was certainly not

a feature of Slavic folk religion. The

savagery of Le Sacre was intended

to shock and served to debunk

the romanticized notion of ancient

folklore so prevalent in the arts by

the end of the 19th century.

If the brutality of the subject

matter was exaggerated for its

shock value, the music was no less

so. Stravinsky drew a significant

amount of thematic material in the

work from existing Lithuanian folk

tunes, but these melodies were so

Igor Stravinsky Born near St. Petersburg in 1882,

Stravinsky’s formative influence

was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,

his teacher from 1902–1908—

however, Stravinsky continually

assimilated new styles. His first

ballet for Diaghilev, L’ O i s e au d e

feu, catapulted him to fame at its

Paris premiere in 1910. His early

aesthetic was in line with late

Romanticism, as was popular in

Russia, but his musical language

developed from Experimentalism

in the 1910s into distinctive

Neoclassicism after his wartime

exile in Switzerland. Stravinsky

and his family settled down in

France in 1920, but after the

deaths of his wife, mother, and

daughter (shortly before World

War II), Stravinsky emigrated

to the United States, where his

later works would incorporate

serial technique. In spite of his

failing health, his creative spirit

remained strong until two years

before his death, in 1971.

PRIMITIVISM AND MODERNISM

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Primitivism

and modernism

BEFORE

1889 Debussy is inspired to

experiment with the “exotic”

sound worlds of non-Western

musical traditions after

hearing Javanese Gamelan

at the Exposition Universelle.

AFTER

1923 Darius Milhaud’s ballet

La Création du monde,

inspired by African folk

mythology, premieres in Paris.

1949 Olivier Messiaen’s

Turangalîla-Symphonie—his

most famous large-scale

orchestral work—draws

inspiration from Le Sacre

du printemps.

Other key works

1910–1911 Petrushka

1922–1923 Octet

1930 Symphony of Psalms

1953–1957 Agon

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