The Classical Music Book

250

on. Conversely, softer passages

sometimes call upon mysterious-

sounding string harmonics.

Dramatic premiere

The riot that broke out at the

premiere in 1913 made the ballet

infamous, but this was not just

because of the music—in spite

of its challenging nature—or even

Vaslav Nijinsky’s revolutionary

choreography, although that

certainly shocked, too. At the time,

Paris’s “high society” attended the

ballet expecting stylized elegance.

What they got were “knock-kneed

and long-braided Lolitas jumping

up and down,” in Stravinsky’s

PRIMITIVISM AND MODERNISM

own words, culminating in the

Sacrifical Dance’s “ecstatic,

irregular jerks” of “primitive

hysteria,” according to the dance

critic André Levinson. Other

spectators, not members of Paris’s

elite, had anticipated the work’s

novelty and had come for it—some,

indeed, courtesy of free tickets

handed out by Diaghilev. Hisses

from the boxes were quickly

and loudly condemned by the

supportive faction; before long,

the music was all but drowned

out by those on both sides. Some

spectators claimed that the furore

began before the dancers even

came on stage. The dancer

Differences between Romanticism and Modernism

Romanticism Modernism

Composers built on

historical tradition.

Composers consciously

break with historical

tradition.

Rhythm is rational and

ordered, following

regular meter.

Rhythm is irregular and

unpredictable, with

unexpected emphases.

Melodies are proportionally

structured.

Melodies are fragmented

or irregular and

sometimes absent.

Dissonances are resolved.

Uses one scale at a time.

Dissonances are freely

used. May employ different

scales simultaneously.

passages of detached notes using

repeated, short “down-bows”

(essentially hitting rather than

stroking the strings); on numerous

other occasions, they play pizzicato

(plucking the strings) or col legno

(playing using the wood or the

hard tip of the bow)—both of which

create a more incisive, percussive

effect. Apart from this prevalence

of staccato, articulated styles of

playing, Stravinsky uses many

other unusual techniques, such as

scraping the metal triangle stick

across the surface of the tam-tam,

or the French horns playing with

their “bells up” in order to increase

the volume and impact, and so

Orchestra uses

conventional playing

techniques.

Orchestra uses

experimental playing

techniques.

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